Mahapurushars are pure and wholesome beings. The Vedam itself says this when talking about the bhagavan. For those having bhagavath characteristics, the bhagavan whilst being invisible offers his love the greatest unto them. "Paroksha Priyahi Vai Devaha" meaning that being invisible and doing things is what the bhagavan and the devathas like for those having deiva thanmai. Then how will the sadhus performing upAsana to such a deivam will be. They will not have a desire to publish themselves and for them to mix well with the world is always quite difficult because the state they are in is entirely different from the state the ordinary mortals are in.
Even when having performed a little of pooja, dhyana and having gone to temples, the ordinary mortal can feel a lot different and could comment on the materialistic nature of tens or hundreds of people around him. Say when visiting people in a marriage function, the ordinary mortal would comment that there is so much loukikam (materialism), people are talking something different and this is not suited for him/her albeit not having got any great bhakthi to say this yet. Also when ten loukikars join together and keep on speaking about the worldly things again and again say about today's politics, TV, activities, the mind does not go into that easily and will feel when he/she can get out of this company.
When ordinary mortals feel so, then think of the mahans, what their state will be, what their experience will be whilst being always with the bhagavan. Being so, yet possessing the ability to move with ordinary people is something we need to ponder about them. By the looks of it, they resemble the same as us. But their experiences and ours are quite opposite. Our experiences are worldly but the experiences of the mahatma are beyond the paramatma. This type of experience when felt with the suddha sattvic mind is a great thing, yet with such an experience they are able to be together and mix well with the desire and anger filled, materialistic samsaris like us. This is indeed difficult. But the bhagavan desires these mahans to somehow mix with the samsaris. Because if these mahans leave the life of the samsaris, who will tell the samsaris about the bhagavan. Therefore although the sadhus feel that they need to move away from the samsaris, bhagavan will try to bring the sadhus closer to the samsaris. What such mahans will say to the samsaris is the namakeerthanam. Listening to the story is also keerthanam. Telling the story is also keerthanam.
Keerthanam is of three types. When singing about the perumal, "Pachai mamalai pol meni pavala vai kamala senkan", or looking at the bhagavan and singing "sanghu-chakra-gadadhara" or "pundareekakshan" or "neelamegha shyAmalan" or "divyapeethamabaradhari" - all these are describing the roopam of the bhagavan. Bhagavan is possessing the sanghu-chakram, is a chathur-bhujan, having lotus eyes, a divine belt (divyamana-peethambara", srivatsam, kousthubam, is beautiful as manmatha-manmathan - all these attributes are describing the beauty of the body and describing the form of the bhagavan.
Sometimes when performing the keerthanam of the bhagavan, one would say, hey saranagatha-vathsala!, hey anathabandho!, hey deenabandho! and if he/she said so, then he/she would be telling about his gunam. In certain keerthanas one would say, hey govardhanagiridhari!, hey rasavihari!, hey navaneethachora! then he/she would be describing his leelas, a characteristic of his vibhavAthAram. Whether one is describing his roopam, his gunam, his leelai or just "rama krishna govinda", all this just points to the common namakeerthanam only. Just mentioning "rama krishna govinda" which is synonymous and equal in benefit to the triveni sangam in allahabad where the confluence of the three rivers namely., Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswathi meet, say the mahans. Namakeerthanam is a great dharmam and easy dharmam, will bestow upon all benefits, will remove all sins. If one chants "rama krishna govinda", say just chanting the name "rama" even if one likes it or not, the form of Rama will definitely come to him. If we hear the word "pAnai", immediately in our bhava prapancham within us the figurative form of a "pAnai" comes to us and then we know that he/she is telling about the pAnai. If we hear the mention of the word radio, immediately a picture of the radio comes to our mind, likewise if one mentions TV, we get the picture of a TV in our mind. Thus if we hear the word "Rama", surely the "kodandapani" form of Ramar will come to our mind and the thought will arise. Similarly if we hear krishna, the form of krishna will come to our mind. When telling the gunam, a bhakthan sings hey dheenabandho!, anathabandho!, saranagatha-rakshaka! whilst standing in front of the perumal in the temple singing "sarangathacharana rakshanEna"!. Again and again looking at the perumal, he/she sings saranagatha-rakshaka!. Whilst again and again looking and singing in front of the perumal, he/she remembers that the other day uttara, with the most terrible astra brahmastra being called upon by Aswattama, she performed saranagathi. The perumal then sent the chakrAyudham in his hand and protected uttara's womb, thinking about his protection, with tears streaming down the eyes, one would sing saranagatha-rakshakan!. That day in the sabha when Draupadi was about to be humiliated, even her husbands did not try to protect her, even brishma and droma did not protect her and when she cried out "Govinda" and performed saranagathi, perumal came to her rescue immediately. When the crocodile captured the leg of Gajendra and Gajendra having struggled for 1000s of years, took a lotus flower from the lake and threw at the perumal crying "Narayana akila gurO bhagavan namastE" and performed saranagathi. The perumal came on the GarudAzhwar and killing the crocodile saved Gajendran are the thoughts which come to the mind of the bhaktha praying to the perumal. When all the devas came to ksheerAbthi and performed saranagathi to bhagavan to save them, bhagavan took avatar as Rama, sakshath narasimha, kannan and accepted the surrender of the devas is the thought coming in the mind when standing in front of the perumal with hands folded in prayer and surrender unto him.
