Day2 of Uttara Poorva Dinacharya By Sriman Srinidhi Swamin.

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SrimatE rAmAnujAya nama:

 

Upanyasam # 2 By Srinidhi Swamin on Uttara and Poorva dinacharya of Swamy

Erumbiappa. (Please note that this humble posting has been possible thanks to

the combined effort with Sri Anand Srinivasan of Houston and by the grace of

Alwars and AchAryAs)

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SriSrinidhi Swamin had completed the avatArikai and the first 2 slokas in the

last upanyasam. In the second upanyasam of the series, he started with the

sloka # 3 describing the beauty of Swamy Maamunigal’s tirumEni.

 

Just like NammAlwar was known to be the personification of Krishna Bhakthi

(Krishna ThrishnA tatwam), Swamy EmberumAnAr was known to be the personification

of Bhakthi towards NammalwAr (pArAnkusha pAda bhaktham). PrativAdi Bhayankara

ANnan swamy says in Varavaramuni Shatakam that Swami MamunigaL is the

personification of Bhakthi towards EmberumAnAr (YatIndra pravanam VandE).

 

Among the AchAryas who showed us the greatness of Alwars, Swami Manmunigal is

our prime acharya.

 

Dushyanta gave his ring to Shakuntala telling her to say one syllable of his

name per day (instead of directly saying 'after 5 days') by the end of which his

people would come and fetch her. Saying something indirectly is called

'PrayayOktha alankAram' . Using the same approach, Erumbiappa says to utter each

syllable of 'Sri Va raVa ra mu ni' which is 7 syllables for a week.

 

As described in the previous day's upanyasam, Erumbiappa, goes to Srirangam to

take refuge with MamunigaL after EmebrumAn ordered him to do so. Here P.B.Annan

swamy categorically denies that Erumiappa would not have gone to Kovil but

directly must have gone to MamunigaL's maTam -like someone with infatuation in

his mind is full of thirst to see MamunigaL. Then it looks to him as though

MamunigaL himself is coming to give him darshanam. Erumbiappa is mesmirized by

MamunigaL's charming personality and divine tirumeni.

 

Nammalwar says in "shonnAl virodham.” do not waste your time and energy for

praising ordinary human beings to get some material benefit (recall MamunigaL's

TVM noorthandAdi - shOru kooraikkAha ...mannAda mAnidarai) instead make best use

of the God-given tongue to recite Tiruchcheerai EmberumAn's kalyana gunAs. In

keeping with these advises Erumbiappa starts singing the Atma-gunA-filled

tirumEni soundaryam of his ACharyan MamunigAl here.

 

P.B.Annan Swamy says that EmberumAn who takes even the defects to His liking,

gave Erumbiappa the great Acharyan mamunigaL as in "shaida kuttram nattamAhavE

kOL" which shows the immense kripai of EmberumAn.

 

As Tirumalai AnandAlwAn beautifully says, AchArya does Jeeva-Para KalyAnam by

being the father of the bride (Jeevan) given away to the groom (who in this case

is EmberumAn Himself) who holds the hand of the Jeevan through the dvaya mantram

and explaining the greatness of the guru parampara. That way Acharyan is an

upakArakan (renderer of help) to EmberumAn also.

 

The Acharya - shishya sambhandham is unique. EmberumAN Himself likes the concept

of Achaaryatvam and that is why as GeetAchAryan He did GeetOpadEsham. The

Acharya takes care of the Atma rakshana of the shishya by preventing him from

swaroopa hAnIs such as going to dEvatAntara and refraining him from dehAtma

bhaavam. Whereas the duty of a shishya is to take care of the physical comfort

of the AchAryan because it is for his benefit that the AchAryan has taken the

divine birth. Recall Upadesha Ratna malai, " Acharyan shishyan Aruyirai..."

 

In SriVachanaBhooshanam Swamy PLC further adds that Acharya should not be

involved in either his or shishya's bodily protection. When Swamy EmberumAnAr

came to take embAr with him, he observed that the latter slept and rolled in

Periya Tirumalainambi's bed before Nambi retired for the day. Agitated

EmberumAnAr asked Embar whether the latter knew the consequence of rolling in

his acharyas’ bed. Embar said even if it lead him to hell itself he was not

worried - as long as Nambi had a comfortable night’s sleep in the bed which he

checked out. This is acharya bhakti.

 

Pillai PerumAl Iyengar says to EmberumAn " You have absolutely no need for

anything as You have everything in Paramapadam and in TirupArkadal - you have

all the gems and wealth and Your wife is SriMahalakshmi Herself. But I have one

thing which you do not have - your heart has been given away to five lakh GopIs

and hence a void is created there! So I will give mine! Since He steals our

heart He is "kaLvan" (thief). To such an EmberumAn our Acharyan offers us

(jeevans).

 

A shishya when he sees his Acharya should feel as if a hunger striken man has

found food to eat...( kanDaa pashiyin shOththaa kandaa pOle and VAsudEva ithi

sarvam...) and do all sorts of kainkaryams to the Acharyan.

