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SriRangaSri List Archive: Message 00005 May 2002

 
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Dear Bhagavathaas,
I am giving below two stories or legends
relating to two places near Tirukkurunkudi, one of the
108 Vaishnavite divya desams. Some of you may find
these interesting.
1) Thiru Vattapaarai.
This is a place just outside (about 3 kms) 
The town of Thirukkurunkudi famous for Ninra Nambi,
Amarnda Nambi and Kidantha Nambi. There is a temple
for Sr Ramanuja at Thiruvattaparai where Ramanuja
preaches the Thirumanthiram to Lord Narayana Himself.
The legend runs as follows.
Sri Ramanuja was preaching the Vishishtadwaitha 
philosophy at Thiruvananthapuram. He was staying in a
mantapam assisted by his sishya Vaduga Nambi in all
his daily ablutions and chores. Some of the local
people grew jealous of the growing popularity of Sri
Ramanuja and developed hatred and animosity towards
him and finally decided to do away with him. They
approached some practitioners of black magic to help
them achieve their goal. The wizard or witch 
transported ( as it were, by air or by helicopter) Sri
Ramanuja, along with the cot on which he was sleeping
during the night, from Thiruvananthapuram to the
eastern side of the Western Ghats and dropped the cot
on a big rock near Tirukkurunkukudi on the bank of
the river, Nambi aaru. Neither Ramanuja nor Vaduga
Nambi was aware of this.

Sri Ramanuja awoke the next morning and called
aloud, "Vaduga, Vaduga", but nobody answered the call.
Lord Narayana thought that the call of such a great
Acharyan should not go unanswered and within a moment
He appeared before the master in the garb of Vaduga
Nambi, with folded hands and with the Utthareeyam
round his waist and with all the reverence due to a
great Guru. Sri Ramanuja ordered or commanded the
sishya to attend to his daily duties which included
washing his (Ramanuja's) dhoti and utthariyam,
bringing flowers and thulasi etc for the
Thiruvaradhanam to be performed by the Acharyan.
The sishyan obeyed implicitly. Sri Ramanuja took bath
in the river and wore thr Dwadasa pundram. He used to
adorn his sishya with the remnant of Thiruman and
Srichoornam used by him. He did this to the Lord also
in the guise of the sishya and the Lord was extremely
happy to get this at the hands of the great preacher
or yatirajar.

The Acharyan and the sishya went to the main
temple to worship the moolavar. The Perumal in the
guise of Vaduga carried the pookkudalai and
thiruthuzhai in the baskets and went past the dwaja
sthambam,entered the garbha griham, placed them there
and went further inside and vanished. Sri Ramanuja
was not able to find Vaduga Nambi. On seeing the
moolavar closely he noticed that the thiruman on the
Lord's forehead was still wet and that was the same 
adorned by him on the forehead of Vaduga. He realised
that it was a 'leela' played by the Lord on him.

The Lord revealed Himself with with His
Divyaroopam and Diva Ayudhas. Sri Ramanuja begged His
pardon, but the Lord told him that He was not
satisfied with His own Avataras and that he wanted to
act as a sishya to a great Acharyan and to get
upadesam from him. He requested the Acharyan to
preach Him the Thirumanthiram or Mahamanthiram. 
Accordingly Ramanuja sat on a pedastal befitting his
dignity and the Lord seated himself at a lower level
in an obedient posture with his right ear just below
the face or mouth of the Acharyan Sri Ramanuja told
the Lord in His right ear "Om Namo Naaraayanaaya". 
Even to-day we can see the great teacher and the Lord
in this position in the Ramanujaa's temple at
Thiruvattapaarai.

Ashtaaksharam.
Om ithi ekaksharam'
Nama ithi dwe akshare,
Na, raa, ya, naa, ya ithi panchaksharani
ethadwai narayanasys ashtaksharam padam............


2) Thiruvarasu.
This is at a distance of about 3 kms from
Thirukkurunkudi. in the midst of fields and groves. 
The structure houses the idol of Thirumangai Alwar
with folded hands but without his sword and kedaya. 
It is stated that this is the samadhi of the Alwar. 
The Azhwar wanted to enter at Bhadari but the Lord of
Tirukkurunkudi desired that he should stay there
itself and was not willing to leave him. So the Azhwar
entered samadhi there itself. This is called Thiru
Arasu here.
Azhwar thiruvadigale saranam.

dasan,
T.S. Rajagopalan. 

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