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Ramanuja List Archive: Message 00013 Aug 2002

 
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Sri Parthasarathi thunai

Srimathe RamanujAya namaha

Sri Vara Vara munaye namaha

 

Pranams,

 

Today is ThiruvAdirai, monthly thirunakshatram of our beloved acharya Sri Ramanuja.  This is month of Adi and in many of the divya desams in India the 10 day thiruvAdi Pooram festival is grandly celebrated now.  The festival has special significance in the birth place of goda devi, srivilliputtur and in srirangam, her inlaws place.  And in divya desams like thiruvallikeni also these ten days are celebrated specially.  Though we miss the enjoyment of the adi poora utsavam sitting in a far of place away from our homeland let us all just have the anubhavams sitting right here.

 

We all know about andal, soodi koduththa nAchiyar and her story.  So let us now just see the relation between andal and Ethirajar.  When adiyen says relation many of you may wonder how can andal being an azhwar and Sri Ramanuja being born just nearly 1000 years back  as an acharya, be related.  At this stage adiyen would like to bring to memory the vazhi thirunAmam of andal which says, ?Perumbhoodur mAmunikku pinnAnAl vAzhiyE!?.  Here andal is referred to as the younger sister of perumbhoodur mAmuni, Sri Ramanuja.  How is this possible?  Let us just look into the story of Sri Ramanuja.  Our beloved acharya went to thirumAliruncholi to have darshan of Azhagar.  He started doing mangalAsAsanam to azhagar with Sri andal?s nAchiyar thirumozhi paasurams on thirumAliruncholi perumal.  When he recited the 6th pasuram,

 

  ? nArunarum pozhil mAlirunchOli nambikku nAn

    nooru thadAvil vennai vAinErindhu parAvivaiththEn

    nooru thadA niraindha akkAravadisil sonnEn

    AruthiruvudaiyAn endru vandhu evai kollungolO??

 

Sri Ramanuja realized that though andal has vowed to give 100 thadAs of butter and 100 thadAs of akkaravadisal to azhagar if he makes her union with ranganatha possible, after her union with bhagavan she never returned back to do the same.  So emperumAnAr decided to do the same on behalf of goda devi.  He did the same and then after finishing his mangalAsAsanams on the way to srirangam he visited Srivilliputtur.  When the entered the temple, Sri andal came to welcome him and called, ?nam koil annanO!?(Is it my elder brother from srirangam?) and from that day Sri ramanujar is regarded as the elder brother of nachiyar.  Why did andal select this relation of all relations?  That is because brother sister relation is one such blood relation which has a speciality.  The brother alone cares for the wishes of the sister and vice versa to the extend no other relation can care.  That is why andal selected this relation.

 

EmperumAnAr was also called as ?Thiruppavai Jeeyer? due to his high involvement in the arthas of thiruppavai.  Though emperumAnAr wrote Bhashyams to gita and the Brahma sutras, he had a special love towards andal?s thiruppavai.  Then why didn?t he write a vyakhyanam for it?  It is because he himself was a vyakhyanam for thiruppavai.  Daily during unjavriththi emperumAnAr used to recite thiruppavai.  For Srivaishnavas thiruppavai is under the nithyAnusandhanam and not reserved just for margazhi mAsam.  One day when emperumAnAr went to unjavritti and stood in front of his acharyan periya nambi?s thirumAligai with his thiruppavai anusandhanam, periya nambi?s daughter andal came out with rice and opened the door.  EmperumAnAr fell into her feet.  Andal who was a young girl and who used to call emperumAnAr as Anna was taken aback and hence she ran to tell this to her father.  Nambigal came out and asked emperumAnAr, ?vundu madagalittran anubhavamO??(where you reciting the vundu madagalittran pAsuram).  For which emperumAnAr replied yes.  Such was the understanding between the acharya and shisya.  What actually happened was, when EmperumAnAr recited the verses, ?kandam kamazhum kuzhali kadai thiravAi? at the same time andal also opened the door so emperuman immersed in the pAsura anubhavam considered andal to be nappinai piratti and fell into her feet.  From this day emperumAnAr was called as ?Thiruppavai jeeyer?.  Such was the closeness between andal and emperumAnAr.

 

Sri thiruvarangaththamudhanAr in his Ramanuja noorthanthadhi says,

 

 ?ThAzhvondrilla marai thAzhindhu *thalamuzhudum kaliyE

   AlgindranAl vandaliththavan kAnmin  * arangarmowli

   Soozhgindra mAlaiyai soodhikkoduththaval thollarulAl

   Vazhgindra vallal* erAmAnusan ennum mAmuniyE?

 

In this kali yugam even the Vedas which never have a fall is illtreated and the kali rules over.  But Sri Ramanuja took birth to fight over the kali.  He is bestowed with the divine grace of the soodi koduththa nAchiyAr, whose garland the lord ranganatha likes to wear.

 

So in this day of thiruvadirai, during the Adi poora utsavam let us all sing the praise of both our beloved nAchiyAr(who is both an azhvar(only female azhvar) and a nAchiyar) and our beloved acharya emperumAnAr.  EmperumAnAr though called as the ponnadi of Maran, Sri Nammazhvar he always had a special  soft corner for his sister andal in his mind.  That is why in sriperumbudur, andal gets a special attention.  During the pagal pattu utsavams in all divya desams andal never accompanies the other alwars but always stays as a thayar.  But only in sriperumbudur(in her brother?s place) she is given the special right to take part in the ghosti of the alwars.  Ladies are generally not allowed in the ghosti but emperumAnAr who has always been a reformer has reformed this too and even today in sriperumbudur andal is part of the adhyayana utsava ghosti.

 

Andal thiruvadigalE saraNam

AzhwAr emberumAnAr jeeyar thiruvadigaLE saraNam

Adiyen Ramanuja Dasyai

Sumithra Varadarajan

 



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