CharmOpAya NirNayam English

charamOpAya nirNayam

charmOpAya nirNayam establishing the ultimate path for salvation uyya orE vazhi udayavar thiruvadi ( )

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PrefaceIn our srivaishnava sampradhAyam, AchAryan is identified as charamOpAyam. charama means end or ultimate. upAyam means that which gets us the goal (upEyam). Our pUrvAchAryas have established that AchAryan is the ultimate means for us to get the ultimate goal. Since in our sampradhAyam upAyam and upEyam are the same, it is imperative that AchArya kainkaryam is the ultimate goal as well.

emperumAnAr - sriperumbUthUr

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periyavAchAn piLLai explains in his mAnikka mAlai that, per vaduga nambi's words "AchArya padham is a special position and only emperumAnAr qualifies to be a perfect AchAryan". periyavAchAn piLLai's son (svIkAra puthran - adopted son) nAyanArAchAn piLLai is one of the great scholars of our sampradhAyam. He has written a beautiful commentary for chathuslOki. He has written a beautiful prose grantham named charamOpAya nirNayam. In this grantham he expertly establishes emperumAnAr's supremacy through the words of various emperumAns and various pUrvAchAryas.

periyavAchAn piLLai - thiruchEnganUr piLLai lOkAchAryar starts his srivachana bhUshaNa dhivya sAsthram with "vEdhArththam aRuthiyiduvathu smruthi ithihAsa purAnNanGgaLAlE" (

) meaning "The essence ofvEdham/vEdhAntham are understood through smrthi, ithihAsams and purANams". Towards the end, in sUthram 447, he says that "AchArya abhimAnamE uththArakam" (

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) meaning "It is the AchAryan's thoughts towards the sishyan thatwill uplift him from this samsAram". From this it is very clear that AchAryan is the means through which one can get the ultimate goal and the objective of vEdham/vEdhAntham is to establish this fact.

piLLai lOkAchAryar, maNavALa mAmuingaL srIperumbUthUr manavAla mAmunigaL identifies that our Srivaishnava sampradhAyam is emperumAnAr dharisanam as declared by NamperumAL. mAmunigaL shows this in his upadhEsa rathina mAlai 38th pAsuram. emperumAnAr dharichanam enRE ithaRku ( ) NamperumAL peyarittu NAtti vaiththAr ( ) ampuviyOr iNthath dharichanaththai emperumAnAr vaLarththa (

)aNthach cheyal aRigaikkA ( ) Simple translation: To reveal the greatness of emperumAnAr who groomed this great eternal sampradhAyam of srivaishnavam, NamperumAL declared that this sampradhAyam will be named as "emperumAnAr dharisanam". Out of his causeless mercy upon the suffering jIvAthmAs, emperumAnAr who is an avathAram of Adhi sEshan himself, reveals the hidden meanings of rahasya thrayam to those who have the desire to learn them and relieve themselves from this samsAram which is an ocean of misery.

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Also, mAmunigaL, in his upadhEsa rathina mAlai shows that, one has to learn the real truth from ones own AchArya in the first pAsuram as he learnt that from thiruvAimozhi piLLai. And in the last pAsuram, he shows that those who constantly meditate and practice such valuable instructions of their AchArya who is coming in this great srivaishnava guru paramparai will become the target of the mercy of emperumAnAr himself who will easily uplift such sishyas from this samsAram and place them under the lotus feet of emperumAn in paramapadham. Such are the glories of emperumAnAr that, nAyanArAchAn piLLai wrote a separate grantham to fully reveal them and enjoy them. Meditating on the lotus feet of asmadhAchAryan srImath paramahamsa ithyAdhi pattarpirAn rAmAnuja jIyar (29th pattam, vAnamAmalai mutt), adiyen is humbly attempting to translate this great work. adiyen have been fortunate enough to hear the grantha kAlakshEpam for this grantham from Sri U.Ve. iLayavilli bhUvarahAchAryar swamy. No other grantham has brought out emperumAnAr's glories in such detail. nAyanArAchAn piLLai takes us through a divine journey where he establishes emperumAnAr's supremacy step by step. Let us also attempt to traverse this journey ourselves. This grantham is in maNipravALa style (a mixture of tamizh and samskritha words) and as in many other pUrvAchArya granthams, has long sentences, phrases that are difficult to translate directly, etc. adiyen will attempt to present the essence of each section/paragraph as close as possible to the original text. adiyen is very thankful to many srivaishnavas who encouraged me and continues to encourage me in writing such articles. With the blessings of such srivaishnavas, our pUrvAchAryas, AzhwArs and sri-bhUmi-nILa samEtha emperumAn, adiyen is presenting this book to the larger srivaishnava community Keeping them in mind adiyen submit this small work at the thiruvadis of Srimath paramahamsa ithyAdhi kaliyan rAmAnuja jeeyar swAmy (30th pattam, varthamAna swAmy, vAnamAmalai mutt). adiyen sarathy ramanuja dasan Email: [email protected] Web: http://ponnadi.blogspot.com , http://guruparamparai.wordpress.com NaNdhaNa - mArgazhi - thiruvAdhirai, puLLin vAy kInNdAnai (Dec 28th, 2012) - - ,

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asmadhAchAryan

Srimath paramhamsa ithyAdhi pattarbhirAn rAmAnuja jeeyar (29th pattam, vAnamAmalai mutt)

varthmAna swAmy

Srimath paramhamsa ithyAdhi kaliyan rAmAnuja jeeyar (30th pattam, vAnamAmalai mutt)

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Table of ContentsInvocation ........................................................................................................................................................... 8 thirumudi sambandham .....................................................................................................................................14 uththAraka AchAryas ..........................................................................................................................................21 rAmAnujar's AchAryas establish his uththArakathvam ........................................................................................25 rAmAnujar's avathAra rahasyam ........................................................................................................................32 rAmAnujar's glories revealed ..............................................................................................................................37 rAmAnujar our saviour 1 ..................................................................................................................................41 rAmAnujar our saviour 2 ..................................................................................................................................47 rAmAnujar our saviour - 3 ..................................................................................................................................51 Conclusion..........................................................................................................................................................55 Appendix Summary of Events (vishaya sUchikai) ..............................................................................................59

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Invocation

emperumAnAr kAlakshEpa gOshti - embAr, AzhwAn, ANdAn, aruLALa perumAL emperumAnAr nAyanArAchAn piLLai thanians sruthyarththa sArajaNakam smruthibAlamithram padhmOllasadh bhagavadhanGgri purAnNa bhaNdhum jnYANAdhirAjam abhayapradharAja puthram asmathgurum paramakArunNikam NamAmi

I worship my most merciful AchAryan nAyanArAchAn piLLai who extracts and shows the essence of vEdham, who is like a gentle sun which blooms the smruthi which are like lotuses, who is eternally related to srIman nArAyaNan's lotus feet, who is an emperor of all true knowledge and who is the dear son of abhayapradharAjar (periyavAchAn piLLai).

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abhayapradhapAdha dhEchikOdhbhavam gurumIdE NijamAdharEnNa chAham ya ihAkilalOka jIvaNAdhara: charamOpAya viNirnNayam chakAra

: I offer my loving worship to my AchAryan nAyanArAchAn piLLai who is the dear son of abhayapradhapAdhar (periyavAchAn piLLai) and who wrote charamOpAya nirNayam to uplift everyone in this world. This beautiful grantham starts with 4 invocation slOkams that are written by nAyanArAchAn piLLai himself in glorification of periyavAchAn piLLai and spelling out the purpose of this grantham. abhayapradha pAdhAkyam asmath dhEchikam AchrayE yath prasAdhAdh aham vakshyE charamOpAya NirnNayam

I surrender to periyavAchAn piLLai who is my AchAryan and famously known as abhayapradhapAdhar (because he established the greatness of sharaNAgathi and emperumAn's sarva lOka sharaNyathvam). I am going to compile this charamOpAya nirNayam purely out of his grace. asmajjaNaka kArunNya sudhA saNdhukshithAthmavAN karOmi charamOpAya NirnNayam mathpithA yadhA

I was born out of the divine mercy of my father periyavAchAn piLLai. I am establishing the ultimate path of salvation following in the footsteps of periyavAchAn piLLai. asmadhuththArakam vaNdhE yathirAjam jagathgurum yathkrupAprEritha: kurmi charamOpAya NirnNayam

:

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I worship yathirAjar who is the AchAryan for the whole world and the one who uplifts us. By being urged by his mercy, I am establishing the utlimate path of salvation. pUrva apara guru ukthaichcha svapNavruththair yathIchabhAk kriyathEdhya mayA samyak charamOpAya NirnNayam

S I am clearly establishing the ultimate path of salvation to be emperumAnAr through the divine srIsUkthis (words) of AchAryas who appeared before and after emperumAnAr and through the various incidents which were seen and explained in the svapnams (dreams) of reliable persons. It is because of the fact that the ultimate path of salvation is established in this grantham it became to be known as charamOpAya nirNayam. Even though srivaishnavas are firmly situated in their AchAryas and confident that their own AchArya will uplift them from this samsAram, since all the AchAryas themselves instructs their sishyas to fully depend on udayavar, only udayavar can be identified as uththArakar (one who can uplift some one from samsAram to place them under the lotus feet of emperumAn in paramapadham) for everyone. As seen in the following slOkam (which is subsequently quoted by piLLai lOkam jIyar as a work of periyavAchAn piLLai in his wonderful work srivaishnava samayAchAra nishkarsham), it is well known that the quality of being an AchArya manifests fully in udayavar. This is also highlighted by vaduga nambi's words that "AchArya padham is a special position and it fully fits to emperumAnAr only" (We have already seen this in the previous article). vishnNu: chEshI thadhIya: chubhagunNaNilayO vigraha: srIchatAri: srImAN rAmANujArya: padhakamalayugam bAthi ramayam thadhIyam thasmiN rAmANujAryE gururithi cha padham bhAthi NANyathra thasmAth chishtam srImathgurUnNAm kulamidhamakilam thasya NAthasya chEsha:

: : : : : :vishNu is the master of everyone. NammAzhwAr who is filled with good qualities is his vigraham (thirumEni/divine manifestation). emperumAnAr who is a kainkarya srImAn is the lotus feet of NammAzhwAr. The word (and its meaning) of "AchAryan" brilliantly glows on emperumAnAr. So, the whole guruparamparai is subservient to emperumAnAr. All the AchAryas before emperumAnAr were able to see what is coming in the future. Because of that they firmly followed and preached the words of NammAzhwAr from thrivAimozhi 5.2.1 "kaliyum kedum" ( ) meaning kali will be destroyed by the appearance of emperumAnAr. Even though they have firm faith in emperumAn and their own AchAryan,

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considering their relationship with emperumAnAr they would constantly meditate on emperumAnAr's uththArgathvam. Relationship can be two ways - ArOhaNa (ascending) and avarOhaNa (descending). Ascending means going up the chain (i.e., AchAryan, his AchAryan, etc) and descending means going down the chain (sishyan, his sishyan, etc). In both ways, emperumAnAr is the root. Of these two ways, the ascending chain has an end at emperumAn srIman nArAyaNan who is the first AchAryan and the descending chain is endless since it keeps growing with each AchAryan and his sishyas and so on. These relationships are centered on emperumAnAr.

