srImathE rAmAnujAya namah srImathE anantArya mahAguravE namah srImathE krishNa sUrayE namah dear bhAgavathAs, today (chittirai-yil chittirai), is the thirunakshattiram of svAmi anantAzhvAn as well. Many other people have written about svAmi and some episodes of his life. The following is just a tidbit.. the thaniyan for svami anantAzhvAn is believed by some of us to have been given by thiruvEnkadamudaiyAn Himself. The brief version of the hagiology is as follows: Once, there was a group of srIvaishNavAs who came to do maNgaLAsAsanams to the Lord - It is said that this group was led by srI nadAdUr ammAL from kAnchipuram. They were climbing up the hill to the temple, and were delayed due to the wildness of the hills and they were very tired and hungry. Seeing this, the Lord, not wanting to see His devotees suffer, came in the form of a brahmAchAri to provide food to the group. Naturally, srI nadAdUr ammAL questioned who this person was before partaking the food. The brahmAchAri immediately answered that he was the sishyA of srI anantAzhvAn, and that he had sent food to these srIvaishNavAs. Not trusting the brahmAchAri completely, srI nadAdUr ammAL asked him to recite the thaniyan of his AchArya. Then, the brahmAchAri recited as follows: "akilAtma guNAAvaasam agnyAna thimirApaham | aasritaanaam suSaraNam vandhE anantArya dEsikam ||" (I bow to AchArya anantAzhvAn, who is the repository of knowledge, mercy and wisdom, the one who removes ignorace and is a eminent refuge for disciples) srI nadAdUr ammAL then questioned how the thaniyan had no reference to rAmAnuja. The brahmAchAri replied that there were two thaniyans - one referring to the glory of anantAzhvAn and the other referring to his connection to rAmAnuja, and proceeded to recite the second "srImad rAmAnujAchArya srIpAdAmbOruha dhvayam | saduththamAnga sanDhAryam anantAryam aham bhajE ||" (I prostrate before anantAzhvAn who is equal to the lotus feet of srI rAmAnuja and who is worshipped by srIvaishNavAs from all over) Convinced that the brahmAchAri indeed was a sishya of anantAzhvAn, the srIvaishNavAs took the prasAdam that he brought. After arriving at thirumala, they were received by anantAzhvAn himself, and when this incident was mentioned, it was a surprise to everyone. srI anantAzhvAn had not sent anyone to do so, and no other srIvaishNava had sent anyone either. So, they concluded that it is indeed the LOrd Himself who played this act to (i) ensure that His devotees did not suffer and (ii) show the greatness of anantAzhvAn and His own affection for anantAzhvAn. Also, the second thaniyan shows the amount of reverance that srI anantAzhvAn had for rAmAnuja, and to this day, the "thiruvadi nilai" for rAmAnuja in thirumala is called "anantAzhvAn". There is an idol of anantAzhvAn in madhurakavi AzhvAr sannadhi in the gOvindarAja-p-perumaL temple. Today, srI anantAzhvAn and svAmi madhurakaviAzhvAr will go to the perumAL sannadhi (gOvindarAjar) and will be given prasAdams and honours from the Lord. adiyEn madhurakavi dAsan, varadhan __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Games - play chess, backgammon, pool and more http://games.yahoo.com/
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