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Ramanuja List Archive: Message 00033 Jul 2003

 
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Sri:

Srimate rAmAnujAya nama:

My humble obeisances to all the vaishnavAs in this forum. As we all know, some 
time back there was a small discussion on lOkachArya panchAsat. It is a 
authored by Swami Desikan, consisting of 54 verses, each verse rife with the 
glories of piLLai lOkachAryar. It is interesting to note that this work of 
Swami Desikan is more common in places like ThiruNArAyanapuram and 
Srirangappattinam, but is yet to get as much prominence in the Sri Vaishnava 
shrines in Tamil Nadu.

Adiyen had gone to India for a month and while looking around for books on our 
sampradAya, I was lucky to find this book on lOkAchArya panchAsat with 
beautiful translation and commentaries by Sri U.Ve. Dr. V. V. Ramanujan. 

Since I am a novice in our sampradaya, I thought it would be a great service I 
could render if I translate the meanings and commentaries to English. 

I hope and pray all the adiyArs in this forum to kindly excuse me for any 
faults in the translation. 

Let us start with a short glimpse of piLLai lOkachAryar's vaibhavam.

PiLLai lOkAchAryAr vaibhavam

lOkAchAryAya guravE krshNapAdasya sUnavE

samsAribhOgi sandaSta jeevajeevAdave nama:

Tunnu pugazhk kandAdai tOzhappar (the grandson of MudaliAndAn), with out of 
great love and excitement addressed nampiLLai as "enna ulagAriyAnO" (knower of 
the world). Henceforth "ulagAriyAn" became one of the famous names of 
nampiLLai. Vadakku thiruveedhip piLLai, the dear disciple of nampiLLai, by the 
grace and blessings of his AchAryan had a beautiful (eldest) son, and had him 
named after his AchAryan. The young boy was thus called ulagAriyAn - 
lOkAchAryan. nanjeeyar who observed that his AchAryan Battar was fittingly 
glorious to be the son of Sri kooraththAzhwAn, started addressing him as 
"PiLLai". Due to their vast knowledge and jnAna, it became a tradition to 
address our AchAryas as "piLLai". PiLLai lOkAchAryar appeared on the aippasi 
month, on the day of the thiruvOna nakshatram - Poigai AzhwAr, the eldest of 
the AzhwArs had the same thirunakshatram too. His younger brother was azhagiya 
perumAL nAyanAr. The brothers with the complete grace and blessings of 
nampiLLai accepted
their own father as their AchAryan and later turned out to be the greatest 
scholars. 

It has been mentioned by ManavALa MAmunigaL in the introduction part of his 
purport on Srivacana bhooshanam that Pillai lOkAchAryar was the incarnation of 
kAnchi dEvarAjap perumAL. Swami PiLLai lOkAchAryar and his younger brother had 
the greatest fortune of learning under great scholars and leaders like their 
own father, Sri nampiLLai and the great PeriyavAchchAn PiLLai. It is indeed our 
great fortune that these two brothers have blessed us with the wealth of their 
knowledge in the forms of the granthAs that they had authored.

Pillai lOkAchAryar and nAyanAr remained celibate through out their lives. Out 
of the many granthAs authored by Sri Pillai lOkAchAryar, the famous ones that 
we know are the 18 rahasya granthAs collectively known as "ashTAdhacharasisyam" 
out of which Rahasya-thraya vivaranam (also known as Mumukshuppadi ), thathva 
thrayam and Srivachana bhooshanam are the three most important works. ManavAla 
MAmunigal has written purports on all these three important granthAs. It is 
indeed our great loss and misfortune that many of the granthAs authored by 
Swami Pillai lOkAchAryar are lost. 

Pillai lOkAchAryar had many disciples. Some of the famous of them were 
koorakulOththama dAsar, ViLanchOlaipp Pillai and Thirumalai AzhwAr. This 
Thirumalai AzhwAr was later gloriously called as "ThiruvAimozhippiLLai" and is 
placed next to Pillai lOkAchAryar in the AchArya Parampara. 
ThiruvAimozhippiLLai was the Guru of Sri ManvALa MAmunigaL. 

Pillai lOkAchAryar in his last days was carrying the Deity of namperumAL (the 
procession deity of Srirangam) when Srirangam was attacked by the muslims. 
Robbers attacked and looted most of the possessions, but Pillai lOkAchAryar 
made arrangements for namperumAL to be safe. He left his body for Vaikuntha in 
a town called jyOthishkudi. 

A detailed version of his vaibhavam can be found in the work called 
YatheendhrapravaNa prabhAvam authored by piLLailOkam Jeeyar.

AzhwAr emperumAnAr jeeyar thiruvadigaLE saranam.

Dasan,

Kidambi Soundararajan.








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