mozhiyai kadakkum perum pugazhAn!!!

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sumithra varadarajan <sumivaradan

Cc: oppiliappan, sv-general,

Wed Jan 22, 2003 9:52pm

mozhiyai kadakkum perum pugazhAn!!!

 

 

Sri Parthasarathi thunai

Srimathe Ramanujaya Namaha

Sri Vara Vara MunayE Namaha

Sri vAnAchala mahA munayE Namaha

 

Dear bhagavatAs,

Today (Jan 23rd 2003) is Thai hastham, the thirunakshatram of the

great acharya, koorathAzhvan, the close and foremost disciple of

EmperumAnAr considered to be the pavithram (thandam and pavithram are

two essentialities for any yethi) of Sri rAmAnujar. Born as a king

of the village called kooram near kanchipuram he shed all his wealth

and belongings for the sake of acharya abhimAnam.

 

Sri thiruvarangaththamudhanAr (one another shisya of EmperumAnAr who

was corrected from his bad deeds by koorathAzhvan) in his rAmAnuja

nootrandhAdhi says:

"mozhiyai kadakkum perum pugazhAn

vanjamukkurumbAm kuzhiyai kadaththum nam

kooraththAzhvAn charan koodiya pin"

 

 

Here amudhanAr says that the greatness of kooraththAzhvan is beyond

words. When amudhanAr who has sung such an excellent prabhandam like

rAmAnuja nootrandhAdhi refrains from talking about the greatness of

Azhvan then what can mandha buddhis like adiyen attempt to do? Still

just with the wish to spend the time in a proper way on this very

fine avatara dhinam of kooraththAzhvan let me just write a few words

on kooraththAzhvan to purify our mind and body.

 

AmudhanAr further says kooraththAzhvan is a person who has surpassed

the mukkurumbhu. What is mukkurumbhu? It is nothing but considering

oneself great due to the wealth he possesses, or due to the family or

caste in which he is born or due to his educational qualification or

intelligence. KooraththAzhvan had all the three. He was so wealthy

that he used to do anna dhAnam throughout the day which even

surprised perundEvi thAyar of kAnchipuram, who is none other than the

goddess of wealth (SridEvi). KooraththAzhvan was a high class

Brahmin but he never cared about that, he cared about only rAmAnuja

sambhandham and considered all rAmAnuja sambhandhis irrespective of

their birth to be equal. Thirdly, the intelligence of

kooraththAzhvan. Azhvan is the prime reason for us to have got

SribhAshyam today. He was an Ekasandha krAhi (one who learns all the

lessons in just one session). He just out of interest scanned

through the pages of the bhOdhAyana vriththi grandham got from the

saraswathi bandharam during the nights when ethirajar was asleep.

After losing the grantham to the saivaits, rAmAnujar was struck with

grief but Azhvan with great confidence assured that he can recollect

whatever he has read in the two or three nights and since he has seen

through the whole book he will help EmperumAnAr with the writing of

SribhAshyam. Only with this confidence EmperumAnAr started writing

the bhAshyam and completed it successfully. In appropriate places,

Azhvan corrected EmperumAnAr without any hesitation. Such was the

understanding between the acharya and shisya. But at no time did

Azhvan feel that he is more intelligent and great. He always

considered himself to be only the shisya of EmperumAnAr.

 

The three egos, which generally puts down a person was won by

koorththAzhvan and that has been remarked by amudhAnAr in the above

paasuram.

 

Azhvan gave his darshan for our darshanam (rAmAnuja darshanam). He

is the acharya who saved the life of our ethirajar. Even when

ethirajar forced him to pray to the lord to grant him vision he

refused saying that it is against the norms of a prapanna to ask for

anything from the lord. A prapanna is deemed to accept whatever the

lord grants him and always remain in the service to the lord.

KooraththAzhvan showed it in practice. Even after loosing vision he

did not keep quiet but continued to do pushpa (flower) kainkaryam to

Azhagar in thirumAlirunchOlai. He sang excellent prabhandams

famously known as panchastavams viz., Sri Vaikunda stavam,

athimAnusha stavam, sundarabhAhustavam, VaradarAja stavam, Sri stavam.

 

On top of all these one speciality of kooraththAzhvan is that he is

the only shisya who assured moksha for his own acharya. We all say,

ethirajar to be the acharya who will lead us all to moksha (rAmAnuja

sambhandam attains moksha). We praise EmperumAnAr to be the "Vishnu

lOka manimantapa mArgadhAyee" but that EmperumAnAr himself says that

moksha was assured to him only due to the sambhandham of

kooraththAzhvan. Isn't this surprising? Yes. In one kalashepam

EmperumAnAr explained how the jeevatma going to moksha would be

welcomed by the already present mukthAthmAs there. Listening to this

kooraththAzhvan wanted to go there before ethirAjar so that he could

continue kainkaryam to his acharya even in moksha and hence requested

the same from namperumal. Namperumal accepted and said that he has

granted moksha to Azhvan and his sambhandhis. Hearing this news

ethirAjar first took his uttareeyam (top clothing) and threw it into

the air with joy. What made ethirAjar so happy? Ethirajar

explained, " I committed a abhachAram by going against the words of

my acharya, thirukkOshtiyur nambi when I gave the thirumanthrArtham

to all so I will not be granted moksha but now that emperuman himself

has assured that all sambhandhis of kooraththAzhvan will attain

moksha I will also surely get the same". In this way, Azhvan paved

the path of moksha for rAmAnuja himself. But then ethirAjar himself

literally cried to loose the sathsangam of Azhvan.

 

At the last, rAmAnujar uttered the dvaya mahA manthram in the ears of

kooraththAzhvan. When the shisyas objected to the same saying that

the acharya should give the dvaya manthram to the shisya only once,

ramanujar replied that the manthram to Azhvan was like bhOgha dravyam

to a king. Such was the jnanam and anushtAnam of kooraththAzhvan.

 

When arjuna asked Krishna to tell him about the lord's vibhuthi,

Parthasarathi exclaimed, "hantha!" It is very difficult even for me

to say all my greatness in totality. Similarly adiyen stops here

saying that it is very difficult for anyone to even start talking

about the greatness of Azhvan leave alone completely saying it.

 

Alwar EmperumAnAr Jeeyer thiruvadigalE sharanam

 

Adiyen rAmAnuja dAsee

Sumithra Varadarajan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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