Amrita Droplets - Early Life of Srila Ramanujacharya

When he was about 16 years old, his father very much insisted that he marry, so he got married. Just a few months after his marriage, it was only one month after his marriage his father died, he was only sixteen years old. So it was very difficult for them to remain in the same place without father. So Ramanuja being very responsible son, as well as husband, he arranged for a house in Kancipuram, which was a close city and there they resided. Now during his very earlier years, before even his marriage there was a great devotee who was also a disciple of YamunAcharya, his name was Kancipurna and he used to go from one village to another to worship the deities and on the way he would always pass the home of RamanujAcharya. So RamanujAcharya was always very, very attracted by this person’s great, great love and devotion. In fact although this person was born in a Sudra family, Kancipurna even great, great Brahmans worshiped his lotus feet because he had such simple and humble devotion and he was always simply anxious to please the Lord. He worshiped the deity of Varadaraja which is in Vishnu Kanchi. And what he would do is just very simple worship, he would fan the deity, in the summer he would dip the fan in water and fan him. He would bring the best nicest fruits to the deity and in this way he had such a loving relationship that it is said that he would be able to have conversations with the Lord and it was known by many great devotees that whatever the Lord wanted people to know, he would speak through Kancipurna. So Ramanuja was very, very happy and very honored to have the darshan of this person from time to time and they became very, very close and loving friends.

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