Introduction
Sri Koorathalvar was the prominent disciple of the great Vaishnavite saint Sri Ramanujacharya. He was a kind hearted man who sincerely served his Guru Sri Ramanuja, and forms part and parcel of his life. His birth name was Kuresa. Koorathalvar was born in a small village known as 'Kooram' located near Kanchipuram, during the year of 1010 A.D in a rich family.
Koorathalvar was married at his young age to Andal, who was a pious, chaste and good natured lady who dutifully and faithfully served her husband throughout her life time.
They worshipped Lord Varadaraja Perumal, a form of Lord Vishnu. The couple were lived in the temple town Kanchipuram and they dedicated their entire attention towards worshipping Lord Vishnu, both of them were philanthropists and they daily used to feed food to the poor and the needy. They had two children and they beautifully named their children as Parasara Bhattar and Veda Vyasa Bhattar. Kuresan become a staunch follower of Sri Ramanuja, when he met him at Kanchipuram.
He sincerely listened to the teachings of Sri Ramanuja, and also became his disciple. Through Ramanuja, Kuresan has studied well about various Vedic texts of Hinduism. At one point of time, the rich Kuresan decided to leave all of their belongings and they moved to Srirangam, in order to take shelter under Ramanuja. Kuresan became a staunch devotee and disciple of Ramanuja and helped him in all of his personal as well as spiritual activities, and he has also become the personal assistant to Sri Ramanuja.
In order to refer to some ancient scripts, once, Ramanujacharya and Koorathalvar, along with other disciples, visited Kashmir and there, they went to a library situated at Kashmir, in order to clarify their spiritual doubts. Koorathalvar helped Ramanuja in order to complete the holy text, Sri Bashya, which was a commentary on the Brahmasutras. In course of time, the popularity of Sri Ramanuja began to spread throughout Tamil Nadu, and once he also planned to visit a Chola King, who was a staunch devotee of Lord Shiva in order to participate in the debates. But, however, in order to safeguard his Guru from the Chola King, Koorathalvar dressed himself as his guru and reached the king's court. There, the king asked Koorathalvar to embrace Shaivism, but since he hesitated in embracing Shaivism, as per the orders of the Chola King, the eyes of Koorathalvar were removed. But, however, after some time, he got back his vision in both of his eyes, through the grace of his Guru Sri Ramanujacharya. I used to always wonder, that how such Guru Bhakti, Koorathalvar has shown to his Guru Sri Ramanujacharya!
Koorathazhwan has composed a poem in praise of his Guru Sri Ramanujacharya, which is as follows:-
I surrender at the Holy Lotus Feet of my Divine Guru Sri Ramanujacharya who has considered all the worldly objects and pleasures as nothing, due to his great love towards the Divine Feet of Lord Vishnu. I am considering him as the “UNIVERSAL GURU” since he contains all the good qualities and he shows abundant mercy towards his devotees, disciples and the general public, and I used to worship my honourable Guru Sri Ramanuja in the form of Lord Vishnu himself.
“OM SRI KOORATHALVARE NAMAHA”
R.HARISHANKAR
