Thirunakshathram:
ippasi, thirumUlam
avathAra sthalam:
AzhwAr thirunagari
AchAryan: thiruvAimozhi piLLai
Sishyas: ashta dhik gajangaL – ponnadikkAl jIyar,
kOil aNNan, pathangi paravasthu pattarpirAn jIyar, thiruvEnkata jIyar,
eRumbiappA, prathivAdhi bhayankaram aNNan, appiLLai, appiLLAr. nava rathnangaL –
sEnai muthaliAndAn nAyanAr, satagOpa dhAsar (nAlUr siRRAththAn), kanthAdai
pOrERRu nAyan, yEttUr singarAchAryar, kanthAdai aNNappan, kanthAdai thirukkOpurathu
nAyanAr, kanthAdai nAraNappai, kanthAdai thOzhapparappai, kanthAdai azhaiththu
vAzhviththa perumAL. He had many other sishyas from various thiruvamsams,
thirumALigais and dhivya dhEsams.
Place where he
attained paramapadham:
thiruvarangam
Works: prabhandhams: sri dhEvarAja mangaLam,
yathirAja vimsathi, upadhEsa rathina mAlai, thiruvAimozhi nURRanthAdhi, Arthi
prabhandham. vyAkyAnams
for: mumukshupadi, thathva thrayam, srivachana bhUshaNam,
AchArya hrudhayam, periyAzhwAr thirumozhi (for the portion which was missing
from periyavAchAn piLLai’s vyAkyAnam), rAmAnusa nURRanthAdhi. pramANa thirattu (compilation of all
slOkams, sAsthra vAkhyams in a particular gratham) for: eedu
36000 padi, jnAna sAram, pramEya sAram, thathva thrayam, srivachana bhUshaNam.
azhagiya maNavALa perumAL
nAyanAr was born in AzhwAr thirunagari to thigazha kidanthAn thirunAvIrudaya
pirAn and sri ranga nAchiAr as an avathAram of AdhisEshan and a punar avathAram
of anaiththulagum vAzhappiRaNtha yathirAjar (அனைத்துலகும் வாழப்பிறந்த
யதிராஜர்) and is also known by many other
names such as
azhagiya maNavALa mAmunigaL, sundhara jAmAthru muni, ramya jAmAthru muni, ramya
jAmAthru yOgi, varavaramuni, yathIndhra pravaNar, kAnthopayanthA, rAmAnujan
ponnadi, soumya jAmAthru yOgIndhrar, kOil selva maNavALa mAmunigaL, etc. He
also has the titles periya jIyar, veLLai jIyar, visthavAk sikAmaNi, poi illAtha
maNavALa mAmuni, etc.
Brief life history
- Born in AzhwAr
thirunagari by the grace of periya perumAL as an avathAram of AdhisEshan.
mAmunigaL -AzhwAr thirunagari,
with ashta dhik gajangaL under his thiruvadi
- He learns all
the sAmAnya sAsthram and does vEdha adhyayanam under his father’s guidance
in his mother’s place sikkil kidAram. He also gets married in due course.
- Hearing about
thiruvAimozhi piLLai’s vaibhavam, he returns to AzhwAr thirunagari and
surrenders to him. We have already seen this in the previous article.
- His wife gives
birth to a son and he requests thiruvAimozhi piLLai to give a suitable
name. thiruvAimozhi piLLai says rAmAnujan is repeated 108 times (in
rAmAnuja nURRanthAdhi), so that must be the best. Based on that he names
his son “emmaiyan irAmAnusan”.
- After
thiruvAimozhi piLLai attaining paramapadham, he becomes the dharisana
pravarthakar.
- He becomes an
expert in aruLicheyal especially thiuvAimozhi and eedu 36000 padi vyAkyAnam.
He also starts collecting all the supporting pramANams for eedu vyAkyAnam
and documents them.
- Hearing about
his glories, azhagiya varadhar (from vAnamAmalai) becomes the first sishya
of azhagiya maNavALa perumAL nAyanAr and immediately accepts sannyAsAshramam
to render continuous service to his AchAryan. He gets to be named as
vAnamAmalai jIyar (because of his native place) and ponnadikkAl jIyar
(because he becomes the first sishya of nAyanAr and lays the foundation
for many more to follow – pon adikkAl means golden foundation).
- Recollecting his
AchAryan’s niyamanam to go and live in srirangam to propagate our
sampradhAyam, he goes to AzhwAr and takes permission from him to travel to
srirangam.
- On the way to
srirangam, he performs mangaLAsAsanam to srivilliputhur ANdAL rangamannAr
and thirumAlirunchOlai azhagar.
