[sri ramanuja] Sri Ramanuja Journal Volume 2 Issue 8

[Guest guest]

* SrimathE rAmAnujAya namaH*

 

* SrImathE varavaramunayE namaH*

 

* *

 

*Karthikai, Vyaya

Azhvar 2, Acharya 8 *

 

* *

 

*ThiruppANAzhvAr – Part 1*

 

*Thirunakshatram, kArthikai, rohiNi*

 

 

 

* *

 

*"vrichchikE rOhinI jAtham sripANam nisulApurE *

 

* SrivatsAngam kAyakEndram munivAhanamAsrayE *

 

* *

 

*Adiyongal tried to start an e-journal but ended with a contest between the

Tamil months. First Iyppasi boasted on giving birth to a whole lot of

azhvars and acharyas especially the mudal azhvars who are the back bone of

the Srivaishnava sampradayam. Now enters karthigai to say, "Oh! No doubt

you gave birth to a number of azhvars and acharyas I am no less. I have

selective azhvars and acharyas who gave the prime essence of Srivaishnava

sampradayam to this world! And don't forget that the great kaisika ekadasi

is my speciality" *

 

* *

 

*Azhagiya manavala perumal Nayanar in his divine work acharya hrudhayam

says,*

 

* *

 

*"mlEchanum bhakthan AnAl, chaturvEdhigal anuvarththikka aRivu koduththu,

kuladeivaththOdu okka poojai koNdu pAvana theerththa prasAdhanAm engira

thirumugappadiyum "*

 

*[if one born in a so called low caste attains bhakthi, then he can give

knowledge to a high caste brahmana who has shed his ego and wants to attain

jnana, and can be considered as par to a kuladeivam and can be worshipped

and his sripada theertham and prasAdham can be taken to cleanse one self. ]

*

 

* *

 

*"VishvAmitra vishnuchitta tulasee pruthyarOdE vul kalandhu thozhukulam

Anavan nilaiyAr pAdalAlE brAhmaNa vElvikkuRai mudiththamaiyum ……"*

 

* *

 

*[Nampaduvan, supposed to be born in a chandala kula is considered as par

with VishvAmitra (who sang "kousalya supraja rama" suprabhadham to rama),

Vishnuchitta (who sang suprabhadham to Krishna disguised as yesodha) and

thondaradipodi Azhvar (who sang suprabhadham "thiruppalliezhuchi" to

Ranganatha) as he underwent the vratha of waking up thirukkurungudi nambi

with his divine music-nilaiyAr pAdal-kaisika paN. Nampaduvan was given

that name merely due to the abhimanam of emperuman as "his singer" and he

was capable of releasing the brahmarakshas of all his sins with just the

phalan of a single song]*

 

* *

 

*"….pushpa, tyAga, bhOga maNdapangaLil paNippoovum Alavattamum veeNaiyum

kaiyumAna andharangarai mudi mannavanum vaidhikOththamarum mahAmuniyum

anuvarththiththa kramamum "*

 

* *

 

*Pushpa mandapam-Thiruvenkatam; panippoovum kaiyumAna

andharangar-kurumbharuththa nambi; mudimannan-thondaimAn chakravarthi;*

 

*tYaga mandapam-KAnchi; Alavattamum kaiyumAna andharangar- Thirukkachchi

Nambi; vaidhikOththamar-Ramanujar;*

 

* **bhOga mandapam-Thiruvarangam; veenaiyum kaiyumAna

andharangar-Thiruppanazhvar; mahamuni-lokasaranga munivar ;

 

** *

 

*"yAga anuyAga uttaraveedhigalil kAya anna stala suththi paNNina viruththa

AchAramum"*

 

* *

 

*yAgam-thiruvaradhanam; kAyasudhdhi-Physical purification (Swamy ramanuja

after taking bath in kaveri and proceeding for his worship of the lord used

to come with his hand on the shoulders of pillai urangavilli dasar) *

 

* *

 

*At this point we can also remember the fact that swamy ramanuja submitted

the responsibility of doing thiruvaradhanam to his dear perarulalan to AP

emperumanar who was earlier a advaitin sanyasi. It is not how you were in

the past that is important how you are today is more important in

srivaishnavism. AP emperumanar was born in this same month-karthigai bharani

*

 

* *

 

*Anuyagam-eating the prasadam after offering to the lord; annam-food;*

 

*(Swamy nampillai used to purify his food by asking yEru thiruvudaiyar dasar

to touch it)*

 

* *

 

*Uththara veedhi-northern street in srirangam; stala sudhdhi-purifying the

place/house; (naduvil thiruveedhi pillai cancelled even the

grahapravesam rituals

to his new house coming to know that vanamAmalai dasar visited the same the

previous day)*

 

* *

 

*Such were the great anushtanams of our revered acharyas. These thoroughly

show that there is no caste, creed barriers in srivaishnavism. It is only

the bhagavat bhakthi that really matters. The first instance that is shown

is the nampaduvan charitram. **Kaisika Ekadasi falls in karthigai month. *

 

* *

 

