Sri Vaishnava Guru Parampara | Yamunacharyar Charithram Part 5 | Vaishnava guru bakthi & equality

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Yamunacharya was born around AD 918 in the city of Madurai in south India, which was then the capital of the mighty Pāndya kings. His grandfather was a well-known scholar and devotee known as Nāthamuni, who was also famous for his mystic abilities and expertise in the practice of Aṣṭāṅga yoga. It was Nāthamuni who first compiled the songs of Nammāḷvār, a famous south Indian devotee, and had them set to music.

Nāthamuni’s son was named Īśvaramuni. Īśvaramuni’s wife gave birth to a baby boy, and, in memory of the sacred river which flows through Vṛndāvana, Nāthamuni named him Yamuna. Just a few years after the birth of the child, Īśvaramuni passed from this world, leaving his young wife a widow. Thus at a very young age Yamunacharya was left to be brought up by his mother and aged grandmother, living a life of great poverty. Yamunacharya studied hard, and by the time he was 12 years old he was Bhāṣyācārya's best student.

While Yamunacharya was studying at the school of Bhāṣyācārya, there was a great scholar called Akki Alwan who lived at the court of the Pāndya king. He was a great favourite of the king because he could defeat any other scholar in a debate. In fact, the king had passed a law decreeing that every scholar who had been defeated by Akki Alwan must pay a tax to him every year - if anyone refused he would be put to death.

Yamunacharya's teacher, Bhāṣyācārya, had also been defeated by Akki Alwan, and so he too was obliged to pay this tax. One day, when Bhāṣyācārya was away, Yamunacharya was left alone in the school. At that time one of Akki Alwan's disciples came there to collect the overdue tax from Bhāṣyācārya. He inquired Yamunacharya: "Has your teacher become insane to withhold payment for two years? Or is it that he intends to challenge my master again." Yamunacharya asked them "Why should my noble teacher waste his time debating with such a man?. I am the lowest disciple of the great Bhāṣyācārya and would challenge him to a debate."

When the contestants were seated, Akki Alwan began the debate. He found the boy could answer all his questions with ease, he began to pose difficult grammatical problems; but still, Yamunacharya replied to all without difficulty. On hearing these wonderful answers, all the people were filled with amazement and the queen joyfully cried out, "Ālavandār! Ālavandār! - He has conquered! He has conquered!". The king also gave him half of his kingdom as a prize for this victory. Yamunacharya, a boy of twelve years began at once to rule the kingdom he had won. Thus his days of poverty were over.

Meanwhile, Nāthamuni, Yamunacharya's grand-father, passed from this world to return to the lotus feet of the Lord. when he was on his deathbed, he called for his chief disciple, Rāmamiśra, & made a last request of him: "My dear grandson, Yamuna, who is known as Yamunacharya, has forgotten the greatness and glory of Lord Viṣṇu, being attracted by the temporary pleasures of this material world. Therefore my last request to you is that you save my grandson from the darkness of nescience in which he is now sunk. I leave him to your care."

Rāmamiśra never forgot the last instruction of his guru-maharaja. Several years later when Yamunacharya was thirty-five years old, he went to his palace seeking an interview. He told Yamunacharya that "Some years back your grandfather, the renowned Nāthamuni, left this world and returned to Vaikuṇṭha. Before he departed, however, he left in my care a great treasure to be given to you at the right time. Now I am asking you to accept this treasure." The treasure that Rāmamiśra was describing was beauty of Lord Raṅganātha who resides within a seven-walled temple on an island in the Kāverī River.

They reached the banks of the Kāverī River & crossed over to the island on which stands the sacred temple of Śrī Raṅganātha. Rāmamiśra led Yamunacharya before the doors of the temple room itself & said: "In front of us lying on the bed of Ananta-Śeṣa is the treasure that was your grandfather's only property - Śrī Raṅganātha, the Lord of Lakṣmī Devī, the most beautiful of all Deities." Hearing these words, Yamunacharya ran forward and fell unconscious at the feet of the Deity. From that day he had no desire to resume his royal position. He took initiation from Rāmamiśra and spent the rest of his days in service to Śrī Raṅganātha.

By chanting Om Namo Nārāyaṇāya mantra, he attained the topmost platform of loving devotion to the Lord. Whilst he was the ācārya at Śrī Rangam, he wrote four books of Vaishnava philosophy, as well as many prayers in glorification of the Supreme Lord.