Sri APNSwami’s Shishya Writes | Teacher’s Day in our Sampradayam

NOTE:  This is a small write-up by Sri APN Swami’s Sishyas based on Swami’s experience with his  Acharyan and the all-important role that every Acharyan plays in our day-to-day lives.

Our sampradayam is unique in many ways, and one of them is the unbreakable line of guru paramparai. Starting from Perumal to our current Acharyan, this guru paramparai continues without any break in the lineage.

In general, relationships are fragile because they can be broken at any time. Many times, we tend to stay away from people whom we don’t like or with whom we are not comfortable with. This could include even close relationships like husband-wife or father-son. In fact if you do certain rituals, you can permanently sever the relationship and have no connection whatsoever with the other person, so much that no “thetu” is even applicable when any untoward incident happens to the other person.

But one relationship that you can never break or sever is your relationship with Perumal. Andal rightly says, “Undan odu uravel namakku ingu ozhikka ozhiyaathu” (pasuram 28 of thiruppavai). This means we can never break our relationship with Perumal. And why is that? Because of our association with our acharyan. This is the greatness of an acharya-sishya relationship. Even blood relationships can break but your relationship with your acharyan can never break, regardless of anything.

What exactly is this acharyan-sishya relationship?

On the face of it, most of us think that giving sambhavanai, doing namaskaram to him, learning the meanings of different granthams, and taking his guidance on sampradayic and day-to-day activities alone define this relationship.

But in reality, this relationship is far deeper than this. An acharyan is not only a guide on the philosophical side, but also plays an important role in making you strong on the emotional, mental, and psychological side as well. In this sense, he teaches us not only the path to get moksham, but also to live a healthy life on earth. In fact, he can even help us in the most trickiest situations of our life.

Just like how Perumal protects us at all times, like that our Acharya also protects us always.

This can bring up an important question in our minds? Why don’t all people get the same level of acharyan anugraham? Why is it that some people seem to have more anugraham than others?

Let’s understand this with a simple example. Let us say in a class there are 50 students. Do all of them get the first rank? No. And why? Because their ability to grasp what the teacher is saying varies. In other words, some children are able to better understand what the teacher is saying when compared to others and this is why such students tend to get higher marks. Likewise, all of us understand and follow our Acharyan’s words in varying degrees and this is why the level of his anugraham also varies. If we follow our acharyan’s words perfectly and follow him obediently, there is no reason why we will not get his complete anugraham.

We can understand this better with Madurakavi Azhwar’s Kanninum Siruthambu . In one of the pasurams, he says, “Thirithandaakilum deva piraan udai kariya kola thiruvuru kaanban naan…” (pasuram 3). We all know that Madurakavi Azhwar is an ardent student and follower of Nammazhwar, then why did he talk about Perumal? Madurakavi Azhwar says that when he talks about Perumal, it makes his acharyan happy and this is why he praises Perumal. Such is his acharyan bhakti. He set the right example for all of us to follow.

So, when should we follow our acharyas obediently and imbibe their words? Everyday.

Though September 5th is celebrated as Teacher’s Day, in reality, every day is teacher’s day in our sampradayam because our acharyas give us their anugraham each and every minute. Let us all strive to make our Acharyas happy by following their wishes/commands in the best way possible to make them happy and to establish a deep bonding with them.

Acharyan Thiruvadigale Charanam