Apart from the 12 azhwars, there was another azhwar by the name koorathazhwar. Although named "koorEsan", koorEsan was popularly called as "koorathazhwar". Just as the shadow of Sri Ramanujar would not leave him, so was koorathazhwar always with Sri Ramanujar. Amongst the many kshetrams in Kanchipuram, kooram is one among them. Since koorEsan was born in the kshetram of kooram, he came to be known as "koorathazhwar". As he was born as the srivastha amsam in the "vaksha sthalam" of the perumal, he was also called as "thirumarumArban", was also called by an other name as "srivasthAnga misrar". There was a mole in the vaksha sthalam of koorathazhwar which was an indication of koorEsan being born as the srivastha amsam of the perumal.
How this name of "koorathazhwar" for this koorEsan, otherwise known as SrivasthAnga misrar came into being. This was first being told by the enperuman himself. One day Sri Ramanujar looked at koorathazhwar and desirous of listening to the thiruvaimozhi asked him to tell that. koorathazhwar was wondering how he was going to say the thiruvaimozhi, telling a kalakshEpan to the acharya himself, and he was thus hesitating. koorEsan now begins the thiruvaimozhi,
"uyarvaRa uyar nalam udaiyavan yavan avan mayarvaRa madhi nalam aruLinan yavan avan yarvaRum amarargaL adhipathi yavan avan thuyar aRu sudar adi thozhudhezhu en mananE"
Even the thiruvAradanam that has to happen at the specified times would have been shrunk and the bhagavan would accept them, day and night without needing a moments rest for HIMSELF. When you go for darshan of the dolotsavam of the thiruvEnkatamudayAn, it would be already 2 AM in the night. Then the bhagavan would be placed on the dola, doors closed, hundi sealed thinking that "appAda" the bhagavan has finally slept, when it is heard "Kausalya supraja rama purva sandhya pravarthathE", the bhagavan has woken up again! HE is always giving blessings to the people coming, never tiring at all whether he is an Arthi or an arthArthi. HE does not think that the bhaktha like a stupid man, keeps coming and asking again. HE does not think that he repeats the same thing again and again. HE thinks that this man has come to HIM searching and asks, for that this man is a bhagyavAn and has had that belief in HIM. Without that bhakthi in HIM, this man would not have come and never tiring, HEkeeps giving kripa and how can we say that the bhagavan is "nirgUnam" then?. So he is a "kalyAnagunavan", meaning he is a "sarvaniyAmakan", "sarva antaryAmi", "sarva sAkshi", "sarvasakthan" and "sarvagnyan". Lets keep this to one side. What is in it for us if he is a "sarva antaryami" or a "sarvagnyan" or "sarvasakthan" or "sarvaniyAmakan" but HE is one that is very useful for us which is being a "sarva sharanyan". Even if you have several wrongs, doshams, whatever type of man you are, it is not different for HIM. Some would have a spectacle for reading, one for looking at far distances, likewise the bhagavan has a spectacle just for bhagavath bhakthas. If he wears that glasses the bhagavan is not able to see any doshams in the bhaktha at all but he sees only one thing in the bhaktha that as being his child only. That is why Gajendra in the stotra says "boori karunAya". Dhruva just asked to sit on the lap of his father, but bhagavan gave him the greatness and the fame of the dhruva star itself. Bhagavan does not know how to give anything in small quantity at all. For Gajendra, the crocodile had caught his leg and he is crying for help to the bhagavan asking for remedy just from the immediate difficulty, but the bhagavan in his infinite graciousness gave him moksha itself. When kuchElar taking a pound of the pOwa in a folded cloth, hesitating to unwrap and offer to krishna but on returning to his home found an aiswaryam waiting for him that even kubera would have to take a loan to obtain it.
So the fact that one who had taken refuge and faith in the bhagavan got destroyed is not something we can ever find in all of the seven worlds, puranas, itihAsas at all - "one got destroyed with narayana namakeerthanam" is a thing that has never happened and will never happen. One cannot write this even in imagination. So this bhagavan with such a kalyAnagunam is being described by nammAzhwar as
"uyarvaRa uyar nalam udaiyavan yavan avan mayarvaRa madhi nalam aruLinan yavan avan yarvaRum amarargaL adhipathi yavan avan thuyar aRu sudar adi thozhudhezhu en mananE" and just when this thiruvaimozhi was begun, koorEsan was filled with esctacy, with tears in eyes, fainting, fell on the floor. The people who had been sent to hear this kalakshEpan of koorEsan now ran exclaiming that koorEsan had fainted, enperuman then came running and said this. That day nammAzhwar sang in "kaNNi nuN siru thAmbinAl" - For yasoda, this prabhu who is neither inside or outside, up or down, such a purushottaman, a woman who was selling curds, milk and butter just tied HIM to a mortar. What an amazing thing? For which paravasthu, that even the vedas tried to go near and having approached HIM, turned back saying "na iti", "na iti", nEti.....which vEdam could not say HIM, understand HIM, nor reach HIM with the mind, speech or intellect returned back. Which upanishads said that HE was neither inside or outside, up or down, HE cannot be described as anything, but such a parampOrul was now being threatened, taking a rope in the hand - siruthAmbi nAl, kaNNi nuN siru thAmbinAl kattun - yasoda tied HIM up. When this was being said, nammAzhwar fainted. MadhurakaviAzhwar was waiting what will come from the mouth of nammAzhwar for nearly 6 months as they say. For enperuman, on that day HE did not see this vaibhavam of nammAzhwar fainting, but today this bhakthar koorEsan being almost equal to nammAzhwar had fainted. enperuman cried out enthusiastically "azhwar, azhwar" - koorEsan therefore came to be known as koorathazhwar.