- He reaches
srirangam, performs his nithyakarmAnushtAnam at the banks of cauvery
river. All the srivaishnavas from srirangam comes out to welcome him and
with the purushakAram of the local srivaishnavas he does mangaLAsAsanam to
emperumAnAr, nammAzhwAr, periya pirAttiAr, sEnai mudhaliAr, periya perumAL
and namperumAL with his nAchiArs in order. perumAL welcomes him as
he welcomed emperumAnAr and gives him special prasAdhams and sri satagOpam.
- After that he
visits piLLai lOkAchAryar’s thirumALigai and glorifies piLLai lOkAchAryar
and his younger brother azhagiya maNavALa perumAL nAyanAr for their
contributions for our sampradhAyam.
- He stays in
srirangam for a while and one day namperumAL instructs him to do
nithyavAsam (stay permanently) in srirangam teaching all the in-depth
meanings of our sampradhAyam. He accepts that order happily and thereafter
starts collecting all the granthams which were lost during the muslim
invasion.
- Once, when
ponnadikkAl jIyar complains to him about uththama nambi about his
services, he instructs jIyar to reform him and engage in emperumAn’s
service properly.
- Then he desires
to visit thiruvEnkatam and starts his journey along with ponnadikkAl
jIyar. On the way, he performs mangaLAsAsanam at thirukkOvalUr and
thirkkadigai.
- In thirumalai,
periya kELvi appan jIyar (who was established by emperumAnAr) sees a
svapnam where he says a srivaishnava (gruhasthar) who looks like periya
perumAL lying down and a sannyAsi standing at the lotus feet of the
srivaishnava. In the svapnam he asks the people who are passing by about
them and they say they are “thiruvAimozhi eettu perukkar azhagiya maNavALa
perumAL nAyanAr and his prAna sukruth (life breath/well wisher) and
sishyar ponnadikkAl jIyar”. Waking up he is thinking about the auspicious
svapnam and finds out that they both are arriving to thirumalai shortly.
nAyanAr arrives at thirupathi, worships the thiruvEnkata malai,
gOvindharAjar, narasimhar (at the bottom of the hill) and finally reaches
thirumalai. periya kElvi appan jIyar arranges for a grand welcome to
nAyanAr and ponnadikkAl jIyar and brings them to thiruvEnkatamudaiyAn for
mangaLAsAsanam. thiruvEnkatamudaiyAn being very pleased to see them, gives
them his prasAdhams and sri satagOpam and finally they take leave from
him.
- He arrives at
kAnchipuram and performs mangaLAsAsanam to dhEva perumAL.and dhEva perumAL
proclaims him to be the same as emperumAnAr himself and gives his
prasAdhams and sri satagOpam.
mAmunigaL – kAnchipuram
- He then reaches
sriperumpUdhUr and completely immerses into emperumAnAr’s anubhavam and
performs mangaLAsAsanam.
- He returns back
to kAnchipuram and starts hearing sri bhAshyam from kidAmbi nAyanAr (who
is a descendant of kidAmbi AchAn). When srivaishnavas come to do tharkam
with him on certain matters, he first refuses citing his AchAryan’s orders
on only indulging in bhagavath vishayam but later when convinced by his
well wishers, he takes up the task and gives fitting explanations to the
ones who came for debate and they finally fall at his lotus feet and
praise him very much.
- kidAmbi nAyanAr
being amazed by azhagiya maNavALa perumAL nAyanAr’s intelligence requests
him to show his real svarUpam. Since kidAmbi nAyanAr was in his AchArya
sthAnam teaching sri bhAshyam, azhagiya maNavALa perumAL nAyanAr obliges
and shows him his AdhisEsha svarUpam. kidAmbi nAyanAr becomes very much
ecstatic and then onwards shows great attachment towards him. Finally
after completing the sribhAshyam kAlakshEpam he takes leave and returns to
srirangam.
- Seeing his
return periya perumAL becomes joyful and instructs him to stay in
srirangam without taking up any more yAthrais.
- During that
time, his relatives inform about some Asoucham which interrupts his
kainkaryam. He accepts sannyAsAshramam from a satagOpa jIyar (who is a
sishya of thiruvAimozhi piLLai and studied with him in AzhwAr thirunagari)
and immediately goes to periya perumAL to inform about that. periya
perumAL welcomes him and instructs him to keep the same thirunAmam (due to
the divine reason of him wanting to maintain his future AchAryan’s name)
and gives him pallava rAyan mutt for him to stay and conduct his
kAlakshEpams, etc. Thus azhagiya maNavALa perumAL nAyanAr becomes azhagiya
maNavALa mAmunigaL. All the srivaishnavas under the leadership of uththama
nambi went with him to his mutt and sang “manavALa mAmuniyE innumoru
nURRAndirum” out of joy.
