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Ramanuja List Archive: Message 00141 Oct 2002

 
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Sri Parthasarathi thunai
Srimathe Ramanujaya Namaha
Sri Vara Vara MunayE Namaha

SrisailEsa dayA pAthram deebhakthyAdhi gunArnavam
Yateendra pravanam vandhE ramyajAmataram munim

Arthi prabhandam is considered to be the charama or last prabhandam of Periya 
Jeeyer, Sri manavAla mAmunigal. Prapannas are those who surrender to the lord 
and remain with the mahAvishvAsam (atmost belief) that emperuman will take care 
of all their needs and grant moksha. Such prapannAs are classified into two: 
Truptha prapanna and Artha prapanna. 

Truptha prapanna is one who has atmost faith that he is going to attain moksha 
due to the nirhEduka krupai(grace) of emperuman after shedding this body 
(dEhAvasAnE moksham) and waits patiently till that time. But an Artha prapanna 
is so eager to attain the divine abode of emperuman that he hurries to attain 
the same and hence forces perumal to grant him moksha immediately.

Mamunigal remained a truptha prapanna till he sang the other prabhandams and 
engaged himself in the various kainkaryams (service to bhagavan/bhagavatas) but 
at one time he got vexed with these sAmsAric matters and hence wanted to shed 
the body immediately and attain the service to the divine feet ofemperumAN in 
his divine abode (Srivaikundam). The feelings of mAmunigal at that stage were 
expressed in words as ?Arthi Prabhandam?.

There is a difference between a ordinary prapannan and a srivaishnavan. Sri 
manavala mAmunigal was a SriVaishnavan than just a prapannan. 

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What?s the difference? Both of them surrender to the divine feet of emperuman 
to attain moksha and wait for emperuman to shower his grace. But a 
Srivaishnavan does not directly surrender. He takes the help of an acharya to 
surrender and attain moksha. 
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Recommendation is atmost essential in any field even today. One person may be 
filled with all qualifications but if for the same interview another person 
with equal qualification and a high recommendation comes then the second person 
is considered to be more qualified for the job. A person recommended by an 
acharya overshoots similarly a bhakthi yogi or a prapanna who surrenders on his 
own. So Acharya bhakthi (charamOpAya nistai) is one important essentiality in 
our sampradayam.

Sri manvAla mAmunigal shows the importance of Acharya nishtai absolutely inall 
his prabhandams and especially in this Arthi prabhandam. The greatestquality of 
swamy is that he never talked anything without the reference tohis acharya. He 
did upadEsa ratnamAlai to show the greatness of the alwars and poorvAchAryas. 
He says, ?AzhvArgal vAzhi arulicheyal vAzhi thAzhvAdhu mil kuravar thAm vAzhi 
EzhpArum uyya avargal vuraiththavaigal thAm vAzhiseiya marai thannudanE 
Serinthu?. In this paasuram mAmunigal sings pallAndu to the alwars and their 
works, the acharyas and their excellent commentaries and their individual 
works.  
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Why should these live long? Alwar and Acharya works should live long 
sincewithout them the jeevatmas can never get uplifted.
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But are the Vedas not enough? The Vedas are not easily understandable by all. 
So for the upliftment of the masses only a easier text will be handy and hence 
mAmunigal says, the alwar and acharyas works should live long along with the 
vEdas to uplift one and all and make us all attain the divine feet of 
emperuman. Here mAmunigal says, ?EzhpArum? that means not only Tamil Nadu were 
the alwars and acharyas mostly took birth, not only India, not only 
jampudveepam where all the countries known to us are located but all the seven 
lokAs(worlds as per the sastras) will be benefited due to the great works of 
alwars and acharyas.

In upadesa ratna malai he talked generally about all the alwars and acharyas, 
then he further wanted to show us the greatness of the acharya who aloneis 
regarded as the jagadAcharya, Sri rAmAnuja. As per the orders of his direct 
acharya, Srisaila nAthar,thiruvAimozhi pillai, mAmunigal then did theexcellent 
prabhandam ?yathirAja vimsathi? his strotra in Sanskrit. Atthat time mAmunigal 
got deeply involved with ethirAjar and hence remained with great nishtai 
towards the acharya throughout his lifetime and when he started to cry due to 
Arthi (his eagerness to shed this body and attain moksha) he did not cry 
directly to emperuman but begged the same from the hands of emperumAnAr.

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Can emperumAnAr grant moksha? Why didn?t mAmunigal ask the same from hisown 
acharya, thiruvAimozhi pillai?  
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We will see in the next posting.

(To be continued)

Alwar EmperumAnAr jeeyar thiruvadigalE sharaNam

Adiyen Ramanuja dasyai
Sumithra Varadarajan

 

 



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