srImathE rAmAnujAya namah

There are purANic references, as well as incidents in their lives
that show that Ramanuja and ANdAL are none other than AdisEsha and
bhUdEvi repectively.

For Ramanuja, here are a few examples:
The authentic guru parampara prabhAvam quotes the following slOka
from a work known as nAradIyam yAdavAdri mahAthmiyam -

anantha: prathamam roopam lakshmaNascha satha: para: |
bhalabhadra: thrutheeyasthu kalau kaschid bhavishyathi ||

rough paraphrasing of the meaning of the above slOka is "anantha: is
the root moorthy; lakshmaNa is his next avathara; balarama is the
third avathara; as the fourth, in kaliyuga, he will take incarnation
as a mahapurusha".

An incident from Ramanuja's presence on this earth is also
illustrative - in thoNdanUr, near mElkOte, Ramanuja was once
challenged to a debate by thousands (the guru parampara prabhAvam
mentions panneeraayiram - 12,000) of jainas. During that time,
Ramanuja went behind a screen, took His original form of AdisEsha,
with thousands of hoods, and He debated all these jains and won
the debate, and many of them became His sishyAs.

Irrespective of the things like above, I think the most important
evidence is that our AchAryas have told us that Ramanuja is the
avatAra of AdisEsha Himself. Our AchAryAs say that AdisEsha took
avatAra as rAmanuja, lived for 120 years, and took avatAra again
as svAmi maNavALa mAmuni a few centuries later and completed His
tasks on earth.

KrishNa says in bhagavad gIta (3:21) -
"yad yadaacharathi srEshta: tat tat dEva itharO jana: |
sa yatpramANam kuruthE lOka: tat anuvarthathE ||

rough paraphrasing of meaning - "whatever those with knowledge and
practice of sAstrAs do, whatever extent they do, others in the world
do and follow"

here, rAmAnuja Himself, in gIta bhAsya says how to interpret - not
only does the world follow what these great people follow, but they
also follow exactly to the extent that these great people followed,
without any expansions/contractions to the practice - "yat pramANam
yadanga yuktham anutishtathi, tadangayuktham EVA akrutsnavid lOka:
api anuthistathi"

So, given that our AchAryAs have said and conducted themselves in a
way to respect/worship Ramanuja as AdisEsha, we need to follow them
exactly.

Regarding them not claiming to be who they really were, there is
another example - Rama did not generally claim that He is the supreme
being when He was here, nor did He display His visvarUpa form like
KrishNa did.

AzvhAr emperumAnAr jIyar thiruvadigaLE saraNam,
adiyEn madhurakavi dAsan,
varadhan









--- In ramanuja (AT) yahoogroups (DOT) com, "Lakshmi Narasimhan"
<nrusimhann@...> wrote:
>
> Dear Swamin,
> The answer lies in your question itself. I am just swapping the
> sequence of information present in your question:
> >From what i have learned from their life events, is that both were
> very humble and never claimed to be anything other than servants of
> the lord.
>
> > Now Sri Vaishnava sampradaya is 100% bonafide according to
> shrastras, i just wanted to know which shastras and authority
> provide us with the information that Sri Andal and Sri Ramanuja
are
> Bhudevi avatara and Sesha avatara respectively.
>
> Similar to Sri Kothai Naacchiyaar and Sri Emperumaanaar, bhudevi as
> well as adiseshan are humble servants of the lord. We must actually
> try proving whether Bhudevi and Sesha really have capabilities that
> could be compared with the former in terms of bhagavad and
> bhaagavada abhimaanam and priyam rather than vice-versa.
>
> adiyEn,
> rAmAnuja dAsan
>
>
>
>
> --- In ramanuja (AT) yahoogroups (DOT) com, "tesh_tel" <tesh_tel@> wrote:
> >
> > Srimathe Ramanujaya Namah
> >
> > Dear devotees,
> > Jai Sri Krishna.
> >
> > I have one issue which i am keen to have some knowledge about.
In
> > Our dharma Sri Bhagavan and his associates periodicaly take form
> in
> > the material world for the uplift of Jivas. One unfortunate
> feature
> > of this beleif is that many wicked jivas take advantage of this
> > belief and claim themselves as God, some examples include King
> > Paundaraka in the Dwarapara Yuga (who claimed to be the real
> > krishna) and Puttarpathi saibaba in this yuga.
> >
> > Our shastras fortunalty provide validification of The avatars so
> > that we cannot be fooled. As we know by reading the shastras we
> have
> > no doubt that Sri Rama and Sri Krishna are the Supreme lord
> himself.
> > Now Sri Vaishnava sampradaya is 100% bonafide according to
> > shrastras, i just wanted to know which shastras and authority
> > provide us with the information that Sri Andal and Sri Ramanuja
> are
> > Bhudevi avatara and Sesha avatara respectively. From what i have
> > learned from their life events, is that both were very humble and
> > never claimed to be anything other than servants of the lord. I
> > cannot recall a time when Sri Andal or Guru Ramanuja displayed
> their
> > divine personalities. So how do we know of there true
identities???
> >
>