- He instructs his
sishyas under the leadership of ponnadikkAl jIyar to repair the mutt
fully. A beautiful mandapam is built with the sand from piLLai
lOkAchAryar’s thirumALigai and is named thirumalai AzhwAr where he
performs his kAlakshEpam regularly. He spends his day giving lectures on
thiruvAimozhi (eedu) and other prabhandhams, emperumAnAr’s glories and
srivachana bhUshaNa dhivya sAsthram, etc to all his disciples and
abhimAnis.
- His glories
spread everywhere like wild fire and many srivaishnavas come and take
shelter of mAmunigaL. thirmanjanam appA (who is a nithya kainkaryaparar to
periya perumAL), her daughter (AychiyAr) and pattarpirAn jIyar become his
sishyas.
- One swamy from
vaLLuva rAjEndhram (a nearby village) named singaraiyar supplies some
vegetables to mAmunigaL’s mutt and emperumAn being pleased with his action
show in his svapnam that “mAmunigaL is none other than AdhisEshan himself
and he should go and take shelter of mAmunigaL”. So he travels to
srirangam and stays at (kOil) kandhAdai aNNan thirumALigai and shares this
incident with aNNan. aNNan thinking about this and lies down to sleep and
he sees emperumAnAr and mudhaliANdAn in his dream where emperumAnAr says
mAmunigaL is none other than himself. In the dream, mudhaliANdAn instructs
kOil aNNan (and uththama nambi) to surrender to mAmunigaL. After waking
up, kOil aNNan along with his brothers goes to mAmunigaL’s mutt, takes the
purushakAram (recommendation) of ponnadikkAl jIyar and submits himself to
mAmunigaL. mAmunigaL gladly accepts him and performs panchasamskAram to
him.
- Then AychiyAr’s
(thirumanjanam appA’s daughter) son appAchiAraNNa wants to take shelter of
mAmunigaL. mAmunigaL was very happy to hear that but he invites
ponnadikkAl jIyar who he considers as his life breath and well wisher,
offers his own simhAsanam, presents his own thiruvAzhi and thiruchakkaram
and asks him to do panchasamskAram. While ponnadikkAl jIyar first refuses,
he has no other choice than accepting his AchAryan’s thiruvuLLam and
performs pancha samskAram for appAchiAraNNA.
- emmaiyan
irAmAnusan (pUrvAshramam son of mAmunigaL) lives in AzhwAr thirunagari,
gets married and gives birth to two sons – azhagiya maNavALa perumAL nAyanAr
(who becomes to be known as jIyar nAyanAr for his attachment and
kainkaryam to mAmunigaL subsequently) and periyAzhwAr aiyan.
- mAmunigaL
decides to do mangaLAsAsanam to nammAzhwAr and takes permission from
periya perumAL to go there. He reaches AzhwAr thirunagari, performs his
nithya karmAnushtAnams on the banks of the holy thAmirabharaNi river, and
does mangaLAsAsanam to bhavishyadhAchAryan (emperumAnAr), thiruvAimozhi
piLLai and his thiruvArAdhana perumAL inavAyar thalaivan, nammAzhwAr and
polindhu ninRa pirAn.
- When he has a
doubt for one of the chUrNikais in AchArya hrudhayam, he thinks about
thirunArAyaNapurathu Ayi who was a sa-brahmachAri (class-mate) of his
AchAryan thiruvAimozhi piLLai. He starts his journey to meet him, but
right outside AzhwAr thirunagari, he meets Ayi who has travelled all the
way from thirunArAyaNapuram to meet mAmunigaL. Both embrace each other
with joy and glorify each other. While mAmunigaL writes a thanian
glorifying Ayi, Ayi in turn writes a pAsuram which asks if mAmunigaL is
emperumAnAr himself or nammAzhwAr or emperumAn himself. After some time
Ayi returns to thirunArAyaNapuram and mAmunigaL continues his stay in
AzhwAr thirunagari.
- Some people who
were jealous of mAmunigaL’s glories, sets fire to his mutt. But mAmunigaL
takes his snake form and comes out of the mutt and takes his form back and
stands in the middle of the srivaishnavas looking from outside. When the
king decides to punish the miscreants mAmunigaL asks him to forgive them
and looking at his kAruNyam they also take shelter of him. The king of the
region, looking at mAmunigaL’s glories, accepts pancha samskAram from him
and performs many kainkaryams in AzhwAr thirunagari and thirukkurungudi
dhivya dhEsams.
