Sriman Nathamunigal : Nithya Soorithvam

Sriman Nathamunigal : Nithya Soorithvam

Sriman Nathamunigal is considered to be the incarnation of Gananathar (please donot confuse with the Elephant-Headed Sri Ganesha), the general of the Divine beings under Sri Visvakshenar. Here people might think, do the divineselves need an army? do they need generals? do they need a military set-up? Actually the thought provoked through these instances are highly philosophical.

Our Dharma suggests a lot of Vidhyas or the 'divine knowledges'. There are various power centres available in the Srushti - the creation. Some of these power centres are neither created nor destroyed. They exist as natural forces. The Suththa-Sathva pradesa that never comes under any of the 'Triguna' pattern or within the bounds of the material creation is known by the name "Paramapadham" - the divine abode of our beloved Lord.

Here the Lord resides with all of His 'Kalyana Gunas' and with nithya mangalasasanas performed by the Nithya Sooris and Mukthathmas. These Nithya Sooris who eternally serve our beloved Lord, hold Sri Visvakshenar as Their Head. There are various Maharishis, Mukthathmas, NithyaSooris and Vishnu-Parshadas. They are lead by Gananathar.

The Nithya Sooris with the Divine Mercy of our Beloved Lord and Piratti, took pity on the living beings in this material earth in the darker days of Kali Yuga, came down as the Bagavath-Representatives, known to be as Alwars. Alwars are considered to be form of our Beloved Lord Him selves. Seeing a Bagavatha with his material form, instead of his divine Aathmic maturity is an Apacharam. If this is so for a humble Bagavatha, then seeing Alwars like ordinary Human Beings is not admisable.

They are certainly the Swaroopam of Baghavan Himself. It is because of this roopa-gunam of these Nithya Sooris and with the concept of 'Saaroopam' (attaining the form of our beloved Lord), our Sampradhaya mahans, used to quote it in their Upanyasams as, "The Alwars have a true form of Chathurbujams with all divine Aaparnams and Swaroopam as our Baghavan Himself. But the reason of making their Divya Mangala Roopam in the temples with two folded hands and with an ordinary 'Nara' roopam is because they were looking similar during their mortal days"

Crown of Sottai Kulam : Part II

Crown of Sottai Kulam ( Sri Satamarshana Gothram) – Sriman Nathamunigal :

Part - II

Lord Sri Krishna blessed this aacharyan and fore-said that there will be great mahans to take birth in his lineage and they will be 'His men' and would show the light to the world. The Lord also gave a 'dravida nama' to his lineage as "Sottai Kulam" meaning the "Elevated Lineage" and told him that "Naame num Sottai Kulaththin Dheivamaavom!" meaning, "I will be the lord of your lineage!". Then this Aachayan as per the orders of Sri Krishna left for Thirumalai. Later, he had a desire of visiting various divine places. Three great aacharyas came to this Aacharyan and had the kalakshepams for Sri Visishtadvaita Sampradhaya. These three great Aacharyan were none other than the "Mudhalalwargal".

He along with the Mudhalalwargal, enjoyed the Kalyana Gunas of our beloved Lord. Then all of them started the divine Yathra with the orders of Sri Malayappa Swamy. Later He was in 'Yogam' with Thirumazhisai Piran at Thirukudanthai. The decendants of this aacharyan were also great scholars. Among one of them were Sri Easwara Munigal and he was doing kainkaryams for Sri Aaravamudhalwan of Thirukudanthai. He on the Divya Desa yathra, came to Thiru Veeranarayana Puram (the modern 'Mannar Koil') and was ordered by the Lord Sri Mannar to stay there and to do Kainkaryam.

Then Sri Easwara Munigal started doing Kainkaryam to Sri Mannar, there he was blessed with Sriman Nathamunigal as his son on an Aani-Anusham day in the Kali Yuga.

