Srivaishnava lakshanam Srivaishnava Lakshanam – A compilation based on pUrvAchArya srisUkthis PonnadikkAl jeeyar – thiruvallikkENi 1 Srivaishnava lakshanam Introduction Sriman nArAyaNan out of his causeless mercy gives body and senses to all jIvAthmAs during shrushti according to their previous karma. He also reveals sAstram to brahmA, the first created being during creation. This sAstram is revealed to brahmA for the benefit of all jIvAthmAs. With the intelligence given by emperumAn sriman nArAyaNan and the information available in sAstram, jIvAthmAs are supposed to surrender themselves to emperumAn. Since that did not happen, emperumAn came down as avathArams – varAha, nrsimha, rAma, Krishna, etc., with the aim of delivering jIvAthmAs from this samsAram. But even after coming down as avathArams, only a few understood emperumAn’s glories and followed him. EmperumAn thought that just like to catch a deer we need another deer, he also needs to have some jIvAthmAs to rescue other jIvAthmAs – so he gave blemishless knowledge to AzhwArs to correct the samsAris and bring them into his fold. But AzhwArs were so immersed in bhagavadh anubhavam, they were not able to also fully deliver the jIvAthmAs. So, finally emperumAn through the AchArya paramparai (especially through emperumAnAr) established a proper channel, through which many jIvAthmAs are rescued even today from this samsAram. Our dharisanam is named emperumAnAr dharisanam by NamperumAL (sriranganAthan himself) declares maNavALa mAmunigaL. Our purvAchAryas have understood the essence of all sAstrams (vEdham, vEdhAntham, smrithi, ithihAsa purAnAs, etc) and extracted the rahasya thrayam from those sAstrams. Rahasya thrayam includes thirumanthram, dvayam and charamaslOkam. Rahasya thrayam establishes the meanings of artha panchakam (jIvAthma svarUpam, paramAthma svarUpam, upAya svarUpam, pala/upEya svarUpam and virOdhi svarUpam). Azhagiya maNavALa perumAL nAyanAr says in AchArya hrudhayam - “adhyayaNa jnAna aNushtAnanGgaLAlE brAhmanNyamAgiRAppOlE chaNthanGgaLAyirayamum ariyak kaRRu vallArAnAl vaishnNavathva sidhdhi ” ( அயயந ஞான அடானகளாேல ராமயமாகிறாேபாேல சதகளாயரய அய க வலாரானா ைவணவவ ஸிதி ). It means, just like by performing vEdha adhyayanam, developing jnAnam and anushtAnam (performing nithya/naimithika karmas, etc) one becomes a qualified brAhmaNa, by learning thiruvAimozhi, understanding the meanings and practicing it properly, one becomes a qualified srivaishnava. Rahsya thrayam is very clearly explained in thiruvAimozhi by nammAzhwAr and expanded upon by our pUrvAchAryas in their commentaries. Our pUrvAchAryas taught the rahasya thrayam and also lived by that. Every AchArya in our pUrvAchArya guru paramparai had very high standards of morality, honesty, dignity, etc. It is important for us to understand from their lives and instructions how we should conduct ourselves. It is with that intent adiyen is writing this series of articles. Adiyen have written this series of articles in English because there is a lot of non-tamil speaking srivaishnavas who do not have easy access to these valuable information in a single 2 Srivaishnava lakshanam document. These subject matters are already translated into various books and the information is scattered in a number of books. The essence of those is collected and given here to the best of adiyen’s ability. While adiyen is not qualified to write these matters, out of excitement adiyen is sharing this invaluable knowledge which adiyen got purely by the grace of emperumAn and AchAryan and by hearing from various kAlakshEpa adhikAris. The main intention of writing these articles is to share these valuable gems with others. It is showed in ThiruppAvai vyAkyAnam that we should not enjoy sweet things by ourselves – they should be shared. What is sweeter than our pUrvAchAryAs’ lives and instructions? Adiyen is blessed to have been born in a family which has direct connection to emperumAnAr – adiyen is born in komAndur elayavilli (who is a cousin of emperumAnAr like embAr) thiruvamsam and our forefathers surrendered to vAnamAmalai mutt jeeyar swAmy long ago. Adiyen is blessed to have the thiruvadi sambandham of ponnadikkAl jeeyar who is a close/confidential disciple of maNavALa mAmunigaL. Adiyen is also blessed to have dhEha sambam with asmadhAchAryan Srimath paramahamsa ithyAdhi PattarbhirAn rAmAnuja jeeyar swAmy , 29 th pattam, vAnamAmalai mutt in his pUrvAshramam. asmadhAchAryan is well known for being parama sAtvikar and virakthar with immense interest in arulicheyal and pUrvAchArya vyAkyAnams. asmadhAchAryan’s younger brother in his pUrvAshramam, Sri U.Ve. AdhinAtha iyengar swAmy - adiyen’s pithAmahar (grand father) have been serving in vAnamAmalai mutt for more than 75 years (mutt thiruvArAdhanam, Jeeyar swAmy