Greatness of udaiyavar as revealed by ponnachiyar!

[Guest guest]

Sri Parthasarathi thunai

Srimathe Ramanujaya Namaha

Sri Vara Vara MunayE Namaha

 

Adiyen was just going through the great book “charamOpAya Nirnayam” authored by

nayanArAchAn pillai, son of the great acharya, parmakArunikar Sri PeriyavAchan

pillai. The book is simply superb and is absolutely necessary for each and

every ramanuja adiyar to possess and cherish this valuable possession. Adiyen

is now going to present just a small portion of this masterpiece that really

pierced into even a hardhearted person like adiyen. This book actually tells us

the upayaupEyathvam of swamy EmperumAnAr as shown through various incidents in

the life of our poorvAcharyas. Swamy emperumAnAr is considered as the only

uthAraka Acharya (one who uplifts the masses) by even the acharyas who preceded

him. Swamy Nammazhvar himself showed this rahasyam through his “poliga poliga”

paasuram and also expressed the same to nathamunigal before handing over the

bhavishyadhAcharya vigraham. The whole book is so interesting that we are

unable to place the book down before really completing it.

What a great pradhipaththi, madurakavibhavam (“devumattrareyEn”) did our

acharyas possess? Really amazing! No words can really explain the deep acharya

bhakthi that each one of them possessed.

 

Once ananthAzhvan, echchAn, thondanoor nambi and marudhoor nambi who have

surrendered to the divine feet of arulAlaperumal EmperumAnAr (as per the order

of Swamy EmperumAnAr) prostrated udayavar and asked, “Does this athma have a

single acharya or does it have many?” Swamy replied, “Go and ask ponnachiyar”.

They went to ponnachiyar and told her, “EmperumAnAr asked us to ask you this

query of ours. Does the athma have a single acharya or many? Please clarify our

doubt”. Immediately ponnachiyar shuffled her loose hair and tied it together

and made it into a hairball and uttered, “Adiyen cannot confirm the answer to

this question. Will a weak person like me know such a great thing? EmperumAnAr

himself has to answer this question?” And then she picked up the saffron twine

on the floor and knotted it around her hair and went inside.

 

They all returned with disappointment back to udayavar’s place and prostrated

swamy who enquired them about the reply they obtained. Immediately they told

him that she said that she doesn’t know the answer and that only emperumanar can

clear the doubt. Swamy asked, “what did she do while you were there?” They

told him about ponnachiyar’s act of shuffling her hair and then tying it with

the saffron twine and then going inside. Swamy was highly pleased and he said,

“So she hasn’t sent you without the answer. She has answered your query with

her action but you were unable to understand.” Surprised to hear the same they

all requested swamy to explain in detail to them.

 

Swamy udaiyavar explained as follows:

 

“ She shuffled her hair to show that while thinking about the acharya to this

Athma in different angles we assume that there are many acharyas. Then she tied

them all together thereby indicating that but the actual fact is that there is

only one acharya who uplifts the Athma and shows the correct path (the divine

abode). By picking the saffron twine from the ground, she indicated the special

acharya who is capable of uplifting all, the one who has accepted the sanyAsa

ashrama and thereby adorns kAsAyam, thereby indicating to my own self. Then she

placed it on her head indicating that EmperumAnAr is the head of all acharyas.

Then she went inside indicating that she has placed such an acharya deeply

inside her heart (“pEni konarindhu pughudhavaiththukkondEn pirithindri”) In this

way she has showed the way ramanuja adiyars have to place swamy inside their

hearts and cherish the divine experience.” In this way swamy expressed his

greatness as an acharya through ponnachiyar.

 

Alwar EmperumAnAr Jeeyer thiruvadigalE sharanam

Adiyen rAmAnuja dAsee

Sumithra Varadarajan

 

 

 

 

 

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