- mAmunigaL
returns to srirangam and continues his kainkaryams there. At that time
eRumbiappA from eRumbi village hears about mAmunigaL and visits him. After
the visit, he leaves without taking the prasAdham of mAmunigaL. After
reaching his village, when he tries to open his emperumAn chakkaravarthi
thirumagan’s sannidhi door, it does not open. emperumAn tells him that he
committed apachAram at the lotus feet of mAmunigaL who is none other
AdhisEshan and instructs him to take shelter of mAmunigaL, perform
kainkaryam to him and accept his prasAdham – only then the door will be
opened. eRumbiappA returns to srirangam and submits himself to mAmunigaL.
He writes a wonderful prabhandham named dhinacharyA which has two parts – pUrva
dhinacharyA (morning activities of mAmunigaL) and uththara dhinacharyA
(evening activities of mAmunigaL).
- jIyar
appreciates kandhAdai nAyan who shows masterful brilliance even at a very
young age.
- appiLLai and
appiLLAr takes shelter of mAmunigaL through the purushakAram of
ponnadikkAl jIyar. eRumbiappA takes leave from mAmunigaL and returns to
his village to propagate mAmunigaL’s glories in his region.
- Once, uththama
nambi who is one of the prominent srivaishnavas was doing thiruvAlavattam
kaikaryam to periya perumAL privately. At that time mAmunigaL enters there
to do his mangaLAsAsanam. uththama nambi asks him to leave quickly and
mAmunigaL accepts his words and left quickly. When nambi becomes tired and
lies down for a while near periya perumAL in his svapnam, periya perumAL
points his fingers to AdhisEshan and tells nambi that mAmunigaL is none
other than AdhisEshan himself. Waking up, he realises his apachAram and
runs to mAmunigaL’s mutt and takes aparAdha kshAmanam and serves him with
love after that.
- A srivaishnavi
named satagOpa koRRi learns aruLicheyal from AychiAr. In the noon time,
when mAmunigaL was resting privately, this ammaiyAr peeks through the key
hole and finds mAmunigaL in his svarUpam (AdhisEshan form). Hearing the
noise mAmunigaL comes out and enquires what she observed. ammaiyAr
explains what she saw and mAmunigaL with a smile asks her to keep that a
secret.
- mAmunigaL then
decides to write commentaries to rahasya granthams. He first writes expert
commentaries to mumukshupadi, thathva thrayam and srivachana bhUshaNam
with many references from vEdham, vEdhAntham, ithihAsam, purANams,
aruLicheyal, etc. Then he writes commentaries to rAmAnuja nURRanthAdhi,
jnAna sAram and pramEya sAram which gives the charama upAya nishtai –
i.e., understanding AchAryan is everything.
- When the
srivaishnavas request him to write something crisp and clear for
thiruvAimozhi, he writes thiruvAimozhi nURRanthAdhi. This is an unparallel
grantham which is written in venpA (a type of poem that is easy to
memorize but difficult to write), with one pAsuram for each padhigam in
thiruvAimozhi where the starting/ending words of the pAsuram matches that
of the padhigam, giving the meanings of the whole padhigam in just 2 lines
and glorifying nammAzhwAr in the remaining 2 lines.
- When the
srivaishnavas ask him to record the valuable teachings of our pUrvAchAryas,
he writes upadhEsa rathina mAlai which gives an account of the birth stars
of AzhwArs, their birth places and glories, emperumAnAr’s apAra kAruNyam,
thiruvAimozhi vyAkyAnams and eedu avathAram/propagation details, avathAram
of piLLai loKAchAryar and his magnum opus srivachana bhUshaNam,
establishes that the essence of thiruvAimozhi is srivachana bhUshaNam and
finally explaining the meanings of the same in detail.
- When some
mAyAvAdhis come for a debate, he refuses to debate with them sticking to
his “no debate” principle, but asks his sishya vEdalappai to debate with
them. vEdalappai does so and easily defeats them. But vEdalappai decides
to leave his native place shortly.