As it is seen in the OrAN vazhi guru paramaparai (starting with emperumAn and ending with mAmunigaL) emperumAnAr is the AchAryan right in the middle. Just like when a diamond is placed in the center of a pearl string, both sides of the string shines much more, through his presence in the middle, empeumAnAr brings out the glories of the guru paramparai in either sides of him, even more. Since emperumAnAr is right in the middle, he becomes the mediator for both sides. Just like nama: padham (that is in the center) in thirumanthram helps to relieve

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the hurdles of the jIvAthmAs, emperumAnAr (who is in the center of the AchArya rathna hAram) also dispels the miseries of jIvAthmAs. nama: padham represents the upAyam, so we can understand the emperumAnAr is the upAyam for everyone. It is because of this the following slOkam came into existence. arvAnYchO yath padha sarasija dhvaNdhvam Asrithya pUrvE mUrdhnA yasyANvayam upagathA dhEsikA mukthimApu: sOyam rAmANuja muNir api svIya mukthim karasthAm yath sambhaNdhAdh amaNutha katham varnNyathE kUraNAtha:

: :AchAryas after emperumAnAr established that they get mOksham due to emperumAnAr's thirvadi (lotus feet) sambandham with them. AchAryas before emperumAnAr established that they get mOksham due to emperumAnAr's thirumudi (head) sambandham. Such emperumAnAr declared that he gets mOksham due to his sambandham with AzhwAn. How can we spell out the glories of such kUrathAzhwAn? Note: The point of relevance for this grantham is in the first 2 lines of this slOkam. This AchAryathvam is of 2 types - svANuvruththi prasaNNAchchAryathvam ( ) meaning AchAryas who test their sishyas to the maximum and give out the rahasya meanings and krupAmAthra prasaNNAchchAryathvam ( ) meaning AchAryas who give out the rahasya meanings to the sishyas fully out of their own mercy looking at the sufferings in this samsAram. Of these two, the former (svAnuvruthi prasannAchAryas) are seen more commonly and the latter (krupAmathra prasannAchAryas) are seen occassionally. An ordinary sishya can be confident of achieving the ultimate salvation only while being surrendered to a krupAmAthra prasannAchAryan since it is impossible to please a svAnuvruthi prasannAchArya for an ordinary sishya who does not have the patience, determination and ability to act according to sAsthram. In this relation, during a conversation between ANdAn and AzhwAn, AzhwAn insists that only krupAmAthra prasannAchAryas can uplift everyone. periyavAchAn piLLai often quotes aruLALa perumAL emperumAnAr's jnAna sAram pAsuram 36 "maththagaththuth than thAL aruLAlE vaiththa avar" ( ) meaning the krupAmAthra prasannAchArya who mercifully placed his lotus feet on the head of his sishyas to relieve them of their miseries. Just like paragatha svIkAram (over svagatha svIkAram) is more suitable for jIvAthma svarUpam in prathama parvam (i.e., emperumAn accepting us voluntarily out of his mercy instead of us insisting him to accept us), the same thing applies in charama parvam (in AchAryan vishayam) as well - so it is more suitable for the sishya svarUpam if the AchAryan himself voluntarily accepts the sishyan and blesses him/her with the divine knowledge. So, uththArakthvam fully manifests in krupAmAthra prasannAchAryas only.

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sOmAsiyANdAn explains AchArya vaibhavam in guru guNAvaLi through the following slOkam: yassAparAdhAN svapadhaprapaNNAN svakIyakArunNya gunNENa pAthi sa Eva mukyO gururapramEyas thadhaiva sadhbhi: parikIrthyadhEhi

: The AchAryan out of his utmost mercy who protects and delivers the sishya who is surrendered to him - that AchAryan is the most important one. This is identified by trustworthy persons. Such krupAmAthra prasannAchAryas will also have uththArakathvam (the ability to uplift jIvAthmAs). But this uththArakathvam fully manifests in udayavar only.

Out of his own difficult personal endeavours he pleased thirukkOshtiyUr nambi and received the charama slOkam meanings. But out of his own mercy, he gave out those most secret meanings to the ones who desired to learn them. This shows his utmost kAruNyam (grace). There was an arayar swAmy named rAja mahEndhra perumAL arayar. He had a son named arangamALikai who did not listen to his father's instructions and had bad friendship. Coming to know about this, udayavar sent his disciples to fetch him and bring him over to meet with him. udayavar tells him "dear son! even if you leave me, I am not going to leave you" and brings him over to his thiruvArAdhana perumAL pEraruLALan and re-establishes emperumAn's sambhandham to him, instructs him with all the rahasya meanings, places his lotus feet on arangamALikai's head and asks him if he is able to understand the difference between his lotus feet and the other feet he was behind before. He tells him that his lotus feet will lead him to mOksham while the other feet will lead him to narakam and asks him to always depend on his lotus feet. After that arangamALikai had constant faith on emperumAnAr's lotus feet and followed the proper principles. periyavAchAn piLLai personally explained this incident to me (nAyanArAchAn piLLai) and developed my faith/confidence in udayavar's lotus feet.

From these 2 incidents learned persons will understand and accept the uththArakathvam of udayavar. To establish it further we will see the divine words and incidents seen in the dreams of the AchAryas before udayavar subsequently.

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thirumudi sambandham

nAthamunigaL receiving bhavishyadhAchAryan from nammAzhwAr When NammAzhwAr, out of his kAruNyam, was teaching thiruvAimozhi to nAthamunigaL (nAthamunigaL recited kaNNinuN chiruthAmbu 12000 times at once and pleased NammAzhwAr who taught him aruLicheyal and all the meanings along with ashtAnga yOgam), during 5.2.1 - "poliga poliga" ( ) meaning glories! glories!, since AzhwAr was thrikAlagya (one who knows past, present and future) based on emperumAn's mercy, he reveals the divine avathAram of udayavar to nAthamunigaL and says "kaliyum kedum kanNdu konNmin" ( ) meaning kali will be destroyed. AzhwAr further says "A great personality is going to appear in this prapanna kulam. The whole world is going to be uplifted by him" to nAthamunigaL. Hearing this nAthamunigaL becomes ecstatic. Wanting to know more, he adds music to "payananRAgilum" () pAsuram from kaNNinuN chiruthAmbu (10) and sings the same in front of AzhwAr, pleasing him very much and asks him "Since you are sarvagyar you will know everything. Please demonstrate the physical beauty of that great personality". In the night, AzhwAr appears in nAthamunigaL's

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dream with kAshAyam, thridhaNdam, dvAdhasa Urdhva puNdrams, beautiful long hands, very beautiful glowing thirumEni, etc. He has beautiful face which indicates the flowing mercy, a beautiful smile and red eyes (showing vAthsalyam - motherly forbearance) and tells nAthamunigaL that this is how udayavar will look like and all members of this prapanna kulam will benefit by their connection to udayavar. Suddenly nAthamunigaL wakes up from his sleep and immediately prostrates in front of AzhwAr and tells him that AzhwAr's presentation as udayavar is more attractive than AzhwAr's svayam (original) thirumEni (form). AzhwAr replies to him saying "that is no surprise, as the whole world is going to be attracted towards udayavar". nAthamunigaL subsequently asks AzhwAr how to constantly worship this bhavishyadhAchAryan (future AchAryan) form? AzhwAr appears in the dream of a sculptor as bhavishyadhAchAryan and orders him to make a vigraham (uthsava mUrthy) sitting under the divine tamarind tree. The sculptor arrives there the next morning and without break spends time at constructing this thirumEni (as seen in the dream). Once the vigraham is built, AzhwAr installs divine powers in that vigraham, invites nAthamunigaL and presents him that vigraham. He tells nAthamunigaL, "just like iLaya perumAL (lakshmaNan) is considered as the right hand of perumAL (srI rAman), think about this bhavishyadhAchAryan as my part (lotus feet)". He also says "Since I am the origin for this bhavishyadhAchAryan, he will also be my lotus feet, he will fulfill all my desires. In your family, we are going to see one person who will meet this bhavishyadhAchAryan directly. This person will appear in the same month as when srI rAman's pattAbhishEkam was due (chithirai) and like gIthai (which contains 18 adhyAyams) revealed emperumAn's upAyathvam, this person will appear on the 18th nakshathram (thiruvAdhirai) from my own (visAkam). You worship this vigraham like you worship myself" and gives him a farewell to kAttu mannAr kOil. periyavAchAn piLLai often mentions that "At that time nAthamunigaL compiles and recites the following slOkam out of upakAra smruthi towards AzhwAr." yassvAbhAva kAlE karunNAkarassaN bhavishyadhAchchAryaparasvarUpam saNdharchayAmAsa mahAnubhAvam tham kArisUNum charanNam prapadhyE I surrender unto nammAzhwAr who is the son of kAri and who showed me the divine form of bhavishyadhAchAryan in my dream of his unlimited grace. Also, periyavAchAn piLLai tells that this was kept as top secret and was revealed through OrAN vazhi only to the most confidential disciples. Thus nAthamunigaL learnt all the 4000 dhivya prabhandhams and returned to vIranArAyaNa puaram (kAttu mannAr kOil). He recited the dhivya prabhandhams in front of mannanAr emperumAn there and received all honors from the emperumAn. He then reached his thirumALigai and invited his nephews kIzhai agathu AzhwAn and mElai agathu AzwAn, explains them about the special mercy he got from AzhwAr and the divine form AzhwAr showed in his dream. They both became astonished hearing about this and were satisfied that they got some how got related to such mahAnubhAvar (great personality). After that, nAthamunigaL was teaching dhvaya mahA manthrams meanings through thriruvAimozhi to his dear sishya thirukkaNNamangai ANdAn (who is very well qualified to be a proper sishya).

