Sri Ramanuja Journal Volume 9, Issue 4

[Guest guest]

 

Srimathe ramanujaya Namaha

Srimathe Vara Vara munayE Namaha

 

Ani, Sarvajith Azhvar 9, Acharya 4

 

SrimAn nAthamunikal – Ani Anusham

 

" namO achityAt budhA klishta jnAna vairAkya rAsayE

nAthAya munayE agAdha bhagavat bhakthi sindhavE "

 

Birth of the divine head

 

As per swamy desikan " nAthopajyam pravruththam… dharshanam na: " and swamy manavala mAmunikal " arul peRRa nAthamuni mudalAm nam dEsikarai yallAl pEdhaimanamE vundO PEsu " our dharshanam proceeds with sriman nAthamunikal as the lead.

 

nAthamunikal was born in veeranArAyanapuram (kAttumannar koil) in a Aani month anuradha star as the son of Eswara Muni. He underwent all the samskaras (sowlam, upanayanam et all) in appropriate times and learnt vedas, vedanthas, samanya sastra, adyAtma sastras and remained as a great scholar. His son was Eswara bhattAzhvan and his son was Alavandaar (yamunacharya).

 

nAthamunikal was under the divine service of 'mannanar' emperuman in kattumannar koil. While one day wanting to have the divya darshan of the divine places in the north of India received the permission from mannanar and along with few others started his journey towards north. He stayed in Brindavan and other divine places in the north for sometime enjoying the great experiences over there while he received a call back from mannanar. nAthamunikal started his journey back to kattumannar koil relishing the joy of divine darshan all through the way. He visited few more divyadesams in the south, did mangalasasanams and returned back to mannanar sannadhi and continued with bhagavat/bhAgavata kainkaryams accompanied with adyAtmasAstra pravachanams (lectures).

 

Srivaishnavas from thirunarayanapuram visit kattumannar koil

 

Some Srivaishnavas from places very close to thirunarayanapuram visited mannanar sannadhi and immersed the lord with their enchanting recitation of few stotras and paasurams they knew. They recited nammazhvar's paasurams starting with " ArAvamudhE adiyEnudalam… " And ending with " kuzhalil maliyach sonna OrAyiraththuLippaththum " with sweet musical tone.

Well! This became the turning point in the life of nAthamunikal and of course a wonderful salvage for the Srivaishnava sampradayam.

 

Mesmerised by the divine paasurams nathamunikal suddenly realized that the canto ends with saying these are 10 among the 1000. Immediately he jumped in front of the srivaishnavas and asked " Do you know all the thousand? " They replied that they knew only this 11 and after getting mannanar's prasadams continued their journey back.

 

But nAthamunikal couldn't keep quiet. His mind circulated the same verses and he wanted to get all the thousand divine paasurams at any cost.

So he decided to go to azhvar thirunagari the birth place of nammazhvar to see if he can get the treasure over there.

 

nAthamunikal in Azhvar thirunagari

 

nAthamunikal reached azhvar thirunagari and had the divine darshan of polindhu nindra piran and nammazhvar. On the way back he met one great srivaishnava Sri parankusa dasar, a descendant of madurakavi Azhvar. nAthamunikal prostrated the elderly person and enquired about the divine paasurams of nammazhvar. DAsar humbly replied, " Thiruvaimozhi and all the other divya prabhandams have been lost for many years now. But our ancestor's have preserved our kula pathi Sri madurakavigal's kanninun siruthambhu and also have passed on a message that if one recites it for 12000 times in ekAsanam with great shraddha meditating on nammazhvar, azhvar will give darshan and bless him with the divya prabhandams. I know only that 11 paasurams but no one had tried to chant it 12000 times and get the darshan of azhvar till now "

 

nAthamunikal was filled with ecstasy as now he has found the way to get the divine works back to this world. He learnt the kanninun siruthambu from dasar and with great dedication and commitment seated himself under the divine tamarind tree and started reciting the divine work. On completion of the 12,000 times pleased with his conviction and devotion, nammazhvar due to divine grace of piratti, as asareeri (no form will be visible but a divine voice will be heard) asked, " what is your wish? " nAthamunikal humbly stood up with folded hands and requested, " swamin! Please bless me with thiruvaimozhi and other divyaprabhandams " And azhvar with great happiness blessed nathamunikal with divine eyes and gave rahasyatrayam, nalayira divya prabhandam, the divine inner meanings as per the philosophy and ashtAnga yOga rahasyam in yoga dasa and disappeared.

