There are many examples of disciples whose devotion to their Acharyas was exemplary. Kooratazhvan’s dedication to his Acharya Ramanuja is an example of the kind of attachment a disciple should bear for his preceptor, said M.A. Venkatakrishnan, in a discourse.
Kooratazhvan was the ruler of Kooram, a place about 10 kilometres from the temple town of Kanchipuram. He lived in a palace befitting his status as a ruler. Tirukacchi Nambi, an ardent devotee of Lord Varadaraja of Kanchi, had the rare honour of talking to the deity in the temple! One day, a loud sound was heard in the temple, and Lord Varadaraja asked Tirukacchi Nambi what the noise was. Tirukacchi Nambi said that was the sound of Kooratazhvan’s palace gates being shut in Kooram.
Later, when Kooratazhvan visited the Varadaraja temple, Tirukacchi Nambi told him that the Lord had asked him about the sound of the palace gate, and that the Lord had wondered at the immensity of Kooratazhvan’s wealth. If the closing of the gate of his palace could be heard in a place so far away, then how opulent the palace must be! When he heard Tirukacchi Nambi’s words, Kooratazhvan felt that it was wrong to be in possession of wealth that caused even the Lord to wonder at its enormity. So he instantly gave away all his wealth and took to living a life of austerity.
A seeker of gnana knows that he should not attach importance to the body, but only to the imperishable atma. Yet, Kooratazhvan’s love for his Acharya was such that he would feel sorry that he was not a blood relative of Ramanuja! His ache showed his devotion to his Acharya — Ramanuja. Another Vaishnavite, Nanjeeyar, took to sanyasa and became Parasara Bhattar’s disciple. Bhattar objected to his palanquin being carried by Nanjeeyar because the latter was a sanyasi. Nanjeeyar said he had become a sanyasi only to serve his preceptor — Parasara Bhattar. If serving Parasara Bhattar was not going to be possible, then there was no point in his being a sanyasi.