Some of the great Aacharyas of Sriman Nathamunigal's lineage: (We have only mentioned few of them; actually the lineage goes clearly with more than 104 Aacharya Purushas before Sriman Nathamunigal and 22 Aacharya Purushas after Him)

Sri Pundareekakshar                 Godhavari Dheeram

Sri Vedanthi                             Narmadha Dheeram

Sri Brahma Thanthrar                Saraswathi Dheeram

Sri Sudharsanar                        Krishna Dheeram

Sri Medhavi                              Thirumalai

Sri Veedharagar                       Thirukudanthai – Thirukaveri Dheeram

Sri Kurumuni                            Thirumalai

Sri Chathurvedha Muni Thirumalai

Sri Brahmanandhi                     Thirumalai, Thirukachchi

Sri Swathanthra Muni               Thirumalai

Sri Padhmaksha Muni               Thirumalai and Thirukudanthai

Sri Easwara Muni                     Thirukudanthai and Thiru Veera Narayana Puram

Sriman Nathamunigal                Thiru Veera Narayana Puram, Thirukudanthai, Thiruvarangam

Sri Easwara Bhattalwan            Thiru Veera Narayana Puram, Thiruvarangam

Sri Yamunacharyar                   Thiruvarangam

Sri Deivaththukarasar                Thirumalai

Sri Saila Poornar                      Thirumalai

Sri Lakshmana Muni Thirukachchi,Thiruvarangam

Sri Kurugesar                           Thirmalai, Thiruvarangam

Sri Pundareekakshar                 Thiruvarangam, Thirumalai

Sri Sudharsana Desikan            Thiruvarangam, Thirumalai, Chandragiri

Sri Srinivasar                            Thirumalai, Thirukachchi,

Sri Pancha Madha Bandhanar               Thirumalai, Thirukachchi, Thiruvarangam, Chandragiri, Edur

Sri Lakshmi Kumarar                Thirukudanthai, Thirumalai, Thirukachchi, Thiruvarangam, Sridhanvipuram, Edur.

(Source: Sriman Nathamunigal Lineage's History: Sri Satamarshana Gothra Prabhavam, Sri Satmarshana Mahaneeyargal Vaibhavam, Sri Desika Sampradhaya Guruparampara Prabahavam and many others)

Thiru Naalayiram and Sriman Nathamunigal

Yesterday we have seen the presentation of three kinds of Sri Vaishnavam (just to mark the differences with respect to Kali Yugam). So the continuation of the same is as following. We have seen that, Sri Vaishnava Sri is an inseparable part of our beloved Lord Sriman Narayana! She always resides with Him. The conceptualization of Perumal and Piratti could be well defined when we see them as our own parents! The Divya Dampathis are the Divine Parents of the Entire Creation.

Thiru Naalayiram and Sriman Nathamunigal:

All the forms of 'Sri' are practically one and the same. She resides as Sri,Bhoomi and Neela. On going forward, She accompanies Lord in all Her forms. Now, see the greatness of our Sath Sampradhaya, we in Sri Desika Sampradhayam say Sri Nammalwar to be Lord Himself. Then where is 'Sri' to accompany Him? Sri comes in the form of "Vakula-maala". The sacred garland that Alwar wears is 'Sri' in the form of Vakula-garland and in Tamil this is known as "Makizha-pushpam". Hence Sri Nammalwar is known as Sri Vakhulabhooshanar. Here comes Sriman Nathamunigal. Sriman Nathamunigal, with his Divine Mercy, has given us all the 'Mokshobaya', "Naalaiyra Divya Prabandham" which he got from Sri Nammalwar Himself in Yogam-the mystic Thapam.

 Now people would question us, in Sri Vaishnavam, we have only Sriman Narayana as Mokshopaya, but here we are seeing 4000 Divine songs as Mokshopaya, is this not a deviation? Certainly not! The Lord, His Divine Consort 'Sri', 'Alwars and Aacharyas' and 'Ubhaya Veda Vedanthas' are not different ( "Sri Krishna says in Srimad Bagavath Gita, that He is the Supreme Knowledge which a soul is supposed to know". This could be well understood on observing the relationship between Sri Rama, Sri Lakshmana, Sri Bharatha and Sri Shathrugana. All of them are the four different forms of the Lord Himself).

