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DESIKAMRUTHAM I:
?HAMSA SANDESA OF SRI VEDANTA DESIKA? Part 4
Prof. Narasimhacharya, Retd. Professor, Madras University (now a visiting Professor in the Oxford University) EXCLUSIVELY for publication in ?Sri Ranga Sri?. The learned Professor delivered this ?The Sripad Endowment Lecture? on 5th February 2003. (Text of the lecture received from Dr. Miss M.S.Ramesh, IAS)
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The inspiration to Desika to compose the Hamsa Sandesa comes from the Sundara khaaNda of Valmiki Ramayana. In canto 36, Verse 30 reads as follows:


na chaasya maataa na pitaa cha naanyah
SnEhaad visihTOsti mayaa samO vaa /
Taavattvaham doota! JijivishEyam
Yaavat pravriitim sruNuyaam priyasya //

These are the words of Sita to Hanuman who came to Lanka searching for her.
? Neither for his mother, nor his father, nor for any other does Rama have the kind of love he cherishes for me. I shall live only as long as I hear of him?

These words gave Desika the clue and necessary impetus to write the lyric, the Hamsa SandEsa. Of course, the theme of the poem is very simple. Rama chooses a royal swan on an autumnal day and sends a message of cheer and hope to Sita living in Lanka. The message proper comprises 14 Verses (VV.33-47).

He states how difficult it is for him to pass the nights and days without her; how fragrant flowers have become as source of agony for him; how the sweet songs of the cuckoos and the humming of the bees and the murmuring Malaya breeze torment him. He promises to build a bridge across the ocean either with rocks or arrows and make Lanka a veritable garland of flowers in the hands of the monkeys. Within a few days the twangs of Lakshmana?s bow will pour nectar into her ears. Soon thereafter Sita and Rama would return to Ayodhya by the aerial car Pushpaka and be coronated by elders like VasishTa. Rama asks Sita to somehow embolden and protect herself. She is asked to remember the plight of Sachi Devi and Paarvati Devi in olden days who also suffered separation from their husbands and got united later.

After consoling Sita with suitable words, the Swan is asked to go his own way and be united with his own consort (Raajahmsi) even as Vishnu is associated with Lakshmi. Our poet concludes the poem on a happy note unlike in Meghaduta. There the sequel i.e as to what happened after the delivery of the message by the cloud has not been mentioned. But, in Hamsa Sandesa, Rama after sending the message of hope to Sita, is said to have gone to Lanka by means of a bridge built by the monkeys, killed Ravana, returned to Ayodhya with Sita and began to rule the kingdom which was till then protected by his sandals.

In the Megha Sandesa, the accursed Yaksha is said to have come to earth and stayed on the Ramagiri Mountain, which is identified as the modern Ramtek near Nagpur. Before the advent of the rainy season, he saw a dark cloud on the mountain resembling an elephant. He sent a message to his wife through the cloud, although it was an inanimate entity. So intense was his lovesick condition that he did not even distinguish between the animate and the inanimate. He then described the route to be taken by the cloud to reach Alaka. With this, the first canto comes to an end. The second half of the Canto describes Alaka situated on the top of the Himalaya, and the wife of the Yaksha suffering and anxiously waiting for the return of her husband. The message the cloud was supposed to convey her is also stated. It is to the effect that the curse was going to come to an end in four months and she had to somehow spend the time ?closing her eyes? (Seshan maasam gamaya Chaturaah lOkEna milayitvaa). Yaksha asked the cloud to go wherever he wanted to go, after delivering the message. The second Canto comes to an end with this.

In the Hamsa Sandesa, the hero is Sri Rama who was not a semi-divine being like Yaksha but the Supreme Lord Vishnu Himself who manifested Himself as a man out of His will. He saw a swan on a beautiful morning on the Rishya Mooka Mountain situated in the modern Karnataka state. The event took place after Hanuman returned successfully from Lanka locating Sita and gave Rama her crest jewel as a token of recognition. It was the beginning of the autumn. The swan had come from the Maanasaa Lake. It reminded him of Sita and he wanted to support her by sending a message of hope and cheer. He requests the swan to take the message to his beloved living in the AsOka garden in Lanka which was located on the other shore of the ocean, guarded by cruel and frightening demo nesses.

Here, the messenger is a living creature, Swan, but not a lifeless entity like the cloud. The wan is white in color unlike the cloud that is dark. It may be observed that Desika chose the royal swan as the messenger taking the ides from the NaLOpaakhyaana of the Mahaabhaarata. There King NaLa sends a message of love to Damayanti through a swan.

Desika mentions the route to be taken by the swan as covering various holy places (Divyadesas) like Tirupati, Conjeevaram, Tiruvellarai, Srirangam and Tirumaalirumjolai. If one compares the description of the temples and other holy [places as found in the Megha and the Hamsa, one cannot but see a striking difference between the two. For KaaLidaasa, reverence and temple worship is a matter of routine based on habit. But to Desika, they were an absorbing passion to which everything else is subordinate.
e.g. kurvan sandhyaabalipathahataam soolinah slaaghaneeyam
aamandraNam phalam avikalam lapsyase garjitaanaam
(Yaksha asks the cloud to come to the temple of Lord Mahaakaala at Ujjain and roar there. This roar would be like the beating of the drum in the temple of the Lord at evening twilight. The cloud would receive the full merit of doing such a service)

For Desika, religion was all in all. It was his very breath and life. His faith in Sriman Narayana, the Divyadampathi was absolute and his life was but a true translation of that faith into practice. For him, worship and divine service are not just acts of routine. They are not even mere duty. They are a rare privilege and prerogative granted to him by the compassionate divine couple. For him, God is not a mere indweller of temples. The swan is advised to render service to the Lord and His consort with no other thought or desire. Kainkarya is according to the Srivaishnava philosophy, the summum bonum of life both here and in the hereafter. In this manner, the description of holy temples and sacred spots found in the Hamsa Sandesa is superior to that of KaaLidaasa where the description of temples and sacred spots is a matter of incidence and sources of tentative inspiration for the cloud messenger. His sole aim was to convey the message of the Yaksha to his wife and nothing more than that. KaaLidaasa is primarily interested in describing the north Indian country, its topography and geography (e.g.) Avanti and other kingdoms, Ujjain and its mansions, its wonders and splendors, wealth and pleasures. But, for our Desika, temples and holy places are more important than the mere mundane life and its enjoyments.