In this world if we have a desire on any thing, the only result is pure sorrow. The result of sorrow on an object is because it is always changing. If one looks very beautiful, then we desire them but this beauty is not everlasting. If this beauty, say as a result of health or any other reason diminishes, the desire on them changes. Likewise, if one has too much money and if we have an attraction over them, when the money disappears from them, the desire is reduced. If one is highly qualified or is a gifted great artist and in case such a person gets a disease called coma or a disease which causes loss of memory, then the desire over them diminishes. If there is desire due to youthful age, this youth too slides away and desire diminishes.
Likewise if we desire a thing, this thing may be stolen or become destroyed and in this world any thing that has been created has a matching attribute of getting destroyed equally. But if we have a desire on one, we may never get sorrow. Not only that, on this one thing as the desire increases, our anandam also will be increasing. Which thing? This is on sakshAth Narayanan and the desire upon HIM. Why because, when we look at bhagavan and if we fall in love with HIS beauty and become immersed with love for his beauty, this beauty is everlasting and will never wean or diminish. The youth of the bhagavan is eternal. The wealth of the bhagavan is eternal. We cannot say bhagavan was there then, is now present or he will be there tomorrow or later. HE is ever present at all times and is the one who is eternal and as there is no destruction for the bhagavan, change or reduction. On such a bhagavan if we start having a desire, then it is always happiness. As desire grows, anandam also grows. There will be no sorrow.
Therefore sadhus will never keep their desire on worldly things but will keep their desire only on the bhagavan. The reason why we have this desire on worldly things and think that this or an other thing is good is because, we still haven't got the full taste of the good things yet. We eat something and we say this is good taste, but there is something greater than this taste but we have not been blessed with getting this yet and we also do not know how it will look like as well.
So the reason why we keep saying that the worldly things are beautiful is because the happiness and comfort we get from the bhagavan has not been experienced by us yet and the reason why this has not been experienced is because we do not have the company of the sadhus. The company of the sadhus will attract our chittam and pull us towards the bhagavan on whom the sadhus have bhakthi. The sadhus will make it happen that our chittam gets attracted towards the bhakthi for the bhagavan.
In the Srimad Bhagavatham, after performing the pattabhishekam for Dharmaputra, bhagavan thinks that he has already stayed for long time in hastinapuram and worries about his people of Dwaraka. It has been a long time since he has seen his people at Dwaraka. Thinking that he would like to go and see his people, the bhagavan leaves for Dwaraka. When hearing that the bhagavan is leaving, it is said in the Srimad Bhagavatham that Dharmaputra, Kunti, Draupadi and all the people are crying and fainting with sorrow at being separated from the bhagavan. Will such a sorrow be prevalent at separation from the bhagavan, it is beautifully said in the bhagavatham that the story of krishna will be heard and listened to until the lifetime of the sun and the moon. If one daily listens to the story of the krishna which is being told, it becomes a habit. Say one of the days there is no krishna katha, then a great sorrow will be felt by him it seems. Is there no story of the bhagavan today? no keerthanam of the bhagavan today? - a sorrow of this nature will arise it seems. Krishna, having been born before 5000 years and one having seen and known Krishna only through the puranas, having listened to the kathas and keerthanas of Krishna, will feel sorrow at missing even one day of the krishna katha. What can be said of one who has lived and moved with krishna, played with him, such being the feeling of the people at hastinapuram who cry, faint and feel sorrow with his departure. The sadhus will by telling always about the bhagavan and will make us feel as if we are living alongwith the bhagavan himself. Not just thinking that the time of Krishna and our time is different, but by listening to the bhagavath gunam and keerthanam, the sadhus will create the feeling within us as if we are living with the times of krishna.
Thirukatchinambi from pooviranthamallee will daily go to kanchipuram and perform pushpa kainkaryam to pEraruzhAzhan. He would start from pooviranthamallee and having had the darshan of the Jagannatha perumal at Thirumazhilisai, will go via Sriperumbudur to the place of kanchipuram.
This Kanchipuram is also called by the famous name of Satyavrathaa kshetram. Seeing Thirukatchinambi, being with so much samskAram, keeping the thirumankAppu and with so much bhagavath bhakthi and humility, being so peaceful and a sadhu, the child Ramanujar felt a great sense of attraction towards him. Being small, keeping the thirumankAppu and the sikha with great samskAram, looking at Thirukatchinambi, he felt the pull of attraction and wanted to speak to him very much and establish a bond with him. On his own account, the child Ramanujar approached Thirukatchinambi and asked him from where he had come and where he would be going to and what place he is from and why does he come this way daily. Could he please stay in his home for a little while and could rest here and have water, Ramanujar would plead. Thus talking with him, he established a loving bond with him. As the sadhus will always be talking of the bhagavan, Thirukatchinambi, making Ramanujar sit beside him would tell about the stories of the Devaperumal, the varadhan so much. About punyakoti vimanan, the sthalapuranam, his experiences with the bhagavan and the discussions with the bhagavan himself, telling all this to the child Ramanujar and for Ramanujar being a child, the first and the foremost of the satsangham that happened to him was with Thirukatchinambi. About the bhagavan, poorva acharyar and the information contained within the divyaprabhandam, again and again Thirukatchinambi was telling about it to Ramanujar. Our Ramanujar was always expecting anxiously for Thirukatchinambi every day and being very eager to hear about all this. When will I see him was something Ramanujar would be waiting for with great expectations.
