some teachings of svami manavala mamuni

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srImathE saTakOpAya namah

srImathE rAmAnujAya namah

srImathE anantArya mahAguravE namah

srImathE vara vara munayE namah

 

dear bhagavathas,

 

i would like to paraphrase a few incidents in svami's

life that are so filled with teachings for the rest of

us -

 

There were two srivaishnavas that were known to svami.

They were learned in the teachings of azhvar acharyas,

but they had not gotten rid of their ego (ahambavam).

One day, they were arguing with each other, and their

arguments were filled with ego. Svami happened to pass

 

by that way. Two dogs happened to be barking at each

other. svami, wanted to point out the mistake of

the srivaishnavas, but did not desire to confront

them directly and give them the lesson. Instead, he

turned towards the dogs, and said "Are you two also

learned in srivacanabhooshanam, as these two

srivaishnavas,

that you are arguing with each other with such ego" -

On hearing this, the srivaishnavas understood their

mistake, and it is said that they changed their

ways. This incident in instructive not just in

humility

to us, but also instructive of the character and grace

of svami - he did not want to hurt even the people

that deserve some lessons.

 

One day, a vaishnava from the north came to svami and

requested him thus - "Please teach me the essence of

all the sastras and rahasyas, something that i can

follow". svami replied thus - "For the person that

knows that the ultimate goal is the kainkaryam

towards perumal, just surrendering to the Lord is

not the goal; following the sastras and performing

aradhana to the Lord is not the goal; just being

the complete devotee of the acharya is not enough;

being respectful towards other devotess is not

ehough; what is needed is for the person to be

such that all the devotees of the Lord can come

to his house without any hesitation, and command

him to do whatever service he can do for them, and

for this person to be in the state where the devotees

of the Lord can even sell him if they desire so" -

further, he says "If someone who is so, all the

anushtanam and the knowledge of the sastras and

the teachings of acharyas and azhvars will come

automatically. For someone who allows him to be

a tool of service for other devotees, there is no

compusion for him to know about the sastras and

the deep meanings of them" - He adds "anushtanam

and knowledge of the sastras without following

the above is like the teaching of pativrata dharma

by a prostitute, and will go waste"!

 

What a lesson by the greatest AchArya for all of

us! - Many of us certainly do cheat ourselves and

everyone by saying the right thing "adiyen,

adiyen ramanuja dasan, adiyen places my humble

self in service to you" etc.., but how many of us

really have the bhAvam that svami manavala mamuni

advocates?

 

Another incident - There was a srivaishnava called

bhattar perumal that had the position of an acharya

in those days. But many of his sishyas did not

prostrate before him, and he was disturbed by it.

Feeling that it was disrepect for him, he went

to svami manavala mamunigal and told him about his

concern. svami, when he returned to his matam,

invited the sishyas of bhattar perumal and asked

them why they were doing so. The sishyas replied

that they did not have the mind to surrender to

bhattar perumal, implying that they were not

satisfied with their teacher. svami manavala mamuni

told them - "Think that it is perumal and thayar,

sitting in the divya simhasanam before you, and

you prostrate before bhattar perumal" - We can

see the kindness that svami had even for people

that had drawbacks.

 

I will continue in the next post..

 

azhvar emperumanar jiyar thiruvadigale saranam,

adiyen madhurakavi dasan,

varadhan

 

 

 

 

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