Acharya vaibhavam - 51- Bhagavad Ramanuja- The Crown among jewels- Acharya Rathnam -Sri Bhaashyakaarar- Udayavar- EmperumAnAr- LakshmaNa muni..

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SrI:

SrImathE Gopaladesika mahadesikaya nama:

 

Dearest all,

 

Let us continue to enjoy the acharya paramparai.

 

LakshmI nAtha samArambhAm nATha yaamuna madhyamaam |

asmadhAcharya paryanthAm vandhE GuruparamparAm ||

 

I worship the entire guruparamparaa that starts with

Emperumaan, Sriya: Pathi Sriman Narayanan; which has

SrI NAthamuni (in between) upto my AchArya (Sri

Ramanuja).

 

This thaniyan is composed by Sri KooratthAzhwAn (Sri

Ramanujacharya’s most ardent disciple); This Thaniyan

describes the paramapara of our Acharyas which starts

with Sriman Narayanan. Sri AzhwAn pays his obeisance

to the paramapara upto his Acharya. He does not

mention the name of his Acharya (calling upto my

Acharya - asmadhAchArya paryanthAm .. It fits in so

well for every one of us when we recite this upto my

Acharyan, I pay my obeisance to the Gurupamarapara.

 

KooratthAzhwAn is known for his intellect and

scholarship.

 

Thus the Guru paramparai upto Sri Ramanuja is:

 

Sriman Narayanan

Sri Mahalakshmi

Sri Vishvaksenar

Sri NammAzhwAr

Sri NAthamuni

Sri UyyakkoNdaar (Sri PundareekAkshar)

Sri MaNakkaal nambhi (Sri Ramamisrar)

Sri Alavandhar (Sri Yamunacharya)

Sri Periya Nambhi (Sri MahapoorNar)

Sri RAMANUJACHARYA

 

yO nithya-machyutha-padaam-buja-yugma-rugma

vyaamOhadas dadhi-tha-raaNi thru-Naaya mEnE

asmath-gurOr bhagavathOsya dhayaika-sindhO:

raamaanujasya saraNau saraNam prapadhyE.

 

[After the entire parampara upto Sri Ramanuja,

KooratthAzhwAn composes a special slOka for Sri

Ramanujacharya alone.]

 

I take refuge at the feet of our guru Bhagavaan

Ramanuja, that ocean of mercy who, infatuated with the

gold-like, lotus feet of the Lord, considered all else

as mere blades of grass.

 

ParamAthmani yOrakthO virakthO(S)paramAthmani- Due to

His jnAna, Bhakthi, VairAgyam, Sri Ramanujacharya

considered only the lotus feet of the Lord Sriman

Narayanan as the means and the Goal- for that matter-

everything. Nothing else mattered to him. He is not

interested in others and considers others (material,

sensual pursuits) as thruNam (blade of grass).

 

asmadhguru paramagurUn yathivarapUrNau sayAmunam rAmam

padmAksha nAtha saTajith sEnEcha ramA ramApathIn

vandhE.

 

After Sriman Nathamuni, Sri Pundareekakshar [also

called as Uyyakkondaar], Sri Raamamisrar also called

as maNakkaal nambhi], Yamunamuni or Sri Alavandhaar,

comes Sri MahaapoorNar [Periya Nambhi] in our Acharya

parampara.

 

[from asmadhAcharyan Tamil commenetry on Yathiraaja

Sapthathi – translted into English by Sri CG Balaji

Swamin:]

 

Bhagavad Ramanuja, was born in the year of Pingala,

month of chittirai, shukla panchami (Wednesday) Friday

in the constellation of Thiruvaadirai in 13-04-1017 at

Sriperumbudur in Harita kulam to Aasuri Keshava

Somayaaji and Kantimati (Bhumi piraattiyaar), sister

of Sri Periya Thirumalai Nambi. He

was named as Lakshmana or Ilaya Perumal by his

maternal uncle. Even before 16 years of age, he

attained a profound mastery in all the vedas and the

shastras. At the age of 17, he married a noble maid by

name Thanjamaambaal (Rakshakaambaal). After this he

moved to Kanchipuram wherein he studied the philosophy

of Advaitha Vedanta under one named Yadava prakasha.

