Iraamaanusa nooRRanthAthi- 43rd verse- Raamaanujaa! Raamaanujaa! Raamaanujaa! how sweet is the name!

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SrI:

SrImathE Ramanujaya namah:

 

Dearest all,

 

Even if one does not have an opportunity or is not

fortunate to hear the upadesam of Ramanuja, no

worries; Simply utter the name RAMANUJA and that

itself would grant you all fruits.

 

surakkum thiruvum uNarvum cholappukil vaayamutham

parakkum iruvinai paRRaRa vOtum patiyiluLLeer

uraikkin Rananumak kiyaanaRaNY cheeRum uRukaliyaith

thurakkum perumai iraamaa NnuchanenRu cholluminE. 43

Oh People! Bhagyasaalis, (Lucky ones) who are blessed

with the avataaram of Emperumaanaar Sri

Ramanujacharya! I, (who has surely realized this now)

am telling this to you who have not yet realized yet:

Emperumaanaar chased away the strong Kali purushan's

influence on the world destroying all kali dharmam and

virtues. (Kaliyum kedum; KaNdu koNmin says

NammAzhwAr). By the simple utterance of the divine

name of this AchArya, bhakti and jnAnam will

automatically grow; Just by a mere telling of his

name, will intensify the sweetness in your mouth

leaving an excellent taste in your mouth. Also, all

irremovable sins and sorrows of samsaaric afflictions

will run away showing their backs to us, in addition

to all these anubhavams.

Padiyil uLLeer! Oh worldly people! Those who are on

this earth!

Umakku yaan- to you- I;

aRam serum urukaliyai thurakkum perumai urakkinRanan-

Telling the way to chase the Kali purushan’s influence

[that antagonizes and agonizes the dharma devathai];

[what is that?]

Iraamanusan enRu solluminE- Utter Iraamaanusan’s

divine name

Solapuhil- The moment you attempt to utter that;

Thiru vum surakkum- it will be a fountain head of

Auspiciousness

uNarvum surakkum- Fountainhead of jnAnam;

vaayamudham parakkum- just utterance would linger a

sweet taste in your mouth;

iruvinai paRRaRa Odum- the karmic diseases would

simply fly off [from you] all paapams would get

crushed and extinguished.

 

Raamaanusa naamam is grander and better even Raama

naamam. Rama nama burns some paapams and enablses you

to perform further bhakti yoga which would crush all

paapams completely and leads you to mOksham. But

Ramanuja naama, unlike Raama nama, without letting us

do any other effort; by burning all paapams

completely; grants everything in this world, grants us

right jnAnam, enables us surrender to the lotus feet

of Acharyan and takes us straight on Supreme

expressway to Srivaikunta. Means: Uttering His

Thirunaamam alone would please this Acharya

saarvabhouman and He would bless us with His merciful

glance and perform Acharya nishtai for us.

 

Solapuhil means- uttering His divine name again and

again; It will also mean- once uttered – it would

yield.

 

In Sri VaishNava sampradhAyam , AchAryan is recognized

as the avathAra visesham of Sriman NaarAyaNan.

Therefore , one worships one's AchAryan as not

different form EmperumAn . Such AchArya abhimAna

nishtaaLs appreciate deeply Madhura Kavi's sincere

declaration , " dhEvu maRRaRiyEn " .

 

AmudhanAr declares thus only in this respect:

" surakkum Thiruvum

uNarvum solappuhil vaayamudham parakkum iruvinai

paRraRavOdum patiyiluLLIr ! uraikkinranan numakkiyAn

aRancheeRum uRu kalyai thurakkum perumai RAAMAANUSAN

YENRU SOLLUMINE "

 

[heard from Sri Velukkudi Krishnan Swami’s discourse]-

extracted from Narayankv’s write up] Swamy Pillai

Lokam Jeeyar explains this as follows :-

 

" Sollpugil Vaayamudham parakkum, iruvainai

patraravodum.. "

 

Which means, recite the Iraamaanusa thirunaamam which

will give immense happiness or sukham. Here swamy says

when we recite the Iraamaanusa Thirunaamam, it gives

divine nectar that gives us joy.This is similar to

Swamy Madurakavi Aazhwaar's Kanninun Sirudhaambu where

swamy says :-

 

" Nanni then kurugoor nambi ennakkaal, annikkum

amudhoorum en naavukke.. " which means- When adiyen

take the name of " then Kurugoor Nambi " (Nammaazhwaar),

adiyen tastes divine nectar on the

tongue.

 

Initially when we keep saying just on our tongue, in

course of time the " iraamaanusa Thirunaamam " will

capture our minds automatically and we will at one

point of time get so immersed in that thirunaamam that

thereafter, whenever we recite, we will feel a divine

experience within ourselves and also we will also

start experiencing the same feelings of Swamy

Thiruvarangathamudanaar or Swamy Madurakavi aazhwar.

We do not even need to know the meaning of the

thirunaamam.

 

Emperumaan is considered to be a divine nectar by our

azhwaars. Emperumaan in his Koormaavathaaram helped

devaas to get amudham from the Thiruppaarkadal. Who

gave the amudham there ? Emeperumaan - who himself is

another " amudham " . Hence source of " amudham " is only

" amudham " and not anything else. The taste of nectar

can be obtained only from nectar itself. The

Iraamaanusa Naamam is a divine nectar. Who gave this

" Parapanna Gaayathri " which has the Raamaanusa

Thirunaamam ? Amudanaar. Hence the thirunaamam itself

is a " divine nectar " which has its source from the

" nectar " itself which in this case is " Amudanaar " -

after all Swamy's name itself has " amudam " in it!