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During "poliga poliga" (thiruvAimozhi 5.2.1) pAsuram, nAthamunigaL explains the divine words of AzhwAr and the incidents seen in his dream. Hearing this thirukkaNNamangai ANdAn mentions that "I am so fortunate to have the sambhandham of dhEvarir who has seen the divine form of bhavishyadhAchAryan in your dream". After that nAthamunigaL explains the same to uyyakkoNdAr, kurugai kAvalappan and his own son Ishwara munigaL. He instructs kurugai kAvalappan to practice ashtAnga yOgam, uyyakkoNdAr to lead the sampradhAyam and Ishwara muni to name his soon to appear son yamunai thuraivar. During his final days, he invites uyyakkoNdAr, asks him to take a vow of not revealing this to every one, presents the bhavishyadhAchAryan vigraham to him and tells him to present the same to the future son of Ishwara munigaL at the right time saying that this vigraham is the object of adoration of nAthamunigaL himself and to fully depend on that great personality. Meditating on that vigraham and saying "AzhwAr thiruvadigaLE sharaNam", nAthamunigaL ascends to paramapadham and becomes a part of the adiyArs in nithya vibhUthi. While uyyakkoNdAr along with other sishyas of nAthamunigaL happily propagating the sampradhAyam, once while maNakkAl nambi and thiruvallikkENi pAN perumAL arayar who are the sishyas of uyyakkONdAr were learning thiruvAimozhi from their AchAryan, during "poliga poliga" pAsuram, for "kaliyum kedum", uyyakkoNdAr explains to them all the incidents that are learnt from nAthamunigaL. Astonished at hearing this, maNakkAl nambi and thiruvallikkENi pAN perumAL arayar said who is going to get the great benediction of seeing such bhavishyadhAchAryan like nAthamunigaL? uyyakkoNdAr informs them that when such bhavishyadhAchAryan appears the whole world will surrender unto him and every one will have to have his relationship. In his final days, he invites his prime sishya maNakkAl nambi (who fully served him for 12 years), he again explains the incidents to him again. When nambi asks him who is going to lead this sampradhAyam after uyyakkoNdAr, uyyakkoNdAr nominates nambi himself who is a direct sishya of himself. He also informs nambi that Ishwara munigaL will have a child soon in the sottai kulam (srEshta kulam of nAthamunigaL) and after that we need not worry since yamunai thuraivar will identify the bhavishyadhAchAryan to lead the sampradhAyam to great heights as foretold by nAthamunigaL. He then presents the bhavishyadhAchAryan vigraham to maNakkAl nambi and tells him that he was unfortunate not to have given that directly to yamunai thuraivar (since he had not born yet) and asks him to present the same to yamunai thuraivar saying that this was very dear to nAthamunigaL (his grandfather). He also asks nambi to explain the background of the bhavishyadhAchAryan vigraham to yamunai thuraivar. Subsequently maNakkAl nambi goes to yamunai thuraivar who is taking care off administrative duties and reforms him (this can be read at http://guruparamparai.wordpress.com/2012/08/25/manakkal-nambi/). He then brings ALavandhAr to srIrangam and as per the orders of uyyakkoNdAr, explains all the rahasya meanings of our sampradhAyam and the background of bhavishyadhAchAryan's appearance. He instructs ALavandhAr to lead the sampradhAyam with many srivaishNavas and ALavandhAr obliges as such. During his final days in this leelA vibhUthi, nAthamunigaL appears in the dream of maNakkAl nambi and tells him "to go and search for the bhavishyadhAchAryan who has appeared and will uplift the whole world and also present the bhavishyadhAchAryan vigraham to ALavandhAr which is very dear to me". nambi asks him "Why nAthamunigaL instructs him to do this?". nAthamunigaL replies that "My heart will be very pleased when my grand son ALavandhAr sees this bhavishyadhAchAryan directly whom I only saw in my dream". Realising what happened in his dream, nambi becomes astonished by the events and is very pleased that by the causeless mercy of nAthamunigaL he becomes the messenger to do this. At that time ALavandhAr arrives to meet nambi and nambi tells him

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"Your grandfather out of his causeless mercy, appeared to me and asked me to convey this secret message to you" and explained the whole incident. Hearing this, initially ALavandhAr becomes saddened that he did not get it directly (thereby he would have met his grandfather nAthamunigaL), but then becomes very pleased since he got it through his dear AchAryan. nambi then presents the bhavishyadhAcharyan vigraham to ALavandhAr and tells him that "this is very dear to your grandfather and he asks you to fully depend on this bhavishyadhAchAryan vigraham, you ensure that his avathAra rahasyam is kept secret. You are going to meet and identify this person as the next leader of our sampradhAyam and he will take our sampradhAyam to great heights". ALavandhAr subsequently leads our sampradhAyam from srIrangam and takes care off the vigraham very nicely and secretly. Like maNakkAl nambi instructed, he starts looking for the great AchAryan and since he was unable to locate him, he becomes very saddened. At that time he hears about iLayAzhwAr's charithram from some srivaishnavas and visits perumAL kOil (kAnchipuram). Through thirukkachi nambi, ALavandhAr sees iLayAzhwAr at kariya mAnikka perumAL sannidhi and also verifies his thirunakshathram to be thiruvAdhirai. Since all 3 conditions match (his greatness, his physical appearance matching the vigraham and his thirunakshathram based on AzhwAr's own words), he decides that iLayAzhwAr is the bhavishyadhAchAryan and blesses him with his katAksham and declares that "Am mudhalvan ivan" ( ).

ALavandhAr blessing iLayAzhwAr in kAnchipuram

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In his final days, he invites thirukkOshtiyUr nambi, presents the bhavishyadhAchAryan vigraham to him and explains the background fully. He also informs him that bhavishyadhAchAryan is none other than iLayAzhwAr who has appeared as the shining light of the prapanna kulam to uplift everyone and asks him to teach all the rahasya meanings to iLayAzhwAr. He also says our dharisanam will eventually be popularly known by his name as emperumAnAr dharisanam or rAmAnuja sampradhAyam. At his last moments, when all the srivaishnavas request him to give them valuable instructions, ALavndhAr says he has identified iLayAzhwAr as the next AchAryan (based on nammAzhwAr thiruvuLLam) and is leaving to paramapadham with a heavy heart saddened by the fact that he did not have the association of iLayAzhwAr. Thus all the AchAryas before emperumAnAr declared that emperumAnAr is the uththAraka AchAryan. How is it possible to say that emperumAnAr is the uththAraka AchAryan for the AchAryas before him? The following slOkam is in varAha purANam which explains how the pithrus in the pithru lOkam will be happy to see a vaishnavan in their family and treat him as the opportunity to uplift them as well. AspOtayaNthi pithara: praNthruthyaNthi pithAmahA: vaishnNavO Na: kulE jAtha: sa Na: saNthArayishyathi : : : : : Even though the pithrus are in a different (pithru) lOkam already, when a vaishnava appears in their family they treat him as his deliverer. nAthumunigaL, etc are already in paramapadham. But when AdhisEshan who is the leader of nithyasUris appeared in prapanna kulam as iLayAzhwAr, there is nothing contradictory in accepting him as the deliverer. This is explained further in the next section. But the next question here is, for pithrus in the pithru lOkam, since they dont have vaishnavathvam (by the fact that they are in pithru lOkam) and for them also the ultimate destination is paramapadham, they need a vaishnavan who can be a deliverer. So, there is no question that they consider a vaishnavan in their family (who appears after them) as their deliverer. But for nAthamunigaL, etc., they themselves are leaders amongst vaishnavas and have also reached the ultimate destination paramapadham. So, they dont need a deliverer anymore and it seems contradictory that they consider bhavishyadhAchAryan as their deliverer. No, it is not so. For nAthamunigaL, nammAzhwAr is the uththAraka AchAryan (deliverer) - there is no doubt about that. Even though nAthamunigaL has complete faith in AzhwAr's lotus feet as his upAyam, since AzhwAr himself identifies bhavishyadhAchAryan (iLayAzhwAr) as a part of himself similar to lakshmaNan is identified as srI rAman's right hand (rAmasya dhakshiNO bAhu:). AzhwAr also said "Since I am the origin of this great person, he will be considered as my lotus feet", nAthamunigaL becomes firmly situated on AzhwAr's words and develops great attachment towards bhavishyadhAchAryan. He gives this secret knowledge to uyyakkoNdAr, uyyakkoNdAr to maNakkAl nambi, maNakkAl nambi to ALavandhAr and ALavandhAr to his sishyas - periya thirumalai nambi, thirukkOshtiyUr nambi, thirumAlai ANdAn, periya nambi, thiruvaranga perumAL arayar, etc. As per "kodumin

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konNmin" ( ) (thirumAlai) and thasmai dhEyam thathO grAhyam (gAruda purANam) meaning my bhakthan who has 8 qualities [1) unconditional love for bhakthas of emperumAn, 2) enjoying (others) worship of emperumAn, 3) worshipping emperumAn him/herself, 4) being without any pride, 5) having attachment in listening about emperumAn, 6) having bodily changes (like goose bumps, etc) when hearing/thinking/speaking about emperumAn, 7) always thinking about emperumAn, 8) not asking material benefits in return for worshipping emperumAn] is most worshippable like myself and one should give and accept knowledge from him, these prime sishyas of ALavandhAr wanting to have their sambandham established with udayavar, established AchArya sambhandham towards emperumAnAr (i.e., became emperumAnAr's AchAryans), made their own children to become the sishyas of emperumanAr and considered their children's relationship to emperumAnAr is greater than their own relationship with their children. Just like when emperumAn accepted gaNtAkarNan, it also favoured gaNtAkarNan's brother who did not even surrender to emperumAn. When emperumAn accepted vibhIshaNAzhwAn, the four rAkshasas who came with him also benefited with the same result. When prahlAdhAzhwAn was accepted by emperumAn, emperumAn's mercy reached to prahlAdhAzhwAn's relatives also. The same way iLayAzhwAr's 5 AchAryas considered that their children should also have sambhandham of emperumAnAr. If we can observe that emperumAn who is common for both bandham and mOksham (based on ones own karma and prapathi) will give his mercy to all the relatives of the ones who surrendered to him, what to speak of emperumAnAr who is only focussed on giving mOksham to everyone who desires for that. For these AchAryas to depend on emperumAnAr who appears after them in guru paramparai, nAthamunigaL's words are the foundation. These 5 AchAryas became AchAryas (based on ALavandhAr's instructions) to emperumAnAr just to establish emperumAnAr's link in the guru paramparai.

