“Is There Anything More Beautiful Than My Wife’s Eyes?”

My Dear Friend, Mythili,

With folded hands and in humility before you ,you are talking about the Acharya and I should be very careful in voicing my thoughts.

I am making you jump the line because of the question raised by you.
Now, Mythili, you are an Avatar of Saraswathi. There is no need for you to fold your hands for me. You can very well voice your thoughts.
I want all our scriptures, our Acharyas, their biographies to be discussed threadbare. Then only we can assimlate the goodness they contain. Simply worshipping them and blindly accepting them will be of no avail.

I do not see reason here.

You can't, Mythili. You can't see reason when there is great love. Because reason can never even begin to reach God. That's why our upanishads roar,

yatho vaacho nivarthanthe apraapya manasa saha
Where the word returns along with the mind, unable to reach the ultimate. At the same time I am not saying that God, Love and religion are illogical. They are trans-logical. They are beyond logic. I don't know much about God and religion. But one thing I know for sure. If you see the razor sharp reason and intellect lurking somewhere, believe Love will never be in the vicinity.

Why did Acharya take Villi to the temple and show him the great Bhagwan's eyes ?Villi's love for Ponnachi is something heart rending,I feel very sad that ,that deep love was sacrificed so that villi could become the great devotee of God.
"Araththatrin ilvazhkai atrin purathatrin poi peruvathevan?"
When a man and his woman who are devoted to each other and see only each other in everything they see,and hear only each other's voice in everything they hear,when they join in love,that love is according to me ,the envy ogf even God.Did Ranganatha,who has his consort,The Devi with him all the time,envy these innocent couple?

I took enormous pains to answer these questions right in the beginning. Please be kind enough to read the lead post, the first one, again.
And Ramanuja did not destroy Villi's love for Ponnachi. Legend has it that the couple lived together till their death. Ramanuja only enlarged the love to include Sri Renganathar in it. Now he can tell the world, that here is a love which we all should aspire to have.
At times the teacher asks the brightest student in the class to come to his place and teach other students. That does not mean that the teacher is spoiling his individual studies. He is only trying to help other students by showing them a working model.
In another angle, what you have said is practically true. Villidasan never did the back-walking again in his life.That does not mean that his love for Ponnachi is any less. It started to manifest in more subtle forms. You see lovers in their twenties express their love by kissing, necking and hugging. But when the lovers, the couple, are in their seventies, even picking up the newspaper for the husband, applying iodex for the arthritic limb, would be a manifestation of love. When it comes to love's manifestations, one is not less or more than the other.
Even assuming that Ramanuja disturbed their personal love, and probably made them to sacrifice for the people, well, even then it is quite acceptable.
Do you remember Sundarar's story? He is one of the four chief Nayanmars. He hailed from a very poor family. But he used to be very very handsome. He was engaged to be married to the richest girl in the town, a princess. Just when he was about to tie the sacred knot, an old man appears in the scene and stops the marriage. He tells the people that Sundarar is his slave according to the bond executed by S's grand father.
The case goes to the local Panchayat. The evidence is examined and the judgment is in favour of the old man. The marriage celebrations come to an end. The old man takes his new slave to Thiruvennainallur. He takes him to the temple and then disappears into the sanctum sanctorum. Then only Sundarar realises that Shivaperuman himself came to prevent him from getting married.
Of course Sundarar loved that girl to whom he was engaged. But before the Lord's great love he melts and sings some of the immortal love songs. Shivaperuman got his name thaduthaatkonda Annal.
The moral of the story is not that Shivaperuman was jealous of Sundarar's love for the girl. He wanted to showcase Sundarar's love for the whole world to see. "This is the way you should live. And this is the way you should love." That was what Shiva told the world by his actions.

An "action-replay" of that story is Villi-Ponnachi-Ramanujar-Renganathar love story.

Mythili, we'll continue the arguments after I finish the story.

Forgive me if I am hurting your feelings.But the world loves the lovers and mithila loves villi and ponnachi,hence this mail.
With a heavy heart
Regards

I was not at all hurt. In fact I was jumping in joy because your response made me to think about the matter even more. Not only Mithila, but the whole world and the Great God loves Villidasan-Ponnachi. They will be together for all time to come. So don't worry, my friend.
Your heart should be heavy, with love and not with guilt or remorse.

