THIRUVALLIKENI KANDENE   

  BRINDARANYA NIVASAYA BALARAMANUJAYACHA RUKMINI PRANANADHAYA PARTHASOODHAYA MANGALAM

                      THIS SITE IS SUBMITTED TO THE HOLY FEET OF SHREE PARTHASARATHI EMPERUMAN

                                                                             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 muni

                                                          RamyajAmatru yOgeendra pAdha rEkhA mayam sadhA

                                                          thathAyath thAthma sadhdhAthim rAmAnuja munim bhajE

        Sri:pathi, Sri VaikundanikEtanan, aVapthasamasthakAman, Sriman Narayanan, the bhagavan who enjoys all the comforts in his divine abode, Sri Vaikundam along with his divine consorts Sri, bhoo and nElA devis and with all the nithya sooris, viz., garuda, vishvaksEna, anantha and others, inspite of all these celebrations, like a father who is in the thoughts of his son, away in a foreign country, while celebrating some festival at home with his other sons,  emperuman also was immersed in the thoughts of the jeevatmas which were unable to enjoy him like the nithya sooris(“vaikundethu parE lOkE sriyAsArtham jagathpathim! AstE Vishnu rachintyAtma bhakthair bhAgavathair saha!!”).

 Emperuman’s kainkaryam at all times, at all places and at all conditions is a right to all jeevatmas.  But seeing the sad state of the jeevatmas which lack this kainkaryam and those which do not even realize that they are lacking such enjoyment, emperuman’s dayai(mercy) fell on such jeevatmas.  Hence he lost interest in all the enjoyments in the nithya mandalam and felt lonely(“sa AkAki na ramathE”). So he gave the jeevatmas which were dormant the karna kalEbharams(activeness).  Emperuman gave life to those jeevatmas, which lay like birds without wings to enjoy his kainkaryam.  But unfortunately, these jeevatmas like cutting a cow with a knife given to cut sacrad grass (samith) or like pricking the eyes with a stick given to remove the weeds started using the life given by perumal for enjoying lowkikam.  Perumal gave them the boat to come ashore but the jeevatmas used the same boat to submerge themselves.  As per alwars words, “Akkaiyin vazhi vuzhandru” the jeevatmas acted as per the instructions of their sense organs and hence fell again and again in the cycle of life and death(mAri mAri pala pirappum pirandhu).

 To help the jeevatmas out of this cycle, emperuman gave the sAstras (“sAshanAth sAstram”).  The jeevas never cared about the sastras but remained indifferent as per the following verses:

 “IswarOham aham bhOgi siddhOham bhalavAn sukhee

  AtyObhi janavAnasmi kOnyOsthi sadrushO mayA”

“ yOnyatha sandham AthmAnam anyatha pradhipathyathE

   kimthEna na krutham papam chOrEna AthmA pahArina”

 A king who wants peace and not war first sends his messengar to the enemies court but if the enemy doesn’t accept peace then the king has no other go than to go for the war himself.  Similarly emperuman sent the sastras as his messengar but the jeevatmas disregarded the same so emperuman now decided to come to the leela vibhuti himself taking various avatars inorder to change the jeevatmas.  But then this again gave little fruit.  The only result was the difficulties emperuman underwent (manisarkkAi padAdhana pattu).  The jeevas remained with ahankara and mamakara and preferred to go to naraka like ravana and duriyOdhana even when emperuman appeared in front of them and showed his powers and wanted to grant them moksha.

 Even after so much insult from the jeevatmas emperuman, the kind father couldn’t leave his sons to suffer.  So like catching a animal with another trained animal he decided to send the alwars who were none other than the nithya sooris- srivatsa, kowsthuba, vaijayanthi, vanamalai, sri, bhoomi, neela, Sri Panchajanyam, ananda, garuda, and vishvaksenar.  Emperuman ordered them to be born in different places in different varnas and spread the messages(rahasyams) already given by him in the sastras for the upliftment of the jeevatmas.  The alwars did as per the order of emperuman.  Since the alwars were more contained to their bhakthi and anubhavams, then the acharyas took birth to spread the words of the alwars.  The acharyas spread the message of our sath sampradAyam along with acharya shisya bhAvams.

 To felicitate the divine work of the alwars and acharyas in our guru paramparai two great works, Guru paramparA prabhAvam and Yatheendra pravana prabhAvam were given by our poorvAcharyas.  In our guru paramparai garland the last ratnam was Sri ManavAla mAmunigal who became the acharya of Sri ranganatha himself.  The prathama and sat sishya of Sri Mamunigal was Sri VanamAmalai Ramanuja jeeyar swamigal.  Yatheendra pravana prabhAvam, talks in detail about the acharya, mAmunigal but only briefs the important occasions in the life of the shisya, ponnadikAl jeeyer.  Hence Sri Vara mangai muni Vaibhavam, which gives a detailed life history of Sri vanamAmalai swamy was written, based on which we will proceed from the next posting.

 (To Be Continued)

 Alwar EmperumAnAr jeeyar thiruvadigalE sharaNam

 Adiyen Ramanuja dAsee

Sumithra Varadarajan