kainkaryam, adhyAbhakam, etc). Adiyen is also indebted to adiyen’s kAlkashEpa AchAryas Sri U.Ve. Velukkudi KrishnamAchAryar swAmy, Sri U.Ve. Srirangam Gomatam Sampath kumArAchAryar swAmy and more for revealing the deep knowledge in our sampradhAya granthams. It is only by the sambandham with these swAmys adiyen has some ruchi in our sampradhAyam. Adiyen would also like to thank many srivaishnavas who motivated/encouraged adiyen to write this series of articles. Adiyen would also like to thank the srivaishnavas who went through this collection of articles and gave their valuable feedback. Keeping them in mind adiyen submit this small work at the thiruvadis of Srimath paramahamsa ithyAdhi Kaliyan RAmAnuja jeeyar swAmy (30 th pattam, varthamAna swAmy, vAnamAmalai mutt). adiyen sarathy rAmAnuja dasan Email: [email protected] Web: http://ponnadi.blogspot.com , http://guruparamparai.wordpress.com AvaNi thirumoolam (Aug 26, 2012) 3 Srivaishnava lakshanam asmadhAchAryan Srimath paramhamsa ithyAdhi pattarbhirAn rAmAnuja jeeyar (29 th pattam, vAnamAmalai mutt) varthmAna swAmy Srimath paramhamsa ithyAdhi kaliyan rAmAnuja jeeyar (30 th pattam, vAnamAmalai mutt) 4 Srivaishnava lakshanam Table of Contents 1. External qualities ............................................................................................................................. 7 2. pancha samskAram .......................................................................................................................... 9 3. AchArya-Sishya relationship ........................................................................................................... 12 4. Guru paramparai ........................................................................................................................... 19 5. Internal qualities ............................................................................................................................ 22 6. Glorifying Srivaishnavas with such jnAnam/anushtAnam ............................................................... 27 7. apachArams to avoid ..................................................................................................................... 30 8. Understanding the greatness of Srivaishnavas (part 1) ................................................................... 35 9. Understanding the greatness of Srivaishnavas (part 2) ................................................................... 38 10. Srivaishnava dhinacharyA (part 1) .............................................................................................. 42 11. Srivaishnava dhinacharyA (part 2) .............................................................................................. 46 12. Ororuvar ( ஓெராவ) .......................................................................................................... 49 13. Conclusion ................................................................................................................................. 55 5 Srivaishnava lakshanam NampiLLai (also known as lOkAchAryar, ThirukkaliKanRi dhAsar, etc), the pioneer of aruLicheyal (specifically thiruvAimozhi) kAlakshEpam piLLai lOkAchAryar srivachana bhUshaNa kAlakshEpa gOshti 6 Srivaishnava lakshanam 1. External qualities There are several places in our purvAchArya granthas where srivaishnava lakshnam is explained. In this series, we will see many of those references from our purvAchArya works - one at a time. Let us start with a very basic pramAnam from padma puranam which is referred by our purvAchAryas in their works. yE kaNTha lagna tulasi nalinAksha mAlA yE bAhu mUla parichinnita shankha cakrA yE vA lalAta phalake lasad Urdhva pundrA thE vaishnavA bhuvanam Ashu pavithrayanti This purana slokam explains a vaishnava’s physical appearance and how he purifies the place where he lives and the people living there. A portrait of vilAnchOlai piLLai (a sishya of pilLLai lOkAchAryar) One who wears mAlAs (necklace) that is made out of Tulasi and Lotus stems (also includes pavithra mAlai which was adorned by perumAL, thAyArs, Azhwars, AchAryas), One whose shoulders are decorated with the unique symbols of Sriman nArAyaNa - shankam and chakkaram (as part of the pancha samskAram process),One whose forehead is decorated with Urdhva pundram (an authorized symbol applied by mixing the clay that is found in holy pilgrimages and that represents the holy feet of Sriman nArAyaNa - while it talks about forehead specifically, our purvAchAryas always applied 12 urdhva pundrams at various places of the body per sAstram), that vaishnava quickly purifies the world (the place where he is present) and the people living there. 7 Srivaishnava lakshanam Our purvAchAryas have always emphasised the importance of physical appearance and always