- At this time
prathivadhi bhayankaram aNNA who is an expert scholar from kAnchipuram along
with his wife, is serving in thirumalai because of his attachment towards
thiruvEnkatamudaiyan by doing thirumanjana thIrtha kainkaryam. Once a
srivaishnava from srirangam arrives in thirumalai and meets aNNA during
his kainkaryam and explains the glories of mAmunigaL. Hearing about
mAmunigaL, aNNA becomes very pleased and his desire grows very much to
meet him. But in the process, he forgets to add thIrtha parimaLam
(cardomom/yElakkAi, etc) and offers the thIrtham to the archakar. He later
remembers that and runs to the archakar with the thIrtha parimaLam but
archakar says the thIrtham was smelling more pleasant than ever before.
aNNA understands the glories of just hearing about mAmunigaL making the
thIrtham smell great and travels to srirangam. When he arrives at
mAmunigaL’s mutt, mAmunigaL was explaining “onRum dhEvum” (thiruvAimozhi
4.10) padhigam which establishes emperumAn’s parathvam. mAmunigaL was
fluently referring to all sAsthrArthams and explaining the pAsurams and
aNNA becomes amazed by mAmunigaL’s knowledge and presentation. mAmunigaL
stops at the 3rd pAsuram and says aNNA can hear only when he has
sambandham with AzhwAr (through the OrAN vazhi AchArya paramparai). aNNA
then goes to perform mangaLAsAsanam to periya perumAL. periya perumAL through
his archakar instructs aNNA to surrender to mAmunigaL to get vilakshaNa
sambandham. aNNA through the purushakAram of ponnadikkAl jIyar takes
shelter of mAmunigaL and stays there for some time.
- Again mAmunigaL
goes on a yAthrai to thirumalai. On the way, he performs mangaLAsAsanam to
kachi pEraruLALan and stays in kAnchipuram for some time to reform many
srivaishnavas there. He instructs appAchiAraNNA to stay in kAnchipuram as
his representative. He then proceeds to thirumalai via thirukadigai,
eRumbi, thirupputkuzhi, etc and reaches thirumalai. After performing
mangaLAsAsanam there, he appoints a siriya kELvi appan jIyar to help
periya kELvi appan jIyar (who was appointed by emperumAnAr himself) in his
kainkaryams. On his way back he performs mangaLAsAsanam to thiruevvuL
vijaya rAghavan, thiruvallikkENi vEnkata krishnan and many other
dhivyadhEsams. He arrives at madhurAnthagam and worships the place where
periya nambi performed pancha samskAram to rAmAnujar. He then reaches
thiruvAli thirunagari and enjoys thirumangai AzhwArs and submits of
vadivazhagu pAsuram and performs mangaLAsAsanam to all the emperumAns in
the region. He then reaches thirukkaNNapuram, enjoys the sarvAnga sundhara
(sourirAja) emperumAn and establishes a thirumEni for thirumangai AzhwAr
there. After visiting many other dhivya dhEsams he finally returns to
srirangam and stays there.
- He then
instructs appAchiAraNNA to go to kAnchipuram as instructed before. At that
time aNNA is very sad that he has to leave this wonderful gOshti and looking
at that he orders two small thirumEnis of himself to be made out of his
sombu rAmAnujam that was worshipped by ponndikkAl jIyar. He gives one of
them to ponndikkAl jIyar and another one to aNNA (these thirumEnis of
mAmunigaL can still be seen in vAnamAmalai mutt, vAnamAmalai and
mudhaliAndAn thirumALigai in singa perumAL kOil respectively). He also
gives “ennai thImanam keduthAi” emperumAn from his thiruvArAdhanam to aNNA
(this emperumAn can still be seen in mudhaliAndAn thirumALigai in singa
perumAL kOil).
- mAmunigaL crowns
prathivAdhi bhayankaram aNNA as sribhAshya AchAryar, kandhAdai aNNan and
sudhdha sathvam aNNan as bhagavath vishaya AchAryars. He also instructs
kandhAdai nAyan to write an arumpadham for eedu 36000 padi.
- periya perumAL
starts longing to hear bhagavath vishayam from mAmunigaL without any
interruption and also starts thinking about accepting him as his AchAryan
out of his own desire. Once during pavithrOthrasavam sARRumarai, when
namperumAL goes to thiruppavithrOthsava mandapam and stays there mAmunigaL
enters the mandapam to perform mangaLAsAsanam to him. At that time
namperumAL orders to mAmunigaL in front of all the kainkaryaparars,
AchArya purushas, jIyars, srivaishnavas, etc., to perform kAlakshEpam of
nammAzhwAr’s thiruvAimozhi with eedu 36000 padi vyAkyAnam. He orders this
to continue without any disruption/disturbance until the kAlakshEpam
completes. mAmunigaL being very pleased and thinking with great humility
that emperumAn has chosen him to do this, accepts emperumAn’s order.
