Vatu-Purna — The Disciple Who Saw Only His Master

Vatu-Purna — also called Andhra-Purna — first entered this history when Ramanuja was at Saligrama in Mysore. Above all the other disciples, he is remembered as the most closely attached to Ramanuja, and the staunchest follower of the path called Panchamopaya — the Fifth Path, also known as Acharya-abhimana.

This is the path of unswerving faith in the Saviour who has taken birth on earth — without dividing that faith between the human Saviour and the ever-Divine God. Vatu-Purna was no mere theorist. He lived this path in his own person. In his worship of Ramanuja's holy feet he excluded every other thought of God. His Saviour was his God; he recognized no other Saviour.

Once Sri Ramanuja went to the holy shrine of Tiruvellarai (about ten miles north of Srirangam). Vatu-Purna followed, carrying the Tiruppulkudai — the bundle holding washed clothes, images, articles of worship, and so on.

After bathing at Tiruvellarai, Ramanuja opened the bundle — and was astonished and angered to find his own sandals placed on top of everything else. He called Purna and demanded an explanation for the sacrilege of laying sandals over the holy images of worship.

"Sir," answered Purna at once, "how is my God inferior to yours?"

Ramanuja went round the temples to worship the Lords. Purna's gaze, however, was fixed steadily on Ramanuja himself. Ramanuja often noticed it. Once he remarked, "Son — why do you not look at the charming eyes of the Lord?"

Purna looked at the Lord and then at Ramanuja, alternately, for a few seconds, and then said, "Sir — the eyes that have seen you cannot see other objects."

Ramanuja used to hand over his own leftover food to Purna to eat. Purna would eat it and wipe his soiled hands on his own head. Ramanuja chided him for this untidy habit and told him henceforth to wash his hands with water. "Yes," said Purna.

The next day Ramanuja handed over to him some consecrated food he had received from the temple. Purna ate, and washed his hands with water.

"What have you done, son?" Ramanuja exclaimed. "The Lord's food is too holy to be washed away. You should have wiped it on your head."

"Sire," Purna replied, "I have done as you told me yesterday."

Ramanuja could only say, "Son — you have overwhelmed me."

On another occasion Purna was busy boiling milk for Ramanuja in the mutt, when Lord Ranganatha was being carried in procession, adorned in all His decorative glory. Ramanuja rose to go pay homage and called Purna to come with him.

Purna excused himself at once. "Holy Sire — if I come out to see your God, the milk on the fire for my God, Ramanuja, will boil over."

Once some kinsmen came to his house as guests and used his cooking pots to prepare their meals. As soon as they left, Purna smashed all the pots and threw them in the rubbish heap. He went to the backyard of Dasarathi, picked up discarded pots there, and used them in his own home — showing that everything belonging to the Saviour is holy, and all else unholy. Such was the height of his spiritual state — a soul wholly severed from the touch of the world (vairagya).

Purna was strict about Sri-pada-tirtha (water that has washed a holy person's feet). He would sip no such water except that from the feet of his Saviour Ramanuja. To memorialize this faith, he shaped an image of Ramanuja's feet and set it up for worship at the village of Saligrama — as the most cherished treasure for himself and all posterity. At the end of his life, the solemn trust he laid on those near him was that every coming generation must regard those feet so.

Vatu-Purna is thus counted in the inner circle of Ramanuja's hierarchy, called the Ashta-diggajas — the Eight Elephants of Faith, guardians of the eight cardinal directions. It was this sage who composed the famous Ramanuja-ashtottara-sata-nama — the hymn of a hundred and eight names of Ramanuja, sung every day by every Sri Vaishnava. Its last line runs: