ಚಿಲ್ಲರೆ ರಹಸ್ಯಂಗಳ್ (சில்லரை ரஹஸ்யங்கள்): Chillarei Rahasyangal

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PREFACE It gives me great pleasure to be able to present yet another work of Sri Vedantha Desikar. The subject matter, called 'Rahasyas' in general was meant to help the ordinary people to get interested in Vedantha and imbibe 'knowledge made easy so that they could cross the 'cycle of rebirths from beginningless time the knowledge leading to Prapatthi Yoga. It was sheer kindness of the great acharya who in his ripe age poured all the wealth of his knowledge into the 32 Rahasyas in order that his fellow devotees for whom he had so much consideration could benefit and redeem themselves.

The first half of 32 rahasyas goes by the name 'Chillarei Rahasyangal' and the present book, which forms the first companion volume, has seven 'Chillarei Rahasyangal'. The balance portion will be presented as a second companion volume the total in fact works out to 15 only as one Rahasya is lost and is unavailable. In regard to the latter half, that is, the following set of 16 rahasyas most of which are rather big in size, efforts will be made to cover in handy volumes, either singly or in combination depending on size.

The Tamil text was transliterated into Kannada and in this task, my wife's familiarity with Tamil came in handy. Mrs. Sudha has done an excellent job of DTP involving three languages. Mr. Sharada Prasad has as usual done a good job of printing and Mr. Kiran has provided an attractive art work for outside cover. I thank them all for their co-operation.

INTRODUCTION While writing a foreword to a book written by one of my good friends, I observed: "It is indeed our good fortune that we have had such noble poorvacharyas who were concerned about the plight of their fellow-beings till their lives' 'end' (and even on death-bed: e.g. Sri Alavandar). To this lofty lineage belongs Sri Vedantha Desikar. the latter-day beacon-light, who excelled in all forms of service to the Srivaishnavas. He wrote in his ripe age, out of sheer consideration and kindness, the famous sampradhaya grantha, Rahasyatrayasāram, which is considered by many as his magnum opus. He wrote more than 120 works of all types, and in many languages too - Sanskrit, Tamil, manipravala (a mixture of Tamil and Sanskrit) and 'prakrutha'.

Contributions for Commoners

While most of his works were scholarly, he did not forget the common lot! He wrote for them sthothras eulogising the Lord in His various manifestations and His consorts, as also his lieutenants like Garuda, not to forget Yethiraja. To this class belong the Chillarei Rahasyangal. He says in one of the rahasyas, even an ordinary person should be able to understand the truths contained in these rahasyas - It is not easy for an ordinary person to study scholarly works like Sri Bhashya or Gita Bhashya. Hence one should make it a point to study Chillerei Rahasyangal.

The figure of 32

Sri Vedantha Desikar has written 32 Rahasyas, out of which sixteen come under the class of Chillarei Rahasyas. Somehow the figure of 32 seems to have fascinated the author! he wrote 32 sthothras and his first sthothra 'Hayagreeva Sthothra' has 32 slokas. The very famous 'Yekakshara sloka' in Chithra Paddhathi in Paduka sahasra has 32 Ya's: Paduka Sahasra itself has 32 paddhatthis. The famous Rahasya Traya Sara has 32 adhikāras. Was he thinking of 32 Brahma Vidyas while composing these works ?!!

**Contents and Sample Pages**