aruLALa perumAL emperumAnAr thirunakshathram celebrations

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srImathE rAmAnujAya namah

aruLALa perumAL emperumAnAr thriuvadigaLE saraNam

srImathe vara vara munayE namah

 

Dear SriVaishnavas,

 

Yesterday was the thirunakshathram of Swamy aruLALa perumAL emperumAnAr. An year

back, adiyEn had attempted to translate, the contents on life of this great

acharya, from Guruparampara Prabhavam, into English, with the limited knowledge

showered on me by him, and Swamy emperumAnAr. On this special day I would like

to share the same with everybody. adiyEn requests your pardon if there are any

mistakes, which are only due to my limited jNyanam, and would the ready to

correct myself if pointed out. I had actually intended to share this with all

bhagavathas yesterday, but due to my inability again, was forced to send it

today, beg your pardon for this.

 

adiyEn will also be uploading the photos of the thirunakshathram celebrations

shortly.

 

adiyEn rAmAnuja dAsan

Srinivas

 

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Thaniyan

 

kArthikE BaraNI jAtham yatIndrAsritamAsrayE |

JNyAnapramEya sAraBivaktAram vardam munim ||

 

dayApAlana dEvAya JNyAnasAra pradAyaca |

pramEyasAram tatatE namOstu prEma sAlinE ||

 

rAmAnuja padAmbOja samsrtam guNavArithim |

dayApAla munim vandE vEdAnta pariniStitam ||

 

JNyAnaBaktyArta vairAgyam rAmAnuja padAsritam |

PancamOpAya sampannam samyamIndram namAmyaham ||

 

rAmAnujArya sacchiShyam vEdaSAstrArta sampadam |

chaturtAsrama sampannam dEvarAjamunim bajE ||

 

yatirAja dayApAtram yatipankti viBUSaNam |

dayApAla munim vandE desikAgrE saram saDA ||

 

Sri AP emperumAnAr, also called dayApAlamuni or dEvarAjamuni, was one of the

very important siShyAs of swAmi emperumAnAr. He was a advaita sanyAsi, who

surrendered at the holy feet of swAmi emperumAnAr, and showed us the qualities

of a Sri Vaishnava, and the Guru-siShya lakShaNam. He also gave us two works

called JNyAna sAram and pramEya sAram, which are considered as authentic

teachings of swAmi emperumAnAr, giving us the essence of the entire vedAnta.

 

Thousand years back, when swami emperumAnAr was ruling the leelA viBhuthi, as

the chief of our Sri Vaishnava SampradhAyam, there lived a vidhwan called

"yaJNyamUrthy". He was a great scholar in vEdAnta, and a sanyAsi following the

advaita sampradhAyam. He heard about swAmi emperumAnArs vaiBhavam, and decided

to have a debate with swAmi (hereafter swAmi will always refer to swAmi

emperumAnAr, in the rest of the document) and defeat him. Having decided thus,

he wrote lot of shAstrAs, based on the doctrine of advaitha, and carried them

all with him, to Srirangam. On reaching Srirangam, he expressed his wish to

debate with swAmi, which was gladly accepted by swAmi too. Both of them put

forth their conditions as follows : yaJNyamUrthy promised that, if defeated, he

will carry the holy sandals of swAmi, change his name to that of swAmi, and also

become a Sri Vaishnava. SwAmi too promised that, if defeated, swAmi will take up

grantha sanyAsam.

 

With this the debate started and continued for 18 days. Till the end of the 16th

day, neither of them could defeat the other. But on the 17th day, the arguments

and ideas of yaJNyamUrthy grew stronger and swAmi could not think of anything

else to refute it. That day yaJNyamUrthy returned home in an ecstatic mood,

while swAmi was greatly dejected at the turn of events. He then offered prasadam

to his thiruvArADhana perumAL, pEraruLALan, and silently started pouring his

heart out to him. "Starting with AzhwArs, and carried on by Sri AlavandAr,

should this great sampradAyam come to an end with the birth of a person like me.

