Kanchipuram also known as satyavruta kshetram there is a theertha (water) kainkaryam being performed for the perumal. nAcchiar tells in the tiruppAvai one should offer flowers in a certain way. Just before touching a flower we should not scratch our haIr nor pick up the flower that has fallen on our feet nor smell the flower before its offered to the bhagavan. That is to say that the flower should not be mixed with anything else and must be offered pure. We should also chant nama whilst offering the flower. But the real lotus is in the heart, it should be filled with truth, be with ahimsa, be full of good gunas and one being full with all these meditating upon the perumal is the poomalai that nAcchiar really meant in the tiruppAvai.
In the heart one should have truth, no lies, no jealousy, no competition, no desire. There should instead be ahimsa causing no trouble to any lifeform, being so whomsoever meditates upon the bhagavan and does his offering, the bhagavan will certainly come to his rescue.
Izhaiazhwar, being such, the bhagavan came down and accompanied him all the way from the vindhya mountains upto kanchipuram and then miraculously disappeared.
yAdavaprakasha, who had been on a kashi yatra thought tha Ramanujar must have been lost in the forest or even killed. Govindan had also accompanied yAdavaprakasha from Madhuramangalam. When Govindan took bath in the River Ganga as he came out of the water he had in his hand a Siva lingam and felt very happy. yAdAvaprakasha told Govindan that he had the full blessings of Lord Siva and that's why he got the Siva Linga. Govinda brought that Siva Linga with great shraddha and consecrated that in madhuramangalam. After that kalahasti, being a famous shiva sthalam and himself being a great devotee performed his pooja there and being a sattvic himself the whole temple management came into his hands. Ramanujar was performing theertha kainkaryam as usual in kanchipuram. When yAdavaprakasha came back to kanchipuram and saw Ramanujar there, his surprise knew no bounds. He thought that Ramanujar was lost in the forest or killed even and was surprised as to how Ramanujar came to be in kanchipuram without any trouble and performing kainkaryam in the temple. He asked around as to when did Ramanujar come to Kanchipuram and could not beleive the reports. Then one day he spoke to Ramanujar and asks forgiveness and not to mistake him as it is quite common to have misunderstanding between people, but vidhyai is a much more greater thing. We should take hold of the vidhya and lets leave out the misunderstanding. Please do come to the lessons as before. Ramanujar himself being a very sattvic person did not say anything against him at all. He started to attend the lessons as usual. In the lessons usually vedanta, brahmasutrams or upanishads were discussed. Each day a sentence from the vedanta would be taken and when questions were taken up for discussion, Ramanujar using the visishtAdvaita tattvam would get answers on his own. Understanding came on its own to him. He is not able to stop them coming or not tell them to everyone either. Because he felt that it is the right meaning as it came to him.
So one day when the lessons were going on with the discussion of an upanishadic sentence "Sathyam, Jnanam, Anantham, Brahma", the teacher offers an explanation. There is a cow which has two horns and that is goof, then both horns are broken and there are no two horns now. Then how the sentence will now be true. A cow has 2 horns but "Kando Mundaha" - meaning that its having 2 horns and also does not have horns. How will this be correct to say for the cow, Likewise "SATHYAM, JNANAM, ANANTHAM, BRAHMA" wont be suitable for brahman. This is in advaita paksham as a proudivathanam. This is taken up as a debate and offered explanation. Proudivathanam in sanskrit is where the word "Pidivatham" came about in Tamil. Ramanujar could not take this explanation. He says this is not correct. This Sathyam, Jnanam, Anantham, Brahma cannot be told like this. So yAdavaprakasam asks Ramanujar to offer the correct explanation and its meaning. Ramanujar says that what the master is saying is exactly about the swaroopa lakshanam of brahmam but upanishad is saying that it is actually about the guna lakshanam. If a thing is sathyam (truth), we say tell the truth, stand in truth, talk the truth/. Similarly whatever has happened is told exactly as it has happened and that is the real sathyam - the truth.
