Sri Periya Jeeyer's Arthi Prabhandam-2

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Sri Parthasarathi thunai

Srimathe Ramanujaya Namaha

Sri Vara Vara MunayE Namaha

 

SrisailEsa dayA pAthram deebhakthyAdhi gunArnavam

Yateendra pravanam vandhE ramyajAmataram munim

 

Arthi prabhandam is considered to be the charama or last prabhandam of Periya

Jeeyer, Sri manavAla mAmunigal. Prapannas are those who surrender to the lord

and remain with the mahAvishvAsam (atmost belief) that emperuman will take care

of all their needs and grant moksha. Such prapannAs are classified into two:

Truptha prapanna and Artha prapanna.

 

Truptha prapanna is one who has atmost faith that he is going to attain moksha

due to the nirhEduka krupai(grace) of emperuman after shedding this body

(dEhAvasAnE moksham) and waits patiently till that time. But an Artha prapanna

is so eager to attain the divine abode of emperuman that he hurries to attain

the same and hence forces perumal to grant him moksha immediately.

 

Mamunigal remained a truptha prapanna till he sang the other prabhandams and

engaged himself in the various kainkaryams (service to bhagavan/bhagavatas) but

at one time he got vexed with these sAmsAric matters and hence wanted to shed

the body immediately and attain the service to the divine feet of emperumAN in

his divine abode (Srivaikundam). The feelings of mAmunigal at that stage were

expressed in words as “Arthi Prabhandam”.

 

There is a difference between a ordinary prapannan and a srivaishnavan. Sri

manavala mAmunigal was a SriVaishnavan than just a prapannan.

 

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What’s the difference? Both of them surrender to the divine feet of emperuman

to attain moksha and wait for emperuman to shower his grace. But a

Srivaishnavan does not directly surrender. He takes the help of an acharya to

surrender and attain moksha.

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Recommendation is atmost essential in any field even today. One person may be

filled with all qualifications but if for the same interview another person with

equal qualification and a high recommendation comes then the second person is

considered to be more qualified for the job. A person recommended by an acharya

overshoots similarly a bhakthi yogi or a prapanna who surrenders on his own. So

Acharya bhakthi (charamOpAya nistai) is one important essentiality in our

sampradayam.

 

Sri manvAla mAmunigal shows the importance of Acharya nishtai absolutely in all

his prabhandams and especially in this Arthi prabhandam. The greatest quality

of swamy is that he never talked anything without the reference to his acharya.

He did upadEsa ratnamAlai to show the greatness of the alwars and poorvAchAryas.

He says, “AzhvArgal vAzhi arulicheyal vAzhi thAzhvAdhu mil kuravar thAm vAzhi

EzhpArum uyya avargal vuraiththavaigal thAm vAzhi seiya marai thannudanE

Serinthu”. In this paasuram mAmunigal sings pallAndu to the alwars and their

works, the acharyas and their excellent commentaries and their individual works.

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Why should these live long? Alwar and Acharya works should live long since

without them the jeevatmas can never get uplifted.

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But are the Vedas not enough? The Vedas are not easily understandable by all.

So for the upliftment of the masses only a easier text will be handy and hence

mAmunigal says, the alwar and acharyas works should live long along with the

vEdas to uplift one and all and make us all attain the divine feet of emperuman.

Here mAmunigal says, “EzhpArum” that means not only Tamil Nadu were the alwars

and acharyas mostly took birth, not only India, not only jampudveepam where all

the countries known to us are located but all the seven lokAs(worlds as per the

sastras) will be benefited due to the great works of alwars and acharyas.

 

In upadesa ratna malai he talked generally about all the alwars and acharyas,

then he further wanted to show us the greatness of the acharya who alone is

regarded as the jagadAcharya, Sri rAmAnuja. As per the orders of his direct

acharya, Srisaila nAthar,thiruvAimozhi pillai, mAmunigal then did the excellent

prabhandam “yathirAja vimsathi” his strotra in Sanskrit. At that time mAmunigal

got deeply involved with ethirAjar and hence remained with great nishtai towards

the acharya throughout his lifetime and when he started to cry due to Arthi (his

eagerness to shed this body and attain moksha) he did not cry directly to

emperuman but begged the same from the hands of emperumAnAr.

 

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Can emperumAnAr grant moksha? Why didn’t mAmunigal ask the same from his own

acharya, thiruvAimozhi pillai?

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We will see in the next posting.

 

(To be continued)

 

Alwar EmperumAnAr jeeyar thiruvadigalE sharaNam

 

Adiyen Ramanuja dasyai

Sumithra Varadarajan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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