thirunakshatram of the great acharya, koorathAzhvan

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Srimathe Ramanujaya Namaha, Sri Vara Vara MunayE Namaha

Jai Srimannarayana!

 

Dear bhagavatAs,

The thirunakshatram of the great acharya, koorathAzhvan, the close and foremost

disciple of Sri Ramanujacharya considered to be the pavithram (thandam and

pavithram are two essentialities for any yethi) of Sri rAmAnuja, is near us.

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 Swami Ramanujacharya who

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

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 how can we 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?

Ethiraja 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 ethirAja himself literally cried to loose the sathsangam of Azhvan.

 

At the last, Swami rAmAnujacharya 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