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MaNavaaLa maamunigaL - 2

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Thirumalai Anandanpillai • May 5, 1997 


Dear bhaagavathaas,

Here is the next post on MaNavaaLa maamunigaL's vaibhavam.

Aazhwaar emperumaanaar jeeyar thiruvadigaLE saranam,
Varadhan


Yatheendrap pravaNar:

When thiruvaay mozhip PiLLai was enjoying the guNaanubhavam of 
emperumaanaar, the  verses about emperumaanar's devotion towards 
nammaazhwaar such as
'maaRan adi paNindhu uyNdha iraamaanusan'; (iraamaanusa nooRRandhaadhi)

'uRu perum selvamum thandhaiyum thaayum uyar guruvum veRi tharu
poomagaL naadhanum, maaRan viLangiya seer neRitharum senthamizh 
aaraNamE enRu inNee nilaththOr aRithara ninRa iraamusan, 
(iraamaanusa nooRRandhaadhi )
[ rough free-form paraphrasing   - Raamanusan, who considered the 
tamizh vEdam of nammaazhwaar  as everything to him - wealth (uRu perum
selvam), parents (thanthaiyum thaayum), sadhaachaaryan (uyar guruvum),
the Lord Himself (veRi tharu poomagaL naadhanum - the naadhan of
piraatti); and who lived such that the people of this world knew about
his devotion to the tamizh vEdam of maaRan]

'paNdaru maaRan pasunthamizh aanandham paaymadhamaay viNdida
engaL iraamanusa munivEzham' (iraamaanusa nooRRandhaadhi)
[In this paasuram, thiruvarangaththu amudhanaar visualises iraamaanusar
as an elephant (maththa gajam - vEzham), that is mad with joy 
with the anubhavam of the tamizh vEdam] 

deeply moved him. He wanted to build a sannadhi to emperumaanaar at
aazhwaar thirunagari, the birthplace of maaRan that symbolises the 
praavaNyam that emperumaanaar had for nammaazhwaar and his
aruLichcheyals. He built a sannadhi for  emperumaanaar with the help 
of his shisyaas and established a veedhi around the sannadhi called
Sri Raamaanuja chaturvEdi  mangalam. He made srivaishnavaas live in 
that veedhi performing kainkaryam to the sannadhi and gave azhagiya
maNavaaLap  perumaaL naayanaar  the kainkaryam of maintaining the
sannadhi and taking care of the bhaagavathaas who came there.
Naayanaar undertook the kainkaryam with great enthusiasm and sincerety
and performed the kainkaryam flawlessly with an incomparable devotion 
towards emperumaanaar. On seeing his kainkaryam, and his love and
devotion towards  emperumaanaar,  thiruvaay mozhip piLLai gave naayanaar
the name 'yatheendrap pravaNar' and started addressing him by that name.
>From that day onwards, Azhagiya MaNavaaLa naayanaar became 'yatheendrap
praVaNar' to the sriVaishnavaas. 

aruLichcheyal of yathiraaja vimsati:

While yatheendrap pravaNar was performing the above kainkaryam in
azhwaar thirunagari, Thiruvaay mozhip PiLLai asked him to compose a
sthOthram on Yathiraajar . Yatheendrap PravaNar wrote yathiraaja 
vimsathi to fulfill the niyamanam of his aachaaryan. Yatiraaja vimsati
is a great example of  Yatheendrap pravaNar's love and devotion to 
emperumaanaar. 

Prathivaadhi Bayankaram ANNa has written a work called vara vara muni
sathakam, in which he writes in great detail about the maadhuryam and 
other qualities of Yatheendrap PravaNar's Yathiraaja vimsathi.


swaamikku thirukkumaarar avathariththal

At this time, when yatheendrap PravaNar was leading the life of a true
SriVaishnava, a  son was born to him. By his aachaaryan's niyamanam, he
 named his son as Iraamunusap piLLai.

thiruvaay mozhip PiLLai thirunaadu alankariththal:

Thus ThiruvaaymozhippiLLai was leading a life blessed with incomparable 
(aprathima sishya sampathth) sishyaas. As he became old,
thiruvaaymozhippiLLai desired to give up this life and wanted to go to
thirunaadu . PBA swami uses the following paasuram to bring out the 
yearning that  ThiruvaaymozhippiLLai had to attain his aachaaryan's
thiruvadi - 

            uththamanE ulakaariyanE! maRRoppaarai illaa
               viththakanE nallavEdhiyanE! vaNmudumbai mannaa
           sudhdhanan gnyaaniyar naRRuNaiyE sudhdhasaththuvanE!
               eththanai kaalamirundhu uzhalvEn ivvudambu koNdE!

[Rough paraphrasing in tamizh - Uththamaa, The Lord of the worlds!,
 One who has no comparison!, Oh one who is the companion of the people
 who have come to know the truth! How much longer will I be constrained
by being in this body]

 One day, piLLAi loKaachaariyaar appeared in thiruvaaymozhip PiLLai's
dreams and commanded him to undertake his journey to the place of 
limitless good , aachaaaryan's thiruvadi-  'nalam andhamilladhOr naadu'.
ThiruvaaymozhippiLLai gathered all his shishyaas and did kaalakshEpam 
of paasurams such as 'vaanERa vazhi thandha vaattaaRRaan paNivakaiyE, 
naanERap peRukinREn narakaththai nagu nenchE', and said  'mudhalikaaL,
today emperumaan's thiruvuLLam is such that He wishes to take me to my
aachaaryan's thiruvadi.  Hereafter, you all shoud not look upon azhagiya
maNavaaLa naayannar as a saamaanyar - You should look upon him as 
emperumaanaar's aparavaathaaram '. He then led naayanaar to the
aachaarya peedam, and said to him

'vareer, kulakkozhundhE, May our SriVaishnava sampradaayam attain
unrivalled greatness and fame under your guidance. As you have been 
doing all this time, I request that you continue to do pravachanam of 
our aazhwaar's and aachaaryas granthams. Our poorvaachaaryaas have 
always done nirvaaham of the Sri Vaishnava darshanam from thiruvarangam
periya kOil. Similarly, you should also go to Srirangam and spread the
SriVaishnava sampradaayam'.

He then went to the temple and did maNgaLaasaasanams to
polindhu ninRa piRaan and nammazhwaar and entrusted all his shishyaas
to Yatheendrap pravaNar.

After entrusting the shishyaas and the SV sampradaayam in the able hands
of naayanaar, Thiruvaaymozhip piLLai attained the Lord's lotus feet.
Naayanaar and his shishyaas performed the sarama kainkaryam to 
Thiruvaaymozhip PiLLai.

Thus, the torch of SriVaishnava darshanam, that was carried by such
aachaaryas as bhattar,nanjeeyar, nampillai after emperumanaar was passed
on to Yatheendrap  PravaNar by Thiruvaaymozhip PiLLai.


Aazhwaar emperumaanaar jeeyar thiruvadigaLE saranam,

Varadhan