Whatever the bhagavan has given us, using these we should aim to do bhagavath kainkaryam. If bhagavan has given us a very good talking skill, then we should use that to go to the world and perform devotional discourses telling as many people as we can about the bhagavan and HIS infinite kripa. Do not be lazy. It is not just sufficient that you are not involved with any wrong doings and therefore being laid back. It is wrong as well if you are not doing trying to do any good things or just being quiet doing nothing. Whatever you can do in any capacity to do good is quite important. So to how many people you can tell about the bhagavan and the ways to attain the bhagavan, just keep telling. If you have possess good bodily strength, go to the temple and participate in porappAdu, hold the light, put the chAmaram, chathram, sweep the streets on which the perumal will be coming, sprinkle water on these roads, supply water and buttermilk to the priests who are coming on the porappAdu. When performing the circumambulation of the temple, if you find a coconut shell lying there, do not think it has nothing to do with me, take it and put in the dustbin. So kainkaryam is not what you have to do with lakhs or crores of rupees, it is more to do with whatever ways you can do plain seva to the perumal.
koorathazhwar was filled with aiswaryam. In the kshetram of kooram his was a big palatial house. Kanchipuram was the asthagiri of the PEraruLaLan and on the banks of vEdavathi river, PEraruLaLan had created the 24 steps conveying the 24 principles of the Gayathri mantra and was the most fond peruman of all the Acharya purushas. What theertha kainkaryam that was performed by Sri Ramanujar to PEraruLaLan, which kacchiappa nambi did the azhavatta kainkaryam to PEraruLaLan, nadathurammal so many acharyas like these loved the perumal as varadarAjan.
So koorathazhwar, finding that many sevakas come to offer their sevas to PEraruLaLan, be it from the north or the south regions thinks that for all these sevakas, ThadiyAradhanam (prasadam) would need to be offered. So in his palatial house he created a madapalli, preparing lots and lots of food and for all the sevakas coming, he is performing the ThadiyAradhanam constantly. In the south, in kanchipuram the garuda sevai is the uthsavam that is the most famous. Everyone who goes to kanchipuram would want to see the garuda sevai and the crowd is thronging there just to have the glimpse of the garuda sevai only. From the North two devotees wishing to see the garuda sevai in kanchipuram and visiting the kshetram of kooram, had the ThadiyAradhanam performed by koorathazhwar, then asked koorathazhwar whether he was the one who was conducting these ThadiyAradhanam for all the devotees. They then asked why koorathazhwar did not come to see the garuda sevai of PEraruLaLan, to which koorathazhwar replied he was content performing the bhagavatha kainkaryam of ThadiyAradhanam itself to all the devotees. So these two bhakthas were talking about the ajnAna of koorathazhwar, discussing about koorathazhwar not participating in the garuda sevai which devotees from all over india are coming to attend, koorathazhwar himself being the resident of kooram was only perfoming this bhagavath kainkaryam. When they were witnessing the coming of PEraruLaLan, (the kodai spread over two streets that is famous in kanchipuram), for some reason just for these two bhakthas, PEraruLaLan was not visible to their eyes. They asked the spectators nearby if they could see the perumal, they indeed exclaimed in amazement that they are seeing the perumal coming. Garuda spreading both its wings, in the garuda vahanam, for anyone just seeing the perumal is indeed moksham. Why because, garuda is the swaroopam of the vedam itself. Vedam is karma, upasana and jNanam. For the garudAzhwar, one paksham for the periya thiruvadi of the perumal is indeed karmam, another paksham is upAsana. Amongst the two karmam and upAsana, the vedam comes forth as jNana swaroopam, jNanapirAn perumal, our deva perumal, PEraruLaLan is rising. In kanchipuram, when inside the garuda vahanam with the kodai, perumal was coming, Saint thyAgarajar sang the song "vinatAsuta vahana". So many have sung here. But such a varadarAjan, these two bhakthas were not able to see but all others could and these two bhakthas were struck with wonder about this vinOdham where perumal was visible to everyone's eyes but not these two. Perumal then comes in the form of "archakamukEna" and says, "when koorEsan was performing ThadiyAradhanam for all the bhakthas coming there, these two bhakthas spoke of the dosham of koorEsan not coming to see the perumal. These two bhakthas have performed an apachAram through the manner of speech to this paramabhAgavathar. So unless they go back to koorEsan and ask forgiveness from him, they will not be blessed with my darshan". As they had come all the way from the North just to have darshan of perumal, they immediately hastened to the place where koorathazhwar was there, walking all the way from the sannadhi of varadarAjan. On one side there is the Ashta Bhuja Perumal and sonna vanna seiyum perumal, there an amazing sight just as in the pandava sabha where perumal who had gone as an ambassador showed his viswaroopam, the pandavadhootan is present. The vaikuntanathan perumal offering darshan in the 3 forms of "kedantha kOlam", "iruntha kOlam", "nindra kOlam". In this kanchipuram kshetram being in pachaivannan, pavazhavannan, these two bhakthas are now going towards kooram and reaching there, looking at koorathazhwar tell about the events that had happened with the two of them. They said "Perumal coming in the garuda vahanam, lakhs and crores of people bathing in the anandam of this sight, but for just the two of us, this sight was not visible and when we were distressed at this, the bhagavan coming in "archakamukEna" said that we have performed an apacharam through the manner of speaking with you". Bhagavan will always come in support of the bhakthan always and will never let his bhaktha down at any cost or time. After these two bhakthas asked for forgiveness to koorathazhwar and by virtue of which obtained the darshan of the perumal, what can then be said of the Acharya bhakthi of koorEsan.
Subham
Radhe Radhe
Read more translations of the other episodes at: http://aranganinarumai.blogspot.com/
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