Arayirapadi guru paramparA prabhAvam
Sri Parthasarathi thunai
Srimathe Ramanujaya Namaha
Sri vara vara munaya Namaha
By the divine grace of Sri Andal sametha Sri Parthasarathi Emperuman and with the blessings of our puruvAcharyas and asmadAcharya HH Sri VanamAmalai Kaliyan Ramanuja Jeeyer Swamigal, we now indulge into this great task of writing about our guru paramparai on the basis of Arayirapadi guru paramparA prabhAvam of Sri pinbhazhagiya perumal Jeeyer. All the errors in these postings are due to our ignorance and lack of knowledge. May the learned scholars of the group forgive and correct our mistakes.
Sriya:pathi Sriman Narayanan, who had swallowed the whole world and kept it in his stomach doing the pralayam and stayed in yoga nidra(divine sleep), woken up by kAlam(time) started creating the universe. He activated the jeevas who were dormant during the pralaya and made them involved in various activities. To show the right path to the jeevatmas he then gave the sastras. Inspite of that, seeing the jeevatmas remaining ignorant, he himself came down taking various vibhavAvatArAs to explain the essence of the sastras. Still not being satisfied with changing the jeevatmas, he decided to send alwars, blessing them with bhakthi and gyana right from birth, due to his divine grace. Though the alwars gave excellent prabhandams on the lord, flooded with vedanta artas still they didn?t reach the masses since they were more immersed in their own self devotion towards the emperuman. Then came the Acharyas, who brought to light the importance of the drAvida Vedam even to a layman.
As per our Sri Vaishnava doctrine, an Acharya is given an equal footing to that of Emperuman. The importance of an Acharya, is given such an emphasis that, it goes out to explain, an Acharya can be considered even a step higher than that of the Paramatma himself. As an addendum, the Purashartham, i.e., the ultimate goal of a jeevathma, who is struggling to find shores in this samsara sAgaram (Ocean of Samsara), can be achieved only by associating himself with an Acharya. An Acharya is a beacon light to the darkness of agyana. He is a lighthouse to a struggling boatman, who is caught in the midst of a rough sea. He is a mediator between a Jeevathma and ParamAthma, who aids in liberating the Prapannan from this Leela Vibudhi to the abode of Emperuman, the Nithya Vibudhi.
The first and foremost thing that any Srivaishnava should know and meditate on is his poorvAcharya lineage, in vaishnavic terms, the guru paramparai. Our Acharya paramparai is actually a cycle with starts and ends with the periya perumal(Sriman Narayana) himself. Our Acharyas say that a srivaishnava should recite at all times the dvayam and guru paramparai(?japthavyam dvayamum guru paramparaiyum?). Our guru paramparai can be compared to a gem studded chain in which each and every gem has its own uniqueness and speciality.
(To be continued)
Adiyen,
Varadarajan Ramanuja Dasan
Sumithra Ramanuja Dasyai
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