Q:  What are the important features of the religion of qualified monism (visishta-advaitha) preached by Sri Ramanuja?

śrīmate rāmānujāya namaḥ   śrīmad varavaramunaye namaḥ

śrīśaileśa-dayāpātraṁ dhībhaktyādi-guṇārṇavam |

yatīndra-pravaṇaṁ vande ramya-jāmātaraṁ munim ||

Śvāmi Maṇavāḻa Māmuňigaḻ Vaibhavam

After the end of the tragic period of Turuṣka occupation comes the highest point in the glory of Śrīraṅgam, as Nampêrumāḻ returns home and lets Ādiśeṣan reappear as Svāmi Maṇavāḻa Māmuňigaḻ, entrusting him with the monumental task of taking up the work He started as the first ācāryan and carrying it to a state of completion, for the enjoyment and upliftment of posterity. Having been handed the entirety of all of our pūrvācāryars’s treasures, Svāmi Maṇavāḻa Māmuňigaḻ’s mission was to take them all, along with the various yojanais of these giant ācāryars, and show to the world how to line these up without conflict, right from basic sāmānya-śāstrams to saṁskṛta-veda-vedāntams to smṛti-itihāsa-purāna-āgamams to aruḻiccêyals to rahasyārthams and all the way to anuṣṭānam. Displaying more karuṇai than in his previous avatāram as Śvāmi Rāmānujar, Svāmi Maṇavāḻa Māmuňigaḻ is hailed to have written and taught with perfect clarity and accuracy, with utmost simplicity and explicitness, without a single inconsistency, and leaving nothing for deciphering by later generations. Svāmī is celebrated for his most refined style of discourse – full of sweetness and flow, yet tight and precise – unmatched even by other pūrvācāryars and appreciated over and over by ācāryas of extraordinary vidvat. Knowing Pêriyapêrumāḻ’s tiruvuḻḻam, Svāmi Maṇavāḻa Māmuňigaḻ authored detailed commentaries of the most important rahasya-granthams, topped by his glorious commentary to Svāmi Piḻḻailokācāryar’s all-encompassing, magnificent work, Śrī Vacana Bhūṣaṇam. This, combined with Svāmī’s insatiable indulgence in aruḻiccêyals, his caramaparva-niṣṭai towards his ācāryan Svāmi Tiruvāymôļippiḻḻai, and his atyanta-pāratantṛyam towards Svāmi Êmpêrumāňār, made Prathamācāryan decide to close the hāram(necklace) of pūrvācāryars with Svāmi Maṇavāḻa Māmuňigaḻ by taking him as His ācāryan. To unambiguously display this bhāvam of His to the world, he had Svāmi Maṇavāḻa Māmuňigaḻ conduct the famous year-long Īdu 36000paḍi pravacanam close to his āsthānam, directly experienced the pleasure of listening to it by physically being there at the expense of all his utsavams over the period, and reveled offering the taniyan ślokam above to Svāmī’s feet with the commandment that aruḻiccêyal sevai hereon be begun and ended with this taniyan. Ācārya-śreṣṭars of immeasurable pāṇḍityam and maṭhadhipatis of illustrious lineages recognized Svāmī’s greatness and sought his tiruvaḍi saṁbandham, thereby blessing the entire Śrīvaiṣṇava world with ŚrīRāmānuja Saṁbandham through this ācārya-sārvabhaumar. Fittingly, Svāmi Maṇavāḻa Māmuňigaḻ’s supremacy, sweetness and endless other divya-guṇams were extolled by great vidvāns through numerous literary works on him including Varavaramuni Dinacaryais, Varavaramuni Śatakams, Varavaramuni Suprabhātam, Varavaramuni Maṅgaḻam, several muktaka-ślokams and pācurams, Maṇavāḻa Māmuňigaḻ Kaṇṇinuṇciřuttāmbu, Maṇavāḻa Māmuňigaḻ Nūřřandādi, and kāvyams and vaibhava-granthams like Yatīndra-pravaṇa-prabhāvam.

