Alavandar and Ramanuja

We saw Mahapurna sent to invite Ramanuja to Srirangam to join the holy fold of the faithful. He reached Kanchi and delivered his Acharya's message to Kanchi-purna, in whose company he paid his devotions to Lord Varadaraja.

Taking the path to the Salai well — from which Ramanuja was drawing his customary water for the service of Lord Varada — Mahapurna walked along reciting his Acharya Yamuna's hymn:

Ramanuja was returning from the well and heard this recitation. His attention was arrested. He was so struck by its beauty, sense, pathos, and eloquence that he eagerly asked the reciter — whom he did not yet know — who the worthy author was.

"Whose words could these be but my Acharya Yamuna-muni's?" replied Mahapurna.

"Then I must visit this great soul," said Ramanuja.

"I shall certainly take you to him," answered Mahapurna, jubilant at the success of his mission.

Ramanuja duly delivered the Tiru-manjana water (for the holy bathing of the Deity) at the shrine. He submitted his great desire to visit Yamuna to Lord Varada, took leave of the Lord and of Kanchi-purna, and immediately set out with Mahapurna. By forced marches they reached the Kaveri river.

From a distance they saw great crowds gathered, evidently engaged in very serious work. "What is all this commotion?" Ramanuja asked some passersby anxiously.

"Yamuna is no more," they said.

The news struck both Mahapurna and Ramanuja senseless. Recovering, they wept inconsolably — all their plans foiled, their hopes blasted. It was an irreparable loss.

Mahapurna, finding Ramanuja utterly crushed and fearing worse consequences, set aside his own grief to console him — as they say, in a sword-cut the sting of a scorpion is forgotten. Recovering his breath, he urged Ramanuja on:

"Take heart, Ramanuja! Do you not know the saying:

Raising Ramanuja in his arms, he led him by the hand to where the sage Yamuna lay in state.

"I have at least been able to see this," said Ramanuja, and he drank in the holy figure with his eyes. But as he looked up and down the sage's body, he was surprised to see that three of the five fingers of the right palm were folded shut.

He turned to the assembly and asked about this strange sight.

"We never noticed this before, sir," they said.

Ramanuja reflected for a moment. Imagining that the sage had some deep wish left unsatisfied, which he had perhaps signaled this way, he asked those present whether they knew of any specific wishes the sage had expressed during his discourses.

"We know of none directly," they said. "But indirectly we know that he often spoke of three things he wished to see perpetuated. First, gratitude must be shown to the memory of Krishna-Vyasa and Parasara. Second, a tribute of love should be paid to Saint Nammazhvar. Third, the Vyasa-Sutras — the Brahma-Sutras — must be commented upon to bring out their true Visishtadvaita sense."

Ramanuja heard this and addressed the sage's figure: "O holy sage, if this is your mind, I promise I shall carry it out — provided I have the health, provided your grace is on me, and provided God grants my prayers."

No sooner had he spoken than the three bent fingers of the sage opened out, as if to say "yes."

The whole assembly witnessed this miracle and cried out with one voice: "Sir, doubt not that the sage's grace is fully on you. The very power and glory of his spirit will enter you. You are the next fit successor to him for the evangelical work of our faith. We all anoint you here for the task."

Ramanuja gazed lovingly and steadily at the holy figure of the sage. Contemplating Him to his fill, he pressed His feet to his heart and eyes. Then he bathed in the river — his last service to the departed — took leave of Mahapurna, and started back for Kanchi. He did not care to visit Lord Ranga, so sore was the disappointment he felt.

It is recorded of Ramanuja that he often told his assembly in later years: if he had been permitted even one single day in the living company of Sri Yamuna, he would have built a staircase to heaven and procured free admission for all.

The worthies of the place completed the remaining rites with full obsequies. In due course, a brindavanam (memorial shrine) and mantapam were raised over the site, and memorial verses were sung in the sage's honor.