DAYASATAKAMU

A Commentary
By
K. Satagopacharyulu

T.T.D. Religious Publication Series No. 1185

All Rights Reserved
First Print: 2016
Copies: 2000

Published by
Dr. D. SAMBASIVA RAO, I.A.S.,
Executive Officer,
Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams,
Tirupati.

D.T.P:
Office of the Editor-in-Chief,
T.T.D, Tirupati.

Printed at
Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams Press,
Tirupati.

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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, Tirupati. Besides his
being double siromani in Tarka and Meemamsa and
specialised in Vedanta, Sriman Sathagopachariar has
the additional advantage of having had instruction in
Vedanta under his Holiness Sri Kozhialam Swamigal.
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 beneficient 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 emphasised 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

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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.

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. Ramaswami 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 grow in usefulness.

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.

M.ANANTHASAYANAM IYENGAR,

Camp: TIRUPATI

Speaker, Lok Sabha,

NEW DELHI.

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