Acharya vaibhavam - 54- Ramanuja- Tall, majestic, Fair complexioned, Divinely Beautiful Face, 12 ThirumaNN, Sikhai, upaveetham, - wow! what a Divinely Beautiful Acharya!

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SrI:

SrImathE Gopaladesika mahadesikaya nama:

 

Dearest all,

 

LakshmI nAtha samArambhAm nATha yaamuna madhyamaam |

asmadhAcharya paryanthAm vandhE GuruparamparAm ||

 

I worship the entire guruparamparaa that starts with

Emperumaan, Sriya: Pathi Sriman Narayanan; which has

SrI NAthamuni (in between) upto my AchArya (Sri

Ramanuja).

 

Sri Ramanujacharya with His tall, fair complexioned,

towering personality- majestic, cool merciful glances

with an ever smiling shining face- with dwAdasa

oordhva pUndram (12 ThirumaN), the pristinely pure

saffron sanyaasi robe (that adds beauty to the fair

complexion further), the dark tresses curly hair of

sikhA which is so charming on His moon like Divine

smiling face laden with dayA on us, (Charming Most

graceful Thirumukham), the white bright pooNool

(yagnOpaveedham), the strong thridhaNdam, the lovely

Lotus feet- Oh Lord! What a sight It could have been,

to those Srivaishnavas must have been blessed with!

 

How nice it would have been to witness Sri Ramanuja,

walking so gracefully with such an enchanting

personality, with his group of sishyas of calibre like

KooratthAzhwAn, MudaliANdaan, Embaar, Boy Paraasara

Bhattar, Kidaambhi Acchaan, and others. What a sight

it would have been! Once, even Periya Nambhi (who had

initiated Sri Ramanuja with Pancha smaskaram) saw this

group coming in the front and prostrated on the ground

falling flat. When asked, he said "It appeared to me

as if Alavandhaar is coming with his sishyas!

 

This scene of Divine Beauty of Sri Ramanuja reminds me

of Embaar's poem on the azhagu of Ramanuja and

declares in the end "illai enaaku edhir; illai enakku

edhir; illai enakku edhirE! "There is none equal to

me; none equal to me; none equal to me!". True!

 

There is NONE equal to us FOR BEING BLESSED WITH Sri

Ramanuja (sampradayam)!

 

EmbAr has also painted a memorable word picture of

the majestic

beauty of RaamAnujA in his SanyAsa Aasramam :

 

parpamenatthihazh painkazhalunran pallavamE viralum

paavanamAhiya painthuvaraadai pathintha

marunkazhahum

muppuri noolodu munkailEndhiya mukkOl tannazhahum

munnavar tandhidu mozhikaL niranithidu muruval

nilAvazhahum

karpakamE vizhi karunai pozhinthidu kamalkkaNNazhahum

kaarisu tan kazhal soodiya mudiyum kana

naRRsihai mudiyum

yeppozhudhum yethiraasan VADIVAZHAHU

yeenidhayatthuLathAl

ILLAI YENAKKU YETHIR ILLAI YENAKKU YETHIRILLAI

YENAKKETHIRE

 

Embar's enjoyment of seeing Sri Ramanujacharya's lotus

feet , tender fingers reminding one of the creepers,

sacred saffron robe, most auspicious pooNool,

thridandam , His enchanting smile laden with dayA ,

large dark eyes reminiscent of wish yielding kaRpaka

maram (tree), the kudumi (sikhA) formed by abundant

tresses is simply beautiful . EmbAr declares that

there is no one equal to him; since YathirAjan's

Divine Beauty lingers in his heart.

 

Let us now Swami Ramanuja’s wonderful divinely

Beautiful ThirumEni..

Swami Desika says in the sloka 10 of YathirAja

Sathathi: Swamy Desikan had enjoyed Acharyan’s divine

beauty in his Yathiraja sapthathi sloka:

 

upaveedhinam oordhva pundravantham

trijagadh puNya palam thridhanda hastham I

saraNAgatha saartha vaaham eedE

sikhayA sekariNam pathim yatheenAm II

 

I praise Yathiraja, who shines with a Yajna

Upaveetham, on His chest and with the UrdhavapuNram

who is really the fruit of the Good deeds of all

worlds, who has a thridaNda, in His hand, and finally

has a tuft of hair on the Head. He is the saviour of

the Vaishnavites, surrendered unto Him, guaranteeing

for their salvation

 

I salute the emperor of SanyAsis, RaamAnujA, who is

resplendent in his appearance wearing the sacred

thread, urdhva Pundrams and beautiful tuft made up of

dense black tresses. He is holding the thridhandam in

his hands as a result of the puNyams accumulated by

the three worlds and is leading the prapannAs to

moksha saamrAjyam. In yet another sloka, Swami Desikan

celebrated the beauty of Sri RamAnujA's hand holding

the JnAna mudhrA.

 

[From asmadhAcharyan’s Tamil commentary of Swamy

Desikan’s YathirAja Sapthathi – translated into

English by Sri CG Balaji Swami]

 

Ramanuja sampradayam is not something that emanated

all by itself. It is the true religion that has come

down through the preceptor lineage starting from

Paraman Himself. It is due to this fact that Swamy

Deshikan lauds all the other acharyas in the lineage

before celebrating Ramanuja. Similar to Bhagavad

anubhavam, Acharya anubhavam is equally important for

a disciple. Acharya anubhavam for a disciple would be

to adorn the divine form (thirumeni amaippu or the

vigraham) of an acharya in his mind and to strictly

adhere to his teachings and ordainments. The

consecration and worship of the vigrahams of the Lord

as per the texts of Agamas enable one to remain in His

contemplation always. Though our poorvacharyas are not

present with us now, we can definitely enjoy the

beauty of their self by listening to our ancestors.