ALavandhAr instructing his 5 sishyas to teach rahasya meanings to emperumAnAr

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AchAryathvam is of two types - uththAraka AchAryathvam (uplifting the sishya from samsAram) and upakAraka AchAryathvam (connecting the sishya to an AchArya who will uplift them from samsAram). These 5 AchAryas of emperumAnAr only have upakArakathvam, since they connect udayavar with nammAzhwAr through the guru paramparai. If they themselves had uththArakathvam they would have themselves performed samAshrayaNam to their children - instead they got them to surrender to emperumAnAr who is the lotus feet of nammAzhwAr - thus having uththArakathvam in full.

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uththAraka AchAryasAs we have already seen there are two types of AchAryas - uththAraka AchAryas who can themselves uplift us from samsAram and place us in paramapadham and upakAraka AchAryas who will lead us to such uththAraka AchAryas. uththArakthvam (ability to uplift/deliver a jIvAthmA from samsAram to paramapadham) is manifested in 3 different personalities - emperumAn, nammAzhwAr and udayavar. uththArkathvam can be seen only in persons who can control ubhayavibhUthi (nithya vibhUthi paramapadham and leelA vibhUthi - samsAram). (Beyond vEdham declaring in many places that emperumAn is the controller) emperumAn himself declares that he is the controller of ubhayavibhUthis in vishvaksEna samhithai "asyA mama cha chEsham hi vibhUthirubhayAthmikA" ( ) meaning both nithya vibhUthi and leelA vibhUthi are subservient to me and pirAtti.

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nammAzhwAr in thiruvAimozhi 6.8.1 says "ponnulagALIrO bhuvanimuzhuthALirO" ( ) meaning "Oh birds! Please go and explain my plight to emperumAn, I will let you live and control nithya vibhUthi or leelA vibhUthi (per your choice)". Here, AzhwAr himself declares that he is able to control both the worlds by the mercy of emperumAn.

periyaperumAL gave ubhaya vibhUthi sAmrAjyam to emperumAnAr and thus he became to be popularly known as udayavar. So, uththArakthvam is established in emperumAnAr also.

namperumAL declaring emperumAnAr as udayavar (controller of both vibhUthis)

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Of these 3 personalities, uththArakathvam is well established in emperumAnAr. When emperumAn gave divine knowledge to AzhwAr and planned to reform the world through him and bring many suffering jIvAthmAs towards him, within 32 years of his appearance, AzhwAr out of his unbearable sorrow in separation from emperumAn, started crying out "kUvikkoLLum kAlam innum kuRugAthO" ( ) meaning when are you going to deliver me to paramapadham, "eNNAL yAnunnai ini vaNthu kUduvanE" ( ) meaning when will I come and serve you in paramapadham, "manGgavottu un mAmAyai" ( ) meaning Please give up your attachment for this AzhwAr's thirumEni (When emperumAn has so much attachment for AzhwAr's jIvitha thirumEni, AzhwAr instructs that it should be given up since it is part of prakruthi and asks him to deliver to parampadham where he will get a divine thirumEni) and so on. Soon, he got mOksham and left samsAram. To accomplish his mission (of delivering many jIvAthmAs) emperumAn made udayavar live for a long 120 years and reformed the whole world through emperumAnAr. The abundance of srivaishnavas was more in emperumAnAr's times than AzhwAr's times. It is because of the wholistic manifestation of uththArakathvam in emperumAnAr. AzhwAr himself says in thiruvAimozhi 5.2.1 that "kadalvanNnNan bhUthanGgaL manNmEl maliyappuguNthu ichai pAdiyAdi enGgum uzhi tharak kanNdOm" ( ) meaning "I have seen in the future (kali yugam - during emperumAnAr's time) the abundance of devotees who cannot sustain even a single moment without emperumAn srIman nArAyaNan, fearlessly go everywhere and sing his glories". So, from this it is clear that emperumAnAr is the deliverer for all. Speaking about AchAryathvam, krupAmAthra prasannAchAryathvam is fully seen in udayavar only. Suffering for others' sufferings and unlimited mercy is present in udayavar. Since this is a great quality it is rarely seen even amongst AchAryas. That is why kaNNan emperumAn who wanted himself to be an AchAryan acted like svAnuvruthi prasannAchAryan. Arjunan asked him in gIthai 2.7 "yachchrEyas syANNichchitham brUhi thaNmE chishyas thESham chAdhimAm thvAm prapaNNam" ( S ) meaning "I am your disciple now. You see what is best for me and let me know. I will follow that". Being a svAnuvruthi prasannAchAryan himself, he instructed arjunan to go to an AchArya and perform kainkayam for him and learn the real truth from him in 4.34 "thadh vidhdhi pranNipAthENa pari prachNEna sEvayA, upadhEkshaNthi thE jnYANam jnYANiNas thathva dharchiNa:" ( , :). So, krupA mAthra prasannAchAryathvam is fully manifested in AzhwAr and emperumAnAr (who appeared out of AzhwAr's divine thiruvuLLam) only. So, to summarize, in the above section, we have seen that emperumAn, even though is having uththAkathvam, he is generally presenting himself as svAnuvruthi prasannAchAryan. AzhwAr is having uththArakathvam as well as unlimited krupai for the suffering souls, but he himself could not bear the separation from emperumAn, so left samsAram at a very young age. On the other hand, emperumAnAr, being the thiruvadi nilai (lotus feet) of AzhwAr, has unlimited mercy

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for the suffering souls and also established abundance of srivaishnavas during his long stay in samsAram. So, emperumAnAr, being the top most krupA mAthra prasannAchAryan, he is the full manifestation uththAraka AchAryan.

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rAmAnujar's AchAryas establish his uththArakathvamFurther, AchArya dhivyasUkthis (divine words) that establish emperumAnAr's uththArakathvam are discussed now.

5 AchAryas of udayavar (periya nambi, thirukkOshtiyUr nambi, periya thirumalai nambi, thirumAlai ANdAn, thiruvaranga perumAL arayar) periya nambi, being seated under the maghizam tree at madhurAnthakam ErikAththa perumAL temple, as per kUrma purANam "chakrAdhidhAranNam pumsAm parasambhaNdhavEdhaNam" ( ) meaning "Wearing chakram,etc shows the relationship with emperumAn just like a pathivrathai (a dedicated wife) will wear bangles, etc which shows the relationship with her husband" and as per prapannAmrutham "Evam prapadhya dhEvEcham AchArya: krupayA svayam| adhyApayEN maNthrarathNam sarshichchaNdhOdhi dhaivatham" (

: | ) meaning "An AchAryan, out of his divine mercy, firstestablishes bhagavath sambandham to the sishyan and performs manthrOpadhEsam of mUla manthram which has rishi, chandhas and dhEvathai" (any authentic manthram will have a rishi

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(revealer), chandhas (meter) and dhEvathai (the object of worship for the manthram), he first performs samAshrayaNam and then performs dhvaya mahA manthrOpadhEsam.

He then says "I am not performing samAsrayaNam to become an AchAryan myself, but because you are very dear to my AchAryan ALavandhAr. You are a great personality since AzhwAr himself identified that kali will be destroyed after your appearance. I did it to have your sambandham as well. Just like perumAL (srI rAman) appeared in the sUrva vamsam and took the greatness of that vamsam to great heights and just like janaka mahArAjan declared that sIthA pirAtti will bring great glories to his kulam (family), because of your avathAram, this prapanna kulam is going to reach great heights. You are the uplifter for all. I have full faith in this and keep meditating on this". periyavAchAn piLLai identifies that these words are the

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essence of our sampradhAyam. udayavar stayed in periya thirumalai nambi's thirumALigai (at thiruppathi) for 1 full year and heard srI rAmAyaNam which is glorified as ithihAsa srEshtam (the best of ithihAsams). When the following slOkam is explained by nambi, udayavar asks him a particular question. yachcha rAmam Na pachyEththu yanYcha rAmO Na pachyathi NiNdhitha: sa vasEslOkE svAthmApyENam vigarhathE : One who does not see srI rAman and one who is not seen by srI rAman in this world is unfortunate. His own self will curse him. Hearing this emperumAnAr asks nambi, for such unfortunate persons who are cursed by both self and others, what is the only hope? nambi replies "The abhimAnam (katAksham) of Your highness (who is the leader of nithyasUris) is the unbounded hope for their upliftment". He then offers his sishya embAr to udayavar and tells him "You have to think about udayavar more than myself; his lotus feet is the path; he has appeared to uplift everyone; Since I dont have the direct sambandham with him, I got it thru this srIrAmAyaNa kAlakshEpam. His glories are such that even ALavandhAr was filled with sorrow that he was unable to have association of him. By the grace of his relationship, you stay with him without ever separating from him". This is also the essence of our sampradhAyam. When udayavar went to thirukkOshtiyUr (18 times) and heard charamaslOkam from thirukkOshtiyUr nambi, after explaining the essence of the charama slOkam (Eka shabdham), nambi says "Dont mind that I have troubled you so much to give these meanings, I have done this to express the great value of these manings. You have appeared to uplift the entire world. nAthamunigaL had you in his heart all along. The fact that I have this relationship with you makes me not worry about the ultimate goal. Even though there were many capable sishyas for ALavandhAr who could lead the sampradhAyam, he surrendered to dhEva perumAL requesting him to make you the leader of our sampradhAyam. When he was ascending to paramapadham, he was very saddened that he could not have your association even for a small moment. This dharisanam is going to be famously known by your name as emperumAnAr dharisanam and is going to reach great heights". thirumAlai ANdAn was giving kAlakshEpam to udayavar based on orders of thirukkOshtiyUr nambi. During that time, there were differences of opinion between thirumAlai ANdAn and udayavar, and ANdAn stops the kAlakshEpam due to that. Hearing this, thirukkOshtiyUr nambi rushed to srIrangam and tells ANdAn that "Dont think that you are teaching him something he does not know. He will only present the same ideas which were presented by ALavandhAr. Just like kaNNan emperumAn learnt vEdham from sAndhIpani, he is learning thiruvAimozhi meanings from you". The kAlakshEpam then continues with the presence of thirumAlai ANdAn, thiukkOshtiyUr nambi and periya nambi. In "poliga poliga" pAsuram, while "kaliyum kedum" is explained, thirukkOshtiyUr nambi looks at udayavar with great reverence and udayavar asks why does he look at him like that. nambi replies "Why should you even ask this question when actually you are the one who has appeared to prove the words of AzhwAr? You (who is the leader of prapanna kulam) are the actual meaning for this pAsuram. You have descended from

