Tirukkōṭṭiyūr Nambi

Tirukkōṭṭiyūr Nambi took his name from his town. The Sanskrit verses by which the tradition salutes him call him Goṣṭhīpūrṇa, the Pūrṇa of Goṣṭhīpura, which is Tirukkōṭṭiyūr in Sanskrit, and that is the name this book gives him.

The account does not say where he was born, or to whom, or how he first came to Āḷavandār. When he enters the story he is already one of the twenty.

Āḷavandār had given up a kingdom and was living at Śrīraṅgam, serving Periya Perumāḷ, the Great Lord who lies in the temple there. Twenty mudalis, first men of the tradition, took refuge at his feet in those years, and all of them were learned and all of them carried the darśana, the whole teaching of the line. When the account names the twenty, it names Mahāpūrṇa first, Periya Nambi, and Goṣṭhīpūrṇa second.

A time came when Āḷavandār lay ill.

Goṣṭhīpūrṇa and Mahāpūrṇa went to him together. They took Tiruvaraṅga Perumāḷ Araiyar, who sang before the Lord, as their puruṣakāra, the one who speaks for another, and they prostrated at Āḷavandār's feet and asked him for a meaning that would be their refuge. The two of them, the account says, were his two chief disciples.

What Āḷavandār taught them then is told in his own life. One part of it touches Goṣṭhīpūrṇa closely. When they asked what means they were to hold to, and he would not let them hold to himself, and saw that they were downcast, he told them: "For you, the meaning of the tirumantra is the Bhōga-maṇḍapa. The meaning of the carama-śloka is the Puṣpa-maṇḍapa." The tirumantra is the prayer of eight syllables. The carama-śloka is the last word of the Lord in the Gītā. The meaning of both Goṣṭhīpūrṇa would one day give to Iḷaiyāzhvār, who never had the chance to serve at Āḷavandār's feet.

Then the Araiyar said a hard thing: that when Āḷavandār gave tīrtha and went, it would be no loss if some destruction came to worms and insects. Āḷavandār looked away and gave no reply. But the two chief disciples took the word to heart, and they resolved that when Āḷavandār went, they would give up their lives.

The matter reached Periya Perumāḷ in his hall of audience. He called the Araiyar, and Goṣṭhīpūrṇa, and the others, and forbade it, and put the two into the Araiyar's hands; and Āḷavandār forbade it too. He gave them their final meaning. To make one jasmine bud open at the feet of Periya Perumāḷ; and, toward the ācārya, the teacher, to hold the first and middle stages as the last. Then he prostrated to the Araiyar and put Goṣṭhīpūrṇa and Mahāpūrṇa into his hands.

"If you commit an indiscretion when you are parted from your ācārya," the Araiyar told them, "you will have no place to go. You will be lost."

"Hold it in mind," Āḷavandār said to the two of them, "that for you the form of Tiruvaraṅga Perumāḷ Araiyar is both means and goal."

They held it so. And when the illness left Āḷavandār for a time, and he came back from worship to his maṭha, he had all the mudalis, the Araiyar and Goṣṭhīpūrṇa and Mahāpūrṇa among them, take tīrtha and eat, and prostrated before them and begged them to bear with all his offences.

The account does not say where Goṣṭhīpūrṇa was when Āḷavandār went at last to the sacred land, or what he did in the days after. It does say, later, that Āḷavandār had left one special meaning with each of these teachers, as a king leaves treasures with his ministers for a son not yet grown, and that he had told them, "Tell Iḷaiyāzhvār the highest secret that we tell you." What Goṣṭhīpūrṇa held, the account shows by what he gave: the meaning of the eight syllables, and the last word after it.

Iḷaiyāzhvār had come too late to see Āḷavandār living, and now he had come to Śrīraṅgam to stay. He had taken the robe of a sannyāsī and the name Rāmānuja, and the account calls him Uḍaiyavar as well. He had taken refuge at Mahāpūrṇa's feet and heard from him the meaning of the dvaya, the jewel of mantras.

Then Mahāpūrṇa said to him, "There are still some special meanings. Go to the feet of Tirukkōṭṭiyūr Nambi, who is held within Āḷavandār's regard, and hear them from him."

Rāmānuja went to Tirukkōṭṭiyūr.

