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Ramanuja List Archive: Message 00115 Apr 2002

 
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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


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