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paramapadham just to uplift all of us". Hearing this, thirumAlai ANdAn becomes ecstatic and declares "From now onwards, I will consider yourself as ALavandhAr; you are the path for my ultimate goal". udayavar performs loving service to thiruvaranga perumAL arayar and pleases him very much. arayar explains him all the intricacies of charamOpAyam (understanding AchAryan is everything) and udayavar is very happy to learn them. At that time, arayar tells udayavar "Even though I have taught you the secret meanings of charamOpAyam, you are practically the object of these meanings. And since this confidence comes down to us from nAthamunigaL, there is no doubt that you are the uplifter of the entire world including us". Thus, even though these 5 AchAryas (periya nambi - mahA pUrNar, periya thirumalai nambi srIsaila pUrNar, thirukkOshtiyUr nambi - gOshti pUrNar, thirumAlai ANdAn - mAlAdhArar and thiruvaranga perumAL arayar) taught many meanings to udayavar, they were firmly situated that udayavar is their uplifter. thirukkOshtiyUr nambi gets her daughter to surrender unto udayavar. udayavar out of his causeless grace shows here his divine lotus feet and tells her that she should always depend on his lotus feet. periyavAchAn piLLai identifies that She replies to udayavar that "Wherever you are, I will be fully surrendered at your lotus feet. Seeing how my father thinks about you, should you even ask about me who is fully surrendered to you only?". During his final days, thirukkOshtiyUr nambi asks "Dear daughter! What are you thinking about now during my last moments?". She replies "Dear father! I am thinking that by the grace of my AchAryan (emperumAnAr) you are achieving the ultimate goal (of reaching paramapadham) now (ahead of me)". nambi is very pleased with here and he presents her the bhavishyadhAchAryan vigraham that was given to him by ALavandhAr. Finally he says "emperumAnAr thiruvadigaLE thanjam" and ascends to paramapadham. Thus he clearly established the uththarakathvam in emperumAnAr without any doubt. thirukkachi nambi while serving dhEva perumAL through the night with thiruvAlavatta (fan) kainkaryam, pEraruLALan asks nambi "nambi! looks like you want to say something" and nambi replies "nAyinthE! iLayAzhwAr said he had some confusions in his mind and he wanted clarification from you, please clarify them". pEraruLALan says "Am I going to say something he does not know? Just like I studied under sAndhIpani, he is also like that. He is an expert in all the sAsthrams and upAyams, one who knows the essence, who is the leader of nithya sUris, who can teach and uplift the whole world, what is that I can tell him? He is asking this through you as if he does not know the answers himself".

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dhEva perumAL's revelation of 6 words through thirukkachi nambi A doubt arises here - udayavar is the sishya of these 5 AchAryas. Them being AchAryas and him being sishya, how is that it is said that "their ultimate goal is accomplished by their relationship with udayavar. Generally AchAryan's sambhandham which will give the benediction for the sishya - here it is reversed". Just like when srIrAman, kaNNan emperumAn, etc who were born as the son of dhasarathan, vasudhEvan, etc., they accepted viswAmithra, sAndhIpani as AchAryas and they voluntarily placed themselves under them as per srI rAmAyaNam "kinGkarau samupasthithau" ( ) meaning "Oh! viswAmithra! we are right here to serve you" and "thavAham dhAsabhUthOSsmi kimadhya karavAnNi thE" ( S ) meaning "I am your servant! what can I do for you?". Even though they were sishyas under those AchAryas,

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ultimately vishwAmithra and sAndhipani were the ones who benefited through those relationships. The same way, the 5 AchAryas benefited through their relationship towards emperumAnAr. emperumAn takes human forms and becomes sishya of certain rishis (AchAryas). He still demonstrates his full capabilities at times and since the AchAryas also understood the true nature of emperumAn, they just pretend to be teaching him instead of really teaching him some thing he does not know, even for them emperumAn is the uplifter. A couple of pramANams are cited for emperumAn's such acts: In mahAbhAratham it is said that "vishnNur mANusha rUpEnNa chachAra vasudhAthalE" ( ) meaning Lord vishNu walks around the world in a human form. In vishNu purANam it is said that: idhANImapi gOviNdha lOkANAm hithakAmyayA mANusham vapurAsthAya dhvAravathyAm hi thishtasi

Oh gOvindhA! For the benefit of the whole world you are now residing in dhvArakai in a human form. Thus, these AchAryas of emperumAn benefited by their relationship with emperumAn. The same principle can be applied in the case of emperumAnAr also. As per "AchAryassa harissAkshAth chararUpI na samchaya:" (

:) meaning AchAryan is the same parabrahmam - hari who is walking in front of us,"gururEva param bhrammam" ( ) meaning AchAryan is the supreme lord, "pIthakavAdaip pirAnAr biramaguruvAgi vaNdhu" (

) meaning emperumAn who wears yellow/silk cloth appears as theAchAryan and "thirumAmagaL kozhunan thAnE guruvAgi" (

) meaning the husband of srImahAlkshmi becomes the AchAryan,emperumAnAr is also an avathAra visEsham (a special incarnation). His 5 AchAryas became AchAryas to him to get his sambhandham (relationship) instead of teaching something unknown to him and because they were constantly meditating on the greatness of emperumAnAr as explained by nAthamunigaL through the AchArya paramparai, they fully estalished uththArakthvam in emperumAnAr.

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If we can explain the fact that emperumAnAr is the uththArakar for prathamAchAryan (emperumAn), we can easily explain his uththArakathvam for every one else. uththArakathvam means taking the one who have lost his svarUpam (true nature) and svabhAvam (qualities), reinstating the original svarUpam and svabhAvam and uplifting him. bhAhyas (avaidhikas like boudhdhas and chamanas who dont accept vEdham as sAsthram) and kudhrushtis (vaidhikas like advaithis who accept vEdham as sAsthram but give wrong interpretations) destroyed the svarUpam and svabhAvam of parabrahmam. emperumAnAr, using the vEdha sAsthram, defeated these bhAhyas and kudhrustis and re-established the svarUpam and svabhAvam of parabrahmam and thus uplifted emperumAn. Further more, just like nAradha bhagavAn said "gOpAlam yAdhavam vamcham svayam magNam abhyudhdharishyathi" (

) meaning kaNNan emperumAnwill appear as gOpAlan and will uplift the yAdhava vamsam by his acts, AzhwAr who is the prapanna jana kUtasthar foreseeing emperumAnAr's avathAram, declared that "kaliyum kedum kanNdu konNmin" ( ) meaning "See for yourself that kali will be destroyed" and said that a great person will appear and will take the prapanna kulam to great heights with lots of srivaishnavasri. That is why, even though many great AchAryas like ALavandhAr were present, the sampradhAyam is named after emperumAnAr and had great following with 74 simhAsanAdhipathis, many highly knowledgable sannyAsis, many srivaishnavas, EkAngis (constant servitors), many knowledgable srivaishnavis (ladies), etc. That srivaishnavasri is glowing and growing even today as rAmAnuja dharisanam.

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rAmAnujar's avathAra rahasyamsarvEshvaran in his krishNAvathAram, through arjunan's bewilderment, revealed charamaslOkam which establishes prathamOpAyam (i.e, emperumAn is the upAyam); Likewise, emperumAnAr who is an avathAra visEsham (special incarnation) establishes charamOpAyam (i.e., AchAryan is the upAyam) on himself. Let us see how. During his stay with all his sishyas in thirunArAyaNapuram, once mudhaliANdAn was reciting yAdhavagiri mAhAthmyam (a portion of nAradhIya purANam which brings out the glories of thirunArAyaNapuram which is known as yAdhavagiri due to the fact that balarAman and kaNNan emperumAn worshipped the emperumAn there in dhvApara yugam) in front of emperumAnAr and his gOshti. The following slOkam which glorifies AdhisEshan is recited at that time. aNaNtha: prathamam rUpam lakshmanNachcha thatha: param balabhadhras thruthIyasthu kalau kachchidh bhavishyathi

: : ananthan (AdhisEshan) is the first incarnation serving emperumAn in paramapadham, kshIrAbdhi, etc; his second incarnation is lakshmaNan to serve srIrAman; his third incarnation is balarAman to serve kaNNan emperumAn; his fourth incarnation will be in kali yugam as a great personality to reform the whole world.

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avathAra paramparai of AdhisEshan and emperumAn When the sishyas ask ANdAn who is that great personality to appear in kali yugam, ANdAn looks at udayavar's beautiful face. udayavar tells him that the rishi said this keeping AzhwAr in his mind. Understanding that the gOshti is not fully satisfied, udayavar instructs ANdAn to simply repeat that for now and we can see further meanings later. ANdAn also completes the recital for then. In the night after every one left, ANdAn, embAr, thirunArayaNapurathu arayar, mAruthi ANdAn and ukkalammAL goes to udayavar, offer their sAshtAnga praNamams to him and requests him to reveal the real meaning of bhavishyadhAchAryan identified by the rishi. He says "If you insist, I will tell you. But dont reveal this to anyone since it is very difficult to develop nishtai on this matter (charamOpAyam). I am the bhavishyadhAchAryan; I have appeared to uplift every one who has the desire to serve emperumAn. So just fully depend on me, you have nothing to worry about". This information is very confidential. Many revealed that udayavar is a special incarnation. Once during adhyayana uthsavam at thirumAlirunchOlai azhagar sannidhi, in the assembly, azhagar emperumAn says "NammirAmANuchamudaiyArkku aruLappAdu" ( ) meaning "I am inviting the followers of my dear rAmAnujar". All the srivaishnavas come forward and say "NAyiNthE" (a term which is commonly used to identify that we are a completely surrendered servant). A few descendants of periya nambi stay behind and not come forward and emperumAn asks them why are they

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not coming forward when he invites them? They reply that "since you invited the followers of rAmAnujar and since he is a disciple for our family which means he is subservient to us, we did not come forward". For that azhagar emperumAn says "Your act of considering my dear rAmAnuja as your sishya is just like dhasarathan, vasudhEvan, etc considering srI rAman, krishNan, etc as simply their sons. rAmAnuja is the leader of my servitors. If you give up his leadership how are you going to be uplifted?". Another time, azhagar emperumAn invites kidAmbi AchAn (a dear sishya of emperumAnAr) and asks him to sing a pAsuram in front of him. He passionately sings ALavandhAr's sthOthra rathnam 22nd slOkam in front of emperumAn. Na dharmaNishtOSsmi Na chAthmavEdhI Na bhakthimAN thvachcharanNAraviNdhE akinYchaNOSNaNyagathi: charanNya thvathpAdhamUlam charanNam prapadhyE

S S: I am not fixated on karma yOgam; I am not self-realised (not fixated on jnAna jOgam); I dont have bhakthi towards your lotus feet; I have nothing in me to attain you; I dont have any other refuge; Oh the refuge for every one! I am surrendering unto your lotus feet.

