Srimath Thirukkudanthai Andavan Life History - Part Three

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SrImathE ranga rAmAnuja mahA dEsikAya namaha

SrI ranganAtha Divya maNi pAdhukAbhyAm namaha

 

Dear Bhagavathas,

 

This is the Continuation of Posting on Life History of

Srimath Thirukkudanthai Andavan. This is the third

Volume in the series.

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Life as a GruhastA

 

By the age of 14, swAmi having mastered the whole of

Divya prabhadham became a leading member in the

adhyApaka ghosti. It is no wonder that swAmi became so

much involved with Amudhan, who was considered to be

“Dravida sruthi dharsakan”. At the age of 16, He got

married to Sri vEdavalli ammAL. She was the sixth

daughter of Neduntheru krishnaswAmy Iyengar. For his

livelihood, swAmi started giving upanyAsams at a very

young age.

 

SwAmi used to visit Tanjore ( to Geetha sabha run

under the leadership of Sri Rangaswami Iyengar) every

Sunday to render kAlakshEpams on Geetha Bhashyam.

SwAmi had to return back to kudanthai the same day

either by bus or train. If it got delayed, His father

would come and wait for Him either in the bus stand or

railway station. After seeing swAmi returning, His

father would silently return back to their gruham with

relief. As soon as swAmi came back home, His mother

would serve him dinner. One could imagine swAmi’s

parents showering so much of love, care and affection

towards Him. Four sons and two daughters were born to

swAmi in his gruhasthAsramam.

 

A sabhA under the leadership of Sri. U.Ve. Ramaswamy

Iyengar was started in Thirukkudanthai to spread the

principles of visishtAdvaitA philosophy. It was named

“ParAnkusa bhakta sabhA”. SwAmi served the sabhA

working with his friend, Sri. Elayavalli swAmi for a

long time. He also released a magazine through the

sabhA and published rare works of our philosophy. He

also used to visit places like pudhukkOttai to

participate in vidhwath sabhAs. Financially situation

became tougher for swAmi to run His family. With the

help of His friend, Pidil Raja Manickam Pillai, swAmi

went to Thiruvananthapuram and showed his prowess in

MahArAjA sadas and received a gold medal and

sambhAvanA from the king. After his father’s demise,

swAmi with the blessings of his AchAryA, decided to go

to Chennai to take care of his family. Srimath Akkur

Andavan sent a note to Sri. U.Ve. A.S. VaradAchAr

swAmi who was doing kumkum manufacturing business to

help out swAmi that would fully utilize His

extraordinary knowledge in our sampradAyic matters.

 

Move to Chennai

 

When swAmi went to chennai, Akkur varadAchAr swAmi

requested Him to stay in his thirumALigai and arranged

for swAmi’s rendering of kAlakshEpams in various

sabhAs through out the city. Since swAmi had come new

to the city, He could not find opportunity to give

upanyAsams that frequently. Many times it so happened

that when the person who usually used to give

upanyAsams in a sabha couldn’t make it on a particular

day, swAmi was called for the upanyAsam. Nevertheless

swAmi was very determined in His resolve. This

continued for some years when swAmi was in chennai and

His family was in Thirukkudanthai and they had to

endure hardship that came along the way.

 

SwAmi’s style of upanyAsam

 

Kannan swAmi had His own distinct and inimitable style

of rendering upanyAsam. It simply mesmerized the

listeners who were always seeking more at the end of

His upanyAsams. At that time His contemporaries in

upanyAsams were stalwarts such as kArppangAdu

vEnkatAchAriar swAmi, kAnchi vidwAn prathivAdhi

bhayankaram AnnangarAchAriar swAmi. With Divya

dampathi’s and all His poorvAchAryAs’ full blessings,

SwAmi with his scintillating style of delivery

attracted the listeners far and wide and set them

rapturous. He simply made a revolution during those

times.

 

With NammAndavan’s soft and good words, rare inner

meanings collected from Akkur Andavan’s rAmAyanam

upanyAsams, and PoorvAchAryAs’ excellent commentaries

on AlwArs’ aruLiccheyalgaLs , swAmi provided rare

insights into all the subjects He dealt with during

the upanyAsams. This kindled interests in listeners’

mind and ears like never before who were all very

blessed and fortunate to have had this great

opportunity.

 

SwAmi’s voice was so much delectable to hear that it’s

not exaggerating to say that it was sweeter than

honey. The words coming out of his mellifluous voice

would be very soft and would not be harsh sounding at

all. There will be a lot of fun filled stories in His

upanyAsams that would bring laughter to the listeners

and at the same time it would never be hurting to

anyone. At the time of lecture, swAmi would render it

in such a way that His tone would be very normal but

at the same time it will be extremely witty. He would

make listeners very easily understand the complex

inner meanings of our philosophy with practical

examples. With absolutely no modulation or excitement

shown in His voice or His thiruMEni, swAmi would merge

His style based on the pulse of the crowd for that

particular day. SwAmi was also very time conscious

during his upanyAsams. He would make sure the

upanyAsams start and end on the scheduled time. This

would often make listeners wanting for more at the end

of each upanyAsam so much so that they would come back

to the mandapam the next day of upanyAsam, well ahead

of time so that they could get a place very close to

the dais.

 

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(To be continued....)

 

Srimath Andavan Thiruvadi,

dAsan,

venkat Sreenivasan

 

 

 

 

 

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