Er.Rajesh Pathak
‘The good of an individual consists not in caste, but in the virtue he or she possess’-one who gave the message like this was great saint and ideal of many, ShriRamanujacharya, who was born in ShriPerumbadur, Tamilnadu, in 1017 1AD. He is infact remembered more for the great work he did in realm of spirituality, yet in the field of social-harmony the initiatives he took were no less notable. Rejecting all kinds of caste-based discriminatory prohibitions he used to take meal from the hands of chandalas[people belonging to so-called lowest of low-castes]. He had the gates of famous Tirunarayan Perumaal Vaishnav temple opened to give entrance to untouchables. It was because of divine influence of RamanujGollas, backward community of South India, were granted the right of firstdarshan of ShriBalaji. Ramanuj earned the knowledge of different schools of Dharma from five different acharyas. But living in the proximity of whom he learnt Ramayana was ShriNambi[Ghosthipoorna], who was born to so-called untouchable parents. Initially when he went to him to seek his mastership, Nambi asked, “Hailing from low-descent, how could I teach a Brahmin like you.” At this Ramanuj answer was- ‘Does one get to be Brahmin merely by putting yagyopavit[sacred thread]?One that has devotion to God, he only is true Brahmin. Great aalvar saints belonged to different castes other than Brahmin, but they all were Bhagvadbhaktas. You know well by the virtue of his abilities low -born Tiruppanaalvar became worshipful to many Brahmins. And, most of all, despite being a Kshatriya, Yudhisthir used to worship low-born Vidur.’
Another and principle spiritual master of Ramanuj was ShriPeriarNambi [Mahapoorna]. He too belonged to low-caste, from whom Ramanuj earned the knowledge of Vedas and Nalayir Prabandham[Tamil Veda]. It was this Guru who initiated Ramanuj into Vaishnav-faith,and from here only he later rose as a successor to the supreme seat of Vaishavnism.In Vaishnav cult Tiruvaimouli is considered to be the basic scripture of bhakti and philosophy, the writer of which was Nammalvar, who belonged to untouchable caste. Ramanuj inspired one of his disciples to write a treatise on Tiruvaimouli.
Once Muslim ruler, MalikKafoor, passed through Malukote[Karnataka] as his eyes fell on a beautiful statue of ShriKrishana consecrated inside a temple. So charming statue appeared to him that he could not resist himself from acquiring it. He took the possession of it and went to Delhi. One that did the great work of bringing the statue back to Malukote was none other than Ramanuj. The help and cooperation that he received in this mission came from the people hailing from non-Brahminicle castes. It is because in the memory of this glorious event in the traditional Rathyatra organised every year these castes are invited to iniateyatara before others. Notably one more incident is related with this event that when Ramanuj was in Delhi for the recovery of statue a Krishna devotee Muslim girl of royal family fallen captive to the divine charm upon countenance of him. So much so that she came trailing behind him as far as Melukote. Fulfilling a great but then an altogether impossible work in the interest of the country Ramanuj in all respect allowed her entrance inside the temple to perform puja. Later the same girl rose to fame as BiwiNachiar due to her devotion to Krishna.
Relinquishing every other desire and feeling spiritually fulfilled in one divine refuge of God, the saints who got be imbued with this sentiment of devotion were popularly known in south India as aalvar. The saint by whom this cult of devotion later came into prominence as ‘Prapatti’ was Ramanuj. He opened the door of ‘Prapatti’ for all those who had been so far deprived of refuge and ecstasy of Dharma due to obscurantism. Later during 14th century inspired by ‘Prapatti’ Ramanand Swami did unprecedented work of giving social-base to ‘Bhakti movement’ launched in northern India. Bhakti movement thus emerged as a bridge between north and south India, credit of which of course goes to shriRamanuj.
