The Vedas teach about work and knowledge and in the life and works of Appayya Dikshitar, a Vedantic scholar and a great Siva bhakta belonging to the sixteenth century, one sees a confluence of sastra jnana and karma anushtana and above all bhakti, said Sri Mani Dravid Sastrigal in a discourse. He hails from a family of devout Dikshitars belonging to the Advaita Parampara, well versed in Vedanta sastra. Believed to be an amsa avatar of Siva and endowed with innate awareness of the scriptures, he is able to master the Vedas even when quite young. But in keeping with the tradition that scriptural knowledge has to be imbibed through a guru, he has initiation from his father.
His proficiency in grammar, metaphysics and other sciences, as well as poetics, and in fact, all branches of learning is exceptional. He is renowned as an Advaitic scholar of excellence and he establishes the supremacy of Advaita philosophy as propounded by Adi Sankara in his bashya on the Brahma Sutra of Vyasa.
With his talent to expound his knowledge of the sastras in lucid terms, he delves into a critical examination of the Dvaita, Visishtadvaita and Sivadvaita schools established by Madhvacharya, Ramanuja and Srikantacharya.
What is most admirable is the fact that he goes beyond the theoretical or philosophical implications in the sastras to search for the truths about the first hand experience of God they contain, to attain the intuitive knowledge of the Supreme Brahman. By his own exemplary life he has created a strong faith in the Vedic injunctions and in devotion to Lord Siva. In his hymns in praise of God, he proclaims that through the grace of the personal God alone can one get initiated into philosophical study and spiritual sadana.
