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Ramanuja List Archive: Message 00079 Nov 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

Now that we have got a person to care for us (?thennarangar seer 
arulukkuelakkAga pettrom?), a place to live (?thiruvarangam thiruppathiyE 
eruppAga pettrom?), nutritious food to eat (?mAran kalaiyE vunavAga pettrOm?), 
some code of contact to act (?madurakavi sol padiyE nilaiyAga pettrom?) all the 
basic needs of any human being has been satisfied. Next thing a man will go in 
search of huge wealth, sophisticated living and some entertainment. Let?s see 
what is the wealth for srivaishnavas.

?MUNNAVARAM NAM KURAVAR MOZHIGAL ULLA PETTROM? says mAmunigal. We haveall been 
blessed with a huge treasure of golden words of our alwars and acharyas. The 
nAlayira divya prabandam of alwars are nothing else but the essence of the 
Vedas and itihasa puranas in simple understandable tamil. Butstill the indepth 
meanings of the paasurams of alwars are not so easily understood by all so the 
acharyas who are full of mercy have given us the excellent anubhavam flooded 
commentaries. The acharyas have also blessed us with excellent strotras to be 
submitted to the divine feet of emperuman. When we want to sing the praise of 
bhagavan and also submit under his divine feet our shortcomings and cry for his 
mercy, we lack words to do the same but then comes to our immediate help the 
divine paasurams of alwars and thestrotras and other divine works of our 
acharyas . There is nothing, whichhas been left untouched by our acharyas. One 
janma is not enough to learnall of them.

Mamunigal didn?t do much individual works due to the same reason. Being the 
last in the guru paramparai he felt that there are enough poorvacharya works 
and hence he concentrated on commenting on them and teaching it to the ignorant 
masses. Swamy Periya Jeeyer has been insistent on the fact thatit is always 
good to only repeat what our elders have taught us than creating something new 
ourselves. In Upadesa ratna malai he says, ?munnOr mozhindha murai thappAmal 
kEttu pinnOrindhu thAm adhanai pEsadhE?. He says, one who does follow the words 
of his elders and talks as it comes to his mind is a moorkan (arrogant fellow). 
Here in Arthi prabhandam, mAmunigal proudly declares that the great treasure 
for vaishnavas is their poorvAcharya works.  

In our sampradayam, the difference between the rishis and the alwars are 
considered to be that between a mountain and a stone, the difference between 
other alwars and periAzhvar is again that like a mountain and a stone, the 
difference between periAzhvar and acharyas like nAthamunigal and Alavandaaris 
like a mountain and a stone. Similar is the case between the anuvritthi 
prasannAcharyas (who gave the divine arthas only to eligible shisyas after 
severe testing) before ramanujar and the krupAmAthra prasannAcharyas 
(whoconsidered only the interest, the shisya had as important and nothing else, 
AsaiyudaiyOrkkellam) from ethirajar to Manavala mAmunigal. Even among the 
krupAmAthra prasannAcharyas, acharyas who made their works into books forthe 
future use are considered greater, and even among them the acharyas who gave 
arulicheyal vyakhyanams (periya vAchan pillai, nampillai, nanjeeyer and others) 
are considered greater than those who concentrated on Vedanta vyakhyanams alone 
(ramanujar). Even greater than these acharyas, stand the acharyas who gave 
arthas to the rahasyams which are the essence of the divya prabhandam (pillai 
lOkAcharya, azhagiya perumal nAyanar, swamy desikan and others). Greater than 
them is the acharya who gave the commentaries to the rahasya granthas (Swamy 
Periya Jeeyer, Sri Manavala mAmunigal).

Without the commentaries of mAmunigal many of the works of Sri Pillai 
lokacharya and his brother Azhagiya manavala perumal nAyanar, two great 
geniusesin our sampradayam, would have been like just the sound of a sea for us 
since we will never be able to understand the meanings. Mamunigal not only got 
himself involved in the works of poorvacharyas but has also left a great 
treasure for us to cherish forever. We cherish the words of lOkacharya and 
others through the words of mAmunigal even today. So there are no wordsto 
actually show our gratefulness to our great acharya, Sri manavala mAmunigal. 
Like a good intelligent father who leaves lot more of wealth to his son added 
to the original ancestral property due to his earnings, mAmunigalwho is our 
jnana pitha has left us with not only the ancestral wealth but also a lot more 
added to it. So now we have become the richest so we can more proudly say, 
?MunnavarAm namkuravar mozhigal vulla pettrOm?

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Immediately as we get some money in our hand our mind searches for a good 
entertainment, irrespective of whether we have worked hard to gain that money 
or not. Similarly what is the entertainment for the srivaishnavas? How should a 
Srivaishnava spend his time?
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(To Be Continued)

Alwar EmperumAnAr Jeeyer thiruvadigalE sharanam

Adiyen Ramanuja Dasyai
Sumithra Varadarajan

 

 

 

 


 



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