Dayasatakamu A Commentary (Telugu)

Foreword I have perused with very great interest the annotated Telugu rendering with meaning and paraphrase of Dayasatakam of Sri Vedanta Desika, by Sriman Kozhialam Sathagopachariar, Lecturer, Sri Venkateswara Oriental College, and Tirupati. Besides his being double siromani in Tarka and Meemamsa and specialized in Vedanta, Sriman Sathagopachariar has the additional advantage of having had instruction in Vedanta under his Holiness Sri Kozhialam Swami gal.

He was able to bring out not only the superficial meaning of the Dayasatakam which students of Vedanta may in general draw, but he has brought out the 'goodharthas' or the inner meanings which he learnt under the feet of his Acharya in the traditional method. Sriman Sathagopachariar has thus enabled the general public who can read Telugu to understand and appreciate the full force and the beneficent effect of the work.

Dayasatakam can easily be said to be the very essence of the writings of Sri Vedanta Desika. The doctrine of surrender has been emphasized and enlarged by Sri Vedanta Desika as the surest means of attaining salvation, even superior to Bhakti as it is possible for every individual. In Dayasatakam he goes a further step of surrendering himself not to the will of God, but even to the hill in which Sri Venkateswara dwells. He starts with the description of the hill as the personification or solidification of the sweet sugar juice of 'daya' mercy or compassion of the Lord.

The beauty of the sataka lies in this that the author elevates one of the qualities of the Lord to the position of His foremost consort. In describing the importance of Daya or mercy as a quality Sri Desika states that there may be thousand qualities which the Lord may possess as gnana, Aisvarya etc., but in the absence of "daya', all these good qualities would be of no avail.

Strength and other qualities which the Lord possesses may be used or abused and it is only compassion or mercy which tempers the other qualities and converts them into useful attributes of the Lord. Therefore Sri Vedantadesika rightly gives 'daya' the position of the highest attribute of the Lord.

If ever man were to practice 'daya` in his daily relation with other beings, there would not be conflicts in this world. It is the quality of mercy that distinguishes a man from the beast. All wars arise out of conflicts in the mind and heart and so long as the seeds of conflict remain there, wars cannot be put an end to by mere reduction of armaments. The moment the seeds of conflicts are removed and when hatred gives place to love, discord yields to harmony and competition gives place to co-operation in all human relations, there will be eternal peace on the globe. Man has therefore to purify and transform himself from a beasty into a higher being. That can be done only by developing the single virtue of having mercy or compassion.

A study of this work of Sri Vedanta Desika can enable a man to get transformed to superior person in this world itself. Hitherto the importance of the sataka of Desika has not known to all but only to a few who belong to his Sampradaya.

I am glad that the Tirumala-Tirupati Devasthanams published in their monthly bulletins the Tamil commentary of the Sataka previously by the same author and now the Telugu edition is published. I am happy to know that commentary in Kannada language by Sriman Narasimhachari of Tumkur was also published in the bulletins. Sri D. Ram swami Iyengar, Advocate, is writing at present a series on Dayasataka in English also, so that this great work may reach larger sections of the people. May this work live long and may it grows in usefulness?

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