Embar: The Cousin Who Fanned a Suffering Animal

What Govinda did after the separation, and it needs to be told without any sneering.

He became a Shaiva.

He went with Yadava Prakasha, and in the course of it came to Sri Kalahasti, in what is now Andhra Pradesh, and stayed.

Kalahasti is one of the great Shaiva temples of the south: the Vayu lingam, one of the five pancha bhuta temples representing the elements, and a place of very long standing.

And Govinda became a devout Shaiva ascetic there, and the accounts describe him as serious, absorbed and well regarded. This was not a lapse or a phase. He lived it.

How this app treats that

Straightforwardly, and without treating it as a fall.

Kalahasti is a magnificent temple and this app has entries on the pancha bhuta sthalas and on Shaiva practice throughout. Shiva is not a wrong answer, and a young man of the twelfth century finding himself absorbed in the Vayu lingam was not making a mistake.

And the tradition itself does not attack the Shaiva period. It records it, treats it as genuine, and describes the return without any language of rescue from error.

Which is worth noticing, because the surrounding material in this batch, the Chola court, the declaration about Shiva, contains real sectarian conflict, and the tradition's own handling of one of its own men living for years as a Shaiva is notably calm.

Vandnaa's standing position, stated again because this batch keeps needing it: Shiva and Vishnu are not rival camps. They are treated as one across the overwhelming weight of the Hindu traditions, Harihara is a form that exists to say so, and a person who worships one is not opposing the other.

How he came back

Ramanuja sent for him.

The messenger was Periya Thirumalai Nambi, the uncle of both men, and one of Ramanuja's five acharyas, the one who had taught him the Ramayana.

And the method was not argument.

The accounts have Nambi arriving at Kalahasti and simply spending time with him, and then telling him a story: the Krishna material, in the version most often given, or a passage of the Vishnu Purana, recited in the ordinary course of conversation.

And Govinda came back with him.

No debate is recorded. Nobody defeats anybody. The tradition's account is that the older relative told the younger a story he had grown up with, and the younger man got up and came home.

Which is a better account of how people actually change than the debate scenes that this literature is otherwise full of.

The name

Embar is what Ramanuja called him, and it is a Tamil term of affection and closeness.

And it stuck, so that the tradition's second acharya after Ramanuja is known by a nickname rather than a title.

The story the tradition tells about Embar, and the one it uses to define what a Vaishnava is.

What happened

He was seen fanning an animal.

The accounts vary on which: a cow, a bullock, and in some versions a dog. It was in distress from the heat, and Embar was standing over it with a fan, cooling it.

And somebody asked why.

And his answer was that he could not do otherwise: that a being in distress in front of him was not something he could walk past, and that it did not matter what the being was.

And Ramanuja, when he heard, said that this was what he had been trying to teach.

Why the story is the one they kept

Because the tradition needed a definition and this is the one it chose.

Srivaishnavism is a heavily intellectual school. It has the Sri Bhashya, the commentarial literature, the disputes with Advaita, the rahasya traya and their exegesis, the split between the northern and southern schools over the fine reading of a single verse.

And when it wants to say what the thing is actually for, it tells a story about a man fanning an overheated animal.

Which is the same move every tradition in this series makes at its best: Basavanna's kayaka, Chokhamela's step, Ravidas's leather, Sena's razor, Dhanna's buffalo.

The doctrine behind it

Daya, compassion, and specifically sarva bhuta daya, compassion toward all beings.

And the Srivaishnava theological reason for it, which is not sentiment: if every self is sharira, a body of the divine, and the divine is the sharirin, the ensouler, then every creature is a place where the divine is embodied, and to be indifferent to any of them is to be indifferent to that.

The doctrine is not that animals are nice. The doctrine is that the same thing is in there.

And it applies without exception, which is the demanding part: not only to attractive animals, not only to useful ones, not only to human beings of your own community, and not only to people who are behaving well.

Embar as acharya

Ramanuja named him his successor at Srirangam, over other candidates, and he headed the tradition after Ramanuja's death.

His principal disciple was Parasara Bhattar, the son of Kuresha, who has the next entry in this batch.

So the chain runs: Ramanuja to Embar to Parasara Bhattar, and the man who gave up his eyes handed his son to the man who had once been a Shaiva at Kalahasti.

What he left

Very little in writing, and this is worth stating.

He is not the author of a major treatise. What survives of him is in other people's books: sayings, judgements on disputed points, and answers recorded by his students, which are quoted throughout the later Srivaishnava literature.

Which is a legitimate way to exist in a tradition and it is how a great many teachers exist in all of them.

And the compassion story is his monument, and it does not require a text.

One. He warned the man they were going to kill, and then stayed.

The courage in that episode is entirely his, and the tradition barely notices it because it is busy with the hunter in the forest.

