Search:
Bhakti List Archives

svami manavala mamuni's vaibhavam - part 4

From the Bhakti List Archives

tavaradhan • October 20, 2001 


srImathE saTakOpAya namah
srImathE rAmAnujAya namah
srImathE anantArya mahAguravE namah
srImathE vara vara munayE namah

dear bhAgavathAs,

In the previous postings, we saw some of the details
of svami manavala mamuni's life till the time he
undertook sanyasashramam. This posting continues the
paraphrasing from that time onwards.

svami manavala mamuni spent his time, after becoming
a sanyasi, in srirangam, teaching his sishyas,
living a life that is considered to be the epitome 
and the highest example of a life that a servant
of god can lead. He further ensured that the services
to lord ranganatha were happening as per the 
norms set by svami ramanuja.

Several srivaishnavas, many of whom belonged to some
acharya purusha lineage, became sishyas of svami
manavala mamuni - thirumanjanam appa, bhattarpiran
jiyar, kandadai annan, singarayar are a few key
names. 

svami manavala mamuni undertook the permission of the
lord of srirangam, and proceeded to azhvar thirunagari
to do mangalasasanams to svami nammazhvar. on
the way, svami went to kuntee nagaram (the birthplace
of svami thiruvaymozhip pillai) and other divya
desams. in azhvar thirunagari, he stayed for 
sometime, giving upadesa to sishyas in that 
area of the Lord's land.

At this time, there was one sutra of a work called
acharya hrdayam, which svami manavala mamuni 
wanted to understand deeper. acharya hrdayam is
a work by svami azhagiya manavalap perumal nayanar,
the brother of svami pillai lokachariar. This 
work contains the concepts that were expressed
by nammazhvar in thiruvaymozhi, and is entirely
composed in manipravalam, with words that are
part of thiruvaymozhi. this is a standard rahasya
grantha for srivaishnavas, as it elucidates the
inner meanings of thiruvaymozhi in a concise
format. svami manavala mamunigal was looking
for an acharya that could elucidate on the meaning
of that paricular sutra which he wanted to
understand deeper. many elders gave a suggestion
that people in thirunarayanapuram (melkote) will
be able to give him that meaning, and he started
towards thirunarayanapuram.

meanwhile, in thirunarayanapuram, an acharya called
aay jananyachar had heard about the prabhavam of
the avatara of adisesha, and wanting to see him,
had already started from thirunarayanapuram to
azhvar thirunagari. svami janayachar was an expert
in acharya hrdayam, and had further written a
commentary on thiruppaavai (3000ppadi).

Both the acharyas met halfway, and after mutual
exchanging of respect and affection, returned to
azhvar thiruganari, where svami manavala mamuni
learnt the meanings of acharya hrdaya from aay
jananyachariar svami. here yatindra pravana
prabhavam narrates an incident that shows us
the greatness of aay janayachar svami -

when svami was in azhvar thirunagari, some 
jealous people in thirunarayanapuram spread a 
rumour saying that he had attained paramapadam,
and all of his belongings should be given
to the temple. the local people did so.
after some time aay jananyachar svami returned
to thirunarayanapuram. on hearing the happenings
there, svami became esctatic that the owner
of all the universe had taken his belongings
back, and that selvapillai takes the material
wealth of someone that He wishes to Grace.
He requested selvapillai to give him the
vigraha of gnyanap piran alone, and left all
of his remaining wealth with the temple.

in azhvar thirunagari, where svami manavala
mamuni was staying, some jealous people laid
fire to the matam where svami was staying. all
the sishyas and the local people were enveloped
in sorrow that svami might be hurt, and it is
said that svami took his sesha form, shielding
the fire from harming him, left the matam and
came among his sishyas. the perpetrators were
found. svami, with his infinite grace,
requested the king not to punish the perpetrators,
and gracefully allowed them to perform service
to srivaishnavas and took them as his sishyas.

svami performed numerous renovations, and
built several additions to the temples at
azhvar thirunagari and thiruk kurungudi. all
these were accomplished on svamis commande
by the local chieftain of that area. then,
svami returned back to srirangam and continued
the administration of the ramanuja sampradaya.

In a village called erumbi, near sholingar,
there was a great learned person called appa
svami. he had heard about svami manavala mamuni's
pravhavam from many people, and wanted to
see svami. his (erumbiappa's) father also gave him
permission to go to srirangam and see svami.
he reached srirangam. svami manavala mamuni,
knowing about the scholarship of erumbiappa,
gave him the due respect. erumbiappa was
staying at koil kandadai annan's residence.

one day, svami manavala mamuni gave to erumbiappa,
an upanyasam on the first pasuram of thiruvaymozhi-
uyarvu ara uyar nalam - it is recorded that
erumbiappa was surprised and remarked about 
his hearing only about svamis's knowledge of
tamizh, and having heard this upanyasam, he
felt the svami was a complete ubhaya vedanta
scholar. svami manavala mamuni further invited
erumbiappa to have food at the matam.

erumbiappa, at that time was a samanya sastra
scholar - as per the samanya sastra, he did
not eat at the matam, and left for erumbi.
[there is a sastra vakya that states that
one who eats the food of a sanyasi, or
the food sent by a sanyasi, or the food that
is in a vessel of a sanyasi, should undergo
penance in the form of chaandrayana vratham].

in erumbi, erumbiapps tried to open the
doors of his perumal sannadhi to perform
thiru aradhnam, but no matter how he tried,
the door would not open. with this, he was
very concerned and was worried about why
the lord was playing this leela on him.
to him, his Lord (rama) then told that the
real reason was the He was unhappy that
erumbiappa had committed a sin by not eating
at svami manavala mamunis matam, and that
He did not want thiruaradhanam performed 
by erumbiappa till the time he becomes a
sishya of manavala mamuni and obtains
forgiveness for his sin.

erumbiappa, realising his mistake, and the
greatness of svami manavala mamuni went
to srirangam, and became a sishya of svami.
after that, he wrote many many works on
svami manavala mamuni, the most importnat
of those being purva dinacharya, uttara
dinacharya and vara vara muni sathakam.

I will continue the parapharasing in the
next posts..

azhvar emperumanar jiyar thiruvadigale saranam

adiyen madhurakavi dasan,
varadhan



__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Make a great connection at Yahoo! Personals.
http://personals.yahoo.com


--------------------------------------------------------------
           - SrImate rAmAnujAya namaH -
To Post a message, send it to:   bhakti-list@yahoogroups.com
Archives: http://ramanuja.org/sv/bhakti/archives/
 

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/