Ramanujacharya served his Acharyas with devotion. Everyday, he would boil milk for Tiruvaranga Perumal Arayar. He would check to see if it had just the right degree of warmth. Tiruvaranga Perumal Arayar was so pleased with Ramanuja’s service that he said “You have demonstrated how a sishya should behave towards his Acharya. All my wealth I give to you.”
The wealth that he was referring to was Nammazhvar’s Thiruvaimozhi. It need not necessarily follow that an ideal student also turns out to be an ideal Acharya. But in Ramanuja’s case, he was both an ideal student and an ideal Acharya, said Kidambi Narayanan in a discourse.
One day, in Srirangam, Ramanuja noticed a man called Pillai Urangavilli holding an umbrella over his wife’s head. Pillai Urangavilli was oblivious to everything else around him. He presented a curious sight. Ramanuja asked him why he was holding an umbrella over his wife’s head. Pillai Urangavilli replied: “My wife’s eyes are so beautiful that I want to shield them from the rays of the Sun.”
Ramanuja asked him if he would give up being obsessed with his wife’s eyes if he showed him a pair of eyes more beautiful than his wife’s. Pillai Urangavilli agreed. Ramanuja then showed him Lord Ranganatha’s eyes, which had been praised by Tiruppanazhvar as large and elongated. Ranganatha’s eyes caused a change of heart in Pillai Urangavilli.
Ramanuja could just have ignored Pillai Urangavilli’s obsession. But he was so kind and so anxious to redeem Pillai Urangavilli that he showed him the Lord’s beauty and turned his thoughts towards the Lord and steered him in the path of bhakti. Thus Ramanuja was not only an ideal student, but also was an ideal Acharya.