The people of that town, as the old song says of them, give food freely and are the talk of the land. Rāmānuja asked them, "Where is Nambi's house?"

"The roof you can see over there," they said, and pointed.

From the spot where he stood, all the way to Nambi's door, Rāmānuja went prostrating. He went down full length on the ground, and rose, and went down again, the whole way. Then the good people of that town, who are without fault and make virtue grow and stand well with their teachers, came to know how great Nambi was.

At Nambi's feet Rāmānuja made the full prostration of eight limbs.

"Your Honour must graciously give me all the special secret meanings."

Goṣṭhīpūrṇa wanted to know how strong Rāmānuja's resolve was.

"To whom shall I say anything?" he said, in the words of the old song, and he sat there and did not turn his face to him.

Rāmānuja went back to Kōyil, as the account calls Śrīraṅgam.

Some time after that, Goṣṭhīpūrṇa came to Kōyil himself to serve at the festival. He was setting out for home again when Namperumāḷ, the Lord of Kōyil, called him back. The Lord gave him the garland, and the cloth, and tīrtha and the Śrīśaṭhakōpaṉ, the crown that bears His feet; and through the mouth of the arcaka, the priest who serves Him, the Lord gave him a command.

"Teach the secret meanings to our Rāmānuja."

Goṣṭhīpūrṇa answered the Lord with the Lord's own law. "'One should not teach a man who has not lived with one for a year.' And Your Honour Yourself commanded, 'This is not to be told by you to one without austerity,' and, 'nor to one who does not wish to hear.' Did You not?"

"Not so," said Perumāḷ. "There is nothing wrong in telling it to Uḍaiyavar. He has every mark of a disciple that the verse speaks of, the one that begins, 'Body, wealth, knowledge.'"

So Goṣṭhīpūrṇa turned to Uḍaiyavar.

"Come to our town," he said, and went.

Rāmānuja went to Tirukkōṭṭiyūr and stood before him.

"Go today," Goṣṭhīpūrṇa said, "and come again."

Rāmānuja went back to Kōyil.

In this way he went eighteen times. Eighteen times he served at Goṣṭhīpūrṇa's feet, and still Goṣṭhīpūrṇa told him nothing. He was testing how firm his resolve was. The account does not say what passed between them on those journeys, or how long they took.

After the last of them Rāmānuja came back to Kōyil in great anguish, his eyes, like a pair of flowers, brimming over with tears, and he stayed there.

In those days a Śrīvaiṣṇava who was a disciple of Goṣṭhīpūrṇa came to Kōyil to worship Namperumāḷ. On his way home he stopped and stood serving at Uḍaiyavar's feet. Uḍaiyavar let all his anguish show, and he gave the man a message in the words of the old songs.

"It is not fitting for Him whose crown is the flowering tuḷasi. It is not fitting for Him whose hand holds the golden discus."

That was all, and he sent him on his way.

The Śrīvaiṣṇava went to Goṣṭhīpūrṇa, prostrated, and told him what Uḍaiyavar had said.

Goṣṭhīpūrṇa was glad. "Can there be such anguish!" he said. Then he gave his answer. "Let him come alone, as staff and pavitra."

The staff and the pavitra are what a sannyāsī carries in his hand. Goṣṭhīpūrṇa sent the same man back to Rāmānuja with that word.

The Śrīvaiṣṇava went to Uḍaiyavar's feet, prostrated, and told him what Nambi had said. Uḍaiyavar heard it with great joy, and he prostrated to the messenger. Then he took Kūreśa, whom the Tamil calls Kūrattāzhvāṉ, and Mudaliyāṇḍāṉ, and went to Tirukkōṭṭiyūr in great haste, and prostrated at Goṣṭhīpūrṇa's feet and stood before him.

Goṣṭhīpūrṇa looked at him.

"Did we not tell you to come alone? Why have you brought these?"

"Did Your Honour not tell me to come as staff and pavitra?" said Uḍaiyavar. "I have brought these as the staff and the pavitra."

"Who is the staff? Who is the pavitra?"

Uḍaiyavar pointed to Mudaliyāṇḍāṉ. "He is the triple staff." He pointed to Kūreśa. "He is the pavitra."

"If so," said Goṣṭhīpūrṇa, "do not tell this meaning to anyone but these two."

