Nathamuni (823-951) was a Vaishnavite Saint and a great scholar who compiled the Nalayira Divya Prabandham, a great collection of sacred texts praising the importance of Lord Vishnu, with the help of Nammalvar. He was the foremost person to propagate the philosophy of Vaishnavism. He has also written the holy texts Yogarahasya and Nyayatattva. His birth name was Aranganathan. But due to his devotion on god, he came to be known as Nathamuni, which means god’s servant. He was praised by the Chola kings, and admired him for his pure devotion and dedication towards Lord Vishnu. He contains good knowledge and wisdom and a master in all subjects and learnt all the regional languages.
Nathamuni was born in the village in Kattumannarkoil, Tamil nadu and died at Gangaikonda Cholapuram. His several other names were Sadamarsana Kula Tilakar, Sottai Kulaththu Arasar and Ranganatha Acharya.
His father’s name was Isvara Bhatta and his son’s name was Isvaramuni, and his grandson was Yamunacharya. All of them were ardent devotees of Lord Vishnu.
He travelled throughout India, to spread the bhakti spirit among the devotees. He compiled several poems in praise of Lord Ranganatha. He served as the Srirangam Temple In charge. He introduced the system of chanting the divine songs from the great text “NALAYIRA DIVYA PRAPANDAM” in the Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple, Srirangam.
Nathamuni, made a system for the recitation of Tamil Vedas during the main festivals of the Lord Ranganatha. Nammazhwar’s songs are sung even now at Srirangam and several other temples of Lord Vishnu.
His main disciple was Pundarikaksha, who made his disciple Ramamisra to guide Yamunacharya, the grandson of Nathamuni. Nathamuni was against caste discrimination, and treated all castes of people equally and respected them properly. Due to his kind attitude over others, everyone has praised him for his good nature and gave much respect and worshipped him as an avatar of god.
IMPORTANCE
He was a great and a kind hearted saint, who has dedicated his life towards doing the service of Lord Vishnu. Though he remained in family life, he lived a simple and a noble life, and his thoughts were always about Sri Ranganatha, and took care of the temple management in a proper manner. He provided food to the poor people, and considered all of them as the divine incarnations of the god. He also removed the sins of his devotees, and taught them the principles of Vaishnavism, and insisted them to regularly worship the lord in the temple, and removed the diseases from their body, and inculcated the bhakti spirit into them, and made them to live happily and peacefully throughout in their life.
Let us worship the great saint and be blessed.
“OM SRI NATHAMUNI SWAMIGALE NAMAHA”
“OM NAMO NARAYANAYA NAMAHA”
WRITTEN BY
R.HARISHANKAR
