a day at chinna jeeyar's svami's ashram - Sita Nagar (AP)

[Guest guest]

ramanuja, "tavaradhan" <tavaradhan> wrote:

srImathE rAmAnujAya namah

srImathE vara vara munayE namah

 

dear bhAgavathAs,

 

Mukundan and myself (along with his wife and smt. chitra madhavan)

were very fortunate to be able to spend the most

part of a day with srI. tridaNdi srIman nArAyaNa rAmAnuja chinna

jIyar svAmi at his Ashram near vijayawada yesterday. {On a side note,

all the sanyAsis following the rAmAnuja sampradAya are tridaNdis,

but it is interesting to note that for chinna jIyar svAmi, the common

term used to refer to Him is tridaNdi jIyar svAmi}.

 

This Ashram is a place that should be on the must-visit list for

anyone wanting to learn about how great teachers are striving to

pass on the tradition to all intersted people.

 

chinna jIyar svAmi is adept at using new technology to serve the

purpose of our religion. There is a computer lab (actually research

center) that is being used for various purposes - for publishing

the monthly issues of bhaktinivEdana magazine, for recording and

making CDs of svAmi's upanyAsams and key stOtras and for conducting

research in vEdas and preserving them for posterity.

 

svAmi has set up about 8 vEdic schools, each one specializing in

one sAkhA of one vEda. Interested students are invited from families

that are traditionally in this line (priests, upAdhyAyAs etc.) and

others who are interested as well. They undergo a course of study

ranging from 7 to 10 years to master the branch that they belong

to, and at the end of the study, an examination is conducted by

an renowned scholar. EAch successful student gets a sum of 50000

rupees, and chinna jIyar svAmi also arranges for employment in this

line. For those who wish to teach, jIyar svAmi arranges for them

to take up that service within the schools that he has set up.

Similarly, there is a divya prabhandha school and an Agama school

as well. All these schools are located in various places across

Andhra and in sriperumbudur and srirangam in tamilnadu.

 

The computer research center attempts to capture the authentic

sounds of each veda sakha,. the key idea is to preserve the sounds

so that it can be represented in any language. The center also

puts out multimedia CDs on many things - for example, there is

a multimedia CD for how to do sandhyavandhanam that takes the

seeker through the steps, and demonstrations by students. The

current project they are working on is a multimedia CD on

thiruppaavai.

 

There is a recording studio within the Ashram that is used for

recording svAmi's TV upanyAsams. This is a state-of-the art

studio with the latest sound-mixing capability.

 

The Ashram's surroundings are very serene. One can listen to

children chanting vEdAs and/or learning Agamas throughout

the day in teh different classrooms. There are different kinds

of animals in the ashram - deer, cows, goats, swans etc. -

The offices of Jeeyar Educational Trust and Vikasa Tarangini

(a social service organization) are also present. Here, one can

meet with the organizers of the various programmes and learn

about the practical aspects involved.

 

chinna jeeyar svami spent a lot of time talking to us about

different ways to make the precious concepts available to anyone

who is interested. His universality of thought, and compassion

for others is unique. His leadership ability, and clarity

of vision, coupled with His other qualities indeed make him

the Ramanuja of our times.

 

A good news for all of us - chinna jeeyar svami is actively

pursuing the publication of the monthly "bhaktinivedana" in

English. One or two issues have come in the past, but the need

is to make it regular. Currently efforts are being made to set

the base for supporting that effort. svami has qualified

artists to help illustrate aspects of our religion, and the

professional setup necessary to bring the magazine to life

every month. The goal is to have the magazine to be published

regularly from march/april of this year.

 

I urge everyone that is interested to set aside some time and

visit this Ashram atleast once. It truly is a enjoyable

and learning experience.

 

aazhvaar emperumaanaar jeyar thiruvadigale saranam,

 

adiyEn ramanuja dasan,

varadhan

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