The Lord always is keen that we mend our ways and He does not give up on us even when we resist His efforts to help us, said Akkarakkani Srinidhi in a discourse.
Yadavaprakasa, Ramanujacharya’s guru, tried to kill Ramanuja because Ramanuja’s explanations for certain Upanishadic statements were different from his.
One day, when Yadavaprakasa was in the Kanchipuram Varadaraja temple, he heard the priest say that he should become a disciple of Ramanuja. He dismissed this as insignificant. Tirukacchi Nambi was a devotee of Lord Varadaraja, and the Lord was so fond of him that He would talk to him every day. The Lord got Tirukacchi Nambi to advise Yadavaprakasa to become Ramanuja’s disciple. And still, Yadavaprakasa was not convinced. The Lord then appeared in Yadavaprakasa’s dream and asked him to become Ramanuja’s disciple. But Yadavaprakasa did not act upon the instruction.
Then one night, the Lord appeared in the dream of Yadavaprakasa’s mother, and told her to instruct her son to become Ramanuja’s sishya. The next day, she told her son of her dream. She urged him to do as the Lord had instructed. This was the fourth time the Lord had urged Yadavaprakasa to seek Ramanuja. And now Yadavaprakasa felt perhaps this truly was the Lord’s wish. So he renounced worldly life and became a sanyasin and a disciple of Ramanuja. The latter gave Yadavaprakasa the name Govinda Jeer and, upon the instructions of Ramanuja, he wrote a work on the rules to be followed by Vaishnava ascetics. Thus, the Lord did not give up on Yadavaprakasa, but repeatedly tried to bring him into the fold. And that is the greatest boon we all have, for if He gives up on us, how will we ever attain moksha?
