Srimath Themabarai Andavan Vaibhavam - Part II

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This is the second posting on the vaibhavam of Srimath

Thembarai Andavan Ranganatha Maha Desikan. More

postings to follow after this.

 

Srimath Andavan Thiruvadi

dAsan

Venkat Sreenivasan

 

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Marriage

 

In the year 1908, swAmi was married to Srimathi

Vijayavalli Ammal who was the seemantha puthree of

sAkkai nallAn chakravarthi Sri U.Ve. Srinivasa

dEsikAchariar swAmi. Immediately after the marriage,

swAmi took the VaisvadEva upadEsam from his paternal

uncle(younger brother of his father), Maha vidwAn

Brahmanidhi Sri. U.Ve. RamabhadrAchAr swAmi. During

his GruhasthAsramA, swAmi observed panca kAla

anushtAnams in an austere and rigorous way.

 

Full responsibility of taking care of the family fell

on swAmi after the passing away of his father in 1912.

Due to insistence of his friends and well wishers,

swAmi undertook sanchAram to southern tamilnadu and

kEralA. First he went to Ettayapuram and received

sambhAvanA in Raja sadas. From there, swAmi went to

vAnamAmalai and was well supported by Jeer Bhattar

piran swAmi. Later he went to Thiruvananthapuram and

was honored by ThiruvthAngur mahArAjA . On his way

back , swAmi also visted kochi samasthAnam and

received sambhAvanA from rAja sadas.

 

SwAmi returned back to MannArgudi and served as an

examiner in a vidwat sadas set up by Sri satakOpa

mudaliar. Later, swAmi served as a religious teacher

in a national high school. His duty was to teach

religious lessons to the students from different

classes. His daily routine at the school would start

around 10 in the morning when swAmi would recite a

slokA from swAmi dEsikan’s sthothrAs in a melliflous

tone in front of the assembly. One of His students

recollected swAmi’s favorite slokA being “sEvE dEvi”

from swAmi dEsikan’s Sri Sthuthi. During this time

swAmi served as an examiner for sanskrit competitions

conducted Sri kanchi kAmakOti matam. Sri SankarAchArya

(paramAchAryA) had utmost respect for swAmi’s

pAndithyAm.

 

SwAmi followed Sriman nigamAntha mahA dEsikan in

observing ‘Unccha vrutthi’. In MannArgudi, our swAmi

and Navalpakkam swAmi used to observe ‘unccha vrutthi’

in carrying out their day-to-day life. Such was the

vairAghyam swAmi possessed in renouncement all the

materialistic lifestyle and observance of severe

austerity. SwAmi used to walk very fast reciting swAmi

dEsikan’s sri sookthis while going out for unccha

vrutthi. Only those who were waiting in the streets to

give bhikshA to swAmi could do so. Such was the

greatness of swAmi that people considered themselves

to be fortunate to offer bhikshA to him. Due to this,

only a few could give it to him. SwAmi out of his

compassion to bhagavathAs would however not disappoint

those who could not give bhikshA to him, but would

take a few grains from them to keep them happy. SwAmi

performed unccha vrutthi even during later days when

he was undergoing kAlakshEpams under Srimath

NammAndavan.

 

KalakshEpams

 

Because of Srimath Andavan thiruvadi sambhandam his

parampara had for generations, swAmi decided to go to

Vaduvoor from Mannargudi to perform kainkaryams for

Srimath NammAndavan. SwAmi underwent grantha

chathushtya kAlakshEpams under Srimath NammAndavan. In

the kAlakshEpa goshti, swAmi used to listen to

kAlakshEpam with rapt attention and full

concentration. SwAmi being an astute and a keen

learner would grasp the most difficult purports and

inner meanings of granthams very first time he

listened to them.

 

Srimath NammAndavan performed panca samskAram to swAmi

in his younger days and later performed bhara

samarpanam at the lotus feet of vaduvoor chakravarthi

thirumagan(Lord Sri Rama). Having observed swAmi’s

satva gunAs, sraddhA,vairAghyam,intelligence and wide

knowledge of sAstrAs, Srimath NammAndavan ordained him

to take up sanyAsam. But our swAmi prayed to His

Holiness that he was unfit to take up the holy ascetic

order for the asramam and hence continued with his

kAlakshEpams.

 

Whenever swAmi had a chance to share the extensive

sAstraic knowledge he possessed, he would do so

cheerfully by participating in vidwat sadas and by

talking to individuals who had doubts on our siddanthA

or any religious matters. SwAmi’s upanyasams were

widely accepted as pramAnAs. In the year 1922, in

Mannargudi, Sri Ramanaya upanyasam of swAmi was

arranged by Sri. U.Ve. vidwAn Rona swAmi Iyengar and

Sri. U.Ve. KrishnamAchAriAr which went on for over two

months.

 

While swAmi was undertaking kAlakshEpams from His

Holiness Srimath NammAndavan during Srimath Andavan’s

sanchAram and in Srirangam, Srimath Andavan adorned

ThirunAdu unexpectedly in Kanchipuram. Srimath Akkur

Andavan succeeded NammAndavan to adorn the AchArya

peetam. Thembarai swAmi continued his kAlakshEpams

under Srimath Akkur Andavan.

 

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(To be Continued....)

 

 

 

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