charamOpAya nirNayam – uththAraka AchAryas

uththArakthvam (ability to uplift/deliver a jIvAthmA from samsAram to paramapadham) is manifested in 3 different personalities – emperumAn, nammAzhwAr and udayavar. uththArkathvam can be seen only in persons who can control ubhayavibhUthi (nithya vibhUthi – paramapadham and leelA vibhUthi – samsAram). 


(Beyond vEdham declaring in many places that emperumAn is the controller) emperumAn himself declares that he is the controller of ubhayavibhUthis in vishvaksEna samhithai “asyA mama cha chEsham hi vibhUthirubhayAthmikA” (அஸ்யா மம ச சேஷம் ஹி விபூதிருபயாத்மிகா) meaning both nithya vibhUthi and leelA vibhUthi are subservient to me and pirAtti.

nammAzhwAr in thiruvAimozhi 6.8.1 says “ponnulagALIrO bhuvanimuzhuthALirO” (பொன்னுலகாளீரோ புவனிமுழுதாளிரோ) meaning “Oh birds! Please go and explain my plight to emperumAn, I will let you live and control nithya vibhUthi or leelA vibhUthi (per your choice)”. Here, AzhwAr himself declares that he is able to control both the worlds by the mercy of emperumAn.

Of these 3 personalities, uththArakathvam is well established in emperumAnAr.
When emperumAn gave divine knowledge to AzhwAr and planned to reform the world through him and bring many suffering jIvAthmAs towards him, within 32 years of his appearance, AzhwAr out of his unbearable sorrow in separation from emperumAn, started crying out “kUvikkoLLum kAlam innum kuRugAthO” (கூவிக்கொள்ளும் காலம் இன்னும் குறுகாதோ) meaning when are you going to deliver me to paramapadham, “eNNAL yAnunnai ini vaNthu kUduvanE” (எந்நாள் யானுன்னை இனி வந்து கூடுவனே) meaning when will I come and serve you in paramapadham, “manGgavottu un mAmAyai” (மங்கவொட்டு உன் மாமாயை) meaning Please give up your attachment for this AzhwAr’s thirumEni (When emperumAn has so much attachment for AzhwAr’s jIvitha thirumEni, AzhwAr instructs that it should be given up since it is part of prakruthi and asks him to deliver to parampadham where he will get a divine thirumEni) and so on. Soon, he got mOksham and left samsAram. To accomplish his mission (of delivering many jIvAthmAs) emperumAn made udayavar live for a long 120 years and reformed the whole world through emperumAnAr.

The abundance of srivaishnavas was more in emperumAnAr’s times than AzhwAr’s times. It is because of the wholistic manifestation of uththArakathvam in emperumAnAr. AzhwAr himself says in thiruvAimozhi 5.2.1 that “kadalvanNnNan bhUthanGgaL manNmEl  maliyappuguNthu ichai pAdiyAdi enGgum uzhi tharak kanNdOm” (கடல்வண்ணன் பூதங்கள் மண்மேல்  மலியப்புகுந்து இசை பாடியாடி எங்கும் உழி தரக் கண்டோம்) meaning “I have seen in the future (kali yugam – during emperumAnAr’s time) the abundance of devotees who cannot sustain even a single moment without emperumAn srIman nArAyaNan, fearlessly go everywhere and sing his glories”. So, from this it is clear that emperumAnAr is the deliverer for all. Speaking about AchAryathvam, krupAmAthra prasannAchAryathvam is fully seen in udayavar only. Suffering for others’ sufferings and unlimited mercy is present in udayavar. Since this is a great quality it is rarely seen even amongst AchAryas. That is why kaNNan emperumAn who wanted himself to be an AchAryan acted like svAnuvruthi prasannAchAryan. Arjunan asked him in gIthai 2.7 “yachchrEyas syANNichchitham brUhi thaNmE chishyas thESham chAdhimAm thvAm prapaNNam” (யச்ச்ரேயஸ் ஸ்யாந்நிச்சிதம் ப்ரூஹி தந்மே சிஷ்யஸ் தேSஹம் சாதிமாம் த்வாம் ப்ரபந்நம்) meaning “I am your disciple now. You see what is best for me and let me know. I will follow that”. Being a svAnuvruthi prasannAchAryan himself, he instructed arjunan to go to an AchArya and perform kainkayam for him and learn the real truth from him in 4.34 “thadh vidhdhi pranNipAthENa pari prachNEna sEvayA, upadhEkshaNthi thE jnYANam jnYANiNas thathva dharchiNa:” (தத் வித்தி ப்ரணிபாதேந பரி ப்ரச்நேன ஸேவயா, உபதேக்ஷந்தி தே ஜ்ஞாநம் ஜ்ஞாநிநஸ் தத்வ தர்சிந:). So, krupA mAthra prasannAchAryathvam is fully manifested in AzhwAr and emperumAnAr (who appeared out of AzhwAr’s divine thiruvuLLam) only. 


So, to summarize, in the above section, we have seen that emperumAn, even though is having uththAkathvam, he is generally presenting himself as svAnuvruthi prasannAchAryan. AzhwAr is having uththArakathvam as well as unlimited krupai for the suffering souls, but he himself could not bear the separation from emperumAn, so left samsAram at a very young age. On the other hand, emperumAnAr, being the thiruvadi nilai (lotus feet) of AzhwAr, has unlimited mercy for the suffering souls and also established abundance of srivaishnavas during his long stay in samsAram. So, emperumAnAr, being the top most krupA mAthra prasannAchAryan, he is the full manifestation uththAraka AchAryan.

In the next section, we will see how the 5 AchAryas pf emperumAnAr and thirukkachi nambi observed and established uththArakathvam in emperumAnAr.
 
adiyen sarathy ramanuja dasan


Notes:

Original text of this grantham can be read at: https://docs.google.com/open?id=0ByVemcKfGLucS1NQajNnR04yeDg.
All articles of this series can be read at: https://granthams.koyil.org/charamopaya-nirnayam-english/.

archived in https://granthams.koyil.org, also visit https://acharyas.koyil.org.