Appullar who came down the familial as well as the

disciple lineage of Kidambi Achchan had the fortune of

experiencing and enjoying the divine form and beauty

of Bhagavad Ramanuja. Swamy Desikan was Appullar’s

nephew as well as disciple. He learnt the experience

of seeing Bhagavad Ramanuja and his beautiful

thirumeni from Appullar. Just as we relish our bygone

days through photographs or video, so does Swamy

Desikan celebrate Ramanuja as if he is seeing him in

full animation.

 

Upaveethinam – A Brahmana gets actual Brahmanyatvam

only by wearing the upavitam or the sacred thread and

by performance of the ordained duties of

Sandhyavandanam three times every day without fail.

This sacred three-fold thread adorning the majestic

person of Yatiraja, like a lightening streak is what

captivates us first. Here Swamy Deshikan extols the

distinction and supremacy of Ramanuja upon other

ascetics of other philosophies who do not adorn a

yajnopavitam.

 

Even Azhwars before attempting to celebrate the

majestic person of the Lord first eulogize His three

fold yajnopavitam as minnu noolum kuNdalamamum maarbil

thirumaRuvum.

 

UrdhvapuNdrantham- After having celebrated his

majestic chest, Swamy Deshikan now attempts to glorify

his beautiful

countenance. He says that the sacred pundram applied

with the holy white mud (thiruman) and the srichuranam

appears resplendently. Having the shape of the feet of

the Lord and upward bound, it is capable of conferring

on Vaishnavas the holy Vishnupadam or Srivaikuntam.

 

tridhaNdahastham – Ramanuja, having researched the

Vedic purports very well, showed to one and all that

Vedavedyan that is one who is learnt from the Vedams

is none other than Sriman Narayana who is replete with

infinite auspicious attributes. He also showed by

practice that the consecration and worship of this

Lord Sriman Narayana in temples and homes is a sure

means to elevate oneself. This Sriman Narayana who is

worshipped by mind, word and deed has been invoked by

Ramanuja into his tridandam (staff with three stalks)

and keeps him in his hand all the time. This way,

Ramanujar is not like the other sanyasis who keep only

a single dandam or eka dandam (staff with one stalk).

 

sikhayA sEkariNam- Just as how kings deck themselves

with a crown, Ramanuja, who is the king of ascetics

has decorated himself with a tuft of mane like the

crown. It has been ordained in the scriptures that an

ascetic shall adorn a tuft of mane (Sikha) just like

how a king has to wear a crown.

 

Swamy Deshikan by saying -thrijagathpuNya phalam-

intends that the incarnation of Ramanuja who has a

majestic stature with broad chest adorning the sacred

upaveetham, having a tuft of mane like a crown and

with a tridandam in his hand definitely looks like the

consummation of the penances of all the three worlds.

Shankara and others had made many fallacious

interpretations for the charma shlokam of Bhagavad

Geetha.

 

SarvadharmAn parityajya- wherein they intend to say

that all the scriptural ordainments such as yajna,

yaga and other karmas as per the varnams like

sandhyavandanam need not be performed. The earthly

habitants were afraid due to the fact that many pious

people had given up the performance of ordained duties

following these teachings. This meant that all earthly

souls would become abdicators of ordained duties or

‘karma-bhrashtars’ and would have to go to narakam. At

the same time the devas and forefathers lamented

thinking that they might not get their share of

libations if nobody on the earth performed the

ordained duties.

 

At this time our Udayavar incarnated and upheld the

teachings of the Gita by saying that “Sarvadharmaan

Parityajya …” did not mean the complete renouncement

of all ordained duties. He ascertained with clarity

that the nitya karmas or daily ordained duties should

be performed by everyone as per their varna without

fail. He also quoted the validity of this statement

from the Gita – sangam tyakthvaa phalam Chaiva

sathyAgassAthvikO matha:

 

Using this statement Ramanuja clearly says that the

ordained duties should be performed without fail. But

the same should be performed without the egotistic

feeling in its performance and without expecting in

return any fruits of the same. This is known as

satvika tyagam. In this way Bhagavad Ramanujar is like

the culmination of the fruits of the penances of all

the three worlds.

 

SaraNAgatha saarThavAham – Nammazhwar though had the

capacity to attain moksham by following the path of

bhakti yogam, did not follow that path but, instead he

preached everyone to follow the prapatti margam and

practiced the same at the feet of

Thiruvengadamudaiyaan by singing the verse

ahalagillaen iRaiyum enRu alarmael mangai

uRaimaarbhaa! and performing prapatti through the

words unnadikkeezh amarndhu puhundhEnE.. .

 

He also came to be celebrated as ‘prapanna jana

santaana kootasthar’. Following the footsteps of our

Azhwar, Yatiraja on the day of Panguni Uttaram,

performed prapatti at the feet of Sriranga

divya-dampathis by singing in his sharanagati gadyam

as ananya SaraNa: SaraNam aham prapadyE.. that is “Not

knowing any other means to attain moksham, I hereby

surrender at your divine lotus feet”. Having

administered the path of sharanagati to many seekers

at his feet, Ramanuja came to be celebrated as

SaraNagatha SaarThavAha:

 

In this way Swamy Deshikan extols the vigraham or the

divine person of Bhagavad Ramanuja by experiencing his

epiphany in his heart and at the same time enables all

of us to behold the same divine vision as that of his.

 

Sri Ramanujasya CharaNou SaraNam PrapadyE

Regards

Namo narayana

dAsan

 

 

 

 

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