Thaniyan

kArthikE BaraNI jAtham yatIndrAsritamAsrayE |
JNyAnapramEya sAraBivaktAram vardam munim ||

dayApAlana dEvAya JNyAnasAra pradAyaca |
pramEyasAram tatatE namOstu prEma sAlinE ||

rAmAnuja padAmbOja samsrtam guNavArithim |
dayApAla munim vandE vEdAnta pariniStitam ||

JNyAnaBaktyArta vairAgyam rAmAnuja padAsritam |
PancamOpAya sampannam samyamIndram namAmyaham ||

rAmAnujArya sacchiShyam vEdaSAstrArta sampadam |
chaturtAsrama sampannam dEvarAjamunim bajE ||

yatirAja dayApAtram yatipankti viBUSaNam |
dayApAla munim vandE desikAgrE saram saDA ||

Sri AP emperumAnAr, also called dayApAlamuni or dEvarAjamuni, was one of the very important siShyAs of swAmi emperumAnAr. He was a advaita sanyAsi, who surrendered at the holy feet of swAmi emperumAnAr, and showed us the qualities of a Sri Vaishnava, and the Guru-siShya lakShaNam. He also gave us two works called JNyAna sAram and pramEya sAram, which are considered as authentic teachings of swAmi emperumAnAr, giving us the essence of the entire vedAnta.

Thousand years back, when swami emperumAnAr was ruling the leelA viBhuthi, as the chief of our Sri Vaishnava SampradhAyam, there lived a vidhwan called "yaJNyamUrthy". He was a great scholar in vEdAnta, and a sanyAsi following the advaita sampradhAyam. He heard about swAmi emperumAnArs vaiBhavam, and decided to have a debate with swAmi (hereafter swAmi will always refer to swAmi emperumAnAr, in the rest of the document) and defeat him. Having decided thus, he wrote lot of shAstrAs, based on the doctrine of advaitha, and carried them all with him, to Srirangam. On reaching Srirangam, he expressed his wish to debate with swAmi, which was gladly accepted by swAmi too. Both of them put forth their conditions as follows : yaJNyamUrthy promised that, if defeated, he will carry the holy sandals of swAmi, change his name to that of swAmi, and also become a Sri Vaishnava. SwAmi too promised that, if defeated, swAmi will take up grantha sanyAsam.

With this the debate started and continued for 18 days. Till the end of the 16th day, neither of them could defeat the other. But on the 17th day, the arguments and ideas of yaJNyamUrthy grew stronger and swAmi could not think of anything else to refute it. That day yaJNyamUrthy returned home in an ecstatic mood, while swAmi was greatly dejected at the turn of events. He then offered prasadam to his thiruvArADhana perumAL, pEraruLALan, and silently started pouring his heart out to him. "Starting with AzhwArs, and carried on by Sri AlavandAr, should this great sampradAyam come to an end with the birth of a person like me. If this is what is your desire, be it so." Thinking thus, and with extreme grief, swAmi went to bed without having any prasAdam.

That night pEraruLALan appeared in his dream and spoke thus : "Oh! IlayAzhwAr, why do you worry? I have given you a siShyA who is equivalent to you in all aspects. Use the arguments of your paramAchAryAr, Sri AlavandArs? mAyAvAdha Khandanam, and defeat him."

SwAmi woke up suddenly and realized that it was a dream and was overjoyed. He happily completed his nithya karmAnuShTAnam, and after worshipping his thiruvArADhana perumAL and went to the debate hall with all the majestic look. YaJNyamUrthy, on seeing swAmi was awe struck, by his majestic appearance and happiness in his face, that he thought: "Is this the same emperumAnAr, who returned dejected yesterday. Now that he is entering the debate hall with a majestic look of an elephant." On seeing all these, yaJNyamUrthy, being a JNyAni, understood the divine power of swAmi, and decided that it is not possible for a normal being to return with such energy, after being badly defeated the previous day, and fell at the feet of swAmi, and conceded defeat. As per the promises, he then requested swAmi to forgive him by placing swamis holy feet on his head. This act of yaJNyamUrthy completely surprised swAmi, who asked him if he is not willing to continue with the debate. For this the yaJNyamUrthy replied, "When periya perumAL showed himself to you, there is no difference between periya perumAL and swAmi, and he (yaJNyamUrthy) does not have any capacity to speak a word in front of such a great AcharyA." On hearing this swAmi was extremely pleased, but still to bring the debate to a formal conclusion, he explained yaJNyamUrthy, the flaws in the mAyAvAdha siDhAntham.

