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The Life of Kuresan -10 (to be concluded)

From the Bhakti List Archives

sampath kumar • January 28, 2000 


Dear friends,

At the age of well over 100 years, after his
triumphant return to Srirangam from Melkote,
Sri.RamanujachArya with the help of Kuresan, once
again set about resurrecting Sri Vaishnavism and
restoring its soaring spirit to former glory. 

In the 10 odd years of Ramanuja's exile away from
SriRangam, and under the rule of the bigoted despot
Krimikantan Chola, the temple of Srirangam had fallen
upon ill-fated days; many centres of worship belonging
to the faith had been vandalised too; Vaishnava
associations, libraries, schools and trusts had all
been systematically looted and destroyed as well.
Corruption, indiscipline and laxity of faith had also
set in amongst many SriVaishnavas.

Kuresan ably assisted his guru in setting right all
the wrongs of the SriVaishnava faith. Together they
worked tirelessly to bring order, vigour and rectitude
back to their faith. It was during this time that
RamanujachArya composed his famous work called
"Nithya".... a practical manual to be followed in
SriVaishnava "perumAl" temples for daily conduct of
rituals and a compendium of administrative matters.
The "Nithya" is a very valuable manual in use even
today in most "perumAl" temples most notably, in the
famous temple of Tirupati- tirumala. 

Thanks to Ramanuja, SriVaishnavism once again began to
flourish in the land where once people had been
frightened to even utter the holy name of "NARAYANA"!

Kuresan despite his great physical handicap shirked no
duty or "kainkaryam" that was thrust upon him by his
centenarian guru, SriRamanujachArya. Even in those
last years of life on earth, as always, he remained
his guru's faithful shadow!

In the SriVaishnava tradition, Ramanuja is regarded as
an "avatara" of the great Lakshmana of the 'Ramayana'
whose extraordinary life of service and dedication
("kainkaryam" and "shraddhai") to Lord Rama was divine
legend. It is said that Rama found no better way of
repaying his debt to Lakshmana other than to take
'avatar' again as Kuresan during  Ramanuja's time on
earth and reverse roles i.e. to do unto Ramanuja the
same yeoman service that he had been blessed to
receive from Lakshmana in an ancient age of the past! 

Such was the celebrated "kainkaryam" Kuresan rendered
to his guru that the SriVaishnava faith did not
hesitate to confer  the sacred hood of Rama's
"avatara" upon him!

(TO BE CONCLUDED)

dAsan,
Sampathkumaran 


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