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Ramanuja List Archive: Message 00091 Jul 2002

 
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srImathE rAmAnujAya namah

dear bhAgavathAs,

I am getting some time after a long time to revisit some of the 
pending issues I wanted to address in the list. Please forgive this 
spate of emails from me.

On July 4,5,6,7 of 2002, a grand celebration and samprOkshaNam was 
performed at the shrine of svAmi maNavALa mAmunigaL at sikkil 
kidAram. At the time we posted the appeal, we were unaware of any
controversies regarding this! In fact, we were very surprised,
when at a later date, we came to know of a controversy regarding 
this, and I personally am deeply disappointed with our people's 
handling of this.

Since I posted the original appeal, I am dutybound to present the 
data to this list.

The facts are as follows:

1. The organizers feel that sikkil kidAram is the birthplace of svAmi 
maNavALa mAmuni. 
2. That is not universally shared. Many people believe that AzhvAr 
thirunagari is the birthplace of svAmi maNAvALa mAmuni.
3. yatIndra-p-pravaNa prabhAvam does mention AzhvAr thirunagari as 
svAmi's birthplace. People who have the view that sikkil kidAram 
is the birthplace put forth the following viewpoint - sikkil 
kidAram is the place where svAmi maNAvALa mAmuni's mothers' house 
was. It is but natural that the son/daugher is born in the mothers'
parents' home. So, sikkil kidAram must have been the birth
place. As far as the yatIndra-p-pravaNa prabhAvam mentioning
AzhvAr thirunagari, their viewpoint is that "AzhvAr thirunagari"
may refer to the entire area - not just the town. They also remind 
us that AzhvAr thirunagari was quite dilapidated and only after 
srI thiruvAymozhi-p-piLLai went there did the place regain its 
glory.
4. yatIndra-p-pravaNa prabhAvam does mention sikkil kidAram as the 
place where svAmi maNavALa mAmuni grew up.
5. There are remnants of a house where it is claimed that srI 
thiruvAymozhipiLLai taught svAmi maNavALa mAmunigaL and also the 
thiru arasu of svAmi kUra kulOththuma dAsar.
6. And, there has been ruins of this temple that was renovated,
and the vigrahams of perumAL/svAmi found amongst the ruins.
People have visited the temple in better days and obviously 
the temple had been a place of worship for many of our
elders. The utsavar vigraham for perumAL had been stored in
the vAnamAmalai mutt in srIvillipuththUr, and this temple is
under the administration of the vAnamAmalai mutt.

Given the above facts, the least one can conclude is that svAmi 
maNavALa mAmunigaL did spend some of his early years at sikkil 
kidAram. Coupled with the presence of svAmi kUra kulOththuma dAsar's 
thiru arasu, one can conclude with reasonable confidence that svAmi 
did learn here. 

It is beyond me as to why people cannot see beyond these differences 
of opinion. Does it matter that there is no 100% proof about the 
birthplace? Isn't the fact that there is an undeniable connection 
that the place has with svAmi maNAvALa mAmuni enough? But, in our
religion, it looks as if there *has* to be a controversy on 
*everything*. If there is nothing, I guess people create one use it 
as an excuse to stay away and/or derail the process. Sometimes I 
wonder whether we are the current day yAdavAs, ordained by the 
Lord to destroy ourselves.

Whether the temple needed to be built and/or the samprOkshaNam needed 
to have taken place is a differnt question (especially when so many 
divya dEsams lack funds). But once it has been built, and a 
samprOkshaNam has been arranged, it is a different question.

Anyway, the above are the facts surrounding the difference of opinion 
regarding the birthplace of svAmi maNavALa mAmuni. If one has the 
time in their schedule, while visiting thiru-p-pullAni, one can 
visit sikkil kidAram. It is about 40km from thiru-p-ullAni, and town 
buses do ply there. svAmi's mUlavar vigraham here is in the standing 
pose - very beautiful vigraham. The utsavar is very captivating as 
well. Photos of the samprOkshaNam can be seen on the ramanuja 
yahoogroups page, photos section and sikkil kidAram samprOkshaNam 
folder.

AzhvAr emperumAnAr jIyar thiruvadigaLE saraNam,
adiyEn rAmAnuja dAsan,
Varadhan





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