Hearing this azhagar emperumAn tells him "How can you says you have no refuge when you are surrendered to rAmAnuja?" meaning "The ones who have taken shelter of rAmAnuja who can be approached by every one and who is the uplifter of everyone should feel very secured about attaining the ultimate goal and not be in any anxiety". Thus, through these 2 incidents, azhagar emperumAn brings out the divine glories of emperumAnAr. In perumAL kOil (kAnchipuram), a vaishNava begets a son who stays dumb until the age of 6. After that that child suddenly disappeared for a couple of years and returned after some time with the ability to speak to the amazement of everyone. Everyone asks him where has he been and he replies that he had been to kshIrAbdhi. They ask what is the news there. He replies

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that the residents of kshIrAbdhi are discussing that kshIrAbdhi nAthan has instructed sEnai mudhaliAr to appear in the bhUlOkam to reform the suffering jIvAthmAs and make them my devotees. And per that order, sEnai mudhaliAr appeared as iLayAzhwAr for the benefit of everyone. After revealing this the child immediately disappeared and never to be seen. Thus, kshIrAbdhi nAthan through this child revealed the greatness of emperumAnAr.

When udayavar was learning sAmAnya sAsthram from yAdhava prakAsan, the daughter of the local king becomes possessed by a brahma rakshas (a brAmaNa due to his faulty anushtAnams taking birth as a rAkshas in the subsequent birth is called brahma rakshas). The king invites yAdhava prakAsan to his palace and requests him to cure his daughter. yAdhava prakAsan along with iLayAzhwAr and other disciples goes to palace, recites many manthrams to drive the brahma rakshas out of the princess. Hearing that the brahma rakshas says sarcastically "I am not scared of you and I wont leave the princess if you ask me to do so". yAdhava prakAsan asks "Who needs to tell you to go?" and the brahma rakshas, pointing to iLayAzhwAr, replies "In your students, there is one who is the leader of the nithyasUris and one amongst ananthan, garudan, vishwaksEnar, etc. If he orders me to go, I will fall at his lotus feet and leave." and subsequently does so. Thus the brahma rakshas revealed that udayavar is a special incarnation.

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When udayavar goes to sAradhA pItam (kashmir), sarasvathi happily invites emperumAnAr saying "He is definitely an amsAvathAram of sarvEshvaran" and with great affection requests emperumAnAr to explain the chAndhOgya upanishadh vAkyam "kapyAsam punNdarIkamEvamakshinNI" ( ) and udayavar explains that "srIman nArAyaNan's divine eyes look like just bloomed red lotus flower". Hearing that sarasvathi becomes very pleased and shows her gratitude by telling him "You being an avathAra visEsham, out of your limitless grace have taken up this long journey to bless me" and holds srIbhAshyam, etc., on her head with reverence and gives him the name "srI bhAshyakArar". Thus sarasvathi reveals emperumAnAr's avathAra rahasyam.

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rAmAnujar's glories revealedIn the previous article (http://ponnadi.blogspot.in/2012/12/charamopaya-nirnayam-ramanujaravathAra-rahasyam.html) we have seen emperumAnAr's avathAra rahasyam revealed by many. Now, we will continue on with the next section where many great personalities reveal emperumAnAr's greatness. kUrathAzhwAn, based on udayavar's orders went to pEraruLALan emperumAn and glorified him through varadharAja sthavam (we have already enjoyed some of that in http://ponnadi.blogspot.in/2012/11/archavathara-anubhavam-kurathazhwan.html). After that, AzhwAn comes to udayavar and tells him that he presented varadharAja sthavam based on his orders (to get back his lost vision) and dhEva perumAL was very pleased. After that, he requested dhEva perumAL to grant him paramapadham to be with emperumAn (who is with his pirAttis, nithyasUris and mukthAthmAs) as stated in the following mahAbhAratha slOkam: vaikunNtE thu parE lOkE sriyA sArdhdham jagathpathi: AsthE vishnNur achiNthyAthmA bhakthair bhAgavathais saha

: In vaikuntam which is the paramapadham, emperumAn is with srI, bhUmi, nILA dhEvis and being constantly served by bhakthas and bhAgavathas.

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AzhwAn further says that, dhEva perumAL granted him his desire, but said "since I am vAniLavarasu (prince in paramapadham who just enjoys and has given all the control of paramapadham to vishwaksEnar, etc) my svAthanthriyam is limited; You go and ask udayavar who is leader amongst nithyasUris and he allows you to leave from here and go to paramapadham, you shall do so". AzhwAn then requests udayavar to allow him to accept emperumAn's order. udayavar, knowing the Arthi (extreme desire) in AzhwAn's heart, recites dhvaya mahAmanthram in his right ear and tells him "Nalam aNtham illathOr NAdu puguvIr" ( ) meaning "you shall enter the paramapadham which has unlimited auspicious qualities". AzhwAn then requests udayavar to allow the same for nAlUrAn (one of his own sishyas who caused AzhwAn to lose his eyes) to get paramapadham (as well) and udayavar replies "Just like when kaNNan emperumAn accepted gaNtA karNan, his brother also got the same result, when I accepted you, automatically nAlUrAn also becomes accepted". Only after this AzhwAn left to paramapadham. Thus dhEva perumAL and udayavar himself demonstrated udayavar's greatness. dhEva perumAL also revealed here that emperumAnAr is none other than Adhi sEshan himself. Subsequently, udayavar instructs parAsara bhattar to perform thiruvadhyayanam for AzhwAn and after the completion, he brings bhattar to periya perumAL for mangaLAsAsanam. At that time periya perumAL tells bhattar "Dont feel sad that you have lost your father; I am your father now" and accepts bhattar as his own son. He further says "Dont worry about everything. While in this world, I will ensure that you are well taken care off; For the ultimate goal of attaining paramapadham, when my dear rAmAnujan is here you dont have to worry about that as well. Simply think that udayavar is your protector and stay happy". Thus periya perumAL himself revealed udayavar's greatness.

udayavar along with his sishyas during a dhivyadhEsa yAthrai arrived at AzhwAr thirunagari. There, udayavar recites kaNNinuN chiruthAmbu in front of AzhwAr and AzhwAr being very pleased speaks through his archakar and gives aruLappAdu (invitation) to udayavar. He instructs udayavar to place udayavar's head directly under AzhwAr's lotus feet and udayavar ecstatically obliges. AzhwAr then invites all the srivaishnavas and kOil kainkaryaparas and informs them "Whoever wants my sambandham (relationship) should surrender to my dear rAmAnujan who represents my lotus feet. If you surrender unto him, I will consider that that

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you have surrendered unto me. By surrendering to udayavar, you can relieved from this samsAram". From that day onwards AzhwAr's thiruvadis are famously called "srI rAmAnujam". Until then, AzhwAr's thiruvadis used to be called "madhurakavigaL". Keeping this in mind, thiruvarangathu amudhanAr said "mARan adi panNiNthu uyNthavan" (

) in rAmAnusa nURRanthAdhi meaning emperumAnAr is the one who grew instature after surrendering to nammAzhwAr.

AzhwAr sayanam with emperumAnAr (bhavishyadhAchAryan) as nAchiAr at his lotus feet AzhwAr thirunagari - special thirukkOlam on vaikunta ekAdhasi day madhurakavi AzhwAr, being sarvagyar, knowing AzhwAr's thiruvuLLam, sung "mEvinEn avan ponnadi" ( ) in kaNNinuN chiruthAmbu meaning I surrendered to his (AzhwAr's) golden feet. Instead of saying lotus feet (which is the normal practice), he said golden feet, since gold is considered as the best amongst all objects, that is desired by everyone, one which can get anything we want, and one that is considered as the ultimate goal, one which stays with anyone (without discrimination), one that is liked by men and women alike, once had it will be preserved carefully and once lost people will even give up their lives due to its values. We can see all of the above qualities in udayavar also.

Per "kArunNyAthgurushuththamO yathipathi:" (

:) meaning because of his unlimited mercy, he is greater than others

desired and served by 74 simhAsanAdhipathis One who can give mOksham One who gave all the hidden glorious meanings to anyone who desired without any discrimination

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mingled with many srivaishnavas and developed their bhakthi and nishtai towards emperumAn One who was preserved and protected by mudhaliANdAn, etc during troubled times of saiva king's regime, etc., and One on who's separation (leaving to paramapadham) many srivaishnavas simply gave up their lives unable to bear that separation

When udayavar ascended to paramapadham, many followed (gave up their lives also). kaNiyanUr siriyAchAn left udayavar to live in kaNiyanUr for some time and some time later he started his journey towards kOil to worship his AchAryan (udayavar) with much love. On the way, he meets a srivaishnava and he asks "Is our AchAryan emperumAnAr living healthy?" and that srivaishnava explains about udayavar's journey to paramapadham. Hearing this, immediately, kaNiyanUr siriyAchAn said "emperumAnAr thiruvadigaLE charanNam" ( ) and ascended to paramapadham. kumANdUr iLayavilli (who is the maternal cousin of emperumAnAr like embAr) was living in thiruppErUr. One night, in his dream, he sees udayavar seated on a brightly glowing divine chariot and in the sky, he sees, paramapadhanAthan with thousands of nithya sUris, AzhwAr, nAthamunigaL and other AchAryas, with many persons playing divine musical instruments to receive emperumAnAr and bring him to paramapadham. He sees that, after the reception, emperumAr's chariot is leading the journey towards paramapadham with everyone else following him. He then wakes up and realizes what has happened. He immediately informs his neighbour "vaLLal maNivaNNan" that "Our AchAryan emperumAnAr has climbed a divine chariot and left to parampadham with paramapadhanAthan and nithyasUris. I cannot live anymore here. emperumAnAr thiruvadigaLE charaNam" and gave up his life and immediately ascended to paramapadham. There were many such sishyas who gave up their lives immediately after hearing about emperumAnAr's journey to paramapadham. Those who stayed with emperumAnAr were strictly ordered by emperumAnAr to not give up their lives and since emperumAn desired for those srivaishnavas to continue their lives to serve for the sampradhAyam they unwillingly continued their lives. Thus emperumAnAr's greatness is such that in his separation his sishyas would also give up their lives.