He made Rāmānuja touch his feet, and took his oath on them. Then, out of his great grace, he gave him the tirumantra. There is a Sanskrit verse about it:

ప్రణవాద్యం నమోమధ్యం నారాయణపదాన్తిమం|మన్త్రమష్టాక్షరంవిద్యాత్

సర్వసిద్ధికరంనృణాం ॥ ముముక్షూణాంసదాజప్యం భుక్తిముక్తిఫలప్రదం| వైష్ణవానాంసదాజప్యం

భక్తిజ్ఞానప్రవర్ధనం

praṇavādyaṃ namōmadhyaṃ nārāyaṇapadāntimaṃ|mantramaṣṭākṣaraṃvidyāt

sarvasiddhikaraṃnr̥ṇāṃ ॥ mumukṣūṇāṃsadājapyaṃ bhuktimuktiphalapradaṃ| vaiṣṇavānāṃsadājapyaṃ

bhaktijñānapravardhanaṃ

Praṇava first, namaḥ in the middle, the word Nārāyaṇa at the end: know this as the mantra of eight syllables, which gives men every attainment. Those who long for release must always recite it; it gives the fruit of enjoyment and of release. Vaiṣṇavas must always recite it, and it makes devotion and knowledge grow.

Eight holy syllables in three words, the account says, and it gives birth to knowledge and devotion and detachment, so that those who seek release are to dwell on it always, until, as the old song says, the tongue grows calloused with it. It is the word that gives good. Goṣṭhīpūrṇa gave him its meaning.

Rāmānuja had what he had come for.

On the next day, in Tirukkōṭṭiyūr, he taught that highest secret meaning to many Śrīvaiṣṇavas.

He taught it in the tiruvōlakkam of Teṟkāzhvār, the Lord of that town, the assembly that gathers before the Lord in His presence. Where the account tells the story a second time, it says that Uḍaiyavar told the meaning to all, there in Teṟkāzhvār's assembly, as a gift scattered like dust.

Goṣṭhīpūrṇa heard of it. Where the account tells it the second time, it says he was angry. He called Uḍaiyavar to him.

"Did we not tell you this highest secret meaning on condition that you tell it to no one else? We have heard that you went against that and told it to many Śrīvaiṣṇavas."

"It is true," said Uḍaiyavar. "I told it with Your Honour's feet set before me."

"Did we not tell it to you with the command that you were to tell no one? You went against that and told it. What is the fruit of that for you?"

"For one who goes against his ācārya's command," said Uḍaiyavar, "hell alone is the fruit."

"Knowing that, why did you tell it?"

"Is it not I alone who go into hell?" said Rāmānuja. "I told it with Your Honour's feet set before me. So all these crores of souls will be saved through their bond with Your Honour's feet. That is why I told it."

"This care that others should flourish never came to us!" Goṣṭhīpūrṇa said.

He was overjoyed at Rāmānuja's care for others.

"Emperumāṉār! Come!" he said, and he lifted him up and embraced him. "Are you he?"

The account leaves that question as it is, and does not explain it.

Then Goṣṭhīpūrṇa spoke to everyone there. "Until now this darśana has been called the highest Vedic siddhānta. From today, call it the darśana of Emperumāṉār."

From then on the account calls him Emperumāṉār, as well as Uḍaiyavar and Rāmānuja.

The second telling adds one thing more. Goṣṭhīpūrṇa had his own son, Teṟkāzhvār, take refuge at Emperumāṉār's feet. The son bore the name of the Lord of the town.

Goṣṭhīpūrṇa's joy was not spent.

"Come, Emperumāṉār!" he said. "We were about to tell you one more special meaning, the carama-rahasya, the last secret, and here you are, content with this much. Tell us your resolve. Let us see it."

"If I thought there was one more meaning beyond what Your Honour has taught me," Emperumāṉār answered, "I would be a man without faith. If I kept from asking, it would mean that the meaning Your Honour taught has not gone into my heart."

He could find no way through it.

"I am eager for what is yet to be heard," he said at last, "and my mind is troubled."

"Go now," said Goṣṭhīpūrṇa, "and come back in private. You alone."

Emperumāṉār went to Kōyil. The account does not say how long he stayed there.

Afterwards he came back alone to Goṣṭhīpūrṇa, prostrated, and stood before him.

