IzhaiAzhwar will be the next acharya in his place who will protect and establish the vaishnavas, was what Azhavandar decided and firmly lodged in his heart at the very beginning itself. Azhavandar also prayed to VaradarAja perumal that after himself, the acharya position must be adorned by izhaiAzhwar and no other. To bring izhaiAzhwar to Srirangam at the appropriate time, Azhavandar also sent Srivaishnavas to invite him with a beautiful stotraratna mala. izhaiAzhwar on hearing this amazing stotraratnamala and coming to know from the Srivaishnavas that it was Azhavandar who had composed this and also told them that he knew of Azhavandar from his Acharyan thirukatchinambi himself. Knowing from them that Azhavandar requested izhaiAzhwar to come to Srirangam, Sri
Ramanujar started on his journey to Srirangam.
Ramanujar started on his journey to Srirangam.
izhaiAzhwar was attracted by the stotraratnamala. From this we come to know one thing, whenever we go to any divyadesha temple or to go and have the darshan of the perumal, we will go accompanied by someone or friends. In these instances we should not talk of worldly matters or gossip or make fun or talk ill of others, instead we should always keep chanting namakeerthanam. When doing so, our perumal must turn towards us and give us the bliss of HIS darshan isnt it. Yes, perumal is always offering us HIS katAksham indeed but a vishEsha katAksham must fall upon us. Who is this bhaktha? Like that perumal must look at us. We should make the perumal turn towards us, although the perumal is looking at everyone, we should make the perumal shower a vishEsha katAksham upon us. If we desired such a katAksham, what should we do. The one thing we should do, instead of us telling the slokas we often know, we should tell the stotras composed by the AzhwArs, stotras composed by mahAtmas. Then the perumal would hear this and say, oh! someone is saying the great stotras composed by AzhavandAr. oh! Someone is telling the pAsurams of nammAzhwar. Perumal would listen to these and get Anandam and perumal would look forward anticipating as to who would be telling the stotras of Azhwars and the pAsurams of nammAzhwar. Then the perumal would get Anandam and offer his special grace upon us and therefore whenever we go to the temple, we should always sing the stotras and pAsurams composed by the mahans and get this vishEsha katAkaham bestowed upon us. There is no doubt that this HIS gaze will be upon us.
perumal had made the sankalpam to take AzhavandAr to paramapadam and had let him know this. Azhavandar had requested that he will come to the paramapadam only after 8 days. perumal also accepted this.
When does one get the paramapadam? An Acharyan or a Srivaishnsvan gets the paramapadam purely based on the kripa of the Acharyan. One could have done all the sins that he can possibly do but we cannot say that such a sinner will not get vaikuntam. One could have done lots of meritorious and good acts and he will get vaikuntam, one cannot say also. Vaikuntam is the sole property of the perumal. Such a sole property of the perumal, which HE then assigns it to the Acharyan to deploy as he wishes to. Now the vaikunta prApthi is within the hands of the Acharyan. As we read the purAnas, we come to see that in the same birth itself, the sinner ajAmilan himself attained moksha as we read in the bhagavatham. A list of all the sins committed by ajAmila is shown in the bhagavatham - he lied, stole, cheated, killed, gambled etc., Even after committing such great sins this ajAmila attained vaikunta. In the thirumAlai we see that kshathirabandhu parAngathi kOndan. In the Ramayana we see that Dasaratha even today is in swarga. Which father who got us the bhagavan Sri Rama Himself, is still in swarga. In the same Ramayana we see that even an eagle bird got vaikunta. In the srimad bhagavatha we see that jadabharatha in his last days got associated with the deer and then in his next janma was born as a deer himself, we see that after another birth only begets moksha - nachirAth pArtha says the bhagavan in the bhagavath gita - mrithyu samsAra sAgarAth. If I give, it is one janma but if you are coming on your own, it is not known how many janmas.
Therefore paramapadam is given by the perumal to the Acharyan who can distribute it to his disciples as he wished. Therefore the parapadamanathar who is residing in the prarmapadam is trying to bring Azhavandar to his abode, but the RanganAthar in Srirangam must be ready to send him there. If this perumal allows him to go only then the paramapadanAthan can take him.
Therefore ranganAthar had granted time of 8 days for Azhavandar as requested and only then allowed to go. But where is kanchipuram and where is Srirangam. Even walking fast from kanchipuram to Srirangam, it took more than 8 days, meanwhile AzhavandAr attained paramapadam.
