Arthi Prabhandham-11 (Part-1)

[Guest guest]

Srimathe Ramanujaya Namaha l Sri Vara Vara MunayE Namaha

 

Sri Pillai perumal iyyengAr was a great ranganatha bhaktha. He lived in a

village very near to Srirangam. He was working as an accountant under a

landlord. On an occasion of ranganAtha rathOstavam pillai requested the

landlord to grant him a days leave so that he can go and have darshan of Sri

Ranganatha on the divine ratham. But the landlord refused saying that there

were lot of accounts work pending, to be done. Pillai had no other go than to

do his work but his mind circled around the beauty of ranganatha and how by this

time he would have got into the divine ratham. At that time suddenly, Pillai

uttered “Oh! Oh!” and crumbled his shoulder cloth (uttareevam) and threw it

aside. The landlord couldn’t understand the meaning of pillai’s gesture but

didn’t care much to enquire about it and just ignored it.

 

The next day some villagers who have gone to Srirangam, came to the landlord and

said, “Your accountant is a very good man. He only put off the fire, which

caught the divine ratham of ranganatha yesterday. We all saw him over there in

Srirangam.” Now the landlord understood the reason for pillai’s gesture and he

realized his mistake. He told Pillai, “I have considered you as my servant and

made a great mistake. You are really a great bhaktha. So what should I do for

you now?” Pillai replied, “I want to stay in Srirangam itself and be near

rangan always. So it will be nice if you could make arrangements for me to get

a little prasadam from the temple daily”. Such was the deep devotion of pillai

perumal iyyangar. Though he was not physically present in srirangam still he

remained there due to his mental meditation. Pillai was in the nearby village

but we are all very far off. But the distance never matters, only the mental

devotion matters. Sri Pillai perumal Iyyangar has made excellent prabhandams,

with great devotion towards the lord that is collectively called as “Ashta

prabhandams”.

 

(To Be Continued)

Jai Sriman Narayanan| Adiyen Ramanuja Dasee, Sumithra Varadarajan