 Let us imbibe Svāmi Maṇavāḻa Māmuňigaḻ’s divine qualities and whole-heartedly surrender at his feet wishing for his maṅgaḻam. 

śrīmate ramyajāmātṛ-munīndrāya mahātmane |

śriraṅga-vāsine bhūyāt nityashrīh nitya-maṅgaḻam ||

śrīmate rāmānujāya namaḥ   śrīmad varavaramunaye namaḥ

 lokācāryāya gurave kṛṣṇapādasya sūnave |

saṁsāra-bhogi-saṁdaṣṭa-jīva-jīvātave namaḥ ||

Svāmi Piḻḻailokācāryar tirunakṣatram- Oct 21, 2015

It was a golden age in Bhūlokavaikuṇṭam, when Êmpêrumāňār Daricaňam was marching ahead beyond Svāmi’s own victories with Śrībhāṣyam and Gītābhāṣyam. On one front, Svāmi Nampiḻḻai’s Bhagavad Viṣaya pravacanams were being digested and documented as 36000paḍi by Svāmi Vaḍakkuttiruvīdippiḻḻai; on another front, Svāmi Pêriyavāccāňpiḻḻai had authored vyākhyānams to the entire Aruḻiccêyal corpus, in addition to other key commentaries including the one for important verses of Śrīrāmāyaṇam; and on yet another front, Āļvār-Ācārya vaibhavams, their vacanams, anubhavams, ācaraṇams and upadeśams were gloriously captured in detail by Śvāmi Pinbaļagarām Pêrumāḻ Jīyar in his  6000paḍi and Vārtāmālai granthams. In this setting, as a fitting receptacle to the confluence of all of this divine knowledge, appeared Svāmi Piḻḻailokācāryar. On the day of Pôigai Āļvār’s tirunakṣatram in the year 1205 CE, Svāmi Piḻḻailokācāryar was born to Svāmi Vaḍakkuttiruvīdippiḻḻai out of Svāmi Nampiḻḻai’s grace and as an amśam of Kāñcī Devappêrumāḻ Himself. Svāmi Piḻḻailokācāryar led a blessed life of a naiṣṭhika-brahmacāri-vedāntin devoting undivided attention to the core message of our Vedic sampradāyam – the Rahasyatrayam. As is well-known, Svāmī wrote 18 granthams on this topic catering to the various aspects of understanding the rahasyārthams and to the various adhikārins that yearn to understand. One might attempt to sense the greatness and importance of Svāmi Piḻḻailokācāryar’s rahasya works by reflecting on the fact that these have outshone the rahasya works of even the towering ācārya, Svāmi Pêriyavāccāňpiḻḻai!

Svāmi Maṇavāḻa Māmuňigaḻ points out that the greatest among Svāmi Piḻḻailokācāryar’s 18 works is Śrī Vacana Bhūṣaṇam – the sāratama (ie., of undiluted essence) anuṣṭāna-grantham instructing how exactly a Śrīvaiṣṇava should think and act. Svāmi Maṇavāḻa Māmuňigaḻ also says that after a rigorous Śāstraic analysis the jewels of Pūrvācārya-Vacanams were embedded in the golden words of Svāmi Piḻḻailokācāryar to make the ornament of Śrī Vacana Bhūṣaṇam that decorates one’s ātman. The work was authored to instruct as wells as establish with strong defense the highly refined Veda-Matam and Vaidika-Anuṣṭānam of our Pūrvācāryars. As opposed to verse or running prose, the grantham adopts the sūtra style of traditional mīmāmsā, vouching for and standing by every syllable and word spoken, and supporting it with pramāṇam. The seven pāsurams of Upadecarattiňamālai put the importance of this grantham in perspective by placing it right at the very top and as the very end of all Śrīvaiṣṇava granthams.