If this is what is your desire, be it so." Thinking thus, and with extreme

grief, swAmi went to bed without having any prasAdam.

 

That night pEraruLALan appeared in his dream and spoke thus : "Oh! IlayAzhwAr,

why do you worry? I have given you a siShyA who is equivalent to you in all

aspects. Use the arguments of your paramAchAryAr, Sri AlavandArs? mAyAvAdha

Khandanam, and defeat him."

 

SwAmi woke up suddenly and realized that it was a dream and was overjoyed. He

happily completed his nithya karmAnuShTAnam, and after worshipping his

thiruvArADhana perumAL and went to the debate hall with all the majestic look.

YaJNyamUrthy, on seeing swAmi was awe struck, by his majestic appearance and

happiness in his face, that he thought: "Is this the same emperumAnAr, who

returned dejected yesterday. Now that he is entering the debate hall with a

majestic look of an elephant." On seeing all these, yaJNyamUrthy, being a

JNyAni, understood the divine power of swAmi, and decided that it is not

possible for a normal being to return with such energy, after being badly

defeated the previous day, and fell at the feet of swAmi, and conceded defeat.

As per the promises, he then requested swAmi to forgive him by placing swamis

holy feet on his head. This act of yaJNyamUrthy completely surprised swAmi, who

asked him if he is not willing to continue with the debate. For this the

yaJNyamUrthy replied, "When periya perumAL showed himself to you, there is no

difference between periya perumAL and swAmi, and he (yaJNyamUrthy) does not have

any capacity to speak a word in front of such a great AcharyA." On hearing this

swAmi was extremely pleased, but still to bring the debate to a formal

conclusion, he explained yaJNyamUrthy, the flaws in the mAyAvAdha siDhAntham.

 

Then swAmi embraced yaJNyamUrthy, and accepted him as his siShyA. He then

requested yaJNyamUrthy to do prAyaschittA for forsaking the yaJNyopavItham, and

kAshAya vasthram, when he earlier became an advaita sanyAsi. Then swAmi

performed pancha samskAram to yaJNyamUrthy and named him as "aruLALa perumAl

emperumAnAr" as he considered yaJNyamUrthy a divine son given to him by

pEraruLALan, and established a maTam for him as he was a sanyAsi. SwAmi then

taught nAlAyira divya praBhanDham, to AP EmperumAnAr.

 

Daily swAmi used to conduct his viDhwath goShTi with kUraThAzhwAn, mudaliyAndAn,

and AP emperumAnAr. There were many bhagavathas who surrendered at the holy feet

of swAmi. When ananthAzhwAn, echAn, thondanUr nimbi, and marudUr nimbi

surrendered at the feet of swAmi, swAmi asked them to surrender to AP

emperumAnAr, and accept him as their AcharyA. On hearing this AP emperumAnAr

fearfully told them : ?Its like tying a fruit of the palm tree, to the neck of a

sparrow." and advised them to surrender only to swAmi. This particular episode

shows us the some of the qualities of a Sri Vaishnava, and guru-siShya

lakShaNam. A guru should never consider his siShyAs to be his siShyAs, but

should consider them as siShyAs of his own AcharyAn.

 