We have a friend and daily at a certain time he will talk to us about any worldly matter, say about the news on the TV, paper etc.,. daily at 8pm, he would talk and if goes on like this for 10 days and after that if he does not come to speak, the mind would worry about him thinking where he is today. Expecting that if he came today, we would think that we have so much to talk to him and miss his company. For speaking about this ordinary worldly matter itself, the mind expects so much, what can be said about expecting someone who was always speaking on the matters that give so much peace to the mind, speaking about the bhagavan as Thirukatchinambi did. So Ramanujar was always expecting him and when Thirukatchinambi presented himself, the joy of Ramanujar would know no bounds. He will always be in his company and would ask him to tell all about the bhagavath gunam, purva acharyars, the azhwars and will always be so happy to listen to all this. Being old, taking the flowers for pushpa kainkaryam from pooviranthamallee and offer it to pEraruzhAzhan, one day pEraruzhAzhan told the old Thirukatchinambi that why should he walk such a long distance carrying all the pushpam and offer this kainkaryam but instead stay here itself in kanchipuram. Why walk such a long distance in his old age. But Thirukatchinambi could not be without performing the kainkaryam at all. One studies all the sastras but the benefit of all this is only in performing the kainkaryam to the bhagavan. There are people who do not study the sastras but perform kainkaryam, then there are people who study the sastras yet perform the kainkaryam. So whats the relationship of the sastras to the kainkaryam. Performing the azhavatta kainkaryam and when the perumal is going on a porrapAdu, carrying on the shoulders, performing the chatram, chAmaran and several other offerings, what is the relationship of all these kainkaryams to the sastras, one would wonder.
One would wonder whether it is needed to study the sastras in order to perform these kainkaryams. Having read the sastras and knowing that HE is a vedavedyan, the basis of the upanishads and knowing HIM as such, performing the kainkaryam with such a bhavam then the kainkaryam is indeed complete. Such a great bhagavan, prabhu and for one such as HIM we are performing the seva and what humility is required for this. Knowing this, realising and relishing it, we need to perform the seva. Therefore when Thirukatchinambi says that he cannot be without performing the kainkaryam, pEraruzhAzhan tells Thirukatchinambi to perform the Azhavatta kainkaryam (fanning the lord). Now that Thirukatchinambi has moved to kanchipuram to perform the Azhavatta kainkaryam, Ramanujar feels a loss at not being able to see him as before when he used to come daily and tell so much of bhagavath gunam. Ramanujar feels losing his sangam so much now.
Now at the appropriate time, Ramanujar got married and then his father attained the lotus feet of the lord. Whatever Ramanujar had to learn for his early education were performed in Sriperumbudur. He had to learn further studies in vedanta sastram. Intially the poetry had to be studied and all the basic and foundation of his studies were at Sriperumbudur itself. To study further about the vedanta and the sastras, Ramanujar felt that he will need to go to kanchipuram. Why? Is it because of Kanchipuram being famously known as satyavrutha kshetram although that is one of the reason. Amongst the 7 mokshapuris, being the only mokshapuri in South India could also be the reason. Is it because of pEraruzhAzhan being in kanchipuram, could also be one of the reasons. Being a kshetram, there could be lots of sadhus and vidwans and that could be the reason why Ramanujar decided to go there which could be true too. But on top of all these, being in Kanchipuram, by being close to Thirukatchinambi and talk about and listen to the bhagavath gunam is the desire closest to his heart. Talking to his mother, Ramanujar explains that his basic education is complete here and he would like to go to kanchipuram where there will be many vidwans and pandits and will like to read the further sastras there. His mother being very supportive, they move from Sriperumbudur to Kanchipuram. Thirukatchinambi is living in kanchipuram. In Kanchipuram near to the sannadhi of Varadaraja perumal there is a mahatma by the name of Yadavaprakashar. Yadavaprakashar has read all the sastras and being there, he is teaching the vedanta lessons to students. There being no other vidwan other than Yadavaprakashar there, Ramanujar joins under his tutelage and begins to further study the vedanta sastras. When Yadavaprakashar meets Ramanujar for the first time, he understands that Ramanujar is a bit different from the rest of the materialistic students. Mahapurushars are indeed mahapurushars. Their eyes, their deep shoulders, long hands all these samudrika lakshanams as well as their looks will describe the characteristics of a mahapurushar. As Yadavaprakashar having read all the sastras knows that Ramanujar is no ordinary mortal and thinks that his characteristics denote this as well.
For Ramanujar who had come to Yadavaprakashar to learn all the vedanta sastras, Yadavaprakashar teaches him. Learning the vedas, living in the mahakshetram of kanchipuram, performing the seva to pEraruzhAzhan, being with the sangam of Thirukatchinambi and listening to the bhagavath gunam, Ramanujar stays in kanchipuram itself. But for a mahapurushar just being under the tutelage of a acharyar is only for worldly sake. Sakshath Ramar, even though he was an avatarapurushar behaved just like a human yet learnt under the guidance of the great Sage Vasistha. "Krishnam Vande Jagatgurum", if said, the same Krishna studied under the Guru Sandipani, likewise Ramanujar also learns under Yadavaprakashar.
Subham