Goṣṭhīpūrṇa took him by the hand and led him away. He went up alone with him to the upper storey, and let the door of the stairway fall shut behind them, and sat down.

He made him touch his feet again, and took his oath on them that he would tell no one.

Then, out of a grace that had no cause, Goṣṭhīpūrṇa did what the Teacher of the Gītā did. In the Gītā the Lord says to Arjuna:

ஸர்வகுஹ்யதமம்

பூயஃ ஶ்ருணுமேபரமம்வசஃ - இஷ்டோஉஸிமேத்ருடஇதி ததோவக்ஷ்யாமிதே

ஹிதம்

sarvakuhyatamam

pūyaḵ śruṇumēparamamvacaḵ - iṣṭōusimētruṭaiti tatōvakṣyāmitē

hitam

Most secret of all, hear again My highest word. You are dearly loved by Me; so I will tell you what is for your good.

Goṣṭhīpūrṇa told Emperumāṉār the carama-śloka, the most secret of all, the highest secret. And he gave him the excellence of the means it sets forth, the siddhopāya, the means that is already accomplished, which a man takes when he lets every other means go.

Then he charged him.

"The Lord says of this," he said:

இத

ந்தேநாதபஸ்காய நாபக்தாயகதாசந - நசாஶுஶ்ரூஷவேவாச்யம் நசமாம்

யோஉப்யஸூயதி

ita

ntēnātapaskāya nāpaktāyakatācana - nacāśuśrūṣavēvācyam nacamām

yōupyasūyati

This is never to be told by you to one without austerity, nor to one without devotion, nor to one who does not wish to hear, nor to one who finds fault with Me.

"Guard this highest secret meaning, so that it does not reach the ears of those who have turned away from the Lord."

"I am not one to tell it to such people," said Emperumāṉār. "But I cannot keep from telling it to Kūreśa alone, who is given to the Lord!"

Goṣṭhīpūrṇa allowed it, and set a condition. "He has the right to hear this meaning. But there is a verse:"

ஸம்வத்ஸரந்ததர்த்தம்வா மாஸத்ரயமதாபிவா - பரீக்ஷ்ய

விவிதோபாயைஃ க்ருபயாநிஸ்ப்ருஹோவதேத்

samvatsarantatarttamvā māsatrayamatāpivā - parīkṣya

vivitōpāyaiḵ krupayānispruhōvatēt

For a year, or for half of it, or for three months, having examined him by many means, one who wants nothing for himself should speak out of compassion.

"So learn his resolve in many ways, and tell him when he has served you for one year."

The account sets Emperumāṉār beside Arjuna then. Arjuna went up and down through all the Gītā before he heard this word, and only then was he steadied. Emperumāṉār was not like him. He heard it, the great word of truth, as the old song calls it, and he was free of every burden. He set out for Kōyil in great joy.

At Kōyil Kūreśa came and prostrated at his feet.

Emperumāṉār looked at him. "Āḷavandār cast his special glance on us, and made his prapatti looking to Pēraruḷāḷar," he said. "So that it should bear fruit, Nambi has made us flourish. Do you see?"

Then he told Kūreśa the condition. Nambi had said that even in his case the meaning was to be told only after a year's service, once his resolve was known.

Kūreśa was troubled. Would this body last a year? There is a word in the śāstra that a month's fast at the gate of the ācārya's house is equal to a year's service. He kept that fast, and Emperumāṉār relented and gave him the meaning. Kūreśa's own life tells it.

Then Mudaliyāṇḍāṉ prostrated at Emperumāṉār's feet. "Your Honour must graciously give this meaning to me as well."

"It was for Kūreśa alone that I asked at Nambi's feet," said Emperumāṉār. "Go to Nambi's feet yourself and ask."

So Mudaliyāṇḍāṉ went to Tirukkōṭṭiyūr, and stood at Goṣṭhīpūrṇa's feet for six months, and in all that time Goṣṭhīpūrṇa did not turn his face to him. Then one day he spoke. "You look like one Rāmānuja has taken up!" When Mudaliyāṇḍāṉ asked for the last secret, Goṣṭhīpūrṇa answered him with a verse on the three prides, of learning and wealth and birth. "When these three mischiefs are gone," he said, "Emperumāṉār himself will be gracious and give it to you. Go, and do not be afraid." And he set his own lotus feet on Mudaliyāṇḍāṉ's head and gave him leave. What came of it at Kōyil is Mudaliyāṇḍāṉ's story: Emperumāṉār taught him the carama-śloka with great joy. "Now at last," he said, "our staff and our pavitra have come into our hand."

