Sri Ramanuja Journal Volume 12- Issue 3

October 3, 2007

SrimathE RamAnujAya Nama: Srimath VaraVaraMunayEA Nama:

PurattAsi Sarvajith

AzvAr 12 AchAryA 3

Srimathe Ramanujaya namaha

Srimad Vara Vara MunayE Namaha

Sri vAnAchala mahA munAyE Namaha

Punarpoosam thirunakshtra significance

Of all the twenty-seven Nakshatrams (Stars) of the Tamil calendar, "

Punarpoosam " deserves a special mention. This nakshatram boasts of the thiruavatAram of the following divinities:

Sri Chakravarthi Thirumagan (a) Sri Ramapiran - Chittirai month

Sri Kulasekara Azhwar (a) Sri Kulasekarap perumal - mAsi month

Sri Embar (a) Ramanuja padhachchAya - thai month

Sri Mudaliyandan (a) Sri DAsarathi - Chittirai month

Sri Vanamamalai onnAna JEEyar swamy (a) Sri Ponnadikal Jeeyar swamy - purattAsi month

Significance of the title PonnadikAl Jeeyar

Owing to the vicinity of the kanyA punarvasu or the PurattAsi punarpoosam which falls on 4 th of October 2007, this posting aims to bring out the greatness of Sri vAnamAmalai onnana Jeeyar swamy. The pseudonym " Ponnadi-kAl Jeeyar¨ draws a distinctive attention. It is only after the advent of this achArya, swamy manavAla mAmunika's sishya sampath (Wealth of Sishyas), grew multifold and hence the name " ponnadikAl¨ (meaning - feet of gold).

Swamy rAmAnuja spread Srivaishnavism through 74 of his disciples called simhAsanAdhipathis. Likewise manavAla mAmunikal spread it through eight of his disciples called Ashta Diggajas. The first and foremost amongst them is Vanamamalai onnAna Jeeyar swamy who established innumerable Mutts, throughout India called thOthAdri/Vanamamalai mutts.

Thiruvadi of Swamy manavAla mAmunikal

When the devotees (adiyArs) go to any of the Srivaishnva temples, we have the practice of, archakAs placing the lotus feet of the lord (sri SatAri or sri satakOpam) on the heads of all the presents in the gOshti (Assembly of adiyArs). This is how the relationship is established between the adiyArs and the archA moorthi of the emperuman in any divya desam. Getting the thEErtha prasadam and sri satakOpam is the primary duty of any srivaishnava. This holds good for all the azhwars and achAryas sannadhis too. To elaborate,

emperuman's lotus feet (thiruvadi nilai) is sri satakOpam (swamy nammAzhwAr)

swamy nammazhwAr¡¦s thiruvadi nilai is swamy madurakavi azhwAr/swamy rAmanuja

swamy rAmAnuja¡¦s thiruvadi nilai is swamy mudaliyAndAn all other achAryAs (after swamy ramanuja) thiruvadi nilai is swamy manavAla mAmunikal.

Swamy manavAla mAmunika's thiruvadi nilai is swamy

ponnadikAl jeeyar or swamy onnana vanamAmalai jeeyar commonly called as ponnadiyAm sengamalam.

(There are certain exceptions to the above, such as

swamy ramAnujA's thiruvadi nilai in thirumalai (Thirumala) is swamy anandAzhwAn

swamy nammAzhwAr's thiruvadi nilai in azhwAr thirunagari is swamy rAmAnuja)

Hence to get the sambandham (relationship) of swamy manavAla mAmunikal, ponnadikAl jeeyar swamy's importance becomes an unspoken niyamanam (rule).

PonnadikAl Jeeyar swamy's association with Periya Jeeyar (swamy manavAla mAmunikal)

PonnadikAl jeeyar swamy was very close to periya jeeyar (swamy manavAla mAmunikal). Swamy always wanted Vanamamalai Jeeyer to have all the fame and fortune he possessed. Hence he blessed Vanamamalai swamy also with ashtadiggajAs similar to his great ashtadiggajAs. Thereby, he appointed the following ashtadiggajAs to Vanamamalai swamy:

mahAryar

saramapungavar

Suddha sathvam anna

appAchiyAr anna

rAmAnujam pillai

ghostipuraththayar

pallakkAl siththar

Jnana kan-AththAn.

Then, Periya Jeeyer also allotted the appropriate kainkaryams to each one of them. From then on, Vanamamalai ponnadikkAl swamy remained with great fame along with his ashtadiggajAs, as a krupApAthram of periya Jeeyer. Periya Jeeyer also instructed mahAchAryar to compose a thaniyan on his acharya which would proclaim his acharya's greatness for ever. Hearing such an order from periya Jeeyer, mahAryar concentrated on the divine qualities of his acharya and immersed himself in the ocean of his acharya's qualities and submitted the following to his acharya¡¦s divine feet:

RamyajAmAtru yOgeendra pAdha rEkhA mayam sadhA

ThathAyath thAthma sadhdhAthim rAmAnuja munim bhajE

Listening to the above, Periya Jeeyer was astonished. He felt that the verse not only got out the greatness of Vanamamalai Jeeyer but it was also honey flowing to the ears of the listener and hence very admirable.

