Life of Sri Ramanujacharya - Part 5

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One of the most touching incidents in Sri Ramanuja's life concerns the amazing transformation of Yadavaprakasa, his former Guru in Advaita Vedanta who tried to murder him out of jealousy and hatred. The same Yadavaprakasa became a disciple of Ramanuja! This is how it came about:

Ramanuja was learning the Tamil scriptures, the famous Nalayira Divya Prabandha (the divine collection of 4,000 verses in Tamil) from Mahapurna who was staying in Ramanuja's house along with his wife. It took merely six months for Ramanuja to master the entire Divya Prabandha.

On the last day, he went to the market to buy a new piece of cloth and other offerings like fruits, betel nuts etc. to be offered as gurudakshina to Mahapurna. While Ramanuja and Mahapurna were away, Ramanuja's wife Rakshakambal picked up a quarrel with Mahapurna's wife when the water from her pot spilled over into Rakshakambal's pitcher! On hearing the harsh words of insult from Rakshakambal, Mahapurna's wife was deeply hurt but she restrained her feelings. Mahapurna noticed the tears rolling down from her eyes and on discovering the cause of her grief, took it as a divine command from Lord Ranganathaswami to return to Tirchirappalli. Mahapurna and his wife left Kanchipuram immediately without waiting to inform Ramanuja.

Rakshakambal reported the matter to Ramanuja on his return from the temple and tried to justify her role in it. Shocked and grieved over his wife's harsh behaviour towards his Guru and the guru's wife, Ramanuja rushed to Sri Varadaraja temple to seek forgiveness from God. Meanwhile, Rakshakambal turned her anger on a hungry beggar who approached her for alms and drove him away with harsh words.

Ramanuja, while returning from the temple, saw this emaciated beggar and learning from him about his wife's misconduct, resolved to renounce the world and dedicate himself completely to God. He must have felt that Rakshakambal was not mature enough to understand his deepest aspirations and he would not be able to fulfil his life's mission while living with an incompatible life partner like her.

He faked a letter under the signature of his father-in-law and sent the beggar back with the letter to his wife, disguising the beggar as a relative of her father who had come to take her home for her sister's impending marriage. Rakshakambal believed the story and proceeded to her native place after taking leave of Ramanuja.