Some days later Goṣṭhīpūrṇa came to Kōyil again. He worshipped Namperumāḷ and set out, and he took Mālādhara, Tirumālai Āṇḍāṉ, with him to Emperumāṉār's maṭha. Uḍaiyavar came and stood serving at his feet.

Goṣṭhīpūrṇa looked on him with grace. "Hear the meaning of the Tiruvāymozhi from Tirumālai Āṇḍāṉ."

He put Uḍaiyavar into Mālādhara's hands, and went back to Tirukkōṭṭiyūr.

It did not go smoothly. On the verse that begins "In the time when I did not know," Uḍaiyavar gave a meaning Mālādhara had not heard from Āḷavandār, and Mālādhara stopped the teaching. Goṣṭhīpūrṇa heard of it and came to Kōyil.

"That meaning too we have heard Āḷavandār give," he told Mālādhara. "Emperumāṉār hearing the Tiruvāymozhi from you is like Kṛṣṇa doing his Vedic study with Sāndīpani. Nothing will shine out to him but the meaning that was in Āḷavandār's heart."

Then he took Mālādhara and Mahāpūrṇa with him to Emperumāṉār's maṭha, and they told Mālādhara to begin again from where he had left off and bring the work to its end. The rest, and the other way the shorter account tells it, in which Mahāpūrṇa sends Emperumāṉār to Mālādhara and Goṣṭhīpūrṇa and Mahāpūrṇa together give the same answer, belongs to Mālādhara's life.

Emperumāṉār made the three prose hymns and the order of daily worship, and he settled that the highest Brahman is Śrīman Nārāyaṇa alone, and he spread the darśana. In those years he went on his round of alms to seven houses, and he was pressing hard on the men who held the temple's offices. One of them arranged for poisoned food to be given him at his alms, and urged his own wife to serve it. She said, "This must not be." He insisted. She brought the food out and gave it, and she prostrated and went away.

Emperumāṉār was startled. "What is this!" he said, and he understood what she meant. He dissolved the food in the Kāvēri, the river that runs to the sea, and he fasted.

Goṣṭhīpūrṇa heard of it, and came to Kōyil.

It was midday when he came to the Kāvēri. Emperumāṉār came out with his leading disciples, prostrated at Goṣṭhīpūrṇa's feet, and lay there.

Goṣṭhīpūrṇa did not tell him to rise.

It was Kiḍāmbi Āccāṉ who lifted him up, asking whether anyone throws a garland of jasmine down in the sun. Then Goṣṭhīpūrṇa spoke to Āccāṉ.

"It is you we have been looking for. You are the one who cares for his holy body. From today, cook for him, and serve it to him as his only alms."

The shorter account says that Mahāpūrṇa was staying with Goṣṭhīpūrṇa when the news came, and set out in haste and took Goṣṭhīpūrṇa with him, and that at the river Emperumāṉār prostrated first to Mahāpūrṇa, who lifted him up, and then lay before Goṣṭhīpūrṇa. Kiḍāmbi Āccāṉ's life tells the rest of that day.

There is a story of Goṣṭhīpūrṇa at Tirukkōṭṭiyūr. He was meditating on the upper terrace, and he had let the door of the stairway fall shut. Uḍaiyavar climbed up to him there.

"What is your meditation? What is your mantra?"

"When Āḷavandār bathed in the Vaḍavāṟu," said Goṣṭhīpūrṇa, "he would make the aghamarṣaṇa, the prayer that washes away sin, and stay under the water. Then his holy back would rise like a cauldron a strong man has turned over. That is my meditation. And this, 'Yamunaitturaivar,' is the mantra."

So he taught Uḍaiyavar that the ācārya's form is to be meditated on always, and his name always repeated.

