The beautiful sight of the Govardhana hill welcomed Nathamuni as he woke up from a good night’s sleep. The Srivaishnava yogi quickly got up, remembering his delightful dream. Nathamuni’s family deity, Kaattumannar, had appeared and instructed Nathamuni to return to his hometown.
As per Kaattumannar’s instructions, Nathamuni immediately left for Veeranarayanapuram along with his wife, son, and daughter-in-law. At his hometown, Nathamuni led a simple life, devoutly performing service at the Kaattumannar temple.
One day, Nathamuni decided to travel to the holy city of Kumbakonam to visit the beautiful temple of Sri Sarangapani. As he entered, he was mesmerized by the beautiful pasurams (verses) that a lively group of devotees were singing at the temple gates. At the end, he heard them mention that this was but a small part of a collection of one thousand verses.
Intrigued, he approached the singing group.
“How beautiful these pasurams are!” he extolled. “Please grace me by allowing me to listen to the remaining 990?”
The devotees tensely glanced at each other and looked around before one responded. “Unfortunately, we don’t know any more than these ten pasurams.”
Nathamuni’s determination stood unmoved. “Oh. Can you direct me to someone who knows them, then?”
The devotee thought for a moment. “Hmm… These pasurams are from Nammazhvar’s Thiruvaymozhi, which along with the compositions of all the other Azhvars, has been lost for a long time. Perhaps if you go to Nammazhvar’s hometown, Tirukurungudi, someone there may know more.”
The impact of these pasurams on Nathamuni was so profound that he immediately left for Thirukurungudi. After searching and inquiring throughout the day, he finally found an elderly man, a descendant of Nammazhvar’s disciple Madhurakavi.
“This is the tamarind tree that Nammazhvar meditated under for sixteen years,” the elderly man explained when Nathamuni expressed his desire. He taught Nathamuni the eleven pasurams of Kanninun Siruthambu that Madhurakavi had written in praise of Nammazhvar.
“Sit below the tree and chant Kanninun Siruthambu 12,000 times,” he instructed. “Nammazhvar will surely be pleased to grace you.”
With his yogic powers, Nathamuni completed this task within a day. As he finished the eleventh verse for the 12,000th time, an astounding sight greeted his eyes. Nammazhvar himself had appeared before him, adorned with a beautiful garland made of Vakula flowers.
Pleased with Nathamuni’s dedication, Nammzhvar blessed his disciple. “I will bestow upon you not only my 1,000 paasurams that you seek, but also the pasurams of all the other Azhvars, forming the 4,000 Divya Prabandhams!”
Having obtained all the pasurams by the grace of his guru, Nathamuni became the first acharya of the Srivaishnava guru parampara. He got to work setting each verse to tune and passed the lore onto his primary disciple, Uyyakondar.
It is because of Nathamuni’s dedication and steadfastness that we have the 4,000 Divya Prabandhams with us to this day.