He was inside the group that was planning it. He told the target. And then he continued to live among them, knowing what they had tried and knowing he might be suspected.

Applied: the difficult version of doing the right thing is usually not the dramatic exit. It is having to stay in the room afterwards.

Two. He spent years as a Shaiva and the tradition does not call it a fall.

He went to Kalahasti, one of the great Shaiva temples of the south, became a serious ascetic there, and lived it.

And when the tradition records his return it uses no language of rescue from error.

Which is the right position, and it is this app's: Shiva and Vishnu are not rival camps, the overwhelming weight of the Hindu traditions treats them as one, and Harihara exists as a form to say so.

Three. Nobody argued him back.

Ramanuja sent their uncle, who arrived, spent time with him, and told him a story he had grown up with. There is no debate in the account, nobody is defeated, and Govinda got up and came home.

Which is a better description of how people actually change their minds than anything else in this literature, and it is worth remembering the next time you are tempted to win an argument with somebody you love.

Four. The fan.

A man stood over an overheated animal, cooling it, and when asked why said that he could not walk past a being in distress and that it did not matter what the being was.

And the most intellectually formidable school in south India chose that as its definition of what its whole apparatus is for.

Five. The doctrine behind the fan, which is demanding.

Every self is sharira, a body of the divine. So every creature is a place where the divine is embodied, and indifference to any of them is indifference to that.

Not that animals are nice. That the same thing is in there.

And it applies without exception: not only to attractive animals, not only to useful ones, not only to people of your own community, and not only to people currently behaving well.

A daily practice from this entry:

• Om Namo Narayanaya
• Water put out, in summer, for birds and street animals. It is the direct application and it costs nothing
• Feed a street dog, once, without expecting to make a habit of it
• And the Embar question, when you find yourself walking past something: is there a reason, or am I just in a hurry

Where to go

• Srirangam, Tiruchirappalli, where he succeeded Ramanuja
• Sri Kalahasti, Andhra Pradesh, the Vayu lingam, where he spent his Shaiva years and which is worth visiting on its own account
• Sriperumbudur, near Chennai, Ramanuja's birthplace
• Tirupati and Tirumala, where Periya Thirumalai Nambi served

A closing thought

A young man found out that the students around him were planning to kill his cousin, warned the cousin, watched him disappear into a forest, and then went on with the pilgrimage as though nothing had happened.

He ended up at a Shiva temple in the hills and stayed there for years, and was good at it.

Then an uncle came and told him a story, and he came home, and eventually ran the tradition his cousin had built.

And what everybody remembers about him is that somebody once found him standing in the sun holding a fan over an animal that was too hot.

Who: Embar, also Govinda Bhattar and Govinda Perumal, eleventh into twelfth century, Ramanuja's maternal cousin, his fellow student under Yadava Prakasha at Kanchi, and eventually his successor at Srirangam. Embar is what Ramanuja called him, a Tamil term of affection, and the tradition's second acharya after Ramanuja is therefore known by a nickname.

The warning: on a pilgrimage to the Ganga, senior students of Yadava Prakasha are said to have planned to kill Ramanuja over his repeated disputes with the teacher's Advaita readings. Govinda found out and warned him. Ramanuja became lost in the forest, was guided through the night by a hunter and his wife who vanished at dawn when he turned to fetch them water, and found himself at the Varadaraja temple at Kanchi; the tradition identifies the couple as Varadaraja and Lakshmi. Govinda stayed with the school, which meant living among the people whose plan he had betrayed. Yadava Prakasha himself eventually came to Srirangam, took initiation from his former student, and was given the name Govinda Jiyar.

Kalahasti: Govinda became a devout Shaiva ascetic at Sri Kalahasti in what is now Andhra Pradesh, the Vayu lingam and one of the five pancha bhuta temples, and lived it seriously for years. The tradition records this without treating it as a fall, and this app takes the same position: Shiva and Vishnu are not rival camps, and Harihara exists as a form to say so.

The return: Ramanuja sent Periya Thirumalai Nambi, uncle of both men and one of Ramanuja's five acharyas. He arrived, spent time with him and told him a story he had grown up with, the Krishna material in most versions. No debate is recorded and nobody is defeated. Govinda got up and came home.

The fan: Embar was found standing over an animal in distress from the heat, cooling it with a fan, and when asked why said he could not walk past a being in distress and that it did not matter what the being was. Ramanuja said this was what he had been trying to teach. The theological reason is not sentiment: every self is sharira, a body of the divine, so every creature is a place where the divine is embodied, and indifference to any of them is indifference to that.

His legacy: Ramanuja named him successor over other candidates. His principal disciple was Parasara Bhattar, son of Kuresha, so the chain runs Ramanuja to Embar to Parasara Bhattar. He left very little in writing, and what survives of him is sayings and judgements recorded in other people's books.