 

Also, Emperumaanaar himself can be considered as

amudham as amudanaar says in 43rd paasuram as

mentioned above. Hence his words are also amudham

which are nothing but the 9 works with full of divine

nectar that he gave us . Those works are called the

" navarathnams " . Moreover emperumaanaar thirunaamam

itself is an amudham which came from another amudham

who is Amudanaar. Emperuman is amrutham who gave us an

amrutham in the form of " Emperumaanaar " , Emeprumaanaar

is an amrutham and hence he gave us nine rathnaas

which has amrutham in it. Amudanaar is an amrutham who

gave us the gift of " Iraamaanua Nootrandhaadhi " as an

amrutham which has 108 Iraamaanusa Thirunaamam in it.

 

Thus we do not have to worry if we chant Iraamaanusa

Nootrandhaadhi - it will give us both Drishta and

Adhrishta Phalam.

 

Here Swamy Pillai Lokam Jeeyar quotes an incident from

Raamaayanam :-

 

Once emperumaan Sri Raaman along with Lakshmanan went

to take bath in a river very early in the morning. It

was shivering

cold in the water when they were taking bath. At that

time Lakshmana says " Oh.. Raamaa!!, we have come

during later hours of the sunrise but still we are

experiencing shivering cold. Think of Bharatha who use

to go to Sarayu River at the early morning hours (say

around 2:00 AM ) to take bath and do his morning

duties. " After hearing thus Raamaa feels so sad that

he immediately tells Lakshmana " Let us now leave all

our vratham and immediately go to Bharatha as I cannot

bear to think of Bharatha who is struggling like this

in this cold weather. " Immediately Lakshmana is

worried that Raama should not break his Vratham and

consoles Raamaa thus:-

 

" Rama, if we go back now we are going to see the same

Kaikeyi. It is so unfortunate that Bharatha is her

son! " Hearing this Raamaa says, " Laskhmana, why are

you talking about her now? Why do you not talk about

Bharatha for some more time as it gives me immense

pleasure when I hear his name who is the king of

Ikshwaku vamsa. " Here Rama considers Bharatha as the

King of Ikshwahu vamsam and himself as a daasan to

Bharata. Not only here but even when He conversing

with Vaali and Sugreeva, Rama says that Bharatha is

His master and He is Bharatha's dasan and that

whenever He thinks of Bharatha, He experiences an

immense pleasure like that coming from Amrutham.

 

What connection does this incident have with our

context? When Bharatha was felt as Amrutham to Sri

Raamaa, although Bharatha was a younger brother of

Raama, who can be called as " Ramanuja " even though his

actual name is Bharatha, our emperumaanaar is also

" Raamaanujaa " who makes us feel it is Amrutham when we

chant his thirunaamam. There Bharatha is just called

as " Raamaanuja " although his name was not that.

 

Here our emperumaanaar's name IS Raamaanujaa and he is

Raaamaanuja himself. Hence when we recite Raamaanuja

Thirunaamam we can experience Amrutham flowing on our

tongue as felt by Raamaa while talking and hearing

about Bharatha. By this we can experience Drishta

Phalam which in this case is the feeling of Amrutham

flowing in our tongue.

 

According to Nammperumaal, who ever has Raamaanuja

ThiruvaDi Sambandham will get moksha. Anyone who has

performed Saranagathi to this Acharya Saaravabhouman

will be granted mOksha as Ramanauja has placed his

Saranagathar's soul at the Lotus Feet of the Lord in

the form of Acharya nishtai.

 

Hence emperumaanaar is considered as " mOksha hEthu "

meaning - " responsible or reason for mOksha " . Now

Swamy Pillai Lokam Jeeyar differentiates between

Bharatha and Raamaanuja thirunaamam. When Rama uttered

Bharatha's name it gave Raamaa an immense happiness

which is a Drishta Phalam.

 

But here when we recite Raamaanuja Thirunaamam we get

both Drishta Phalam and adrishta phalam. Because as

emperumaanaar himself is responsible to give us

moksham, he can give us even the Adhrishta Phalam

which is Sri Vaikunta Praapathi which is Nithya

Kainkaryam at emperumaan's feet at Sri Vaikuntam.

 

Iraamaanusa Nootrandhaadhi " is considered equivalent

to

the Gaayahtri Mantram which in turn is the essence of

all the Vedaas and which is emperumaan Himself. But it

is very very difficult to get both the drishta phalam

and adhrishta phalam by chanting Gayathri manthram.

One might get the Drishta Phalam alone by chanting

this manthram but Iraamaanusa Nootrandhaadhi which is

Iraamaanusa Thirunaamam wil give both the Drishta and

Adhrishta Phalam even when recited once on our tongue

without having to chant the from the bottom of our

hearts.

 

The Gaayahtri Mantram is the essence of all the Vedaas

and its essence is " Iraamaanusa Noorthrandadi " which

is also known as " Prapanna Gayathri " . Since a Prapanna

is the one who has totally surrendered to Emperumaan,

it is more apt to recite " Prapanna Gaayathri " rather

than chanting the Gayathri Manthram. [as heard from

Sri Velukkudi Krishnan Swami upanyasam- translated by

SRi Narayanankv- thanks to SrI Narayanan Swamin]

 

Hence we do not need to worry about anything when we

have Raamaanuja Sambandham by chanting Raamaanuja

Thirunaamam.

 

Swamy embaar says with all pride " Illai enakkedhir

Illai enakkedhir Illai Enakkedhire.. " when praising

emperumaanaar. This means " when adiyen has the entire

thirumeni of rAmAnuja in adiyen's mind, no

one can be against me...

 

EmperumAnAr ThiruvadigaLE SaraNam

Regards

Namo Narayana

dAsan