Dear Lakshmi Narasimhan Swamin:

As you mentioned in mail, the reverse i.e., comparing
BhU dEvi and Seshan with SrI Andal, Ramanujar in terms
of bhagavat and bhaagavada abhimaanam is more than the
latter.

BhU dEvi after lifted by Sri VarAha moorthy, she asked
the way for the uj~eevanam of jeevAtmAs like us.
VarAha
moorthy explains the way through Varaha Carama Slokam
which is explained in Varaha Puranam.
(Rescue of BhU dEvi by emperumAn in Varaha avatAram
proves her bhagavad abhimaanam)

Due to her bhaagavada abhimaanam, she took avatar
as SrI Andal, and lead her life according to the
Varaha Carama Slokam so that , the latter jeevAtmAs
like us would attain the feet of Lord.!

Without Her kArunyam towards us, we wont get Thirup
pAvai now.

Similarly, sEshan is known for his service to Lord
at Sri vaikuntam as mentioned by alwar:
"senrAl kudaiyAm irunthAl singAsanamAm..."
-- muthal thiruvandhAdhi (53)

He is doing kainkaryam to Lord in all forms. This
proves his bhagavad abhimaanam. Similarly his birth
as Srimad Ramanujar proves his bhaagavada abhimaanam.

If there's any mistake please forgive and comments
ont this are welcome!

adiyEn,
senthil.b


--- Lakshmi Narasimhan <nrusimhann (AT) yahoo (DOT) com> wrote:

> Dear Swamin,
> The answer lies in your question itself. I am just
> swapping the
> sequence of information present in your question:
> >From what i have learned from their life events, is
> that both were
> very humble and never claimed to be anything other
> than servants of
> the lord.
>
> > Now Sri Vaishnava sampradaya is 100% bonafide
> according to
> shrastras, i just wanted to know which shastras and
> authority
> provide us with the information that Sri Andal and
> Sri Ramanuja are
> Bhudevi avatara and Sesha avatara respectively.
>
> Similar to Sri Kothai Naacchiyaar and Sri
> Emperumaanaar, bhudevi as
> well as adiseshan are humble servants of the lord.
> We must actually
> try proving whether Bhudevi and Sesha really have
> capabilities that
> could be compared with the former in terms of
> bhagavad and
> bhaagavada abhimaanam and priyam rather than
> vice-versa.
>
> adiyEn,
> rAmAnuja dAsan
>
>
>
>
> --- In ramanuja (AT) yahoogroups (DOT) com, "tesh_tel"
> <tesh_tel@...> wrote:
> >
> > Srimathe Ramanujaya Namah
> >
> > Dear devotees,
> > Jai Sri Krishna.
> >
> > I have one issue which i am keen to have some
> knowledge about. In
> > Our dharma Sri Bhagavan and his associates
> periodicaly take form
> in
> > the material world for the uplift of Jivas. One
> unfortunate
> feature
> > of this beleif is that many wicked jivas take
> advantage of this
> > belief and claim themselves as God, some examples
> include King
> > Paundaraka in the Dwarapara Yuga (who claimed to
> be the real
> > krishna) and Puttarpathi saibaba in this yuga.
> >
> > Our shastras fortunalty provide validification of
> The avatars so
> > that we cannot be fooled. As we know by reading
> the shastras we
> have
> > no doubt that Sri Rama and Sri Krishna are the
> Supreme lord
> himself.
> > Now Sri Vaishnava sampradaya is 100% bonafide
> according to
> > shrastras, i just wanted to know which shastras
> and authority
> > provide us with the information that Sri Andal and
> Sri Ramanuja
> are
> > Bhudevi avatara and Sesha avatara respectively.
> From what i have
> > learned from their life events, is that both were
> very humble and
> > never claimed to be anything other than servants
> of the lord. I
> > cannot recall a time when Sri Andal or Guru
> Ramanuja displayed
> their
> > divine personalities. So how do we know of there
> true identities???
> >
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>




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