kUra nArAyaNa jIyar

sri:
srimathE rAmAnujAya nama:
srimadh varavaramunayE nama:
sri vAnAchala mahAmunayE nama:

thirunakshathram: mArgazhi kEttai

avathAra sthalam:  srIrangam

AchAryan: kUrathAzhwAn, parAsara bhattar

Place where he attained paramapadham from: srIrangam

Works:  sudharsana sathakam, sthOthra rathna vyAkyAnam, srIsUktha bhAshyam, upanishadh bhAshyam, nithya grantham (thiruvArAdhanam), etc

sishyas:  chEmam jIyar, thirukkurugaip pirAn jIyar, sundhara pANdiya dhEvan, etc.

Born as the son of siRiya gOvindha perumAL (who is the brother of embAr) on mArgazhi kEttai in srIrangam, he becomes to be known (after accepting sannyAsam) as kUra nArAyaNa jIyar, nalam thigazh nArAyaNa jIyar, nArAyaNa muni, periya jIyar and srI ranga nArAyaNa jIyar.

emperumAnAr, kUrathAzhwAn, bhattar

Before becoming a sannyAsi he had a son named “eduththa kai azhagiya nAyanAr”. He was a sishya of kUrathAzhwAn first and subsequently he  becomes a sishya of AzhwAn‘s son bhattar and learns from  him too.

He performed many external kainkaryams in srIrangam temple such as constructing pArthasArathy sannidhi, garudAzhwAr sannidhi, etc and internal/confidential kainkaryams  to periya perumAL.

vEdhAnthAchAryar who appears much later to kUra nArAyaNa jIyar refers to him as periya jIyar in his works (Note: It appears that there is another kUra nArAyaNa jIyar who appears some time after vEdhAnthAchAryar‘s time). vEdhAnthAchAryar quotes jIyar’s sthOthra vyAkyAnam in his own sthOthra vyAkyAnam. He also quotes jIyar’s srI sUktha bhAshyam and nithya grantham in his rahasya thraya sAram. As kUra nArAyaNa jIyar was a sishya of kUrathAzhwAn and thus should have been elder to nanjIyar – so to distinguish between nanjIyar and kUra nArAyaNa jIyar – vEdhAnthAchAryar should have identified him as periya (big) jIyar.

mAmunigaL quotes kUra nArAyaNa jIyar’s upanishadh bhAshyam in eedu pramANa thirattu (collection of pramANams for nampiLLai‘s eedu mahA vyAkyAnam). mAmunigaL also glorifies kUra nArAyaNa jIyar as “suddha sampradhAya nishtar” (one who is firmly situated in our pure sampradhAyam).

kUra nArAyaNa jIyar is known to be a sudharsana upAsakar. Once kUrathAzhwAn tells jIyar “We are born in srIvaishNava family where it is considered to be inappropriate to engage in upAsanA – we fully depend on bhagavAn for anything instead of engaging in self-efforts such as upAsanA”. jIyar responds “my upAsanA is not for my benefit. It is only for the service of bhagavAn and bhAgavathas”.  There are a couple of incidents in the life of jIyar which demonstrate this principle.

• In the olden days namperumAL used to enjoy theppOthsavam (float festival) in the cauvey river. Once during such uthsavam, there was flash floods and the theppam (boat) was being pulled by the flood. But jIyar used his upAsana sakthi and stopped the theppam and brought it over to the banks to safety. Seeing that, he ordered kainkaryaparas to make a large tank within the srIrangam town and arranged the theppam to celebrated there safely from then onwards.

namperumAL with nAchiyArs in theppam (float)

• Once thiruvarangapperumAL arayar was suffering from a disease and that was affecting his kainkaryam to periya perumAL. At that time, kUra nArAyaNa jIyar compiles and sings sudharsana sathakam and relieves arayar from his disease. This is highlighted in the thanian of sudharsana sathakam clearly.

thiruvarangapperumAL arayar

Immediately after emperumAnAr‘s time, kUra nArAyaNa jIyar was given the charge of emperumAnAr‘s mutt in srIrangam. This mutt is named “srIranga nArAyaNa jIyar mutt” and continues to have jIyar swamys honoring the post and participating in srIrangam temple kainkaryams.

Thus, we have seen some glimpses of the glorious life of kUra nArAyaNa jIyar. Let us pray at his lotus feet that we too get bhagavath/bhAgavatha/AchArya kainkaryam.

kUra nArAyaNa jIyar’s thaniyan:

srIparAsara bhattArya sishyam srIrangapAlakam
nArAyaNa munim vandhE gyAnAdhi guNasAgaram

ஸ்ரீபராஸர பட்டார்ய சிஷ்யம் ஸ்ரீரங்கபாலகம்
நாராயண முநிம் வந்தே ஜ்ஞாநாதி குணஸாகரம்

I worship srI nArAyaNa muni who is a sishya of parAsara bhattar, who protects srIrangam and who is an ocean of gyAnam (knowledge),  bhakthi (devotion), vairAgyam (renunciation), etc.

adiyen sarathy ramanuja dasan

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Sources: srIrangam kOil ozhugu, periya thirumudi adaivu, puthUr swamy’s AchAryargaL vaibhavam book