bhUvarAhAchArya svAmi

[Guest guest]

Many thanks to Sri Krishna Kalale for introducing SrI iLaiyavilli

bhUvarAhAchArya svAmi to the 'bhakti list'. May I supplement Krishna's

note with my own tribute?

 

As a savant of the 'sampradAyam', the svAmi has the best of pedigrees,

and none of them wasted. It is awesome that one should have all of the

excellences flowing from the 'sampradAyam', viz., nativity of

AzhvAr-tirunagari; birth in a pUrvAchArya family; a teaching career in

Sanskrit; the most enviable of all, having a devoted audience (in that

splendid city of Bangalore) for his continuing discourses.

 

The upanishad recommends that when one prays to have a male offspring,

one should wish for a son 'who will recite the vEda after me' (yO vEdAn

mAm anubravIta). It is a well-known incident of history that the

progeny of great men merely come into their progenitor's property, and

rarely care to inherit their parents' intellectual or artistic or

spiritual legacy. It is a matter of namperumAL's grace that our

svAmi's son, chiranjIvi SaThakOpan, has eagerly received his father's

spiritual equipment; he lives in Srirangam and, despite being a very

senior Accounts executive in a well-known group, has remained an

unfailing member of namperumAL 'adhyApaka gOshThI'.

 

I happen to have made SaThakOpan's valuable acquaintance after my

retirement and return to Srirangam; I trust I'd be able to renew my

acquaintance with bhUvarAhAchArya svAmi who was a year senior to me in

the Srirangam High School.

 

aDiyEn rAmAnujadAsan T.S. Sundara Rajan.