It is primarily for giving us Śrī Vacana Bhūṣaṇam that the taniyan above hails Svāmi Piḻḻailokācāryar as the jīvātu (life-giving medicine) to jīvātmans bit by the saṁsāra-serpent. Without Śrī Vacana Bhūṣaṇam, the teachings and practices of our Pūrvācāryars that challenged commonly-held misbeliefs would not have been brought over and established to posterity as strictly Vedic. Svāmi Piḻḻailokācāryar’s kaiṁkaryam in the form of authoring Śrī Vacana Bhūṣaṇam is held on par with his other kaiṁkaryam of immeasurable greatness – giving his life to protect Nampêrumāḻ Himself from the Turuṣka marauders.

Svāmi Maṇavāḻa Māmuňigaḻ declares that it is near impossible to find a person that fully comprehends the deep meanings of Śrī Vacana Bhūṣaṇam, internalize them, and then bring them to the level of anuṣṭānam. Just like how Ādiśeṣan had to come down as Svāmi Rāmānujar to bring out the vedāntārthams captured in the Brahmasūtrams, Svāmi Rāmānujar had to be reborn as Svāmi Maṇavāḻa Māmuňigaḻ to bring out the hard-to-intuit arthams of Drāviḍavedāntam captured in Śrī Vacana Bhūṣaṇa sūtrams. Svāmi Maṇavāḻa Māmuňigaḻ’s vyākhyānam is universally revered for its lucidity and precision, without which, ācāryas say, the profound meanings of this all-important work of Svāmi Piḻḻailokācāryar would never have been understood.

Q:  What is the reason for the elders of yesteryears to frequently refer to and accord such an important
position to Vishnu Purana?

Q:  What is the meaning of the word, ‘purana’?

mātā pitā yuvatayaḥ tanayāḥ vibhūtiḥ sarvaṁ yadeva niyamena mad anvayānām|

ādyaḥ sa naḥ kulapateḥ vakuḻābhirāmaṁ śrīmat tadaṅghri yugaḻaṁ praṇamāmi mūrdhnā ||

There is no better way to understand the greatness of Svāmi Nammāļvār than by reflecting on the limitless reverence and bhakti our pūrvācāryas especially, Svāmi Rāmānuja, held towards him. Therefore, let us take some of our ācāryas and focus on how they saw Svāmi Nammāļvār.

Śrī Raṅganātha and Śrī Raṅga Nācciyār picked only Svāmi Nammāļvār for granting mayarvařa madinalam (flawless jñānam and bhakti). The Divine Couple also honoured Svāmi Nammāļvār by giving him the prefix ‘Nam’ meaning ‘Our’, displaying to the world the special regard they had for Āļvār. The Divya Dampatī celebrate several grand utsavams for Svāmi Nammāļvār such as the famous Adhyayana Utsavam, Tiruvaḍi Toļal, Vaikuṇṭa Vācal Tiřappu, in addition to Āļvār’s Tirunakṣatra Utsavam. Śrī Raṅganātha keeps Āļvār as his own Tiruvaḍi, which is named after him as Śrīśaṭakopam or Śaṭāri. Svāmi Nammāļvār’s love for Raṅganātha is matched only by Raṅganātha’s love for Āļvār. Śrī Raṅga Nācciyār shows even greater regard for Svāmi Nammāļvār, only because of whose intervention She takes back Raṅganātha letting go of her praṇayaroṣam against Him.

Madhurakavi Āļvār was the ultimate devotee of Svāmi Nammāļvār, as he knew of no greater God than him. He sings in deep gratitude towards Svāmi Nammāļvār for granting the hard Vedas in the enjoyable form and such that their deepest meanings stood firm in his heart. Tirumaṅgai Āļvār claims himself as ‘irum tamiļ nūl pulavaň’ which, our ācāryas point out, refers to his mastery of Tiruvāimoļi. He arranged for the elaborate celebration of the Adhyayana Utsavam for Svāmi Nammāļvār at Śrīraṅgam, and had Śrī Raṅganātha directly authorize and set in stone that Tiruvāimoļi is Veda-samam (equal to the Vedas).