But what is the actual meaning of sathyam. That which is unchanging is the exact meaning of sathyam. That which is eternal and constant is sathyam. A grandfather calls upon his grandson and shows his album containing photos of his younger days, shows him the photo of his childhood, his marriage, his work etc., But the grandson says all this isn not you, you look so good in these photos but now you are so different and not exactly like the one in the photo. How could the grandfather be the same as in the photo. The truth is that the grandfather had gone through various stages from being in childhood to manhood to old age, this body is changing, changing every second. Only the body is changing every second, but the paramAtma inside is ever unchanging.
The atma swaroopam in the heart stays ever the same be it in childhood, boyhood, adulthood or in old age. But the body is changing and likewise the mind is also ever changing. If the bhagavan came today one cannot say what a devotee will ask and when again in 10 days time the bhagavan would appear then we cannot predict what the devotee would ask. Because the thoughts are not the same, neither are the expectations, nor the desires as the knowledge is constantly changing. Once we study a subject, the knowledge we have with us as we come to completion the study is different from when we started with the subject. Even if a man has 6 senses, as long as he is a child he does not possess much knowledge. The knowledge gets created and it is not all due to his learning that the knowledge increases its mainly due to the initiation within. If we say it is just by learning alone one gets knowledge then it should be true that if we put a parrot into school it should also learn. Something wthin the man makes him learn. So knowledge changes, body, mind and prana keeps changing but the one thing that is inside the heart - paramAtma is always in Sathyam. That is ever unchanging. We cannot think that we have different paramAtma for each day as one for yesterday, one for today or one for tomorrow. Which bhagavan was present 1000s of years ago or 10000 years ago or even at the beginning of time, the same bhagavan was there, is there now and will be there in the future. Sathyam never changes.
Next told is about JnAnam. That is the chit swaroopam of the paramAtma. There is a pillar here, if there is a pillar next to it, this pillar wont know of the existence of the one next to it. The pillar wont know that the one next to it is say 10 metres apart. Because both are inanimate (jatam) things. Because paramAtma is not inanimate it is in jnAnam (chit swaroopam). It has the chaitanyam (spirit or conciousness). So here Satyam is being expounded, then jnAnam is expounded as the paramAtma is not inanimate but is one of Chinmayam, having Chit Swaroopam, Chaitanyam. If we need to say more the paramAtma alone is Chaitanyam.
Anantham is one which is having parichinna vyAvrithi (different from an entity or thing which has just limits, or the one which is composed within something). We dont say paramAtma is existing here, inside this thing, outside of this thing but it is in effect present everywhere. Existing as sarvavyapi (present in everything). Paramatma existing as Sathyam, JnAnam and Anantham is Brahmam and this Brahmam is "all encompassing" which is the dictum of Sri Ramanujar. As this magnificient expositions that unfolded in the vedantic discussions between the teacher and Sri Ramanujar the views were most incredible. One discussing on the view of Proudivaha paksham and the other on viShishtAdvaita paksham and the teacher felt that having learnt so much and having taught all these years and what was taught by his guru is proving to be all wrong. Not only Sri Ramananujar is talking of the differences but is also giving new meanings hitherto unknown and how can this be taken up. yAdavaprakashar could not take this, but cannot deny it even and within his mind he is liking all this new concepts very much, thinking about all these years he had never seen this in a different light nor had anyone told him these things and this is bearing down upon his conscience. He also admires at Sri Ramanujar and his knowledge, what subjects yAdavaprakasha taught all these years would have indeed been hard for his students even to comprehend far less debate it, yet here Sri Ramanujar has expounded this knowledge to him in newer ways. He wondered who would Sri Ramanujar be? Is he a mahapurusha or an avatarapurusha, who this might be? But not expressing his real thoughts, he still continues to debate against it and therefore Sri Ramanujar feels that so many of the vedantic debates are different to his and yAdavaprakashar's views and the teacher not taking this up and he feels that the study is enough and he is ready to quit from his tutelage. Ramanujar also feels that it would be a good opportunity to read all this thoroughly in this instance.
At the same time in Srirangar Azhavandar is expecting a mahapurushar to take hold of the vishistAdvaita siddhAntam. Having heard from various people known to him as well as from the news from various quarters, what Azhavandar thinks in his mind is that the mahan residing in Kanchipuram IlaiAzhwar Sri Ramanujar is the mahan who has been born to take this siddhantam after him and to lay the foundation for it in this world.
Radhe Radhe!