Thanks for making me think deeper on this issue.

love,

Originally Posted by mithila kannan

Dear Sridhar,
With folded hands and in humility before you ,you are talking about the Acharya and I should be very careful in voicing my thoughts.
I do not see reason here.Villi loved Ponnachi deeply,it was almost devotion.God resides in each one of us so by that pure love,is he not sanctifying love ?
Why did Acharya take Villi to the temple and show him the great Bhagwan's eyes ?Villi's love for Ponnachi is something heart rending,I feel very sad that ,that deep love was sacrificed so that villi could become the great devotee of God.
"Araththatrin ilvazhkai atrin purathatrin poi peruvathevan?"
When a man and his woman who are devoted to each other and see only each other in everything they see,and hear only each other's voice in everything they hear,when they join in love,that love is according to me ,the envy ogf even God.Did Ranganatha,who has his consort,The Devi with him all the time,envy these innocent couple?
Forgive me if I am hurting your feelings.But the world loves the lovers and mithila loves villi and ponnachi,hence this mail.
With a heavy heart
Regards
mithila kannan

Dear Varalotti Sir,

I read the story again today, and I remembered these lines ... I thought I must share it with you ...

Pacchai Maa Malai Pol Meni Pavazha Vaai Kamala Chengann
Achyutha Amarar Erey Tham Kozhundhe Ennum

These are lines from Thondaradipodi Alwar Paasuram ...

Guessing how I related to it? ... well ... I remembered it as I've watched Thirumal Perumai atleast a 100 times!!!

Dear sridhar,
And Ramanuja did not destroy Villi's love for Ponnachi. Legend has it that the couple lived together till their death. Ramanuja only enlarged the love to include Sri Renganathar in it. Now he can tell the world, that here is a love which we all should aspire to have.
Now Iam at peace.
Thank you for explaining to me with great patience,in what angle Ranganatha and Sri Ramanuja's love for villi whom they want to stand as a role model for generations to come,should be looked at.
Iam grateful to you.
All the best
mythili

Now Iam at peace.Sorry that I did not read those lines before or in my anxiety for villi and ponnachi overlooked those lines.
Thanks a lot for explaining the angle in which it has to be looked at in a patient manner.
Looking forward to the next part.
All the best
Regards
mithila kannan

Dear bf,

I can imagine the beauty in the eyes which villi had seen. Oh how lucky is he to see such a great eyes. as u said the love of villi never ends fo ponnachi he may see the great sight which he had seen and feel the happiness when ever he see into her eyes.
so great love. please varalotti sir continue it as early as possible iam very eager to know what next will b.

Originally Posted by varalotti

Ramanujacharya was amused by the strange sight – Ponnachi walking towards the temple followed by her retinue and Villidasan walking backwards unable to take off his eyes from those of his beautiful wife!

Love melts, whatever may be the form, the medium in which it is expressed, and whatever may be the object of love. A mother’s love for her child, a devotee’s love for God, a teacher’s love for his disciple, love expressed in the form of poetry, in words, or in action – which in the present instance was much more poetical than poetry itself – can move mountains.

The great saint was moved on seeing this wonderful sight. He enquired about the couple and then sent word to Villidasan asking him to come and meet him in his Asram alone. Ramanuja had decided to something about that.

We have to pause here lest the great Acharya should be misunderstood. Why did he want to do something about Villidasan’s love for his beautiful wife, Ponnachi?

One theory is that he wanted to ‘properly channelise’ the love. Instead of flowing towards his wife Ponnachi, if this lover were to flow towards God! That would be great, right?

But to me nothing could be more absurd than that. The channels of love do not sanctify it! On the other hand love sanctifies the channels through which it flows! Love towards God, may be Vishnu, Shiva, Jesus, Allah or the Buddha, is in no way superior to the love Villidasan had for his wife, Ponnachi.

I will go one step further. If you love your pup then that is much, much better than your sitting in the Puja room mindlessly repeating some God-names. Love for your pup or even a street mongrel is no less than the love you can have for the Infinite, All powerful, God. The quality of love is not dependent on the object of love.

Another theory is far worse. It says that Ramanuja wanted such a powerful force for his Vaishnavite Movement.

When I heard this theory I silently prayed to the great saint, “Forgive them, Acharya, they know not what they are talking about!”

Ramanuja’s movement is not like that of the Congress or the BJP. It was not a political movement where you need all the power you can gather. It was a movement of love. Ramanuja was a saint, a spiritual leader. Not a politican or statesman. Don’t ever think on those lines.

Now why should Ramanuja do something about Villi’s love? As a spiritual leader of people he
instinctively knew that Villi’s love was quite unique. If only Ramanuja could make people love something as intensely as Villi did, yes, he would have made a difference in their lives.

At the same time if he showed Villi’s love as an example to be followed, then ignorant people might mistakenly think that they also should love Ponnachi. In other words at the present level Villidasan’s love is not a copiable, replicable model. So Ramanuja wanted to first shift Villi’s love to something else and then make people understand the greatness of love.

Was he not doing a disservice to Ponnachi? May be. But then he also showed that great object of love to Ponnachi. And in order to make so many people understand the meaning of love, there is no harm in shifting one person’s object of love. As a saint and a spiritual leader Ramanuja had the moral authority to do that.