 

Sri Vedanthachariar in his " sampradaya parisuddhi " (one of the rahasya granthas) declares, " In the start of the yuga, for the vedantha sampradayam after brahma and others, nammazhvar became the pravarthaka " and " in this parampara, like a father nammazhvar became the acharya of nathamunikal " . Thereby nathamunikal got all the important quintessence from nammazhvar and remained in Azhvar thirunagari for sometime blessing all over there with divine lectures on sampradayam based on arulicheyal (the divya prabhandams) and then returned back to mannanar sannadhi doing mangalasasanams to all the divyadesams on the way back.

 

Spreading the divine works to the world

 

In order to spread the message of sampradayam to one and all with the permission of the lord nathamunikal called his nephew's keezhaiyathAzhvan and mElaiyagaththAzhvan and said, " We have to add divine music to these divine works blessed on us by azhvar. After adding eyal, esai to the divine works we have to sing them with divine music and spread it throughout the world "

 

Nathamunikal is celebrated, like vedavyasa to Sanskrit Vedas, for tamil marai. Nathamunikal was renowned for his excellency in deva ganam and expertise in the sastras. The king of gangai konda cholapuram wanted to honor nathamunikal for all his expertise but nathamunikal was not interested in any other honors other than serving mannanar daily as a paramaikAnthi.

 

Disciples of nAthamunikal

 

 

uyyakondar kurukaikAvalappan nambi karunAkaradAsar EruthiruvudaiyAr Thirukkannamangai Aandaan vAnamAmalai deviyAandan urupattoorAachan pillai sOgaththoorAzhvan

 

All these disciples learnt nalayira divya prabhandam and other veda sastras from nAthamunikal.

 

Works of nAthamunikal

 

It is said that nAthamunikal wrote a book called " nyAya tattvam " which is not available now. One of the mangala slokams in this work is cited as, " yO vEththi yugapat sarvam pradyakshEna sadhA svatha: tam praNamya harim sAstram nyAyatattvam prachakshmahE " From Vedanthachariar's nyAya sidhdhAnchanam and other works it is clear that the above work was available in those times.

 

Handing over responsibilities

 

nAthamunikal remained in yogam for many years ( " lOkEavadheerna paramArththa samakra bhakthi yOgAya nAthamunayE yaminAm varAya " ).

· He gave the yoga rahasya to kurukaikavalappan

 

· He told his son Eswars bhattazhvan that he will be blessed with a son and instructed him to name him as 'yamunai turaivan'

· He handed over the responsibility of handing over the divine arthas of the sampradayam to yamunai turaivan to uyyakondar.

 

nAthamunikal reaches the divine abode

 

After handing over the responsibilities nathamunikal seated himself back in yogam. One day, the chola king along with his men went for hunting and on the way wanted to meet nathamunikal. The king enquired about nathamunikal in his house and returned back, coming to know that he was in yogam. Later nathamunikal's daughter told nathamunikal, " Oh! Father in our house, one monkey, 2 people with bow in hand and a female came and searched for you "

 

Listening to this nathamunikal immediately concluded that it should have been none other than Sri Rama, Lakshmana and Seetha piratti along with hanuman and started to run in the direction of their retreat. All through the way he enquired to all the passerby's who said that they saw them and they went that way only. He followed the same path and once he reached gangai konda cholapuram no one could recognize seeing the aforesaid set of people. nAthamunikal immediately fainted and fell to the ground and since he couldn't tolerate the separation from the lord (his arthi reached its peak) and nAthamunikal ascended to the divine abode.

 

" akruthtrima dvatcharanAra vindha prEma prahasrshyAthim Athmavantham

pithAmaham nAthamunim vilOkya praseedha matvruththa achinthyayitvA "

 

nAthamunikal thiruvadigalE sharaNam

 

Varavaramuni dAsargaL