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Ramanuja List Archive: Message 00037 Jun 2003

 
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Sri:

Humble pranam to all devotees:

Sri. TA Varadan wrote this very moving article that adiyEn wanted to share with 
all devotees. (So we can all enjoy the Anubhavams together)

GREAT SAINTS AND TEACHERS --- TA Varadhan
===============================

To tell us about the great concern that the Lord has for all of us, our elders 
liken his uninitiated grace to water (just as water is essential for all life, 
and just as water brings comfort and coolness to the body, the Lords grace is 
essential for everything, and brings comfort and coolness to the soul). They 
compare Sri Nammazhvar, the leader of all devotees, to the rain bearing clouds 
that absorb the water, waiting to pour it on the lands where people need water. 
The mountains gather all the rains produced by the clouds and accumulate it 
into streams so that the water can reach people wherever they are. Svami 
nAthamuni is that mountain. The streams of water are the two teachers who 
followed Svami Nathamuni uyya-k-koNdAr and maNakkAl nambi. The small streams 
join together and form a boundless river abundant with the source of life 
water. Such a big river is Svami ALavandar. The riverflows, and the water may 
not be useful if all the water flows to the ocean. So, we make channels from 
the river and divert the water to a lake where we can have the water whenever 
we need it. Such channels are the five teachers who succeeded Svami AlavandhAr. 
They channeled the teachings and blessings arising from the grace of the Lord, 
given to them by the clouds that are Svami Nammazhvar, accumulated into streams 
that are Svami Uyyakondar and Manakkal Nambi by the mountain that is Svami 
Nathamuni, joined together into an abundant flowing river that is Svami 
Alavandar, channelized by the five teachers following Svami Alavandar that are 

(i) Svami periya nambi 
(ii) Svami periya thirumalai nambi 
(iii) Svami thiru-k-kOshtiyUr nambi 
(iv) Svami thiru-aranga-p-perumAL arayar and 
(v) Svami thirumAlai ANdAn. 


The lake that holds all this water for us is our dear Ramanuja. And the gates 
that allow the water to reach everyone in the area are the 74 great leaders 
that Svami Ramanuja appointed for that purpose.

Svami Nammazhvar:

It will not be an exaggeration if one said that if Svami Nammazhvar were not 
there, there would be no way for salvation for us. This Azhvar is called 
?prapanna jana kUtasthAr? the emperor of all the devotees of the Lord.He is the 
one who makes us understand the Lord?s grace. He is the one who, out of his 
concern for our welfare, provided the revealed scriptures that are the Nalayira 
divya prabhandham to Sriman Nathamuni. And, He is the one who shows us the 
essence of our faith sing about the great qualities of the Lord, and serve ALL 
of his devotees.

This Azhvar was born in a place called thiru-k-kurugUr. This is presently 
called Azhvar thirunagari, and is about 20 kilometers from the town of 
ThirunelvEli in deep South of the state of TamizhnAdu, in South India. He was 
born to a family of devout devotees of the Lord. It is said that he was born 
under the blessings of the beautiful Lord at the temple of thiru-k-kuRungudi, 
whose name is Sri Vaishnava Nambi! The parents named their child as 
?parAnkuSan? and ?SaTakOpan?. The child mARan was very unique. He did not drink 
milk, cry or do the things that a child does. So, on the 12th day after his 
birth, his parents took him to the temple at Azhvar thirunagari (where one can 
worship the beautiful, wonderful Lord AdinAthan literally meaning the ?source 
of everything? in tamizh), where the child received the Lord?s blessings. The 
parents also started calling the child as ?mARan? (one who is opposite to 
others, tamizh word). They also placed the child on a thottil (pram) under the 
sacred tamarind tree in the temple (thetree was none other than the Great Holy 
snake anantAzhvAn, which is the bed for the Lord when He sleeps, the throne for 
the Lord when He sits, the umbrella for the Lord when He walks, the footwear 
for the Lord when He stands, the light on the way wherever the Lord goes, the 
sacred robes for the Lord, and everything that the Lord needs), and dedicated 
the child as the property of all, and as the cherished belonging of the whole 
society. It is said that, at this time, the Lord sent His chief of staff sEnai 
mudhanmaiyAr(Sri VisvaksEna), and performed initiation of the child by 
providing the most supreme knowledge necessary for a soul. This is a prime 
example of theLord?s uninitiated grace. This is why the Azhvars are known as 
?mayarvu aRa madhi nalam aruLa-p-peRRavargaL? the ones who were blessed with 
unblemished knowledge that they can never tire of, or forget. 

The child mARan did not speak anything, eat anything, or even move from 
theplace under the holy tree. On his 16th birthday, another great Azhvar 
madhura-kavi-Azhvar (the Azhvar who sings sweet songs!), came to mARan, and 
intheir ensuing conversation, it became apparent to everyone that the child 
mARan was a blessed soul, blessed for the purpose of giving all the world the 
revealed scriptures that the Lord?s chief of staff revealed to him. At this 
time, the Lord, who has out of His own concern for His people made many places 
on this earth (the holy cities the divya desams, of which thereare 106 on this 
earth) as His abode in different forms, revealed Himself in all the glory and 
splendour and beauty in *Each* one of those forms to MARan under the holy tree. 
The Lord of Srirangam ordained him as ?OUR? Azhvar ?nam Azhvar? (The Lord?s 
special ?OUR? is visible in the name of the Lord of Srirangam ?nam perumAL? our 
perumAL. Then He gave the name ?OUR? Azhvar to Nammazhvar. He also gave the 
?OUR? honour to two other teachers nam jIyar and nampiLLai, who adorn the great 
lineage of teachers described in the Jan 2003 issue). Nammazhvar is the ONLY 
personto whom the Lord came in ALL his forms from the holy places. 

Nammazhvar then took the revealed knowledge that He had been blessed with, and 
provided it to us in the form of four great prabhandhaas (poem forms intamil) 
Thiruvaimozhi, thiru-viruththam, thiru-Asiriyam and periya thiruvandhAdhi. 
These four scriptures given to us by the Azhvar are commonly understood to be 
the essence of the Sanskrit form of the revelations the four Vedas namely sAma 
vEda, rg vEda, yajur vEda and atharva vEda. The Azhvar spent all his living 
days on earth in the thought of the Lord and His qualities. Many devotees 
gathered around him, and together they celebrated the great qualities of the 
Lord. To the devotees, Nammazhvar revealed in a verse in Thiruvaymozhi, the 
fact that the whole world will be saved, and the sins of the world will be 
demolished, by the birth of a great teacher. This teacher is none other than 
our dear Ramanuja.  

When we go to a Vaishnava temple today, after worship, the priest normally 
places a conical object on the devotee?s head. People generally accept this 
blessing with great veneration. That is for due reason. This object called 
?SatAri? or ?Sri SaTakOpan? represents Nammazhvar. Just as Nammazhvar spent 
every moment of his existence under the feet of the Lord, thinking about His 
qualities and serving Him, the SatAri also spends every moment of its time 
under the feet of the Lord of the temple. The SatAri is therepresentation of 
none other than Svami Nammazhvar. When our head comes into contact with the 
SatAri, it is believed that we get blessed by this greatest of devotees of the 
Lord, and the blessing he gives us is basically thegood sense of mind so that 
we can become pure devotees of the Lord.

Svami Nammazhvar was born in the tamizh month of vaikAsi, in the star of 
visAgam. It falls on June 12th this year.
==============================================================================
Article is also in the Current Issue of Vedic Magazine: 
http://www.vedics.net/magazine/index.html




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