Now back to the story.

dear sridhar,
i feel each soul has travelled a lot and this sort of experience is given to them and not all, they are bestowed and showed the way to divert their love towards god, the same applies here to annamachari, the same to raghavendra and many great souls, i still long to have been taken a birth as this if only my mother ambal could grace me with her vision i would forget all my misery of this life and past lives sin would end, lucky are those to be born even as asuran as the lord himself comes down to relieve him from his miserable birth..sunkan

Dear Aruna,
thanks. Next wednesday will come soon. It is the day immediately after the next tuesday. I may even post the next part a little earlier.
regards,

Originally Posted by Arunarc

Dear Varalotti
Beautiful story it was worth waitng .....................now when will next wednesday arrive????????
Wow what a perfect way of teaching people the love of Vailli and Ponnachi.............

Dear Usha,
My wife's eyes are no doubt beautiful, but not as beautiful as that of Ponnachi. I no doubt love her, but my love cannot even hold a candle to Villidasan's love for Ponnachi. So there's no way of my uttering such statements about my wife.

You have said the right thing, Usha. Stories like this have to be enjoyed, chewed, munched, relived in total solitude. I have been doing that for the past 17, 18 years - ever since I first read the story in a book.

I have an idea Usha. Our culture is so rich in stories. Every culture, every religion has its own stories. Some of these stories we have been mulling over in our mind for years, some for several lifetimes even. I have a plan of re-telling all the stories we all know - like Gajendra Moksham, or The Prodigal Son or Prahaladan's Story. There stories are treasures. And if we slowly chew every line, every word and every feeling hidden in these stories, we'd emerge out as far better persons. I just had this idea when writing the reply to your fb.

Villidasan's bliss and the superiority of his love is brought out in the next epdisode of this story.

Our sincere thanks to you and please accept our great appreciation for your great work.

You are welcome. Your enjoying this story is my greatest reward.
regards,

Dear Brindha,
thanks. I didn't give the break soon. The story had crossed the usual limit of 1000 plus words. The next breaking point is another 700 words away. Then the next episode will be very short. Hence I stopped here.
Will post the continuation soon.
Love,

Originally Posted by brindhak

Dear Sridhar Sir..

Very nice.. I was reading intrestingly... but why do you give break very soon........... too bad...

Waiting for the continuation.....
Love
Brindha..

Dear Sudha,

The thread has an enchanting aura thanks to the subject matter - love in its purest form.

By including Sri Renganathar in Villi's love, the stature of Villi's love did not increase. Ramanujar could have said simply that one should love one's wife as Villi did. That would have been difficult in many cases, unless the wife is as good and as beautiful and as soft as Ponnachi. But don't mistake me. By the same token Ponnachis love for her husband is not a copiable model. Loving one's own husband will be difficult unless the husband is as good as, as strong as and above all as loving as Villidasan.

By making Villi fall in love with the Lord's eyes, (Ponnachi is also blessed as she takes upon herself a selfless life of serving her husband and his guru) Ramanujar has shown us the way of love.

You are right about Srirengam. My brother's father-in-law went and settled down near the temple after he retired as a bank executive. But the temple is now extremely crowded. And it is very difficult to get a dharshan of the Lord.

I am happy that this post has come at a time when Rosh was talking about Srirengam.Who knows she might get married to somebody over there. And all of us might get a chance to visit the temple with her influence.

Now the waiting is also becoming sweet..........thanks for opening this thread!

That's a really cute expression. I loved it.

regards,

Dear Swetha,
I am thrilled to see that you liked the trip to Srirengam. A modern, professionaly educated girl, brought up in an alien land, showing so much affinity to Srirengam and its Perumal, I am tempted to boast "hats off to my writing" but the bottomline is "hats off to your mother"

Since you have touched on my ability to narrate the incident, I would like to share the secret with you. If I had read about Villi and Ponnachi yesterday and then posted this thread, there would not have been much life to it. I came to know of this incident almost 20 years back when I ordered a Tamil Book on Ramanuja by post. And for the last twenty years I have been thinking about the incident several times. I have told this to my daughter at least half a dozen times. And every time I think or I tell, I could see some new meaning, some message, some insight in the story. When you have been thinking about something for so long, you can describe it very clearly and very powerfully. That's why we are made to repeat the pasurams several times. My master makes me repeat every phrase of Thiruvaimozhi three times. (That is called Sandhai solvathu).

The eyes Villidasan saw that day are the eyes from which this universe and a million universes like this were born.And when their time's up they will go back into the very same eyes. Those are the eyes which can make the tallest mountains into sand powder ; and at the same heal a wound in an ant's foot. Those are the eyes that create, that sustain and that destroy.

But its not fair ... you always leave us at the most interesting part. You build the suspense and then ... gone! Its like the serials with a Thodarum (to be continued) at the most crucial moment ...

That would make us mull over the incident again and again. And after a month when you attempt to rewrite the incident in your own words some one will say the same words you have about my narration.
thanks swetha,