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Ramanuja List Archive: Message 00133 Jan 2003

 
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Sri Parthasarathi thunai
Srimathe Ramanujaya Namaha
Sri Vara Vara MunayE Namaha
Sri vAnAchala mahA munayE Namaha

Dear bhagavatAs,
Today (Jan 23rd 2003) is Thai hastham, the thirunakshatram of the greatacharya, 
koorathAzhvan, the close and foremost disciple of EmperumAnAr considered to be 
the pavithram (thandam and pavithram are two essentialities for any yethi) of 
Sri rAmAnujar. Born as a king of the village called kooram near kanchipuram he 
shed all his wealth and belongings for the sake of acharya abhimAnam.

Sri thiruvarangaththamudhanAr (one another shisya of EmperumAnAr who was 
corrected from his bad deeds by koorathAzhvan) in his rAmAnuja nootrandhAdhi 
says:
?mozhiyai kadakkum perum pugazhAn vanjamukkurumbAm kuzhiyai kadaththum nam 
kooraththAzhvAn charan koodiya pin?


Here amudhanAr says that the greatness of kooraththAzhvan is beyond words. When 
amudhanAr who has sung such an excellent prabhandam like rAmAnuja nootrandhAdhi 
refrains from talking about the greatness of Azhvan then what can mandha 
buddhis like adiyen attempt to do? Still just with the wish to spend the time 
in a proper way on this very fine avatara dhinam of kooraththAzhvan let me just 
write a few words on kooraththAzhvan to purify our mind and body.  

AmudhanAr further says kooraththAzhvan is a person who has surpassed the 
mukkurumbhu. What is mukkurumbhu? It is nothing but considering oneself great 
due to the wealth he possesses, or due to the family or caste in which heis 
born or due to his educational qualification or intelligence. KooraththAzhvan 
had all the three. He was so wealthy that he used to do anna dhAnam throughout 
the day which even surprised perundEvi thAyar of kAnchipuram, who is none other 
than the goddess of wealth (SridEvi). KooraththAzhvan was a high class Brahmin 
but he never cared about that, he cared about only rAmAnuja sambhandham and 
considered all rAmAnuja sambhandhis irrespective oftheir birth to be equal. 
Thirdly, the intelligence of kooraththAzhvan. Azhvan is the prime reason for us 
to have got SribhAshyam today. He was anEkasandha krAhi (one who learns all the 
lessons in just one session). He just out of interest scanned through the pages 
of the bhOdhAyana vriththi grandham got from the saraswathi bandharam during 
the nights when ethirajar was asleep. After losing the grantham to the 
saivaits, rAmAnujar was struck with grief but Azhvan with great confidence 
assured that he can recollectwhatever he has read in the two or three nights 
and since he has seen through the whole book he will help EmperumAnAr with the 
writing of SribhAshyam. Only with this confidence EmperumAnAr started writing 
the bhAshyam and completed it successfully. In appropriate places, Azhvan 
corrected EmperumAnAr without any hesitation. Such was the understanding 
between the acharyaand shisya. But at no time did Azhvan feel that he is more 
intelligent and great. He always considered himself to be only the shisya of 
EmperumAnAr.

The three egos, which generally puts down a person was won by koorththAzhvan 
and that has been remarked by amudhAnAr in the above paasuram.

Azhvan gave his darshan for our darshanam (rAmAnuja darshanam). He is the 
acharya who saved the life of our ethirajar. Even when ethirajar forced him to 
pray to the lord to grant him vision he refused saying that it is against the 
norms of a prapanna to ask for anything from the lord. A prapanna is deemed to 
accept whatever the lord grants him and always remain in the service to the 
lord. KooraththAzhvan showed it in practice. Even after loosing vision he did 
not keep quiet but continued to do pushpa (flower) kainkaryam to Azhagar in 
thirumAlirunchOlai. He sang excellent prabhandams famously known as 
panchastavams viz., Sri Vaikunda stavam, athimAnusha stavam, 
sundarabhAhustavam, VaradarAja stavam, Sri stavam.

On top of all these one speciality of kooraththAzhvan is that he is the only 
shisya who assured moksha for his own acharya. We all say, ethirajar to be the 
acharya who will lead us all to moksha (rAmAnuja sambhandam attains moksha). We 
praise EmperumAnAr to be the ?Vishnu lOka manimantapa mArgadhAyee? but that 
EmperumAnAr himself says that moksha was assured to him only due to the 
sambhandham of kooraththAzhvan. Isn?t this surprising? Yes. In one kalashepam 
EmperumAnAr explained how the jeevatma going to moksha would be welcomed by the 
already present mukthAthmAs there. Listening to this kooraththAzhvan wanted to 
go there before ethirAjar so that he could continue kainkaryam to his acharya 
even in moksha and hence requested thesame from namperumal. Namperumal accepted 
and said that he has granted moksha to Azhvan and his sambhandhis. Hearing this 
news ethirAjar first tookhis uttareeyam (top clothing) and threw it into the 
air with joy. What made ethirAjar so happy? Ethirajar explained, ? I committed 
a abhachAram by going against the words of my acharya, thirukkOshtiyur nambi 
when I gave the thirumanthrArtham to all so I will not be granted moksha but 
now that emperuman himself has assured that all sambhandhis of kooraththAzhvan 
will attain moksha I will also surely get the same?. In this way, Azhvan 
pavedthe path of moksha for rAmAnuja himself. But then ethirAjar himself 
literally cried to loose the sathsangam of Azhvan.  

At the last, rAmAnujar uttered the dvaya mahA manthram in the ears of 
kooraththAzhvan. When the shisyas objected to the same saying that the acharya 
should give the dvaya manthram to the shisya only once, ramanujar replied that 
the manthram to Azhvan was like bhOgha dravyam to a king. Such was thejnanam 
and anushtAnam of kooraththAzhvan.

When arjuna asked Krishna to tell him about the lord?s vibhuthi, Parthasarathi 
exclaimed, ?hantha!? It is very difficult even for me to say allmy greatness in 
totality. Similarly adiyen stops here saying that it is very difficult for 
anyone to even start talking about the greatness of Azhvan leave alone 
completely saying it.

Alwar EmperumAnAr Jeeyer thiruvadigalE sharanam

Adiyen rAmAnuja dAsee
Sumithra Varadarajan

 



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