The Life of Kuresan-8

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Dear Friends,

 

After Mahapurna's cruel death at the palace of the

Chola king at Ganga-konda-sozha-puram, and after he

had himself been violently blinded for life, Kuresan

returned to SriRangam.

 

Life in Srirangam without the benign presence of his

"achAryA" Ramanuja soon became unbearable for Kuresan.

In the meanwhile, all the stalwarts of the times began

to pass away, one by one.

 

Goshtipurna, a great mentor of Ramanuja passed away.

Tirumalai-AndAn and Tiruvaranga-perumAl-araiyar were

next to pass away. The news came to Kuresan that

SriSaila-purna in Tirupati, the maternal uncle of

Ramanuja and his mentor too, had expired. And finally

the news came from Kanchi that Ramanuja's most beloved

mentor, Sri.Kanchipurna too had passed away. Kuresan

had spent many years of his life in the company of

Kanchipurna in Kanchi and in his passing away Kuresan

felt a deep and painful void.

 

The city of Lord Ranga took on the forlorn and eerie

appearance of a ghost town in Kuresan's eyes. Ramanuja

was in exile, the leading lights of the SriVaishnava

movement were all dying one by one around Kuresan, the

SriVaishnava movement had suffered a setback, and

Vaishnavas everywhere lived in constant fear of the

ugly bigotry and fanaticism of those times. Suddenly,

Kuresan began to feel extremely lonely and abandoned

in life....

 

One day the blind Kuresan tottered through his way

from home to the temple of Ranganatha to have

'darshan' of the Lord there and to unburden his heart

in the presence of God of all the untold grief and

loneliness that had piled up within it.

 

The temple guards however stopped him at the gates and

told him,"Blind man, we have instructions from the

King to let people in only if they swear that they

willingly renounce RamanujachAryA as their guru. If

you denounce your guru you can enter the temple of

Ranganatha. If you won't this holy temple is out of

bounds for you!".

 

Kuresan told them, "Sires, please tell your King that

Kuresan is prepared to forsake Lord Ranganatha in this

world and even in the next. But denounce Ramanuja...he

never will!"

 

The blind Kuresan then hobbled back to his home and

told his wife, "AndAl, call the children and pack up

to leave Srirangam. We shall live here no more."

 

Kuresan and his family left the holy city of SriRangam

and trudged away to the town of TirumAlirunjolai (near

Madurai).

 

They settled down there and lived in exile as complete

recluses for many, many sad years.

 

(contd)

 

dAsan,

Sampathkumaran

 

 

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