The account kept at Śrīraṅgam, when it speaks of Uḍaiyavar's learning, says he heard all the meanings in the presence of five ācāryas, and it names Tirukkōṭṭiyūr Nambi at their head. The longer account, when it counts those who made Uḍaiyavar's greatness known to the world, the Lord in His temples and the Āzhvār and the teachers before him, counts Goṣṭhīpūrṇa among them; and the way he made it known, it says, was the day of the tirumantra, the cry of "Emperumāṉār!", the new name for the darśana, and the son he gave.

When Goṣṭhīpūrṇa came to his last days, his disciples asked him, "What thought does Your Honour hold in your holy mind?"

"A bird wounded the holy mind of the Emperor's son," said Goṣṭhīpūrṇa.

He said that, free of every burden, and with his mind on Āḷavandār's holy feet he went to the sacred land, which the Tamil calls tirunāḍu.

The account explains his saying. When there is One who thinks that even protecting those who come to Him for refuge is not enough, what other thought need we have now?

His disciples saw that he was gone and grieved greatly. Then they steadied themselves, and with Teṟkāzhvār they held the tīrtha rite for Nambi and carried through the holy recitation. The account does not say whether this Teṟkāzhvār is his son or the Lord of his town, who bears the same name.

The shorter account says that when the word reached Uḍaiyavar that Tirukkōṭṭiyūr Nambi had gone to the sacred land, Uḍaiyavar himself performed the rites for him. It sets the news in the years after Piḷḷāṉ's commentary on the Tiruvāymozhi was finished, before the Cōzha's decree drove Uḍaiyavar to the western country. The longer account tells the passing in its roll of Uḍaiyavar's teachers, just after Mahāpūrṇa's, and does not say when it came.

Goṣṭhīpūrṇa's birth-star was Rōhiṇi, in the month of Vaikāci.

He has two taṉiyaṉs, the verses by which the tradition salutes him.

శమదమగుణ

పూర్ణం యామునార్యప్రసాదాత్ అధిగతపరమార్థం జ్ఞానభక్త్యాదిసిన్ధుమ్। యతిపతినతపాదం

శ్లోకతత్త్వార్థనిష్ఠం శ్రితదురితహరం శ్రీగోష్ఠీపూర్ణంనమామి

śamadamaguṇa

pūrṇaṃ yāmunāryaprasādāt adhigataparamārthaṃ jñānabhaktyādisindhum। yatipatinatapādaṃ

ślōkatattvārthaniṣṭhaṃ śritaduritaharaṃ śrīgōṣṭhīpūrṇaṃnamāmi

Full of calm and self-command, who by Yāmunārya's grace came to the highest truth, an ocean of knowledge and devotion, whose feet the lord of ascetics bowed to, who stood firm in the true meaning of the verse, who takes away the sins of those who come to him: to Śrī Goṣṭhīpūrṇa I bow.

ஸ்ரீவல்லபபதாம்

போஜதீபக்த்யம்ருதஸாமரம் - ஸ்ரீமத்கோஷ்டீபுரீபூர்ணந் தேஶிகேந்த்ரம்

பஜா மஹே

srīvallapapatām

pōjatīpaktyamrutasāmaram - srīmatkōṣṭīpurīpūrṇan tēśikēntram

pajā mahē

To him who, at the lotus feet of Śrī's beloved, is an ocean of the nectar of devotion, Śrīmad Goṣṭhīpurīpūrṇa, first among teachers, we give our worship.

In some copies the second verse speaks instead of devotion to the lotus feet of Yāmunārya.

When the seventy-four ācāryas who took refuge at Emperumāṉār's feet are counted, Āḷavandār's line and the sons of Emperumāṉār's own teachers come first, and the third place is Teṟkāzhvāṉ's, Tirukkōṭṭiyūr Nambi's son. The shorter account's list of the seventy-four also has a Teṟkāzhvāṉ in it, without saying whose son he was.

And when Emperumāṉār himself went to the sacred land, and the Śrīvaiṣṇavas came to Kōyil from every quarter in a great crowd to grieve, some copies of the account say that there came from the Pāṇḍya country in the south a Yāmunācārya, the son of Tirukkōṭṭiyūr Nambi, with Sundarattōḷuḍaiyār, the son of Mālādhara, and others. They grieved at the parting, and then they worshipped Bhaṭṭar, and their sorrow left them. The account does not say whether this Yāmunācārya is the Teṟkāzhvār it names elsewhere.