AzhavandAr on attaining paramapadam was buried on the banks of the North Kaveri River near the place called kollidam. This place is even now called "Azhavandar padithurai". All the vaishnavas of Srirangam are assembled there and izhaiAzhwar asks why the whole of Srirangam is in gloom. Srirangam seems to be without its usual shine and splendor. When izhaiAzhwar came to know that Azhavandar had attained paramapadam, he fell down twitched in distress as would a fish brought out of the water. "I came with so much of anticipation to see the acarya, don't I have such a bhagyam. Why this had happened that he was so unlucky not to have seen the acharya in person", exclaimed izhaiAzhwar. The Srivaishnavas around izhaiAzhwar now tried to pacify him and took him close to where the body of AzhavandAr was placed so he could have a last look. When izhaiAzhwar approached, he saw periyanambi there along with all the disciples of AzhavandAr. There were preparations afoot for cremating AzhavandAr. When looking at the body of the great acharyan, how would have izhaiAzhwar felt at that time, he was crying with a flood of tears flowing down his face. Not knowing what to say or think. He says "if I had the chance of being able to spend one day with this acharyan, I would have even constructed a staircase between the vaikuntam and the earth itself. In case AzhavandAr himself were to remain on the Earth itself, maybe the vaikuntam would have become small in comparision and was it why Ranganathar decided to take AzhavandAr to vaikuntam", lamented izhaiAzhwar. All the disciples there were now trying to console izhaiAzhwar whose sorrow was much greater than they felt for the loss of AzhavandAr. They now think that it is izhaiAzhwar who must now occupy the Acharya place as was AzhavandAr wish.
izhaiAzhwar now takes a long loving look at the body of AzhavandAr, his face, eyes, nose, throat etc., from top to bottom. When his eyes fell on the hands of AzhavandAr, he saw that the three fingers on the hand of AzhavandAr were folded. He asks the disciples there if the fingers of AzhavandAr would usually be like this. Only then they too notice, but they are surprised and say that it wont be usually like this. Ramanujar now understands that Azhavandar had folded his fingers because he wanted to convey something important to him. Knowing that AzhavandAr had requested perumal that he would only go after eight more days to paramapadam and coming to know that there would have been three thoughts within AzhavandAr's heart, he tries to find out the three things. The first thing Ramanujar says,
1) I will lead the Srivaishnavas, I will remove the ajnAna of the jeevakOtis and all the jeevakOtis would beget the pancha samskArams.
Just like how the adyayana utsavam was setup based on the procedures laid out by nammAzhwar, which was subsequently requested by ThirumangaiAzhwar to the perumal, the tamil vedam being the 4000 divya prabhandam, I will make this to be a daily reading (pArayanam) in the temple. Not only that, I will make it happen in the thiruvArAdhanam and porapAdu, the 4000 divya prabhandams, the tamil vedam will be recited. For these jeevas, the only way to attain liberation would be saranagathi and prapatti, i will tell this also. When this was told by Ramanujar, one of the folded fingers now opened up on AzhavandAr's hand.
2) When there were misunderstandings in the vedanta tatvam teachings of yAdavaprakAsar, Ramanujar says he will do a Sreebhashyam for brahmasutram in the vishistadwaita way. For all jeevas, I will do a shreebhasyam. When he said this, the second finger from azhavandAr's hand also opened up
Ramanujar was now happy, thinking thankfully, he was able to understand what was in azhavandAr's heart.
3) Although there are many puranas, there is not one equal to vishnupuranam. What is the greatness of the vishnu puranam? Only in this vishnupuranam, the chit, achith and ishwara tattwam has been clearly explained by parasara maharishi with clarity. As AzhavandAr always had association with parasara maharishi, Ramanujar decided that when there is a prominent child born in the vaishnava kulam, he would name the child with the name of parasara, the third finger also opened up.
The Srivaishnavas became happy at all that were taking place in the presence of Ramanujar.
After AzhavandAr was cremated, Ramanujar did not even have darshan of Sri Ranganathar as he was not happy that Sri Ranganathar did not make it happen that he could be with AzhavandAr when alive and as AzhavandAr had attained paramapadam within eight days. Ramanujar did not have the darshan of periyaperumal at all and left for kanchipuram to see Varadarajan. The relationship between AzhavandAr thiruvadi and Ramanujar is depicted beautifully in the ramanuja nootrandhAdhi.
Ramanujar left for kanchipuram to perform the theerthakainkaryam as before to pEraruzhAzhan, varadaraja perumal under the care of thirukatchinambi. Ramanujar kept thinking of the three things that need to be done in action. The 4000 divyaprabhandham recital must be brought into the nitya sEva within the temple. All should be made to do the recitation of the divyaprabhandham, the tamil vedam. The way of prapatti must be highlighted and made prominent. PanchasamskAram must be done for all jeevas. Sreebhashyam must be done. The name of parAsar must be christened for the most promising child of the Srivaishnavas. Having promised all this, this thought is going on constantly in his mind and such a great responsibility he had. Although, having returned to Kanchipuram to perform theerthakainkaryam to pErarurAzhan, his mind is still thinking of how he would be able to accomplish the three things he promised to do.
Subham. Radhe Radhe