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rAmAnujar our saviour 1

thiruvAimozhi pravarthakars - AzhwAr, emperumAnAr, jIyar - AzhwAr thirunagari When udayavar was explaining thiruvAimozhi meanings to thirukkurugai pirAn piLLAn (who is his abhimAna puthran), while explaining "poliga poliga" pAsuram, piLLAn was filled with ecstasy and emotions. Noticing that, udayavar enquired him what caused this changes in his emotions. piLLAn replies "AzhwAr hailed 'kaliyum kedum kaNdu koNmin' meaning kali will be destroyed, with your appearance in his thiruvuLLam. Per his declaration, you have also revealed that you are that great AchAryan everytime you explained thiruvAimozhi. Thinking about those, I am unable to control my ecstasy and emotions thinking that I am so fortunate to have the sambandham (relationship) with you (who is uplifting everyone per AzhwAr's divine revelation) and to hear the divine meanings of thiruvAimozhi from your divine self directly". Hearing this, udayavar was very pleased. That night, he brings piLLAn and brings him to pEraruLALan (udayavar's thiruvArAdhana perumAL), keeps his lotus feet on his head, and tells him "Always depend on these lotus feet as your refuge; Always show these as the refuge to the ones who surrender unto you as well. Tomorrow, you start writing a commentary to thiruvAimozhi in srI vishNu purANam style (vishNu purANam has 6000 slOkams), i.e., in 6000 lines". Thus udayavar revealed his uththArakathvam himself to piLLAn who is very dear to him. udayavar was explaining the divine meanings of thiruvAimozhi to many along with his sishyas kUrathAzhwAn, mudhaliyANdAn, aruLALa perumAL emperumAnAr. Many AchAryas started taking shelter of udayavar. Hearing this, ananthAzhwAn, echAn, thoNdanUr nambi and marudhUr nambi arrived to srIrangam to take shelter of emperumAnAr. emperumAnAr instructed them to surrender to aruLALa perumAL emperumAnAr. aruLALa perumAL emperumAnAr becomes very anxious and says "this is like keeping a big fruit on the head of a little sparrow; I dont have the qualification to protect/guide anyone; emperumAnAr has appeared as the uplifter of the whole world and he is the apt refuge for us; so always think that the lotus feet of emperumAnAr is the refuge and stay without any anxiety on achieving the ultimate goal". udayavar then tells them "Dont think that I have not done pancha samskAram for you; aruLALa perumAL emperumAnAr doing pancha samskAram is just like me doing it; I will ensure that you have your ultimate goal accomplished" and keeps his lotus feet close to each other and tells them "Always think of these as your refuge".

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udayavar along with his sishyas desire to perform mangaLAsAsanam to thiruvEnkatamudayAn. He gets the permission of his thiruvArAdhana perumAL (pEraruLALan) and entered thiruppathi. As said by AzhwAr as "vinNnNOr veRpu" ( ) meaning its the mountain where nithyasUris come and serve emperumAn regularly, he hesitates to step on the the hills, just stays at the base of the hills, worships towards thiuvEnkatamudayAn and decides to return to srIrangam. At that time, ananthAzhwAn and other sishyas, offers their praNAmams to udayavar and tells him "if you dont step on the hills, we wont either; So, for our sake, please step on the hills and perform mangaLAsAsanam to emperumAn". Being convinced by his sishyas' dedication towards kainkaryam to thiruvEnkatamudayAn, udayavar immediately bathes, applies Urdhva puNdrams and climbs on the hills with great reverence. Just like a mukthAthmA (upon receiving the order of paramapadhanAthan) will climb on the AdhisEsha paryankam (simhAsanam) of parampadhanAthan after entering paramapadham, udayavar climbed on the hills upon receiving the invitation from thiruvEnkatamudayAn as well. After climbing up to "thiruppariyattap pARai" (a particular part of the hills that is closer to the temple itself), periya thirumalai nambi brings thiruvEnkatamudayAn's prasAdham to udayavar to invite him just like the nithyasUris will wait at the entrance to invite the mukthAthmA (Here we can see the beautiful comparison of paramapadham - thiruvEnkatam in each sentence such is the glory of this dhivyadhEsam and the emperumAn here). udayavar accepts the prasAdhams and enquires thirumalai nambi why he himself need to bring these (being such an exalted scholar of the sampradhAyam) and if he had not found some one who is of lesser/normal capacity. thirumalai nambi out of great humility and affection towards udayavar says "I searched around all the streets around the temple and did not find anyone lower than me; actually the most apt person to welcome you is thiruvEnkatamudayAn himself; you have mercifully appeared to uplift the entire world; looking at your abilities I am not qualified at all to welcome you, but it is based on the orders of thiruvEnkatamudayAn I am welcoming you". udayavar becomes very pleased and enters the sannidhi of thiruvEnkatamudayAn along with thirumalai nambi and offers his prostrations. thiruvEnkatamudayAn welcomes udayavar through his archakar and asks him "I have already given you the ubhaya vibhUthi ishwaryam (the controlling power for both material and spiritual worlds). What is the reason for your arrival here?".

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udayavar replies "nAyinthE! Your different postures - lying down, sitting and standing postures are extremely beautiful for us to enjoy. Of those, you mercifully showed me the lying down posture in srIrangam; You showed the standing posture in hasthigiri; But here in thirumalai, you are presenting yourself to both guNa nishtars (ones who constantly meditate on emperumAns divine qualities) and kainkarya nishtars (ones who constantly engage in loving service to emperumAn) as explained by nammAzhwAr in thiruvAimozhi 6.10.10 "amarar munikkanNanGgaL virumbum thiruvEnGgataththAnE" (

) meaning one who is liked by both amarars and munis. Iwanted to enjoy this great beauty and that is why I have arrived here". emperumAn then acknowledges udayavar's desire and asks him to come and place his head under his lotus feet (udayavar immediately obliges) and tells him "Always remember these while conducting our sampradhAyam; You are the controller (udayavar) of both nithya vibhUthi and leelA vibhUthi; whoever takes shelter of you are liked by me; reform everyone so they become my devotees; I have ordered you (the leader of my eternal servitors) to incarnate here to uplift everyone; the ones who are related to you have nothing to worry for; I have incarnated many times but returned without being able to reform many; I am now satisfied that you will be able to fulfill my desires and just continue to do that". Thus thiruvEnkatamudayAn established udayavar's uththArakathvam.

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Subsequently, udayavar and his sishyas wanting to perform mangaLAsAsanam to thirukkungudi nambi, arrived at thirukkungudi and offered their obeisances to nambi. nambi welcomes udayavar and asks him "as per gIthai 4.5 'bhahUNi mE vyathIthANi jaNmANi' ( ) meaning I take so many births to help the jIvAthmAs but I am not successful in my attempts. In contrast, as per gIthai 16.20 'AsurIm yONimApaNNA: mUdA jaNmaNi jaNmaNi; mAmaprApyaiva kauNthEya thathO yANthi adhamAm gathim' ( : ;

) meaning the ones whodoes not accept me due to demoniac qualities fall down to the lower of the births continuouosly. But now, everyone has surrendered unto you (and are accepting my supremacy). How did you reform them? Please explain me the process through which you have reformed them". udayavar replies to nambi "if you want to learn the process, you have to show proper etiquette to learn the same; I wont explain that to you if you ask with pride". Hearing that immediately steps down from his divine pItam, have udayavar seated in his simhAsanam, stands submissively on a rug on the side, sends every one out of the sannidhi so only he himself can hear that and asks udayavar to explain that. udayavar immediately explains dhvaya mahA manthram in nambi's right ear. dhvaya mahAmanthra is glorified in prapannAmrutham as follows: NivEchya dhakshinNE svasya viNdhAnYjali samyutham mUrdhNi hastham viNikshipya dhakshinNam jnYANadhakshinNam savyam thu hrudhi viNyasya krupayA vIkshayEth guru: svAchAryam hrudhayE dhyAthvA japthvA guruparamparAm Evam prapadhya dhEvEcham AchArya: krupayA svayam adhyApayEN maNthra rathNam sarshichchaNdhOSdhidhaivatham

: : SAchAryan should make his sishya (with submissiveness and anjali) stand on his right side. He should keep his right hand (which will deliver knowledge to the sishya) on the sishya's head and he should keep his left hand on the sishya's chest and should see the sishya with his merciful eyes. Meditating on his own AchAryan, softly chanting the guru paramparai first, surrendering to emperumAn, the AchAryan should perform dhvaya mahA manthra upadhEsam (which has its own rishi, chandhas and dhEvathai) to the sishya.

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Hearing this nambi said "Long ago, in bhadrikAshramam, I myself appeared as nArAyaNan (AchAryan) and naran (sishyan) and revealed the thirumanthram. At that time, after becoming the sishya, also became the AchAryan myself. I had an unfulfilled desire to have an AchAryan who is qualified enough to be my AchAryan but different from myself so that I can hear the meanings of thirumanthram from him. That desire has been fulfilled by you now. From today onwards I am also a part of rAmANuchamudaiyAr ( ) meaning one who have the relationship with emperumAnAr. Today I have become a srivaishnava nambi". We can understand that this act of becoming the sishyan of emperumAnAr is the epitome of nambi emperumAn's svAthanthriyam. emperumAn who is the prathamAchAryan for every one, himself happily wanting to become a sishya of emperumAnAr shows that emperumAnAr is uththAraka AchAryan for everyone. nadAthUr ammAL was teaching srIbhAshyam to some srivaishnavas. At that time a few of them asked "bhakthi yOgam cannot be performed by a jIvAthmA because it is very difficult to do (as it requires many adhikArams like being male, thrIvarNika (brAhmaNa, kshthriya, vaisya), constant meditation and service to emperumAn, etc) and prapathi cannot be performed because it is against the svarUpam (jIvAthmA being utterly dependent on emperumAn, doing something himself for his ultimate goal will be against that utter dependence). In such case, how can the jIvAthmA attain the ultimate goal?". nadAthUr ammAL replies that "for those who are unable to do this, emperumAnAr's abhimAnam is the ultimate path. Without this there is no other way. I am firmly confident of this". ammAL's final instructions are explained in the following popular slOkam: prayAnNa kAlE chathuras chvasishyAN padhAthikasthAN varadhO hi vIkshya bhakthi prapaththi yadhi dhushkarEva: rAmANujAryam NamathEthyavAdhIth

:

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In his final days, when his sishyas ask nadAthUr ammAL what is their refuge, he replies "bhakthi and prapathi are not fit for your svarUpam; Simply take shelter of emperumAnAr and fully depend on him; your ultimate goal will be accomplished". sOmayAjiyAr (sOmAsiyANdAn), after surrendering to emperumAnAr, performed kainkaryam to him for some time and returned to his native place "kArAnchi" and lived there for some time. After some time, he wants to return to emperumAnAr but since his wife does not allow him to leave, he makes a vigraham of emperumAnAr. Since it did not come out to his satisfaction, he uses that vigraham and again gets the AchAri (sculptor) to make another one. That night, emperumAnAr appears in his dream and asks him "Why are you destroying my old vigraham to make a new one. Wherever you are, if you are not able to have full faith in my abhimAnam as uththArakam, how are you going to develop attachment towards my vigraham?". Suddenly woken up after the dream, sOmayAjiyAr immediately keeps the vigraham in a safe, gives up his wife and leaves to srIrangam. After arriving in srIrangam, he runs to emperumAnAr, falls at his lotus feet and starts crying". emperumAnAr asks him "what is the matter?" and he explains the incidents and the dream. udayavar tells him with a smile "Welcome oh ignorant! I did this to relieve you from the dependence on your wife; even if you dont appreciate me, I will never give up on you. Wherever you are, due to my abhimAnam towards you, your ultimate goal is guaranteed. Give up all worries and stay happily". This incident is explained by periyavAchAn piLLai. kaNiyanUr siriyAchAn takes a bath with his clothes (usually we have to change clothes before bathing, only in special cases like charama kainkaryams, thIrthavAri, when declaring the truth, etc., we take bath with the same clothes that we are wearing), invites all the srivaishnavas in to periya thirumaNdapam (in srIrangam), accepts srIsatagOpam on his head, and declares: sathyam sathyam puNas sathyam yathirAjO jagathguru: sa Eva sarvalOkANAm udhdharthA NAthra samchaya:

: :I promise 3 times (emphasis) that yathirAjar is the AchAryan for the whole universe. He is the saviour for everyone and there is no doubt about this. He loudly declares in front of the assembled srivaishnavas that, for everyone in this prapanna kulam, emperumAnAr's lotus feet is the refuge and he is the saviour.

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rAmAnujar our saviour 2

Once, aruLALa perumAL emperumAnAr's sishyas ananthAzhwAn, echAn, thoNdanUr nambi and marudhUr nambi prostrated in front of udayavar and enquired him "for the jIvAthmA, is there only one AchArya or are there many AchAryas? Please give a clear answer". emperumAnAr instructs them to go and find out the answer from ponnAchiyAr (wife of piLLai urangA villi dhAsar). They went to her and told her "emperumAnAr wanted us to clarify our doubt with you. Is there one AchArya or many AchAryas for a jIvAthmA? Please give us a clear answer". ponnAchiyAr spreads her hair first and collects them all and ties them together and tells them "I should not conclude the answer for your question; How will an incapable person like me will know that? emperumAnAr himself should clarify your doubt". Saying that, she picks up a saffron thread from the floor and keeps that on her head and leaves the place immediately. All of them left the place with an unsatisfied mind and returns to udayavar and offers him praNAmams again. When emperumAnAr enquired them what happened over there, they say that she instructed them to get the answer from emperumAnAr himself. He asked them what was her activity while saying that and they explained the whole incident. emperumAnAr tells them "she did not just leave, she has cleverly explained you the answer for your question and you have not understood her explantion". They request him to explain the meaning for her actions. He explains "the reason why she first spread her hair is to show that it looks like there are many AchAryans for the jIvAthmA from different perspectives. She then collected them and tied them together to show that ultimately there is only one AchAryan who gets him the ultimate goal accomplished. Since she picked up a saffron thread from the floor, she showed that the uththAraka AchAryan is emperumAnAr who is a sannyAsi. By keeping that thread on her head, she showed that emperumAnAr is higher than every one else and should be carried on everyone's head. Since she left the place, she showed that one should keep such AchAryan in their heart very confidentially and constantly meditate on him. So, all of you also have faith in this message". Thus emperumAnAr revealed his AchAryathvam which is the upAyam for everyone through ponnAchiyAr.

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Once when emperumAnAr was alone, embAr and vaduga nambi approached him, offered their prostrations and asked him "madhurakavi AzhwAr said 'dhEvu maRRaRiyEn' (

) meaning I dont know any other dhEivam other than nammAzhwAr. He fullyasserted that nammAzhwAr was his master, refuge and the path and was firmly situated in that mood. We also want to develop such attachment towards charama parvam (AchAryan) instead of prathama parvam (emperumAn) and you please bless us for that". emperumAnAr says "I have already established such strong faith in you as madhurakavi AzhwAr had on nammAzhwAr, what more do you need?". They reply that the same faith should continue for ever. emperumAnAr is very pleased and says that they are situated in the most appropriate mood towards their AchAryan. emperumAnAr says "per 'upAya upEya bhAvENa thamEva charanNam vrajEth' ( ) meaning one should consider his/her own AchAryan as the upAyam (path) and upEyam (goal), as I can be both upAyam and upEyam both in this world and paramapadham, you can also be dhEvumaRRaRiyEn on me. This does not stop with you, it gets carried forward to everyone who is related to you and your relatives (Athma bandhUs) and that is what will get them the ultimate goal". (Note: The remaining section in this article deals with the relationship between ALavandhAr and nAthamunigaL in a very detailed manner). If we ask "For an AchAryan, he can be the upAyam while we are in samsAram, but after we reaching paramapadham and once our ultimate goal of uninterrupted kainkaryam is accomplished, what is the need for upAyam (AchAryan) at that state?", the AchAryan has upAyathvam there also. That is why, ALavandhAr declared in sthOthra rathnam 2nd slOkam as follows: thasmai NamO madhujidhanGgri sarOjathathva jnYANANurAga mahimAthichayANtha sImNE NAthAya NAthamuNayE athra parathra chApi Nithyam yadhIya charanNau charanNam madhIyam

I worship nAthamunigaL who is the master and refuge for me in both this world (samsAram) and the other world (paramapadham). That nAthamunigaL is the epitome of true knowledge and love for the lotus feet of emperumAn who is the killer of madhU. It is also said in vishNu purANam that "sAdhyabhAvE mahAbAhO sAdhaNai: kim prayOjaNam" ( : ) meaning what is the use of the means (path) if it does not lead to the ultimate goal?, even though once the means leads to the goal and the means is of not use once the goal is accomplished, but since bhattar explains that upAyam and upEyam are fully established in emperumAn (as in the following srI

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rangarAja sthavam - uththara sathakam slOkam 88) that needs to be accepted. upAdhaththE saththAsthithi NiyamaNAthyach chidhachithau svamudhdhichya srImANithi vadhathi vAgaupaNishadhI upAya upEyathvE thadhiha thava thaththvam Na thu gunNau athasthvAm srIranGgEchaya charanNamavyAjambhajam

Oh srIranganAthA! Since the upanishdhs declare that srIman nArAyaNan is the one who accepts the service of chith (sentients) and achith (insentients) through srushti (creation), sthithi (sustainance), niyamanam (control), etc. For the chEthanas you being the means and the goal is not just said for formality but it is the full truth; So I accept you as my full refuge. So, once we reach paramapadham upEyathvam (accepting our kainkaryam) will fully manifest, while upAyathvam (being the means) will be concealed (hidden). But since the above slOkam and other pramANams are explained in context of emperumAn (him being upAyam and upEyam) will that be applicable in context of AchAryan? Yes, it will be as we have already seen in "upAya upEya bhAvENa thamEva charanNam vrajEth" (

) meaning one should consider his/her own AchAryan as theupAyam (path) and upEyam (goal). And that is why, ALavandhAr declared "athra parathra chApi" (we have already seen this a few paragraphs before). The EvAkAram (Eva shabhdham) in thamEva of "upAya upEya bhAvENa thamEva charanNam vrajEth" shows the meaning "only" which means uththAraka AchAryan can also himself will be able to independently accomplish the ultimate goal for his sishyan (since emperumAn has blessed the AchAryan with such ability as in the case of udayavar being the controller of both vibhUthis). Now, the greatness of charama parvam (AchAryan) over prathama parvam (emperumAn) is revealed:

Taking shelter of prathama parvam (emperumAn) can sometimes cause fear/doubt in one's mind since emperumAn, out of his svAthanthriyam (independence), can place us either in samsAram or in paramapadham. But taking shelter of charama parvam (AchAryan) will guarantee paramapadham since AchAryan is always parathanthran (subservient/dependent) to emperumAn and filled with mercy towards suffering souls so he will only look to deliver the sishyan to paramapadham. emperumAn will accept a jIvAthmA only through an AchAryan; But a merciful AchAryan will accept anyone and he himself will establish the bhagavath sambandham to the jIvAthmA. The merciful AchAryan does not expect the sishyan to know about emperumAn first. He himself teaches him everything from the beginning. But emperumAn will look for AchArya sambhandham before blessing the jIvAthmA with the divine knowledge. Thus, when we have the sambhandham with udayavar who builds the confidence in our minds on the ultimate goal and makes it stay forever in our mind, we can certainly be

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like madhurakavi AzhwAr who said "dhEvu maRRaRiyEn" - I know no one other than nammAzhwAr.. Now, another question arises. If udayavar is said to be the uththAraka AchAryan for AchAryas before and after him, why did ALavandhAr ascertain upAyathvam in nAthamunigaL (sthOthra rathnam slOkams "athra parathra chApi" and "akruthrima ... pithAmaham nAthamunim vilOkaya"). Let us see how. nAthamunigaL passed on all the secret meanings, the divine dream in which he saw bhavaishyadhAchAryan and the bhavishyadhAchAryan vigraham to uyyakkoNdAr and foreseeing the appearance of ALavandhAr, he instructs uyyakkoNdAr to pass on all of the same to ALavandhAr. Since uyyakkoNdAr did not have the opportunity to witness ALavandhAr's birth and early life, he passes on the same to maNakkAl nambi and instructs him to do the same. maNakkAl nambi reforms ALavandhAr and explains him all the details and passes on the bhavishyadhAchAryan vigraham to ALavandhAr. ALavandhAr develops great gratitude towards his grand father nAthamunigaL who first blessed him even before his appearance, who revealed the great meanings of the sampradhAyam, gave the bhavishyadhAchAryan vigraham, blessed him so that me sees rAmAnujar in his life time at kAnchipuram and finally appears through the dream of maNakkAl nambi and reveals the same through nambi to him. Thus being overwhelmed by the gratitude, he thinks that he should have very strong attachment towards nAthamunigaL forever and to reveal that to others that he is attached to nAthamunigaL who revealed him all these great details, he declares in his sthOthra rathnam that nAthamunigaL is the upAyam and upEyam for him. But in his heart, ALavandhAr also has the same emotions/attachment towards udayavar as had by nAthamunigaL.

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