*Next AMP nayanar talks about Thiruppanazhvar (bhOga mandapaththil veenaiyum

kaiyumAna andharangar) who was born on karthigai rohini day in nishulapuri

otherwise called vuraiyur, near Srirangam. He was born in panar kulam and

hence didn't enter the temple premises of Sriranganatha but he was so deeply

immersed in bhakthi that he used to sing divine mesmerizing songs on the

lord standing near the banks of kaveri looking at the sriranga vimanam. One

day Ranganatha decided that he wanted to bring Thiruppanan inside the temple

so he started his leela. As usual the kainkaryaparas of the temple headed

by Lokasarangamuni started towards kaveri to fetch water for that day's

thiruvaradhanam. Thiruppanazhvar immersed in divine anubhavam was standing

in the way. Lokasaranga muni asked him to move but panan was in an ecstatic

state and didn't hear the words of lokasarangamuni. So the lokasarangamuni

took a small stone and threw it on thiruppanan. Blood started flowing from

his head and pAnan came to his senses. Realising his mistake of hindering

the bhagavat kainkaryam he ran away with deep worry. When the

kainkaryaparas came to the temple they were unable to open the doors and

ranganatha who has taken the wounds of thiruppAnan on his own head

instructed lokasarangamuni to go and fetch thiruppanAn who was his great

bhaktha and also apologise for the great bhagavata apachara. So

lokasarangamuni ran to thiruppAnan and apologized. Since thiruppAnan

refused to enter the temple with his inferior legs lokasaranga muni carried

thiruppAnAzhvar on his shoulders into the temple (hence thiruppanazhvar

became munivahar). ThiruppAnazhvar sang ten paasurams explaning the beauty

of periya perumal from bottom to top in his divine "amalanAdhipiran" and in

the end he completed saying "aranganai kanda kangal maRRondrinai kAnAvE"

(those eyes that saw ranganatha will not see anything else). Yes, he

didn't see even him and that is why in the last paasuram he didn't talk

about who sang the song and what is the palasruthi etc as all other azhvar's

usually do. With the last paasuram thiruppanazhvar attained the divine feet

of periya perumal. *

 

* *

 

*Karthigai month continues to say, just after this azhvar I gave birth to

thirumangai azhvar, in kallar kulam on karthigai karthigai day and also to

Nampillai, who showed the essence of Srivaishnavism in many ways in his

lifetime one being that stated above (anuyAga anna sudhdhi). *

 

* *

 

*So the essence of this month is to show that Srivaishnavism is beyond the

barriers of caste, creed, how you were born, how you were brought up. It

is the jnanam kalandha bhakthi (the bhakthi arising out of knowledge) which

is the criteria.*

 

* *

 

*So let us never forget the divine sUthra of Pillai ulagariyan,*

 

* *

 

*SVB-195 "bhAgavata apachAram thAn-anEka vidham" [there are many types of

bhagavata apachara]*

 

*SVB-196 "adhilE ondru avargal pakkal janma niroopanam" [one among them is

analyzing his birth]*

 

* *

 

*Sri Pillai lokacharya talks elaborately on this subject but that is out of

the scope of our subject. So let us all vow to refrain from this great

bhagavata apacharam and remain as uththama srivaishnavas. *

 

*Swami manavALa mAmunikal describes about thiruppANAzhvAr thus in his

upadEsa rathamAlai*

 

* *

 

*kaarththikai rOhiNinNaaL * kaaNmininRu kaasiniyeer **

 

*vaayththa pukazhppaaNar vanthudippaal * aaththiyarkaL*

 

*anpuTanEthaan * amalanaadipiraan kaRRathaRpin **

 

*nankuTanE koNdaaTum naaL. 10- upadESa rathnamAlai*

 

* *

 

*amudhanAr describes thiruppAnAzhvAr as the one who condenses the chIRiya

nAn maRai chem poRuL (the four essenses of the veda's) in chaste tamizh.

What are those four essence of veda's they are described as the " SwarUPa,

rUpa, GuNa and vibhUthi's" of emperumAn. *

 

* *

 

*sIRIya nAnmaRai chemporuL centhamizhAL aLittha*

 

*pAriyalum puhazh pAN perumAL – iramanuja nUttanthAthi 11*

 

* *

 

*ThiruppAnAzhvAr blessed us with a single divyaprabandham AmalanAdi pirAn named

after the starting of the verse amalanAdi pirAn adiyArkkennai Atpaduttha

vimalan…….*

 

* *

 

*Even though a short prabandham, its essence is so much important that there

are plenty of commentaries' to this prabandham. swAmi periya AcchAn

piLLaiwrote a commentary and swami azhagiya

manavALapperumAL nAyanar wrote a fabulous and detailed commentary as well.

Swami vedantha desikan summarized the essence of the prabandham in his

Sanskrit work called bhagavad dhyAna sOpAnam and in the maNipravALa

commentary munivAhana bhOGam*

 

*Swami desikan praises the prabandham in his munivAhana bhOgam commentary

like this *

 

*vEdiyar taam viritthuRaikkum** viLaivukellAm*

 

*vidhai aahum ithu yenRu viLampinOmE *

 

* *

 

*Let us continue in the next issue with more aspects from the commentries of

vyAkhyAna chakravarthi and nAyanAr. *

 

 

 

* manthipAy vaDa vEnkaDa mAmalai*

 

* *

 

*varavaramuni dAsargaL*