A Srivaishnava asked Parasara Bhattar for the lakṣaṇa of a true Vaishnava. Bhattar sent him to Tirumala. Ananthalvan kept him six months. At tādiyārādhanā he moved the man from the first sitting to the second, then the third, then asked him to wait. The guest did not take offence.
Satisfied, Ananthalvan said: “A true Srivaishnava is like a crane, like a cock, like salt. He will be like you. Go; Bhattar will explain.”
The crane is white and waits in water for the large fish, ignoring the small — the Vaishnava waits for a jñāni and will change divyadeśa rather than keep harmful company. The cock picks grain from chaff for its young — Nammāḻvār picked the amṛta of the Veda into the Drāviḍa prabandhams, and the Vaishnava lives on that. Salt disappears into food — the Vaishnava effaces himself in kainkarya to Bhagavān, bhāgavata, and ācārya. And the disciple himself, free of ahaṅkāra in the dining hall, was the fourth mark.