MaNavaaLa maamunigaL - 2

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Dear bhaagavathaas,

 

Here is the next post on MaNavaaLa maamunigaL's vaibhavam.

 

Aazhwaar emperumaanaar jeeyar thiruvadigaLE saranam,

Varadhan

 

 

Yatheendrap pravaNar:

 

When thiruvaay mozhip PiLLai was enjoying the guNaanubhavam of

emperumaanaar, the verses about emperumaanar's devotion towards

nammaazhwaar such as

'maaRan adi paNindhu uyNdha iraamaanusan'; (iraamaanusa nooRRandhaadhi)

 

'uRu perum selvamum thandhaiyum thaayum uyar guruvum veRi tharu

poomagaL naadhanum, maaRan viLangiya seer neRitharum senthamizh

aaraNamE enRu inNee nilaththOr aRithara ninRa iraamusan,

(iraamaanusa nooRRandhaadhi )

[ rough free-form paraphrasing - Raamanusan, who considered the

tamizh vEdam of nammaazhwaar as everything to him - wealth (uRu perum

selvam), parents (thanthaiyum thaayum), sadhaachaaryan (uyar guruvum),

the Lord Himself (veRi tharu poomagaL naadhanum - the naadhan of

piraatti); and who lived such that the people of this world knew about

his devotion to the tamizh vEdam of maaRan]

 

'paNdaru maaRan pasunthamizh aanandham paaymadhamaay viNdida

engaL iraamanusa munivEzham' (iraamaanusa nooRRandhaadhi)

[in this paasuram, thiruvarangaththu amudhanaar visualises iraamaanusar

as an elephant (maththa gajam - vEzham), that is mad with joy

with the anubhavam of the tamizh vEdam]

 

deeply moved him. He wanted to build a sannadhi to emperumaanaar at

aazhwaar thirunagari, the birthplace of maaRan that symbolises the

praavaNyam that emperumaanaar had for nammaazhwaar and his

aruLichcheyals. He built a sannadhi for emperumaanaar with the help

of his shisyaas and established a veedhi around the sannadhi called

Sri Raamaanuja chaturvEdi mangalam. He made srivaishnavaas live in

that veedhi performing kainkaryam to the sannadhi and gave azhagiya

maNavaaLap perumaaL naayanaar the kainkaryam of maintaining the

sannadhi and taking care of the bhaagavathaas who came there.

Naayanaar undertook the kainkaryam with great enthusiasm and sincerety

and performed the kainkaryam flawlessly with an incomparable devotion

towards emperumaanaar. On seeing his kainkaryam, and his love and

devotion towards emperumaanaar, thiruvaay mozhip piLLai gave naayanaar

the name 'yatheendrap pravaNar' and started addressing him by that name.

>From that day onwards, Azhagiya MaNavaaLa naayanaar became 'yatheendrap

praVaNar' to the sriVaishnavaas.

 

aruLichcheyal of yathiraaja vimsati:

 

While yatheendrap pravaNar was performing the above kainkaryam in

azhwaar thirunagari, Thiruvaay mozhip PiLLai asked him to compose a

sthOthram on Yathiraajar . Yatheendrap PravaNar wrote yathiraaja

vimsathi to fulfill the niyamanam of his aachaaryan. Yatiraaja vimsati

is a great example of Yatheendrap pravaNar's love and devotion to

emperumaanaar.

 

Prathivaadhi Bayankaram ANNa has written a work called vara vara muni

sathakam, in which he writes in great detail about the maadhuryam and

other qualities of Yatheendrap PravaNar's Yathiraaja vimsathi.

 

 

swaamikku thirukkumaarar avathariththal

 

At this time, when yatheendrap PravaNar was leading the life of a true

SriVaishnava, a son was born to him. By his aachaaryan's niyamanam, he

named his son as Iraamunusap piLLai.

 

thiruvaay mozhip PiLLai thirunaadu alankariththal:

 

Thus ThiruvaaymozhippiLLai was leading a life blessed with incomparable

(aprathima sishya sampathth) sishyaas. As he became old,

thiruvaaymozhippiLLai desired to give up this life and wanted to go to

thirunaadu . PBA swami uses the following paasuram to bring out the

yearning that ThiruvaaymozhippiLLai had to attain his aachaaryan's

thiruvadi -

 

uththamanE ulakaariyanE! maRRoppaarai illaa

viththakanE nallavEdhiyanE! vaNmudumbai mannaa

sudhdhanan gnyaaniyar naRRuNaiyE sudhdhasaththuvanE!

eththanai kaalamirundhu uzhalvEn ivvudambu koNdE!

 

[Rough paraphrasing in tamizh - Uththamaa, The Lord of the worlds!,

One who has no comparison!, Oh one who is the companion of the people

who have come to know the truth! How much longer will I be constrained

by being in this body]

 

One day, piLLAi loKaachaariyaar appeared in thiruvaaymozhip PiLLai's

dreams and commanded him to undertake his journey to the place of

limitless good , aachaaaryan's thiruvadi- 'nalam andhamilladhOr naadu'.

ThiruvaaymozhippiLLai gathered all his shishyaas and did kaalakshEpam

of paasurams such as 'vaanERa vazhi thandha vaattaaRRaan paNivakaiyE,

naanERap peRukinREn narakaththai nagu nenchE', and said 'mudhalikaaL,

today emperumaan's thiruvuLLam is such that He wishes to take me to my

aachaaryan's thiruvadi. Hereafter, you all shoud not look upon azhagiya

maNavaaLa naayannar as a saamaanyar - You should look upon him as

emperumaanaar's aparavaathaaram '. He then led naayanaar to the

aachaarya peedam, and said to him

 

'vareer, kulakkozhundhE, May our SriVaishnava sampradaayam attain

unrivalled greatness and fame under your guidance. As you have been

doing all this time, I request that you continue to do pravachanam of

our aazhwaar's and aachaaryas granthams. Our poorvaachaaryaas have

always done nirvaaham of the Sri Vaishnava darshanam from thiruvarangam

periya kOil. Similarly, you should also go to Srirangam and spread the

SriVaishnava sampradaayam'.

 

He then went to the temple and did maNgaLaasaasanams to

polindhu ninRa piRaan and nammazhwaar and entrusted all his shishyaas

to Yatheendrap pravaNar.

 

After entrusting the shishyaas and the SV sampradaayam in the able hands

of naayanaar, Thiruvaaymozhip piLLai attained the Lord's lotus feet.

Naayanaar and his shishyaas performed the sarama kainkaryam to

Thiruvaaymozhip PiLLai.

 

Thus, the torch of SriVaishnava darshanam, that was carried by such

aachaaryas as bhattar,nanjeeyar, nampillai after emperumanaar was passed

on to Yatheendrap PravaNar by Thiruvaaymozhip PiLLai.

 

 

Aazhwaar emperumaanaar jeeyar thiruvadigaLE saranam,

 

Varadhan