mannuyir kAl! engE manavala mAmunivan (part-2)

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sri:

Frowarding previous Note from Smt. Sumitra & Sri Varadarajan

 

Sri Parthasarathi thunai,

Srimathe Ramanujaya Namaha,

Sri Vara Vara MunayE Namaha,

Sri VanAchala mahA munayE Namaha.

 

Dear bhagavatas,

 

In this posting, let us see the essence of the paasuram given

below briefly and there by understand the charamOpAya nishtai of Sri Erumbiappa.

 

"mannuyir_kAL ingE maNavALa mAmunivan *

ponnadiyAm senkamalappOthukaLai * - unnis

siraththAlE theeNdil amAnavanum nammai *

karaththAlE theeNdal kadan " (upadesa ratina mAlai-74)

 

Meaning: Oh! The people of this world, if you place the divine

feet of Swamy manavala mAmunivan on your head here then we are sure to be

touched by the hands of amAnavan.

 

Who is this amAnavan?

 

Let us try to explain the same with the words of mAmunigal.

 

"endha vudal vittu eravu mandalaththinoodhEgi

evvandangazhiththu edaiyil Avaranam Ezh pOi

andhamil pAzh azhagAr virasaithannil kuliththu

angu amAnavanAl olikonda sOdhiyum pettru

amarar vandhu edhir kondu alangariththu vAzhththi

 

vazhinadhaththa

vaikundham pukku mani mandapaththu sendru

nan thirumAladiyArgal kuzhangaludan koodum

nAlenakku kurugum vagai nalgu en ethirAsA" (Arthi prabhandam-24)

 

Here mAmunigal explains the way the jeevatma leaves this body

and travels through the archirAdhi mArgam to Srivaikundam. First the soul

leaves the body and escapes through space and leaves this mandalam (world).

 

Then passing through saptha Avaranam (Seven layers) it finally reaches the

Viraja River. The soul takes a divine dip in the Viraja River. Then amAnavan

 

(one who is different from an ordinary human, devan) touches this soul and

gives it the divine glory. At this time all the mukthas come to welcome

this soul to the nithya vibhuthi and take him inside the Srivaikundan, the land

of muktas and nithyas. Now the soul enters the mani mandapam and joins the

nithya bhagavatas(nan thirumAladiyars) over there. Mamunigal in this

paasuram requests emperumAnAr to grant him the divine abode of emperuman as soon

as possible, as explained above.

 

Swamy Manavala mAmunigal sings this prabhandam in arthi to

shed this body immediately and attain paramapadam, whereas all cannot attain

this state of an Artha prapannan. So we all remain druptha prapannas and hence

erumbiappa in the above paasuram assures us that if we hold on to the divine

feet of mAmunigal here (in the leela vibhuthi), then we are sure to attain the

divine feet of emperuman and join all the nithya mukthas in the paramapadam

after shedding this body ("maranamAnAl vaikundam kodukkum piranvaikundam

puguvadhu mannavar vidhiyE"). Sri NammAzhvar has explained the same in his

'Soozh

visum pani mugil' padhigam. ("vandhavar edhir kolla mAmani mandapaththu

andhamil pErinbhaththu adiyarOdu erundhamai"). In a single paasuram

 

Swamy mAmunigal has given the meanings of the whole padhigam (11paasurams) of

nammAzhvar. So is there any doubt in saying that holding the divine feet of such

a great acharya will lead us to the divine feet of emperumAn?

 

In our sampradayam, Sri Vanamamalai onnAna rAmanuja Jeeyer

swamy (the first peedAdhipadhi of the vanamamalai mutt) is considered to be the

"ponnadiyAm senkamalam" of Swamy manavala mamunigal as Sri Periya jeeyer

himself has called vanamamalai swamy as "nam ponnadikkAl Jeeyer!". Like

madurakavigal or ramanujan to Sri SaTakOpar and MudaliyAndan or AnanthAzhvan to

ethirajar, Sri Vanamamalai PonnadikkAl Jeeyer swamy remained to Swamy manavala

mAmunigal.

 

Adiyen beg pardon for any mistakes committed. May the learned

 

bhagavatas please

forgive and correct the same.

 

Alwar emperumAnAr Jeeyer thiruvadigale sharanam

Adiyen Ramanuja dAsee

Sumithra Varadarajan