Sri Periya Jeeyer's Arthi prabhandham-1

[Guest guest]

Sri Parthasarathi thunai

Srimathe Ramanujaya Namaha

Sri Vara Vara MunayE Namaha

 

SrisailEsa dayA pAthram deebhakthyAdhi gunArnavam

Yateendra pravanam vandhE ramyajAmataram munim

 

Dear bhagavatas,

 

With the thirunakshatram of our beloved Periya Jeeyer, ettuperukkar, Sri

Azhagiya manavala Jeeyer, Sri mAmunigal approaching shortly let us all enjoy the

greatness of that great mahAcharyar, the acharya of not only we jeevatmas but

also the lord himself, in a series of postings. Adiyen is definitely not

capable enough to write about the acharya in full. Bhagavan in geetha says to

arjuna that he himself cannot say about his greatness in entirety. In our

sampradayam, we regard acharyas to be equal or more so even greater than the

emperumAn himself. Mamunigal is one such acharya who the lord himself chose to

regard as his own acharya. So there is absolutely no chance that adiyen can

write in full about the greatness of Periya Jeeyer. But just to refine myself

and to spend some useful hours in rememberance of the great acharya and also

make others know the divine qualities of the revered acharya, adiyen is diving

into the ocean of the gunas and anubhavams of Sri mAmunigal.

 

Adiyen hopes to survive without drowning in the guna sAgaram of the mahAcharya,

with the help of bhagavat/bhAgavata krupai and the paripoorna katAksham of all

our alwars and poorvacharyas. Adiyen seeks the special blessings of

asmadAcharya, Sri Vanamamalai swamy who is a direct descendent of Sri Manavala

mAmunigal. To the benefit of those who are unaware of this fact, Sri

ponnadikkAl Jeeyer, the first peedAdhipathi of the vanamAmalai mutt was the

prime shisya, the “ponnadiyAm senkamalam” (divine thiruvadi) of Periya Jeeyer.

So adiyen should be proud to belong to such a mutt and that increases my duty to

write about mAmunigal to the extent possible with my limited knowledge.

 

The life history of Periya Jeeyer is known to many of us and adiyen hopes to see

postings on the same from other members of this group. When we consider the

contributions of swamy mAmunigal, the main works, which comes to our memory, are

Upadesa ratnamAlai, thiruvAimozhi nootrandhAdhi and Arthi prabhandam in tamil

and yathirAja vimsathi in Sanskrit. Swamy has done a lot of kainkaryam in

writing vyakhyanams to many rahasya grantas like mumukshupadi, acharya

hrudhayam, etc. Swamy’s literary contribution is limited because during swami’s

time, he had to mainly concentrate in the reconstruction of the temple

activities, which has been lost due to the muslim invasion and another reason

is, his thought that there were enough poorvAcharya granthas and there was no

necessity for him to add more. But swamy did not leave the important areas,

which had to be covered. For instance, the first part of periAzhvar thirumozhi

vyakhyAnam (commentary) of Periya vAchAn pillai was lost and hence the 4000

vyakhyAnam was incomplete. Swamy completed the vyakhyanam from the first

paasuram of periAzhvar thirumozhi and stopped with the paasuram “vAkku

thooymaiyilAmaiyAl” from which Periya vAchAn pillai’s vyakhyAnam was available.

Here we have to see the acharya nishtai of mAmunigal. He could have completed

the vyakhyAnam for the whole periyAzhvar thirumozhi, since only a few more

paasurams were remaining. It is not that he cannot do it. But swamy felt,

“what is the need for me to write when the vyakhyana chakravarthi’s vyakhyanam

is available”. So Mamunigal didn’t even complete the paasuram but stopped with

the verse till which the vyakhyanam has been lost. Such was his acharya nishtai

and hence swamy didn’t write much grantas or slokas but restricted to what was

absolutely necessary and concentrated on establishing the temple procedures (as

given by emperumAnAr “rAmAnujArya divyAgya”) and doing vyakhyAnams to

poorvAcharya grantams and spreading the essence of our sampradaya vishayams to

one and all to lift us all from this world of misery and raise us to the world

from where we will never return back (“na cha punarAvarthathE”).

 

Adiyen in this series of postings will write about mAmunigal’s Arthi prabhandam,

the last prabhandam of Swamy manavala mAmunigal expecting other scholars to

flood our inboxes with excellent postings on the other works of mAmunigal and

also about the divine qualities of that great soul. When one is in distress,

his true colour is absolutely shown. In his Arthi prabhandam swamy shows all

his divine qualities and anubhavams. Let us see how, in the forth coming

postings. Once again adiyen is not capable of writing about the divine

anubhavams of Periya Jeeyer swamy in Arthi prabhandam in full but will deal with

mainly one or two paasurams again limited to my little knowledge.

 

Any errors which adiyen commits may be please pardoned and corrected by the

learned members of this group.

 

(To be continued)

 

Alwar EmperumAnAr jeeyar thiruvadigalE sharaNam

 

Adiyen Ramanuja dasyai

Sumithra Varadarajan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Y! Web Hosting - Let the expert host your web site