Śrīman Nāthamuňigaḻ’s respect and devotion for Svāmi Nammāļvār and the Divya Prabandhams is most evident, as he brought back the lost paasurams through Āļvār’s Aruḻ and became the first ācārya. Nāthamuňigaḻ established against enormous opposition that Divya Prabandham is Veda-samam, apauruṣeyam (unauthored) and nityam (ever-existing). He devoted his life to spreading the Divya Prabandham by giving it music and started the tradition of handing it down to śiṣyas. The ‘bhaktāmṛtam’ taniyan shlokam sung by Śrīman Nāthamuňigaḻ summarizes his reverence towards Tiruvāimoļi.

Śrī Āḻavandār displays his complete and undivided bhakti of all forms towards Svāmi Nammāļvār through the ‘mātā pitā’ shlokam at the beginning of his greatest work, Stotraratnam. He bows down to Āļvār hailing him as “by rule, Āļvār is mother, father, objects of pleasure, sons, property, and everything to him and to everyone connected to him”.  In the previous shlokam he addresses the great maharṣi Parāśarar, bowing to him in gratitude for delineating tattva-hita-puruṣārthams for us. But he does so simply with a quick ‘Namah’ and moves on to the next ślokam declaring Āļvār as everything to him, beautifully elucidating the supreme importance of Āļvār over Ṛṣis.

Svāmi Rāmānujar’s ultimate devotion towards Āļvār is seen clearly through the many pāsurams of Rāmānuja Nūřřandādi, such as the very first one, where Svāmi Rāmānuja is hailed as ‘māřaň aḍipaṇindu uyndavaň’. The magnitude of Āļvār’s influence on Svāmi Rāmānujar is evident all though his Vedantic works, as is amply enjoyed and written about by experts. Among the various ways of experiencing it, one would be to contextually compare commentaries of other darśanas where the same Vedantic explanation is proffered, then to notice what Svāmi Rāmānujar says beyond the common explanation, and then to see that those are based on the Divya Prabandhams only. Traditional historic accounts of Svami Ramanuja’s life and kaiṁkaryams are replete with his successful efforts to bring Āļvār and Divya Prabandhams to prominence in everyday kaiṁkaryams at Śrīraṅgam and other Divya Deśams.

Sri Vedānta Desikar hails Svāmi Nammāļvār as the one because of whom the Vedas can now take rest. In Pādukāsahasram, he sings of Āļvār as Perumāḻ’s Tiruvaḍi, which He places on people’s heads solely to give them a connection with Svāmi Nammāļvār. He reveres the Divya Prabandhams as the key to understand the otherwise unintelligible parts of the Vedas.

Svāmi Maṇavāḻa Māmuňigaḻ held Svāmi Nammāļvār as greater than Namperumāḻ, as is evident in his Tiruvāimoļi Nūřřandādi pāsurams, where he says a hundred times that whatever Āļvār got from Perumāḻ, we will get from Āļvār by thinking and speaking of it. In Upadeśarattiňamālai, he highlights Svāmi Nammāļvār, Tiruvāimoļi and Tirukkurugūr are matchless. In Ārtipprabandham, he expresses that we are blessed with Nammāļvār’s works alone as our food and nourishment for our souls, and that we have the mental state expressed by Madhurakavi Āļvār as our state because of the latter’s bhakti towards Svāmi Nammāļvār.

On the tirunakṣatram of Svāmi Nammāļvār, let us listen to his greatness, attempt to understand his pāsurams, and recite them to give us uninterrupted service at the Lotus Feet of Śrīman Nārāyaṇa.

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śrīnagaryāṁ mahāpuryāṁ tāmraparňi uttaretaṭe |

śrī tintṛṇī mūla dhāmne śaṭakopāya maṅgaḻam ||

Āļvār Êmpermāňār Jīyar Tiruvaḍigaḻe Śaraṇam 

Swami Ramanuja - Week 3