Pleased with the thaniyan told by mahAryar, Periya Jeeyer swamy ordered as follows:

Like the " SrisailEsa dayApAthram¨ thaniyan, which was submitted by periya perumal himself in the garuda mandapam with three kandams, this thaniyan should also be regarded equally important and should be recited by all Srivaishnavas. Like starting with " pallandu pallandu¨ and ending with " appAnjasanniyamum pallAndE¨ considering the first and second paasurams of thirupallandu to be like a single paasuram and recited together; and like the varaha charam slokam which has two parts (padhyadvayam) but still considered as a single mantram; and like the mantra ratnam, which though considered as a single mahA mantra rahasyam, still has two parts detailing about the angam and angi; and like the " Hari padham " which has 2 aksharas; Consider " SrisailEsa¨ thaniyan and " ramya jAmAthru yOgeendra¨ thaniyan to be connected to each other and to have equal importance.¨

This is the reason why even today in the southern divyadesams in and around AzhwAr thirunagari, the above two thaniyans form a part together in all Divyaprabanda recitations.

Greatness of vAnamAmalai jeeyer swamy

Swamy was responsible for acting as purushakaram (recommendation) for annan and others to surrender to the divine feet of Sri Periya Jeeyer and also accepted a few of them as his shisyas as per the order of Sri Periya Jeeyer.

Swamy was responsible to bring appillai and appullAr to the divine feet of Sri MamunikaL. First swamy convinced periya jeeyer to accept them as his disciples and then he went to the banks of kaveri and along with the help of erumbiappa, swamy brought both appillai and appullAr to the divine feet of Periya Jeeyer and made them the two among the ashtadiggajas of Sri Mamunikal.

Sri Periya Jeeyer himself used to praise and call Swamy as

" PonnadikkAl Jeeyer¨. Periya Jeeyer considered swamy his very close disciple and also an atma bandhu and also wanted vanamamalai swamy to get all the pleasure and treasure he obtained. Hence, He made swamy sit on His seat and presented his thirukkai Azhvars in the hands of vanamamalai swamy and asked him to do samAsrayanam just like him. Then Periya Jeeyer appointed ashtadiggajas for vanamAmalai Jeeyer swamy just like his own ashtadiggajas.

Further Periya Jeeyer sent vanamamalai swamy to tour in the northern states as his representative and fulfill his wish to uplift all jeevatmas over there and bring them to our sampradayam by giving them ramanuja sambhandam through samAsrayanam. During his last days, Periya Jeeyer instructed his upadandam, thiruvAzhimOdhiram and thiruvadinilai of his own acharya thiruvAimozhi pillai to be given to vanamamalai Jeeyer. Tthough swamy was not near periya Jeeyer at the time when periya jeeyer attained paramapadam, ONNAna Jeeyer got this special grace .

Vanamamalai swamy also was blessed specially by Periya perumal, and that is why he gifted him the aranganagarappan and Himself went with him to vanamamalai. There is no need to say that vanamamalai perumal, who have got his divine consort, srivaramangai nAchiyar as kannikAdAnam from swamy had his special wishes for swamy and that is why he gave all the responsibilities of the deivanAyakan sannadhi kainkaryams to swamy himself. Next thiruvEnkatamudaiyan, showed the greatness of swamy and his acharya bhakthi in the dream of thiruvEnkata periya kElvi Jeeyer and thus showed his love for Vanamamalai Jeeyer. NAchiyar in thirumalai,accepting swamy as her father shows largely the great mahimai of PonnadikkAl Jeeyer swamy.

With the blessings of all the perumals swamy did a lot of kainkaryam in the deivanAyakan sannadhi, thirukkurungudi nambi sannadhi and also in spreading our ramAnuja darshanam all over India.

The greatness of swamy lies mainly in his acharya nishtai (charamOpAya nishtai). Though he took sanyasa even before his acharya, nayanar (Sri Manavala mamunigal) still he remained with great prathipaththi towards his acharya and considered mAmunigal to be upaya and upEyam (as per the well known verses, " DevumattrariyEn¨ (Madhurakavi bhAvam); " GururEva param brahma gururEva paramdhanam l gururEva param kAma: gururEva parAyanam ll gururEva parA vidhyA gururEva parAyathi: l yasmAth sadhupadhEshtasow thasmAth gurutharO guru: ll ¨theemanam keduththAi¡¨ maruvithozhum manamE thandhAi " " ariyAdhana ariviththa " " peedhagavAdaipirAnAr piramaguruvAgi vandhu " ) . Though swamy was blessed with a birth in a high caste Brahmin family ( " therulkol nAnmarai vallAr¨, " thEru jnanaththar¨ " senthozhilavar¨, " thelliyAr thirunAnmaraigal vallAr¨,¨seidhavElviyar vaiyaththEvar " ) and also a wealthy family and remained with great knowledge and intelligence still swamy didn't possess even a little bit of pride due to all these. His mind was clear from the mukkurumbhu ( " vidhyAmathO dhanamatha: thrithEyO bhijanOmatha " ¨)

With all these and many more greatness, swamy remained with parama krupai on everyone and established our sampradayam in the world as per the wish of his acharya. Swamy showed love and care towards all including plants and animals and wanted to uplift each and every jeevatma without any barriers to the divine feet of emperuman. In this way swamy remained acting as the bridge between the paramatma and jeevatma for sometime.

Wanting to go to the divine abode of emperuman, swamy shed all his interest in this world and finally attained the nithya kainkaryam of of emperuman. Let us perform mangalasasanams to this great Acharya and contemplate on his kalyAna gunas (Divine qualities)

Vazhi thirunAmam

" thiruvirundha malar thAlgal vAzhiyEsirandha sendhuvarAdhaiyum vAzhiyEtharuvirundha kai mukkOlum vAzhiyE tadampuyaththinil sangAzhi vAzhiyEmaruvu kondal manavAla yOgiyaivAzhththi vAintharul vAimalar vAzhiyEkarunaimEvum erAmAnusa muniKanaka mouli kalandhoozhi vAzhiyE "

Azhvar emperumAnAr Jeeyer thiruvadigalE sharaNam

Jeeyer thiruvadigalE sharaNam

Vara vara muni dasargaL