svami manavala mamuni's vaibhavam - part 4

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srImathE saTakOpAya namah

srImathE rAmAnujAya namah

srImathE anantArya mahAguravE namah

srImathE vara vara munayE namah

 

dear bhAgavathAs,

 

In the previous postings, we saw some of the details

of svami manavala mamuni's life till the time he

undertook sanyasashramam. This posting continues the

paraphrasing from that time onwards.

 

svami manavala mamuni spent his time, after becoming

a sanyasi, in srirangam, teaching his sishyas,

living a life that is considered to be the epitome

and the highest example of a life that a servant

of god can lead. He further ensured that the services

to lord ranganatha were happening as per the

norms set by svami ramanuja.

 

Several srivaishnavas, many of whom belonged to some

acharya purusha lineage, became sishyas of svami

manavala mamuni - thirumanjanam appa, bhattarpiran

jiyar, kandadai annan, singarayar are a few key

names.

 

svami manavala mamuni undertook the permission of the

lord of srirangam, and proceeded to azhvar thirunagari

to do mangalasasanams to svami nammazhvar. on

the way, svami went to kuntee nagaram (the birthplace

of svami thiruvaymozhip pillai) and other divya

desams. in azhvar thirunagari, he stayed for

sometime, giving upadesa to sishyas in that

area of the Lord's land.

 

At this time, there was one sutra of a work called

acharya hrdayam, which svami manavala mamuni

wanted to understand deeper. acharya hrdayam is

a work by svami azhagiya manavalap perumal nayanar,

the brother of svami pillai lokachariar. This

work contains the concepts that were expressed

by nammazhvar in thiruvaymozhi, and is entirely

composed in manipravalam, with words that are

part of thiruvaymozhi. this is a standard rahasya

grantha for srivaishnavas, as it elucidates the

inner meanings of thiruvaymozhi in a concise

format. svami manavala mamunigal was looking

for an acharya that could elucidate on the meaning

of that paricular sutra which he wanted to

understand deeper. many elders gave a suggestion

that people in thirunarayanapuram (melkote) will

be able to give him that meaning, and he started

towards thirunarayanapuram.

 

meanwhile, in thirunarayanapuram, an acharya called

aay jananyachar had heard about the prabhavam of

the avatara of adisesha, and wanting to see him,

had already started from thirunarayanapuram to

azhvar thirunagari. svami janayachar was an expert

in acharya hrdayam, and had further written a

commentary on thiruppaavai (3000ppadi).

 

Both the acharyas met halfway, and after mutual

exchanging of respect and affection, returned to

azhvar thiruganari, where svami manavala mamuni

learnt the meanings of acharya hrdaya from aay

jananyachariar svami. here yatindra pravana

prabhavam narrates an incident that shows us

the greatness of aay janayachar svami -

 

when svami was in azhvar thirunagari, some

jealous people in thirunarayanapuram spread a

rumour saying that he had attained paramapadam,

and all of his belongings should be given

to the temple. the local people did so.

after some time aay jananyachar svami returned

to thirunarayanapuram. on hearing the happenings

there, svami became esctatic that the owner

of all the universe had taken his belongings

back, and that selvapillai takes the material

wealth of someone that He wishes to Grace.

He requested selvapillai to give him the

vigraha of gnyanap piran alone, and left all

of his remaining wealth with the temple.

 

in azhvar thirunagari, where svami manavala

mamuni was staying, some jealous people laid

fire to the matam where svami was staying. all

the sishyas and the local people were enveloped

in sorrow that svami might be hurt, and it is

said that svami took his sesha form, shielding

the fire from harming him, left the matam and

came among his sishyas. the perpetrators were

found. svami, with his infinite grace,

requested the king not to punish the perpetrators,

and gracefully allowed them to perform service

to srivaishnavas and took them as his sishyas.

 

svami performed numerous renovations, and

built several additions to the temples at

azhvar thirunagari and thiruk kurungudi. all

these were accomplished on svamis commande

by the local chieftain of that area. then,

svami returned back to srirangam and continued

the administration of the ramanuja sampradaya.

 

In a village called erumbi, near sholingar,

there was a great learned person called appa

svami. he had heard about svami manavala mamuni's

pravhavam from many people, and wanted to

see svami. his (erumbiappa's) father also gave him

permission to go to srirangam and see svami.

he reached srirangam. svami manavala mamuni,

knowing about the scholarship of erumbiappa,

gave him the due respect. erumbiappa was

staying at koil kandadai annan's residence.

 

one day, svami manavala mamuni gave to erumbiappa,

an upanyasam on the first pasuram of thiruvaymozhi-

uyarvu ara uyar nalam - it is recorded that

erumbiappa was surprised and remarked about

his hearing only about svamis's knowledge of

tamizh, and having heard this upanyasam, he

felt the svami was a complete ubhaya vedanta

scholar. svami manavala mamuni further invited

erumbiappa to have food at the matam.

 

erumbiappa, at that time was a samanya sastra

scholar - as per the samanya sastra, he did

not eat at the matam, and left for erumbi.

[there is a sastra vakya that states that

one who eats the food of a sanyasi, or

the food sent by a sanyasi, or the food that

is in a vessel of a sanyasi, should undergo

penance in the form of chaandrayana vratham].

 

in erumbi, erumbiapps tried to open the

doors of his perumal sannadhi to perform

thiru aradhnam, but no matter how he tried,

the door would not open. with this, he was

very concerned and was worried about why

the lord was playing this leela on him.

to him, his Lord (rama) then told that the

real reason was the He was unhappy that

erumbiappa had committed a sin by not eating

at svami manavala mamunis matam, and that

He did not want thiruaradhanam performed

by erumbiappa till the time he becomes a

sishya of manavala mamuni and obtains

forgiveness for his sin.

 

erumbiappa, realising his mistake, and the

greatness of svami manavala mamuni went

to srirangam, and became a sishya of svami.

after that, he wrote many many works on

svami manavala mamuni, the most importnat

of those being purva dinacharya, uttara

dinacharya and vara vara muni sathakam.

 

I will continue the parapharasing in the

next posts..

 

azhvar emperumanar jiyar thiruvadigale saranam

 

adiyen madhurakavi dasan,

varadhan

 

 

 

 

 

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