The open mindedness and
reverence towards fellow AchAryAs
A flashback into the incidents and
events of AchAryAs should be an eyeopener to the present day
srEvaishNavites.
Unlike now, the AchAryAs considred not
only the fellow AchAryAs as source of knowledge but also their
disciples.
The disciples of one AchAryA also used to
attend the lectures given by the others.
When some doubt arises to the lecturer, he
asks the disciple how his AchAryA would have explained the particular
point.
It is extremely improbable whether this
can happen in today's context, even if one assumes that one disciple
attends othes' lectures -leave alone attending lectures in the first
place.
PiLLai amudhanAr was explaining thirumozhi
first pAsuram of the seventh ten -kaRavA maDa
nAgu- and when he explained the first sentence it was not
correlating with the second. The meaning became like this -the Lord is calling
upon the devotee without forgetting like the cow remembering its calf. This did
not satisfy him and he enquired to one of the devotees of bhaTTar who was
present there "how Sri bhaTTar would have explained this pAsuram?" The disciple
explained that the first line should be interpreted in a particular way (for
detials please refer to the next posting on A peep into periya thirumozhi 175)
treating kaRavA mada nAgu as iraNdAm veARRumai and
understand as follows: The devotee -namely thirumangai AzhwAr declares that he
will always call upon the Lord like a calf which is without forgetting
, yearing for its cow's milk -kaRavA mada nAgu
-7-1-1;
The meaning apart, the greatness of Sri
piLLai amudhanAr in first confessing that he was not able
to interpret correctly, second acknowledging
the greatness of bhaTTar and finally accepting
bhaTTar's commenatry by requesting the disciple as final. This
gives full marks to bhaTTar and the disciple but hats of to Sri piLLai
amudhanAr's greatness in displaying total lack of
ego thus highlighting that their prime motive was anubhavam and
AzhwAr's thoughts rather than anything artificial.
The Edu of swAmi nam-piLLai is replete
with quotes mentioning that lot of tamilians not necessarily srEvaishNavites by
following, were attending the upanyAsam-s of Sri bhaTTAr and also nam-piLLai.
Some of their queries have been answered. For instance, refer EDu for 'thalaiyil vaNangavum AngalOA thaiyalAr munbEa'
thiruvoizmozhi 5-3-7 ;
This pAsuram refers to the fact the
thalivi - worhipping the Lord with her head. In tamil culture,
thalai-magan and thalai-magaL are at par and thalai-magaL is not supposed to
worship the thalai-magan. When Sri kUrathAzhwAn was elucidating on this
pAsuram a hundred years old "Amaruvi mEaithAn nambiAr" rose slowly trembling and
asked ' swAmi- is it correct to say that the thalaimagaL has
worshipped -thalaiyAlEa vaNangapperumOA?
Our Sri kUrathAzhwAn 'Idhil enna sandhEham-sishtAchAram vuNdu kANum; Sri janaka rAjan
thirumagaL anushtithAr kANum enRu solli "kousalyA lOka bharthAram sushuVeyam
manasvinE tham mamarthEA sugam brcha sirasA
sAbivAdhayA'
This rAmAyaNa slokam refers to the fact
that pirATTi mentions to thiruvaDi that she worships sri RAmA with her
head.
Sri kUrathAzhwAn- the great AchAryAn,great
scholar, the versatile genius lecturing and somebody questioning him and him
taking the matter seriously and replying with the relevant quotes. Unimaginable
in the present day context. This not only highlights the fact that those days
upanyAsam-s were not mere lectures but interactions and
anubhavam-s.
More than anything else this goes to show
the modesty of Sri kUrathAzhwAn -leading by example-as always.
(to be continued)
dAsan
vanamamalai
padmanabhan
azhwAr emberumAnAr jeeyAr thiruvadigalE saranam YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS
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