When Bharata came to the bhagavan in saranagathi, the bhagavan made him content. When Sugreeva came to the bhagavan in saranagathi, he accepted that and made Sugreeva happy. Bhagavan accepted the saranagathi of Vibheeshana and made him content. When maharishis were in the forest and were under the tyranny of the rakshasas, by destroying the rakshasas, khara and dhooshana, bhagavan made them happy and content. Like this whomsoever cames to the bhagavan in saranagathi, he will save them all is the thought that would come to the mind of the bhaktha. Next the bhaktha thinks about having read the complete ramayana, bhagavatham and mahabharata as well the stories in the vedas, the eighteen puranas and notices that in none of these books there has been a mention of anyone being deserted or destroyed by their belief in the Lord Narayana. There is not one story where a person who believed and surrendered to Narayana was ever destroyed. Even bad persons such as kshatrabandhu and Ajamila have become good is the thought going on in the mind of the bhaktha. He says "Hey Saranagatha-rakshaka!" The bhakthas thought goes into the puranas. Not only the thought that in all the itihaasa, puranas and stories of bhakthars where the bhagavan has protected his bhakthas, also the mahans who lived during the period of these charithrams have performed saranagathi and attained such a great peace and contentment. Meera attained such a kshemam, mahangal such as Andal and periyAzhwar attained such a kshemam and the bhaktha's thoughts go to the stories of such bhakthars. Then he thinks about his own life and thinks about how many disasters have come in his life and how he has been saved amongst all that by the bhagavan. He says "prabho! I would not know whether I would be sitting in front of you as a human. You protected me. You protected during my difficult times", saying so with tears flowing down his eyes and not forgetting that for a second the kripa that is shown by the bhagavan is a real bhaktha. Being a bhaktha like that is what bhakthi really is. "Kripa smaranam" is essentially bhakthi. To get such a "kripa smaranam", we hear such discourses and stories. In case such a kripa smaranam does not come on its own for someone, mahans will instill that in them. They will tell you to think of the bhagavan. They will tell you that after HIM doing so much kripa to you, you should not forget him. They will tell you why should you think of HIM and how. What is the benefit in thinking about HIM. Mahangal teach us all this.
Bhagavan's avataram of Rama and Krishna usually happened in the northern parts of Ayodhya and Mathura and these avatarams would exist in all of us until the time of the existence of the Sun and the Moon on this earth and also on the other hand, the azhwars have given the essence of the vedas as the 4000 divya prabhandam and these 4000 divya prabhandam have to be performed daily in the temple. The knowledge of which perumal archAvatAram the azhwars went and to which divyadeshams they performed mangalAsAsanam should not just be confined to the books sleeping in the library, they should be daily served in the temple and emperuman would love to listen to it again and again, become happy and give kataksham. Should not the namakeerthanam be performed always in the temples. Should not the sadhus come to the temple and perform seva. That is why when the north had so much of bhagavath bhakthi, with the coming of Sri Ramanujar this bhakthi was balanced in the southern part as well. In both the Rama avatar and Krishna avatar, the bhagavan having performed so many leelas in the vibhavAvatar, arent these leelas themselves being told in the 4000 divyaprabhandams. Therefore if this kshetram Sriperumbudur is not there, then there are no divyadeshams at all we say today.