 

 

It was EmberumAnAr’s practice to pace around after Bhiksham (amudusaiyal). Embar

once when he was watching him doing this from behind a pillar, EmberumAnAr

suddenly turned around. Embar asked if he was contemplating on "madiTTEN

manavALeyum..”(tirumaalirancholai paashuram). Swamy Emberumanar was surprised

at this, as he was not uttering the paashuram loudly. This made EmberumAnAr

happy to know that Embar was really a perfect shishya to be able to recognize

what was in his achAryan's mind. Erumbiappa was in the similar fashion towards

MamunigaL.

 

Swamy Maamunigal’s tirumeni was very fair. He is called veLLai Jeeyar. Swamy

Emberumanar’s tirumeni was of wheat complexion. Let us keep in mind that a

snake's hind is of wheat color and the front is white. So here are the two

parts of the avatara.

 

Swamy Mamunigal’s tirumeni is compared to the amudha kadal (ocean of amrutam-

pure white). This ocean word is also used in his tanian Sri Sailesha daya - - -

- - -guna aarNavam. In His avatara leelais, Chakravarthi Tirumagan (Sri Rama)

did sharanagati to Sailesha (Sugreeva). In Sri Krishna avataram He accepted

Sandeepani as his guru. Both these people did not seem to be filled with gunas.

Besides Sri Rama also did sharanagati to the Samudra Rajan (lavaNa aarNavam).

After all these instances, the disappointed Emberuman, decided to choose the

guNaa-aarNavam personality as his acharya who is none other than Mamunigal

 

There are many instances in Mamunigal’s charitram that show us that HE was the

aparaavataaram of Adisesha. Once a bhaagawata named Uttama nambi remarked that

Maamnugal was so fair and a skin disease was the reason for his fairness. He

happened to swoon and fall down, and Emberuman in the dream told him that

Mamunigal is none other than seshan (divine serpant). Once a lady saw and heard

Maamunigal in his matam in the swayam tirumeni form (snake). In Yatoothakaari

temple Maamunigal did Sri Bashya for 1 year. His teacher was convinced that

Maamunigal was not an ordinary human but a divine avatar that was to fulfill

some incomplete task (completion of Swamy Emberumanar’s avatar)

 

Just like Emberuman’s tirumeni is not made of the common elements, Swamy

Mamunigal’s tirumeni too was special. Mamunigal came only for us. Although we

cannot see the Sun directly, Mamunigal is a surya with the coolness of the Moon.

 

Sloka # 4

 

When Mamunigal came out of the ashram and Erubiappa saw this divine form he was

enthralled. Mamunigal’s divine hands were lotus like, holding two sishyas. He

would hold their hands (Koil aNNan and Vaanamaamalai Jeeyar). His tirumeni was

very sukumaaram. The vaazi tirunaamam we chant every day at Divya Deshams and

homes, tells us all about the beauty of Mamuingal’s tirumeni soundaryam (seiya

taamarai taaLina vaaziye - - -)

 

 

Discussing about the lotus, there is a reason why Emberuman stands on a lotus.

The lotus once thought that she was the most beautiful thing in this world.

Emberuman stood on her to show her that HIS tiruvadi are more beautiful than

her. This is the reason we always see a lotus under the tiruvadi of archa roopi

perumals and also a part of the Sri ShaTaari (the padukas that are placed on a

lotus platform)

 

 

 

Just like Emberuman’s tiruvadi and Swamy Emberumanaar’s tiruvadi, Swamy

Maamunigal’s tiruvadi is very special for us. The incident of the dumb lady who

Kooratalwan saw is recalled here. Once a deaf-mute lady came to Swamy

Emberumanar. He took her into the matam and placed HIS tiruvadi on her head.

Seeing this from outside, Kooratalwan cried and began to repent having had all

the knowledge he had. He wished he was also deaf-mute..

 

 

 

As Erumbiappa sang the glory of Maamunigal’s tiruvadi he also began to sing

pallandu to them. Like the worried Perialwar, Erumbiappa also sings pallandu.

 

 

 

Just like Singa Perumal (Narasimha) patted Prahlada’s head with affection

assuring His karunai just after tearing open Hiranya, Maamunigal holds the two

sishyas’ hands assuring moksha.

 

 

 

Sloka #5

 

 

 

Here the beauty of Maamunigal’s kaashaayam (ochre), broad vakshastalam, long

beautiful divine hands are described. His chest was so broad because it had to

house Thaayaar, Emberuman, Alwar and Swamy Emberumanar (the whole parivaara!).

P.B.Annan Swamy in Tiruvengada mudeyAn suprabhatha/prapathi shlokas says

“srimatsundara JamAtrumunivAsinaVAsinE” meaning the One who is happily residing

in the tirumArbu of mAmunigaL. The kripa flowing out of the acharya’s eyes is

said to exceed the kripa from the 3 eyed one (Shiva Peruman), 8 eyed one

(Brahma), and the 1000 eyed One (supposed to mean DevEndran but according to

P.B.Annan, it stands for EmberumAn Himself as in “sahasraSheersha… “)

 

 

 

To be continued - - - -

 

 

 

Vedics Team.

Iramanuja Adiyargal

 

 

Sheela V.Belur