- The next day
when he arrives to the periya thirumandapam (outside periya perumAL
sannidhi dvAra pAlakars), namperumAL with his nAchiArs,
thiruvananthAzhwAn, periya thiruvadi, sEnai mudhaliAr, all AzhwArs and
AchAryas is waiting for him to begin the kAlakshEpam series. mAmunigaL
feeling blessed starts the kAlakshEpam of eedu 36000 padi vyAkyAnam with
all the other vyAkyAnams (6000 padi, 9000 padi, 12000 padi and 24000 padi)
and explains the deep meanings from sruthi perspective, sribhAshyam
perspective, sruthprakAsikA perspective sri gIthA bhAshyam perspective,
sri pAncharAthram perspective, sri rAmAyaNam perspective, sri vishNu purANam
perspective, etc. He also explains word by word meanings, inner meanings,
etc. This goes on for close to 10 months and finally they reach the date
of sARRumurai on Ani thirumUlam. Once the sARRumurai is complete,
namperumAL takes the form of a small child named aranganAyakam comes into
the front of the gOshti even when others stop him. Keeping anjali mudhrai,
he starts saying “srisailEsa dhayApAthram” and when asked to say more he
says “dhIbhakthyAdhi guNArNavam” and when requested to say more again he
says “yathIndhra pravaNam vandhE ramya jAmAtharam munim” and runs away.
When the sishyas record the slOkam and bring the child back to the gOshti
he is unable to read anything from the palm leaf and runs away again.
Every one understands that it is none other than namperumAL himself
offering the thanian to his AchAryan. At the same time, emperumAn sends
this thanian to all the dhivya dhEsams – every where this spreads like
wild fire. At that time, a vAzhi thirunAmam is also written by appiLLai by
the orders of the srivaishnavas glorifying mAmunigaL.
- thiruvEnkatamudayAn,
thirumAlirunchOlai azhagar also instructs that this thanian is recited at
the beginning and end of any aruLicheyal anusandhAnam. Other dhivya
dhEsams like bhadhrikAshram also gets emperumAn’s niyamanam to glorify
mAmunigaL.
- mAmunigaL starts
thinking about vada nAttu dhivya dhEsams and his sishyas take up vada
dhEsa yAthrai on his behalf.
- mAmunigaL gives
eRumbiappA his dhivya pAdhugas.
- mAmunigaL gives
aranganagarappan (his thiruvArAdhana perumAL) to ponnadikkAl jIyar and
instructs ponnadikkAl jIyar to go and establish a mutt in vAnamAmalai to
do uninterrupted service to dheivanAyaka perumAL.
- mAmunigaL goes
on a pAndiya nAttu dhivya dhEsa yAthrai once again. On his way, the king
of that region becomes his sishya and performs many dhivya dhEsa
kainkaryams based on his orders.
- When he is
travelling near madhurai he stays under a tamarind tree to take rest and
while leaving he touches the tree and gives mOksham to the tree. He goes
on to perform mangaLAsAsanam in many dhivya dhEsams and finally returns
back to thiruvarangam.
- Through his
sishyas he performs various kainkaryams. He sends a jIyar swamy to go and
serve thirumAlirunchOlai azhagar.
- He writes
vyAkyAnam for periyAzhwAr thirumozhi for the part that was lost.
periyavAchAn piLLai had already written a vyAkyAnam but part of that gets
lost – so writes exactly up to the word where periyavAchAn piLLai’s vyAyAnam
was not there.
- He becomes ill
and still continues to write. When he was writing AchArya hrudhayam
vyAkyAnam with great difficulty, many of his sishyas ask him why he was
doing that. mAmunigaL replies that he is doing it for their sons and
grandsons and generations to come.
- He develops
great desire to give up his thirumEni and go to paramapadham. He writes
Arthi prabhandham crying out to emperumAnAr to accept him and relieve him
of this charama thirumEni. He is simply showing us how to do that, since
he was emperumAnAr himself anyway.
- Finally he ends
his dealings in the leela vibhUthi and decides to return to paramapadham
to do eternal service to emperumAn. He desires to hear all the aruLicheyal
once and all his sishyas arrange for that with great love and dedication.
mAmunigaL becomes so pleased and performs a grand thadhiArAdhanam and asks
for aparAdha kshAmaNam from everyone. Everyone replies that he was
blemishless and no need to ask for any kshAmaNam. He then requests
everyone to ensure that all the kainkaryams for periya perumAL and
namperumAL were done with full love and full focus on them alone.
