Gaganagiri Muni Guru ParamparA prabhAvam-50 (Twenty fourth Jeeyer concl.)

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Sri Parthasarathi thunai

 

Srimathe Ramanujaya Namaha

 

Sri Vara Vara MunayE Namaha

 

Sri VanAchala mahA munayE Namaha

 

 

 

SrisailEsa dayA pAthram deebhakthyAdhi gunArnavam

 

Yateendra pravanam vandhE ramya jAmataram munim

 

 

 

RamyajAmatru yOgeendra pAdha rEkhA mayam sadhA

 

thathAyaththAthma sadhdhAthim rAmAnuja munim bhajE

 

 

 

HH Sri Vanamamalai Chinna pattarbiran ramanuja Jeeyer 1896-1905 (Twenty-fourth

pattam)

 

 

 

Swamy's kainkaryams (contd.)

 

 

 

Further swamy came to know about the depleted state of the vimana stoopi of

Swamy Nammazhvar in Azhvar thirunagari. Immediately swamy gave the required

wealth to reconstruct the same and instructed to do the same with gold plating

in order to add beauty and also for it to be strong forever. During the

pradhistai mahOtsavam swamy arranged for a grand dhadheeyArAdhanai for about

16000 devotees who assembled for the grand function.

 

 

 

Then in vanamamalai the divine vigraha of Sri Sadagopan in the form of divine

feet was in a bad state and hence swamy replenished the same with gold plating

and installed (pradishtai) the same according to the sastra procedures. Grand

dhadheeyArAdhanam was arranged for the devotees before the day of installation

and since that grand day happened to be an EkAdasi day swamy arranged for

special offering, " moodanei peidhu muzhangai vazhi vArum " one kOttai (a measure)

sheerAnnam (a sweet offering made of rice boiled in milk) for deivanAyaka

perumal. Then that prasadam was distributed to all the devotees making everyone

happy and swamy enjoy the occassion ( " Andhanaiyum kaikAtti " ).

 

 

 

One year swamy decided to observe his chAtturmAsa vritham at a place called

'gajendra varada kshEtram' which was under the control of the mutt located in

the banks of the thAmparabharani river celebrated in the puranas famously called

as 'aththAzhanallur' (aththiyAlanallur) and went there along with a number of

devotees. During swamy's stay over there daily kalashepam and daily

dhadheeyarAdhanam was done as in vanamamalai in a very grand way.

 

 

 

A special feature of swamy's reign is that he never changed responsible and

experienced devotees in both vaidhika kainkaryam and lowkika nirvAham

frequently; instead swamy maintained an excellent rapport with them in a very

intelligent way. In this way swamy continued his kainkaryams at the temple and

mutt in a very proper manner and for further development purchased land in

vanamamalai for about Rs.2 lakhs.

 

 

 

Swamy did 2 big gold kudams (pot shaped vessels) for deivanayakan and 9 golden

kalasams. Further swamy made sanganidhi, padhumanidhi and a big silver kopparai

for deivanayaka perumal. A beautiful glass sapparam (something similar to a

chariot but without wheels), glass swing was made to deivanayakan and swamy

enjoyed seeing deivanayakan on top of them along with the happy devotees.

 

 

 

Swamy gradually started realizing that his health was deteriorating. Finally

swamy wanted to build a sannadhi to thiruvenkadamudaiyan in the western side of

settruthAmarai. Immediately he called for engineers and made them built a

sannadhi along with a maha mandapam to accomodate hundreds of devotees without

any difficulty, an artha mandapam and a mani mandapam. Swamy also ordered to

build a big spacious kitchen (thirumadaipalli) in order to cook a grand offering

to perumal at a time (periya thirupavadai thaligai). Swamy also built a small

mutt in order for future swamy's to stay in solace if they wished to mediate in

peace for some time. Around the sannadhi swamy arranged for a beautiful garden

with all sorts of trees that yielded profitable results like coconut, banana,

mango, jackfruit etc and very near to the sannadhi plants and trees that yielded

sweet smelling beautiful flowers like senbhagam, pAdhiri, punnai, kurukaththi,

eruvAtchi, mallikai, jAdhi, mullai etc and in small ponds placed lotus,

sezhunkazhuneer, Ambal, neidhal and other water plants that yielded flowers.

Swamy then arranged for a grand samprokshanam to the new temple. All the

scholars who took part in the grand function where honored accordingly and a

grand dhadheeyArAdhanam was arranged for everyone's pleasure.

 

 

 

Further swamy arranged for deivanayakan to visit that sannadhi during some

occasions like vijayadasami, chaitrOtsava vidAyarththi and undergo mandagapadi

(offering at a resting place during perumal's purappadu) and ghosti.

 

 

 

In this way, swamy stayed in the peedam for 9 years and in a very special way

took care of all the usual kainkaryams and did many special costly kainkaryams.

 

Slowly swamy's health became worse and swamy started to think about the right

person to take charge next. Swamy selected one of his very close and capable

disciples, one who was like azhvan, aandan and embar to emperumAnAr, to swamy

and filled with jnanam, vairakhyam and all divine qualities. Swamy called that

mahAnubhAvar (great personality) and adorned him to the pattam (peedam) on mAsi

krishnapaksha dwadasi day, the theertha nAl of Swamy Manavala mAmunikal.

According to the sastras swamy blessed the new jeeyer with sanyasa and named him

" kaliyan rAmAnujan " and then wanting to continue his kainkaryam in the nithya

vibhuthi mediating on the divine feet of his acharya, Sri pattarbiran swamy

attained his acharya's feet on mAsi krishna chaturdasi.

 

 

 

Swamy's charamAnusandhAnam

 

 

 

" AptE krOdhisamAhvayE sanidhinE pakshE valarshatharE kumbam yAthi dhivAkarE

manuthithow thArE sravishtAhvayE I

 

vEdAntadvaya pAragO gunanidhi: SrivishnuchittAbhidha: svAchAryasya padhAravinda

magamad vAnAdriyOgeeshvara: II "

 

 

 

Alwar EmperumAnAr Jeeyar thiruvadigalE sharaNam

 

Jeeyer thiruvadigalE sharaNam

 

 

 

Adiyen Ramanuja dAsee,

 

Sumithra Varadarajan