 

Having seen Ramanuja’s keen intellect and the

sharpness in his grasping power, Yadava prakasha was

afraid that his matham might not live long in his

presence and so planned to kill Ramanuja on the

pretext of taking him on a pilgrimage to Kashi.

 

Having learnt the designs of the guru, through his

cousin and fellow classmate Govinda, Ramanuja

discontinued his trip to Kashi and came back to

Kanchipuram with the help of the divine couple

(Perarulaala dampathigal).

 

Alavandar, who had come over to Kanchipuram, blessed

Ramanuja with his divine glances and made the

prophetic statement saying, “Let him be the champion

of our sampradaayam” [aam mudhalvan ivan]. Through

Thirukkachchi Nambigal he obtained the six finer

truths of the sampradayam [as seen earlier]

 

He then got performed the sacraments of pancha

samskaaram from Periyanambigal at Madhurantakam and

then pursued the study of Vedantam at Perumal koil at

his (Periyanambigal) feet. Disassociating himself from

samsaric afflictions, he got initiated into the

ascetic order directly from Sri Varadaraja Perumal who

proclaimed him as Yatiraja!

 

Having moved to Srirangam along with disciples like

Kuratthazhwan and others, he was adored by Periya

perumal as num udaiyavar who also gave him the mantle

of the entire temple administration. The

administrative rules and guidelines set up by Udayavar

can be seen being followed in the temple even to this

day.

 

Having approached Thirukkottiyurnambi with firm

determination for almost 14 times, he became his

disciple finally and learnt the esoteric meanings of

the ashtakshara, dvaya and charama shlokam from him.

He then promulgated these truths from the ashtanga

vimanam of that temple to all bhaktas. After having

known the esoteric truths, he displayed his great

sense of compassion for mankind and wished for all the

subjects of the Lord to excel in their spiritual

pursuits.

 

“Through his merciful deeds even we have obtained the

upadesham, is he my master? emperumaanaarO?- exclaimed

Thirukkottiyurnambi. Praising his spirit of service to

mankind, he named Srivaishnava siddhantam as Ramanuja

darshanam. Since that day, he also came to be known as

Emperumaanaar.

 

He then toured the whole of north and obtained the

rare manuscripts of Bodhayana vritti at Kashmir. He

authored delectable works like Brahmasutra bhasyam,

Vedanta saram, Vedanta deepam, Vedartha sangraham and

other great works and fulfilled the dreams of

Alavandar. After having listened to the Brahma sutra

bhasyam of Ramanuja, Goddess Sarasvathi Devi out of

great delight named it as Sri Bhashyam and embellished

Udayavar with the sobriquet Sribhashyakaara and gifted

him with a murthy of Sri Lakshmi Hayagrivar.

 

He performed sharanagati at the divine feet of Periya

perumal and Periya piraatti on a panguni uttiram day

during the sErthi utsavam, by composing and reciting

gadya trayam and showed to the world the ultimate

means to salvation. He authored a work called Nityam

elucidating the ways in which Bhagavad aradhanam has

to be performed daily by all paramaikaantins. He made

his disciple Pillan write a commentary on

Thiruvaimozhi known as Aaraayirappadi and named him as

Thirukkurugaippiraan Pillan and his work as

Bhagavadvishayam.

 

He appointed 74 simhaasanaadhipathigal or crown

bearers of Srivaishnava sampradayam and ordained them

with the duties of propagating the philosophical

system of Vishishtaadvaitha. Emperumaanaar in this way

became the praapyam, the fruit of attainment and

‘praapakam’ the means of attainment of that fruit,

guru and kuladaivam of Sri Vaishnava lokam.

 

Sri Ramanujasya charaNou SaraNam PrapadyE

Regards

Namo narayana

dAsan

 

 

 

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