The Life of Kuresan -10 (to be concluded)

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Dear friends,

 

At the age of well over 100 years, after his

triumphant return to Srirangam from Melkote,

Sri.RamanujachArya with the help of Kuresan, once

again set about resurrecting Sri Vaishnavism and

restoring its soaring spirit to former glory.

 

In the 10 odd years of Ramanuja's exile away from

SriRangam, and under the rule of the bigoted despot

Krimikantan Chola, the temple of Srirangam had fallen

upon ill-fated days; many centres of worship belonging

to the faith had been vandalised too; Vaishnava

associations, libraries, schools and trusts had all

been systematically looted and destroyed as well.

Corruption, indiscipline and laxity of faith had also

set in amongst many SriVaishnavas.

 

Kuresan ably assisted his guru in setting right all

the wrongs of the SriVaishnava faith. Together they

worked tirelessly to bring order, vigour and rectitude

back to their faith. It was during this time that

RamanujachArya composed his famous work called

"Nithya".... a practical manual to be followed in

SriVaishnava "perumAl" temples for daily conduct of

rituals and a compendium of administrative matters.

The "Nithya" is a very valuable manual in use even

today in most "perumAl" temples most notably, in the

famous temple of Tirupati- tirumala.

 

Thanks to Ramanuja, SriVaishnavism once again began to

flourish in the land where once people had been

frightened to even utter the holy name of "NARAYANA"!

 

Kuresan despite his great physical handicap shirked no

duty or "kainkaryam" that was thrust upon him by his

centenarian guru, SriRamanujachArya. Even in those

last years of life on earth, as always, he remained

his guru's faithful shadow!

 

In the SriVaishnava tradition, Ramanuja is regarded as

an "avatara" of the great Lakshmana of the 'Ramayana'

whose extraordinary life of service and dedication

("kainkaryam" and "shraddhai") to Lord Rama was divine

legend. It is said that Rama found no better way of

repaying his debt to Lakshmana other than to take

'avatar' again as Kuresan during Ramanuja's time on

earth and reverse roles i.e. to do unto Ramanuja the

same yeoman service that he had been blessed to

receive from Lakshmana in an ancient age of the past!

 

Such was the celebrated "kainkaryam" Kuresan rendered

to his guru that the SriVaishnava faith did not

hesitate to confer the sacred hood of Rama's

"avatara" upon him!

 

(TO BE CONCLUDED)

 

dAsan,

Sampathkumaran

 

 

 

 

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