Sri Parthasarathi thunai Srimathe Ramanujaya namaha Sri Vara Vara munaye Namaha Sri ILaiyAzhwAr Vaibhavam-2 IlaiyAzhwar came to know about a Ekadandi sanyasi, named yAdhavaprakasa, inthiruputkuzhi near perumal koil (kAnchi), teaching poorvapaksha vedantham.He immediately went and joined the class along with the other students. Meanwhile in mazhalai mangalam a son was born to kamala nayana bhattar and periya pirattiyAr in the tamil month of thai, on a poornima day, sOmavAr (Tuesday), in the star of punarvasu. Periya thirumalai nambi, coming to know about the good news came to greet the parents and bless the child. On looking at the newborn child he said, ?This boy will be a good person in character and will get well educated and will become a good vaidhikan (personinvolved in vedantha)?. Then Nambi suggested the name, ?Govindan? to kamalanayana bhattar, who accordingly did nAmakaranam (naming ceremony) to the child. Govindan also grew up, with all the religious ceremonies doneat appropriate times and after his elementary education he subsequently entered gruhastAshramam (got married). After that, coming to know about ilaiyAzhwar in the classes of yadhava prakasa, govindan also joined the same with great enthusiasm and joy. One-day yadhava prakasa was giving explanation to the vedic verse ?Sathyam jnanam anantham brahma?. The explanation of yadhava was as follows: The qualities of sathyam, jnanam and anantham will fit Brahman, only when the qualities of having a long horn, short horn and no horn fit simultaneously to a single cow.? IlaiyAzhwar was taken aback by such an explanation and hence he came forward to say his own interpretation of the same as follows and strongly objected to the explanation given by yadhava prakasa. IlaiyAzhwar explained, ?The word ?sathyam? denotes kshanika vyAvriththi (different from the living things which has short period of existence), theword ?Jnanam? denotes Achit vyAvriththi (different from the non livingthings, which do not have intelligence) and the word ?anantham? denotes parichinna vyAvriththi (different from an entity which has limits). Hence the verse actually means that Brahmam is different from chetanam and achEthanam and it is a permanent limitless entity.? Yadhava prakasa releaseda sigh of dismay listening to the above. Another day, IlaiyAzhwar was doing service to his master yadhava prakasa, applying oil to his hair and body. During the same, yadhava was teaching ilaiyAzhwar some lessons in vedantha. At that time, yadhava gave a misinterpretation to the verse, ?Thasya yethA kapyAsam pundareeka mEva makshini?. The twist in the meaning told by yadhava put ilaiyAzhwar to deep sorrow,which made tears role down his eyes. The hot tears due to sorrow fell to the lap of yadhava who jumped to his feet on feeling the hot tears on his lap. He asked ilaiyAzhwar what had made him to cry? IlaiyAzhwar replied, ?kam pipathee ethi kapi:? and ?Asa upavEsanE? refers to the lotus which blossoms at sunrise. Thereby the meaning indicated by the verse is ?the eyes of Brahman blossoms like a lotus which blooms on seeing the sun?. Seeing such an excellent metaphor being misinterpreted I was struck by grief.? Yadhava couldn?t accept his shisya giving better interpretations than himand hence with anger he said, ?if you wish to listen to my lessons stay here and learn, else leave this place this very moment?. IlaiyAzhwar obliged and stayed away from the class. Then yadhava called his other loyal shisyas and asked, ?You all respect me and accept my lessons. But IlaiyAzhwar always refutes and argues againstmy teachings. I fear that due to him the whole philosophy of advaita willloose power; so what is the way to finish him off?? Each one of them gave different ideas. Yadhava felt that all those ways will credit sins and the blame will fall on him only. So he made a master plan to take ilaiyAzhwar with him on a divine journey (yathra) and kill him in manikarnika. Everyone accepted the plan to be a good one and hence yadhava like duriyOdhanawho acted to be good to dharmaputra to finally cheat him, called back IlaiyAzhwar and posed a drama before him saying that the class didn?t look healthy without ilaiyAzhwar and requested him to join again. Then yadhava prakasa, started to arrange for the ganga yAthra along with his shisyas. All along the way the shisyas somehow prevented IlaiyAzhwar andgovinda in talking personally with each other as govinda had come to know their plan. But finally when they were in the vindhya ranges while talkinga dip in a river, govinda grabbed a right moment and hinted IlaiyAzhwar about the plan of yadhava and his shisyas and asked ilaiyAzhwar to run away in a different route. Then govinda came and joined the crew again. (To be continued) AzhwAr emberumAnAr jeeyar thiruvadigaLE saraNam Adiyen, Varadarajan Ramanuja Dasan Sumithra Ramanuja Dasyai --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Y! Web Hosting - Let the expert host your web site [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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