Sri Ramanujar during the chithra masam, shukla paksham, panchami thithi was born on a Thursday, nanpaghazh kataka lagnam, aruthra nakshathram. According to the English calendar, the date of birth has been determined to be the 13th of April in the 1016 AD. The maternal cousin of Sri Ramanujar, Sri Embaar also known as Govindan was born in the pingala varsham, thai masam on a Monday, punarpusham nakshathra in madhuramangalam/mazhazhaimangalam him being younger by ten months to Sri Ramanujar. Even after Sri Ramanujar attained paramapadam, Sri Embaar was alive for three more years and graced this earth is something we need to know. Sri Ramanujar, whilst being in Sriperumbudur had the jathakarma, aksharabhyAsam performed to him as per the norms. Sri Ramanujar had his aksharabhyAsam in the Sriperumbudur manazhaghaperumal temple when he was just a small child having the shikha and the urdhva pundaram and to his beautiful thirumEni, his thirumankAppu added sobhai. He had a small nice dhoti tied to his waist and they performed the thAlattu as they sing the "manikkam katti" with love towards the little child (avatara purshar) Sri Ramanujar.
"AthirisUl jnalam ananthavatAramena chithiraiyizh Adhiraiyizh nazh vandu uditha desikanO. kEshavanAr vAzha kizhaivazha keerthi mighum Asuri vandu uditha sooriya sonnArar" they sang putting the child Sri Ramanujar to sleep. Then as per the time and norm, the upAnayanam happened. In the beginning the lessons on chanting the slokams and the basis of these slokas were all mastered by Sri Ramanujar in Sriperumbudur itself. Then kEsava sUri, his father attained paramapadam. As per the practices followed then, within 16 years Sri Ramanujar got married. Whom did Sri Ramanujar often talk and move with? We have often mentioned the kshetram of poovirandhavallee. Thirukatchinambi, who was born in the kshetram of poovirandhavallee, planted may flower bearing plants and created gardens and collecting all these flowers went to perform flower kainkaryam to peraruzhAzhan (devaperumal). When he used to go from poovirandhavallee to visit peraruzhAzhan in Kanchipuram, he would cross Sriperumbudur, Thirumazhisai, crossing Madhuramangalam and thus would reach kanchipuram. When "kanchiparipurnar" also known as Thirukatchinambi was going, even though there were thousands of children playing in the streets of Sriperumbudur, whenever he would meet Sri Ramanujar he would possess a special attraction toward him. When in the early morning even before the sun has risen, there will be a shadow in the sky informing that the sun is about to come as an announcement. Likewise an avatarapurushar is indeed an avatarapurushar. So being known as a mahapurushar, this Kanchi "paripurnar/GajendradAsar/Thirukatchinambi" felt a strong attraction towards this child and likewise the little Ramanujar felt the same towards Thirukatchinambi. Mahans will usually not speak about the worldly affairs and those who speak worldly affairs always are indeed not mahans. Thirukatchinambi, whilst always keeping Ramanujar beside him on his verandah day and night, in the satyavritha kshetram, used to tell him about the greatness of the city of kanchipuram and punyakoti vimanam as well as the greatness of the varadaraja perumal, telling him of the charithram of the azhwars and the acharyars with so much love and affection. The child as well was never satiated in hearing about all this and wanted to hear more and more. Everyone would love to hear and not be content knowing about the description of the poorva acharyars and the mahans. Both had mutual attraction toward each other and when Thirukatchinambi went off to offer the flower kainkaryam to peraruzhAzhan in kanchipuram, Young Sri Ramanujar would be eagerly awaiting for him to come back and looking forward for him. Likewise it would be the same for Thirukatchinambi as he would be waiting to get back after the pushpa kainkaryam and be in the company of izhaiazhwar and talking to him. Like this both had a deep mutual attraction towards each other.
Subham