Another event which clearly showed the Acharya niShTai, of AP emperumAnAr, and

his love for swAmi. Once two Sri Vaishnavas came to Srirangam, to get the

blessings of swAmi, and asked the local people gathered there, the way to

emperumAnArs maTam. For which, the local people put a counter question, asking

"which emperumAnAr". On hearing this the Sri Vaishnavas were surprised and

enquired back, "Why do you ask which emperumAnAr? Do we have two emperumAnars

in our darShanam". The local people replied "Yes, we also have Sri aruLALa

perumAL emperumAnAr with us in Srirangam, that why we asked like that." The Sri

Vaishnavas replied that they were not aware of AP emperumAnAr, and they asked

only about Udayavars maTam, and left the place after getting the directions. AP

emperumAnAr happened to hear this conversation and was shocked to hear that he

has been treated on par with his swAmi, and was grief sticken. He thought, "Just

because I live away from the holy feet of my swAmi, I am being compared on par

with him. What a sinner am I, to be separated from my swAmi." Thinking thus, he

immediately demolished his maTam, and asked ananThAzhwAn, echAn, and other

siShyAs to go back to swAmi emperumAnAr, and himself fell at the feet of swAmi

and requested swAmi to take him back. SwAmi too, after hearing all that had

happened was extremely pleased at the Acharya niShTai of AP emperumAnAr, and

never got separated from him thereafter. From then on, AP emperumAnAr spent all

this life under the feet of swAmi, doing kainkaryam for his Acharyan, and learnt

all the raHasyAs from swAmi.

 

AP emperumAnAr then out of his kripai, for the well being of all, wrote two

poems in tamizh, called JNyAna sAram and pramEya sAram, which are considered the

essence of the entire vedAnta. SwAmi emperumAnAr, did not write any granthas in

tamizh, but all his teachings were given to us by his siShyAs, who wrote a lot

of poems and granthAs based on the teachings of swAmi. Based on this, JNyAna

sAram and pramEya sAram can be considered as the authentic teachings imparted by

swAmi rAmAnuja, to his siShyAs.

 

The thirunakShathram of Sri AP emperumAnAr, also called dayApAlamuni or

dEvarAjamuni, is being celebrated in the month of kArthigai, in BharaNi

nakShathram. Infact, the month of kArthigai is considered very important because

of the thirunakShathrams of AP emperumAnAr, thirumangai AzhwAr, and

thiruppANAzhwAr, falling on BharaNi, krthiga, rohiNi nakShathrams days,

respectively.

 

 

His works

Written in the "venpa" style of poetry, and revealing parama raHasyArthAs, are

the two important works called "JNyAna sAram" and "pramEya sAram", by Sri

aruLALa perumAL emperumAnAr. These two works are said to be the first, among the

tamizh poetries, composed by our pUrvAchAryAs. Even thiruvarangaThamudanArs

rAmAnusa nUtrandAdi, was written only after these two works.

 

SwAmi MaNavALa mAmunigal has written beautiful commentaries for these two works.

 

 

Where can we worship this AchArya now?

We can have the blessings of Sri AP emperumAnAr, at the Sri pAndava dUthar

temple, in Kanchipuram. On the day of kArthigai BharaNi, the thirunakShathram of

AP emperumAnar is celebrated here, with great grandeur, by all the

SriVaishnavas.

2:30pm - The thirumanjanam for swami AP emperumAnar starts

5:30 pm - mAda vIdhi purappadu

7:30 pm - sATrumarai

 

We can also have the blessings of Sri AP emperumAnAr, at the Ranganathar temple,

in Shivaji Nagar, Secunderabad, Andhra Pradesh. Here AP emperumAnAr shares the

sannidhi with Sri maNavALa mAmunigal. It is indeed a sight to watch, the author

of JNyAna sAram and pramEya sAram, and the Acarya, who wrote commentaries for

the above, share the same sannidhi.

 

 

 

vAzhi thirunAmam

 

thiruvAzhut tennarangan sirakka vandhon vAzhiyE |

tenaruLALan anbAl thirutthinAn vAzhiyE |

taruvAzhum yatirAsan thALadaindhon vAzhiyE |

tamizhJNyAna pramEyasAram tamarkuraippon vAzhiyE |

teLLArum madurakavi nilaitELindhon vAzhiyE |

tEsupolimadantannai sidaitittAn vAzhiyE |

aruLALa mAmuniyAm AriyantAl vAzhiyE |

aruLkArthigai BaraNiyon anaittUzhi vAzhiyE ||