He is experienced through the 4000 Divine songs composed by His Divine Messengers "Alwars" and explained by His men "Aacharyas" starting from Sriman Nathamunigal. What is being explained through these sacred texts is the Lord Himself. So they are one and the same. Aacharya Sriman Nathamunigal, with immence mercy has traversed through the path of time to get the 'Eternal Amrutha' the sacred hymns "Naalayira Divya Prabandhams" from our Spritual Master "Sri Nammalwar". Hence, as Sri Veda Vyasa composed the Sacred Vedas into 4 groups, so did Sriman Nathamunigal to the Dravida Vedam "Naalayira Divya Prabandham"

Crown of Sottai Kulam : Part I

Crown of Sottai Kulam ( Sri Satamarshana Gothram) – Sriman Nathamunigal :

Part - I

So far we have got cleared that, Alwars are Emperuman Himself and Sriman Nathamunigal has bridged us the path toward Their Lotus Feet. Now we shall see some Aacharyas who belong to Sriman Natha Munigal's paternal lineage. This we see to understand a basic fact that, as told by the lay-men, Sri Vaishnavam has not been invented by either Sriman Nathamunigal or by our beloved Udayavar. Rather, Sri Vaishnavam was a tradition existing from time immemorial, which dates very back to the creation of Lord Sri Brahma Deva in the Krutha Yuga in the 'Prathama kalpa' as given by the Vedic texts, Samhitas and Upanishads. 

Our Sri Vaishnavam was reviewed by Sriman Natha Munigal with the sacred texts of Alwars. He made 'Ubhayavedhanthas' to exist as two eyes of our Sampradhaya. Sri Alavandhar aptly saved this tradition and Sri Udayavar made it accessible to even the modest of the society. Later Swamy Sri Nigamantha Mahadesikan cleansed the same and directed people towards the right path of Sri Udayavar. Because in his days, there were efforts to illegally 'copyright' Sri Vaishnavam to appear that it belongs to some factional groups claiming the 'False-Inheritance' pertaining to certain people only.  

Sriman Nathamunigal comes in the celebrated lineage of Sri Satamarshana Maharishi. The great sages like Sri Aapasthambar, the author of Aapasthamba Suthram, Aangirasar, Brahma-nandhi, Pundareekakshar, Brahmathanthrar and others belong to this lineage. There was a great aacharyan in this lineage during the last years of Dwapara Yuga. His name is Sri Pundareekakshar (Sri Padhmaksha muni, to differentiate him from the other Pundareekakshar who existed before this swamy). This aacharyan did 'Thapas' at Thirumalai and was ordered by Sri Srinivasar to take care of His Dhivya Mangala Swaroopam as his ancestors did. Then this Swamy was doing a lot of Kainkaryams to Sri Thirumalai appan.  He came to know that the Lord as Sri Krishna has arrived at 'Yathavathri' ( Sri Thirunarayana Puram).

Then he went and prostrated before the Lord. The Lord acknowledged this great Aacharyan and had an elaborate discussion on Dharma Saastras. At the end, the aacharya requested Lord to show the way of educating the souls during the darker days of approaching Kali. The Lord moved by the devotion and care, gave his idol of "Sri Vennai Koothar" ( Sri Navaneetha Nata Krishnan, later became the nithyaradhana deity of Sri Udayavar along with Sri Devaperumal deity which He possessed.

He got this idol from Sri Saila Poornar and later this was handed over to his 'Abhimana Puthrar and the Prathama Simhasanathipathi of Sri Bhashya Bagavath Vishaya Ubhaya Vedhantha Simhasanam Sri Thirukurugai Piran Pillan along with Sri Lakshmi Hayagrivar and Aalavandhar Vigrahams. Later these Vigrahams reached Swamy Desikan and enjoyed his thiruvaradhanam) and asked him to do the nithya Thiruvaradhana and to continue with the kainkaryam of Thiruvenkadavan.