aruLALa perumAL emperumAnAr

sri:
srimathE rAmAnujAya nama:
srimadh varavaramunayE nama:
sri vAnAchala mahAmunayE nama:

aruLALa perumAL emperumAnAr – thiruppAdagam

thirunakshathram: kArthigai, bharaNi

avathAra sthalam: vinjimUr

AchAryan: emperumAnAr

sishyAs: ananthAzhwAn, echchAn, thoNdanUr nambi, marudhUr nambi, etc

Works: jnAna sAram, pramEya sAram, etc

Born in vinjimUr (Andhra pradhEsh), he was originally known as yagya mUrthy and was an adhvaithi. He once goes for gangA snAnam and wins many vidhwAns there and becomes a mAyAvAdha sanyAsi. Due to his vast knowledge in sAsthram he had acquired great fame and many disciples. Hearing about emperumAnAr‘s glories, yagya mUrthy desires to debate with him. He prepares many granthams and have them carried by his many disciples and arrives at srIrangam to meet emperumAnAr.

emperumAnAr welcomes yagya mUrthy and they make an arrangement to debate for 18 days. yagya mUrthy declares that if he is defeated he will change his name to reflect emperumAnAr’s name, carry the pAdhukais of emperumAnAr on his head and become a sishya of emperumAnAr. emperumAnAr declares that if he is defeated he will give up touching any granthams.

The debate starts and goes on for 16 days. Both of them debate eloquently and furiously like two elephants fighting each other. On the 17th day, it appears that yagya mUrthy is gaining an upper hand. emperumAnAr becomes a bit worried and leaves to his mutt at the end. In the night, he meditates on pEraruLALan (his personal thiruvArAdhana perumAL) and asks emperumAn if he will end up losing the debate which will lead to the downfall of the great sampradhAyam which was nourished by NammAzhwAr to ALavandhAr. He also worries that he becomes the reason for such downfall. pEraruLALan appears in emperumAnAr’s dream subsequently and tells him not to worry. He tells him that this was a divine leelai to bring a sishya to emperumAnAr who is adequately intelligent and brilliant. He instructs emperumAnAr to use ALavandhAr‘s refutations for mAyAvAdham and defeat yagya mUrthy in the debate. emperumAnAr realises the greatness of emperumAn and continues to recite emperumAn’s thinAmams until early morning, performs his nithyAnushtAnams and thiruvArAdhanam and arrives for the debate for the last (18th) day majestically. yagya mUrthy, being an intellectual, right away recognises the thEjas in emperumAnAr, falls at his lotus feet, keeps emperumAnAr’s pAdhukas on his head and accepts his defeat. When emperumAnAr asks if he wants to debate further, yagya mUrthy says “emperumAnAr is non-different from periya perumAL for him, so no need to debate further”. But emperumAnAr out of his krupai, still explains emperumAn’s saguNathvam using proper pramANams. yagya mUrthy requests emperumAnAr to give him proper sanyAsAshramam. emperumAnAr instructs him to first perform prAyachitham for giving up the shikai and yagyOpavItham (since he was a mAyavAdha sanyAsi before) and he obliges. After that, emperumAnAr presents thridhaNdam, kAshAyam, etc to yagya mUrthy and names him aruLALa perumAL emperumAnAr in memory of the favours done by pEraruLALan and to fulfill the desire of yagya mUrthy who wanted to be named after emperumAnAr. emperuAnAr also brings aruLALa perumAL emperumAnAr to namperumAL and his own thiruvArAdhana perumAL to show that it was their divine plan that connected emperumAnar and aruLALa perumAL emperumAnAr.

emperumAnAr teaches aruLicheyal and their meanings to aruLALa perumAL emperumAnAr himself over time. When ananthAzhwAn, echchAn, etc arrives to srIrangam to become the sishyas of emperumAnAr, he asks them to undergo pancha samskAram under aruLALa perumAL emperumAnAr. aruLALa perumAL emperumAnAr instructs his sishyas to simply think about emperumAnAr as the upAyam always.

It is also said that aruLALa perumAL emperumAnAr’s specific kainkaryam to emperumAnAr was to perform thiruvArAdhanam for emperumAnAr’s pEraruLALan emperumAn.

Once when two travelling srivaishnavas ask some one in the streets of srIrangam “where is emperumAnAr‘s mutt?”. At that time, a local person replies “which emperumAnAr?”. The srivaishnavas ask “Are there two emperumAnAr’s in our sampradhAyam?” and the local person replies “Yes, there is emperumAnAr and aruLALa perumAL emperumAnAr”. The srivaishnavas finally say “Oh! we are looking for udayavar’s mutt” and the person points them to the mutt. aruLALa perumAL emperumAnAr happens to be there at that time and becomes very upset that since he was living in a separate mutt with the same name this conversation happened. Immediately he destroys his mutt, comes to emperumAnAr and tells him that he does not want to live in a separate place anymore explaining the conversation which happened. emperumAnAr accepts him, asks him to live in his own mutt and also explains all rahasya arthams to aruLALa perumAL emperumAnAr.

aruLALa perumAL emperumAnAr, out of his krupai, writes two prabhandhams in thamizh, jnAna sAram and pramEya sAram. These two prabhandhams bring out the most beautiful meanings of our sampradhAyam, especially bringing out the glories AchAryan in a very beautiful way. piLLai lOkAchAryar‘s srIvachana bhUshaNam closely follows the concepts that are explained by aruLALa perumAL emperumAnAr in these prabhandhams. mAmunigaL has done beautiful vyAkyAnams for these prabhandhams.

bhattar, when he was very young, asked AzhwAn the meaning for “sirumAmanisar”  (thiruvAimozhi 8.10.3) saying that it looks contradictory. For that, AzhwAn explains that this means srivaishnavas like mudhaliANdAn, embAr and aruLALa perumAL emperumAnAr who are small in physical stature but are as great as nithya sUris. This charithram is identified by NampiLLai in his eedu mahA vyAkyAnam.

Let us remember aruLALa perumAL emperumAnAr who always remembers emperumAnAr.

aruLALa perumAL emperumAnAr’s thaniyan

rAmAnujArya sachchishyam vEdhasAsthrArtha sampadham
chathurthAsrama sampannam dhEvarAja munim bhajE

ராமானுஜார்ய ஸச்சிஷ்யம் வேதஸாஸ்த்ரார்த்த ஸம்பதம்
சதுர்தாஸ்ரம ஸம்பந்நம் தேவராஜ முநிம் பஜே

adiyen sarathy ramanuja dasan

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Sources: guru paramparA prabhAvam, periya thirumudi adaivu