- He then says
“piLLai thiruvadigaLE sharaNam”, “vAzhi ulagAsiriyan” and “emperumAnAr
thiruvadigaLE sharaNam”. With wide open eyes he desires to see emperumAn and
emperumAn immediately appears in front of him on garudan and carry him
along – thus he ends his leelai in this vibhUthi in the most glorious way.
Seeing this all the srivaishnavas starts crying so much. periya perumAL
feels the void so much and refuses to accept any bhOgam. Finally all the
srivaishnavas console themselves and each other and start the final
kainkaryams. The thiruvadhyayana mahOthsavam was celebrated in the most
grandeur way – even grander than periya perumAL’s brahmOthsavam based on
periya perumAL’s orders.
- ponnadikkAl
jIyar returns from his vada nAttu dhivya dhEsa yAthrai and also completes
all the charama kainkaryams of mAmunigaL.
mAmunigaL’s instructions (jnAna/anushtAna pUrthi)
- Once two
srivaishnavas are having some misunderstanding with each other. At that
time when two dogs are fighting in the street in the presence of those two
srivaishnavas – he looks at the dogs and asks the dogs “Have you also
learnt srivachana bhUshaNam, etc like these two srivaishnavas to have so
much ahankAram?”. Immediately they realize their mistake and become pure
after that.
- When some one
from vada dhEsam submits some wealth and when he understands that the
wealth was not properly earned, he immediately sends that out. He shows no
interest in material wealth, etc. Even when it comes to kainkaryam he
ensures that he get money/material that are connected to srivaishnavas
only.
- Once when an old
lady comes to his mutt and requests him to stay there for the night.
He insists to her that she cant stay in the mutt – he says “even an old
squirrel can climb a tree” meaning even when an old lady stays in the
mutt, some one may find a fault in mAmunigaL’s vairAgyam. So completely
avoids anything which could cause doubt in anyone’s mind.
- Once when a
srivaishnava ammaiyAr is helping in cutting vegetables, etc., she is not
doing it with proper bhakthi bhAvam – so mAmunigaL asks her to stay away
for 6 months as punishment as he wants the kainkarayaparars to be 100%
staying in bhagavath/bhAgavatha nishtai.
- Once when one
srivaishnava named “varam tharum piLLai” comes to mAmunigaL alone, he says
srivaishnavas should never go to emperumAn or AchAryan alone and we should
always go with other srivaishnavas.
- He reveals many
times the cruel nature of doing bhAgavatha apachAram and always ensures
srivaishnavas develop mutual respect for each other.
- When one bhattar
(archakar) in the temple complains to mAmunigaL that his sishyas are not
respecting him properly, he insists that they should always offer proper
respect to him thinking that perumAL and pirAtti are present in him
always.
- When one wealthy
srivaishnava from vada nAttu dhivya dhEsam comes and asks him about
srivaishnava lakshaNam, mAmunigaL gives him a detailed explanation as
follows. For a real srivaishnava:
- It is not
sufficient to just to go and take shelter of emperumAn.
- it is not
sufficient to just accept sambhandham of emperumAn thru shanka/chakra
lAnchanam.
- It is not
sufficient to just do thiruvArAdhanam to emperumAn.
- It is not
sufficient to just be parathanthran (completely subservient) to ones own
AchAryan.
- It is not
sufficent to just do kainkaryams to bhAgavathas.
- We should have
all of these but beyond these we need:
- to do the
kainkaryams which are pleasing to emperumAn and what is needed at that
specific time.
- to keep ones
home open for srivaishnavas to enter and do whatever they want and
whenever they want
- to keep
oneselves as said by periyAzhwAr “en thammai viRkavum peruvArgaLE” (we
should keep ourselves so that srivaishnavas can even sell us to others).
- Once we delveop
our bhAgavatha sEshathavam then we will easily learn all the sampradhAya
arthams by the grace of emperumAn and AzhwAr/AchAryas. For a srivaishnava
who is in this nishtai – there is no necessity for them to learn anything
specifically/explicitly because they are already following that charama
nishtai.
- If we try to
preach anything that we are not following it will be completely useless.
It is compared to be like a prostitute preaching others how to be pure in
their conduct.
- There is no
greater service than worshipping srivaishnavas and there is no greater
fault than doing apachArams to srivaishnavas.
Hearing these instructions
that srivaishnava become very much devoted to mAmunigaL and was constantly
thinking about him and worshipping him even after returning to his native
place.
mAmunigaL’s unique position in our sampradhAyam
It is easy to speak about and
summarize any AchArya’s vaibhavam but mAmunigaL’s vaibhavam is unlimited. Even
he himself with his thousand tongues (as AdhisEshan) cannot speak his glories,
so how can we do that to our full satisfaction. We just have to satisfy
ourselves saying that some how we benefited immensely by speaking (and reading)
about him today.
