Greatness of udaiyavar as revealed by ponnachiyar!

[Guest guest]

 

Adiyen was just going through the great book “charamOpAya Nirnayam”

authored by nayanArAchAn pillai, son of the great acharya,

parmakArunikar Sri PeriyavAchan pillai.  The book is simply superb

and is absolutely necessary for each and every ramanuja adiyar to

possess and cherish this valuable possession.  Adiyen is now going to

present just a small portion of this masterpiece that really pierced

into even a hardhearted person like adiyen.  This book actually tells

us the upayaupEyathvam of swamy EmperumAnAr as shown through various

incidents in the life of our poorvAcharyas.  Swamy emperumAnAr is

considered as the only uthAraka Acharya (one who uplifts the masses)

by even the acharyas who preceded him.  Swamy Nammazhvar himself

showed this rahasyam through his “poliga poliga” paasuram and also

expressed the same to nathamunigal before handing over the

bhavishyadhAcharya vigraham.  The whole book is so interesting that

we are unable to place the book

down before really completing it.  What a great pradhipaththi,

madurakavibhavam (“devumattrareyEn”) did our acharyas possess? 

Really amazing!  No words can really explain the deep acharya bhakthi

that each one of them possessed. 

 

Once ananthAzhvan, echchAn, thondanoor nambi and marudhoor nambi who

have surrendered to the divine feet of arulAlaperumal EmperumAnAr (as

per the order of Swamy EmperumAnAr) prostrated udayavar and asked,

“Does this athma have a single acharya or does it have many?”  Swamy

replied, “Go and ask ponnachiyar”.  They went to ponnachiyar and told

her, “EmperumAnAr asked us to ask you this query of ours.  Does the

athma have a single acharya or many? Please clarify our doubt”. 

Immediately ponnachiyar shuffled her loose hair and tied it together

and made it into a hairball and uttered, “Adiyen cannot confirm the

answer to this question.  Will a weak person like me know such a

great thing? EmperumAnAr himself has to answer this question?” And

then she picked up the saffron twine on the floor and knotted it

around her hair and went inside.

 

They all returned with disappointment back to udayavar’s place and

prostrated swamy who enquired them about the reply they obtained. 

Immediately they told him that she said that she doesn’t know the

answer and that only emperumanar can clear the doubt.  Swamy asked,

“what did she do while you were there?”  They told him about

ponnachiyar’s act of shuffling her hair and then tying it with the

saffron twine and then going inside.  Swamy was highly pleased and he

said, “So she hasn’t sent you without the answer.  She has answered

your query with her action but you were unable to understand.” 

Surprised to hear the same they all requested swamy to explain in

detail to them.

 

Swamy udaiyavar explained as follows:

 

“ She shuffled her hair to show that while thinking about the acharya

to this Athma in different angles we assume that there are many

acharyas.  Then she tied them all together thereby indicating that

but the actual fact is that there is only one acharya who uplifts the

Athma and shows the correct path (the divine abode).  By picking the

saffron twine from the ground, she indicated the special acharya who

is capable of uplifting all, the one who has accepted the sanyAsa

ashrama and thereby adorns kAsAyam, thereby indicating to my own

self.  Then she placed it on her head indicating that EmperumAnAr is

the head of all acharyas.  Then she went inside indicating that she

has placed such an acharya deeply inside her heart (“pEni konarindhu

pughudhavaiththukkondEn pirithindri”) In this way she has showed the

way ramanuja adiyars have to place swamy inside their hearts and

cherish the divine experience.”  In this way swamy expressed his

greatness as an acharya

through ponnachiyar.

 

Alwar EmperumAnAr Jeeyer thiruvadigalE sharanam

Adiyen rAmAnuja dAseeSumithra Varadarajan

 

The New with improved product search