Then swAmi embraced yaJNyamUrthy, and accepted him as his siShyA. He then requested yaJNyamUrthy to do prAyaschittA for forsaking the yaJNyopavItham, and kAshAya vasthram, when he earlier became an advaita sanyAsi. Then swAmi performed pancha samskAram to yaJNyamUrthy and named him as "aruLALa perumAl emperumAnAr" as he considered yaJNyamUrthy a divine son given to him by pEraruLALan, and established a maTam for him as he was a sanyAsi. SwAmi then taught nAlAyira divya praBhanDham, to AP EmperumAnAr.

Daily swAmi used to conduct his viDhwath goShTi with kUraThAzhwAn, mudaliyAndAn, and AP emperumAnAr. There were many bhagavathas who surrendered at the holy feet of swAmi. When ananthAzhwAn, echAn, thondanUr nimbi, and marudUr nimbi surrendered at the feet of swAmi, swAmi asked them to surrender to AP emperumAnAr, and accept him as their AcharyA. On hearing this AP emperumAnAr fearfully told them : ?Its like tying a fruit of the palm tree, to the neck of a sparrow." and advised them to surrender only to swAmi. This particular episode shows us the some of the qualities of a Sri Vaishnava, and guru-siShya lakShaNam. A guru should never consider his siShyAs to be his siShyAs, but should consider them as siShyAs of his own AcharyAn.

Another event which clearly showed the Acharya niShTai, of AP emperumAnAr, and his love for swAmi. Once two Sri Vaishnavas came to Srirangam, to get the blessings of swAmi, and asked the local people gathered there, the way to emperumAnArs maTam. For which, the local people put a counter question, asking "which emperumAnAr". On hearing this the Sri Vaishnavas were surprised and enquired back, "Why do you ask which emperumAnAr? Do we have two emperumAnars in our darShanam". The local people replied "Yes, we also have Sri aruLALa perumAL emperumAnAr with us in Srirangam, that why we asked like that." The Sri Vaishnavas replied that they were not aware of AP emperumAnAr, and they asked only about Udayavars maTam, and left the place after getting the directions. AP emperumAnAr happened to hear this conversation and was shocked to hear that he has been treated on par with his swAmi, and was grief sticken. He thought, "Just because I live away from the holy feet of my swAmi, I am being compared on par with him. What a sinner am I, to be separated from my swAmi." Thinking thus, he immediately demolished his maTam, and asked ananThAzhwAn, echAn, and other siShyAs to go back to swAmi emperumAnAr, and himself fell at the feet of swAmi and requested swAmi to take him back. SwAmi too, after hearing all that had happened was extremely pleased at the Acharya niShTai of AP emperumAnAr, and never got separated from him thereafter. From then on, AP emperumAnAr spent all this life under the feet of swAmi, doing kainkaryam for his Acharyan, and learnt all the raHasyAs from swAmi.

AP emperumAnAr then out of his kripai, for the well being of all, wrote two poems in tamizh, called JNyAna sAram and pramEya sAram, which are considered the essence of the entire vedAnta. SwAmi emperumAnAr, did not write any granthas in tamizh, but all his teachings were given to us by his siShyAs, who wrote a lot of poems and granthAs based on the teachings of swAmi. Based on this, JNyAna sAram and pramEya sAram can be considered as the authentic teachings imparted by swAmi rAmAnuja, to his siShyAs.

The thirunakShathram of Sri AP emperumAnAr, also called dayApAlamuni or dEvarAjamuni, is being celebrated in the month of kArthigai, in BharaNi nakShathram. Infact, the month of kArthigai is considered very important because of the thirunakShathrams of AP emperumAnAr, thirumangai AzhwAr, and thiruppANAzhwAr, falling on BharaNi, krthiga, rohiNi nakShathrams days, respectively.

Works

Written in the "venpa" style of poetry, and revealing parama raHasyArthAs, are the two important works called "JNyAna sAram" and "pramEya sAram", by Sri aruLALa perumAL emperumAnAr. These two works are said to be the first, among the tamizh poetries, composed by our pUrvAchAryAs. Even thiruvarangaThamudanArs rAmAnusa nUtrandAdi, was written only after these two works.

SwAmi MaNavALa mAmunigal has written beautiful commentaries for these two works.

Where can we worship this AchArya now?

We can have the blessings of Sri AP emperumAnAr, at the Sri pAndava dUthar temple, in Kanchipuram. On the day of kArthigai BharaNi, the thirunakShathram of AP emperumAnar is celebrated here, with great grandeur, by all the SriVaishnavas.

We can also have the blessings of Sri AP emperumAnAr, at the Ranganathar temple, in Shivaji Nagar, Secunderabad, Andhra Pradesh. Here AP emperumAnAr shares the sannidhi with Sri maNavALa mAmunigal. It is indeed a sight to watch, the author of JNyAna sAram and pramEya sAram, and the Acarya, who wrote commentaries for the above, share the same sannidhi.