- He was accepted
by periya perumAL as his own AchAryan and completes the AchArya rathna
hAram and the OrAN vazhi guru paramparai.
- periya perumAL
being his sishya, offers his own sEsha paryankam to mAmunigaL which we can
observe even today – except mAmunigaL no other AzhwAr/AchAryan has sEsha
paryankam/pItam.
- periya perumAL
being his AchAryan, composes a thanian, offers it to mAmunigaL and
instructs that this thanian should be chanted in the beginning and ending
of any aruLicheyal gOshti in any place – temples, mutts, thirumALigais,
etc.
- In AzhwAr
thirunagari, during ippasi thirumUlam (mAmunigaL’s thirunakshathram),
AzhwAr, after his thirumanjanam, sends all his own pallakku, kudai,
chAmaram, vAdhyam, etc to mAmunigaL’s sannidhi to bring him over. Only
mAmunigaL’s arrival, he adorns the thirumaNN kAppu and gives the prasAdham
to mAmunigaL.
- mAmunigaL is the
only AchAryan from our pUrvAchAryas whose thiruvadhyayanam is celebrated.
Usually thiruvadhyayanam is celebrated by sishyas and sons. In this case,
sri ranganAthan is the living sishya of mAmunigaL who celebrates his
AchAryan’s thIrtham in a grand manner even today. He sends his own
archakas, parichArakas, paraphernelia (all his vattil, kudai, chAnaram,
etc), etc for the mahOthsavam. For detailed information in this
mahOthsavam please view http://www.kArimAran.com/thiruadhyayanam.html.
- mAmunigaL was so
focussed on not having any glories/celebrations for himself – both in
srirangam and AzhwAr thirunagari, he insisted that his archA thirumEnis
should be very small and not have any purappAdu, etc., since the focus is
on namperumAL and AzhwAr respectively. That is why we see him in very
small and beautiful thirumEnis in both these dhivyadhEsams.
- mAmunigaL was so
polite and humble that he would not write ill of any one. Even when there
are seemingly contradictory words/meanings in pUrvAchArya vyAkyAnams –
mAmunigaL will never harp on it and find fault in one side or the other.
- mAmunigaL
focussed on aruLicheyal and explained vEdhAntham through aruLicheyal
pAsurams. Without his advent it is said that thiruvAimozhi and its
meanings would have become like tamarind soaked in a river i.e., it would
have completely vanished.
- mAmunigaL
collected all the available granthams and wrote them personally and
preserved them so many generations later we can still get them.
- He had apAra
kAruNyam even to the ones who troubled/insulted him, he would never show
any anger. He would always respect them and treat them nicely.
- It is said that
when we are ready to hold his thiruvadis on our head, amAnavan (the one
who helps us cross virajai river) is guaranteed to hold our hand and
relieve us from this samsAram.
- His dedication
towards emperumAnAr was unparallel and he showed us how to worship
emperumAnAr by practically demonstrating that himself.
- His life was an
example for the writings of our pUrvAchAryas on how a srivaishnava should
conduct himselves. This was discussed in detail in adiyen’s ebook named
srivaishnava lakshaNam. Click here to see this series of articles and ebook
– http://ponnadi.blogspot.in/p/srivaishnava-lakshanam.html.
mAmunigaL’s thanian
srisailEsa dhayA pAthram
dIbhakthyAdhi guNArNavam
yathIndhra pravaNam vandhE ramya jAmAtharam munim
Simple translation: I (sri
ranganAthan) worship maNavALa mAmunigaL who is the target of thiruvAimozhi
piLLai’s dhayai, who is an ocean of jnAnam, bhakthi, vairAgyam, etc and who has
great attachment towards emperumAnAr.
With this we have completed
the OrAN vazhi AchArya paramparai. It is said that we should end everything in
a sweet manner. That is why our OrAN vazhi paramparai also ends with mAmunigaL
and his charithram are sweeter than anything else in both the worlds (nithya
vibhUthi and leelA vibhUthi).
mAmunigaL’s thirunakshathra mahOthsavam is
celebrated in a grand manner in many dhivyadhEsams like AzhwAr
thirunagari, srirangam, kAnchipuram, srivilliputhUr, thiruvahidhrapuram,
vAnamAmalai, thirunAryaNapuram, etc. We can all participate and have ourselves purified
by being present infront of our AchAryan who was the beloved AchAryan of sri
ranganAthan himself. |
|