Srimath Thirukkudanthai Andavan Centenary Uthsavam on Mar 28th 2007 in Srirangam - A Brief look at His Life History -Part II

March 22, 2007

SrImathE ranga rAmAnuja mahA dEsikAya namaha SrImathE SrinivAsa rAmAnuja mahA dEsikAya namaha SrImathE vEdAntha rAmAnuja mahA dEsikAya namahaSrI ranganAtha Divya maNi pAdhukAbhyAm namaha Dear Bhagavathas,This is the Continuation of Posting on Life History ofSrimath Thirukkudanthai Andavan. This is the secondVolume in the series.*******************************************************Srimath Thirukkudanthai Andavan's Thanian Srimath vEdhAntha rAmAnuja munikarunAlabdha vEdhAntha yugmamSrimath SrivAsa yogeeswara gurupadhayOrarpithaswAthma bhAramSrimath Sri ranganAthAhvaya munikrupayA prAptha mOkshasramam thamSrimath VEdhAntha rAmAnuja munimaparam samsrayE

dEsikEndram======================================================Continuation of Life History....Younger days of Srimath Thirukkudanthai AndavanSwAmi was born after a long gap of 5 years after thepassing away of His sister. Because of this, Hisparents grew him up with excessive care and attention.He was fondly called by everybody as ‘Kannan”. He wasalso named as “SrinivAsarAghavan”.Kannan swAmi was taken to Srirangam periAsramam many atimes by his father during His childhood days. He usedto observe the pAdukA ArAdhanam being performed thereand when he came back to kudanthai, he will play withfriends of his age posing himself as an AchAryA,wearing a cloth up to knee height and will have adhandam in his hand and proclaim himself as Andavan.He will carry the water in “kottankacchi” – a driedcoconut shell ( Srirangam periAsramam is also calledkottAnkacchi Asramam) and

distribute the “theertham”in the same way Srimath thErezhundur Andavan used todo ( focusing both His eyes in one direction). He willdo all this with out the knowledge of his father.When His father was around, his friends would neverdare to visit him. Kannan swAmi would never even standin front of his father leave alone talking to him oneon one. He had so much of respect towards him. SinceHe was very young, he had limitless devotion towardsArAvamudhan. His father would never allow him to havebath in the kAvEri river unlike other kids. Also, hewould never take his son out during the festivalseasons. Even if Kannan swAmi himself set out forfestivals like “Theppa mahOtsavams”, his father wouldsend his mother to bring him back home. This is allbecause of losing his infant younger brother who washardly 10 months old when he himself was only 10 yearsold. So his parents became extremely protective

abouthim. Kannan SwAmi himself used to say at that timethat he would have had more freedom had his brotherstayed alive.Sri padmanabhAchAr swAmi taught him thearuLicheyalgaLs of Alwars – NalAyira divya prabhandhamat a tender age and swAmi mastered“tamil maRai” before he completed 14 years. He alsolearnt sAstras under the tutelage of Sri. SeshasAyeein kottaiyur.Sri padmanabhAchAr swAmi sent his son to Raja pAtasAlain KamAkshi jOsyar street for some time to learn moreon sAstrAs. Later swAmi learnt tharka meemAmsAvyAkarana sAstrAs under dEvanAgar viLagam swAmi alongwith Navaneetham swAmi’ son , Sri. SEshAdriyAchAr. Hestood as a paragon, gaining extensive knowledge in allthe sAstrAs he learnt and was likened by one and allfor his amiable demeanor. He also qualified forSanskrit Sironmani fromThiruvaiyAru Sanskrit college.Whenever NammAndavan and EngaLAndavan visitedThirukkudanthai in their

respective times, Sri KannanswAmi performed kAlakshEpams on adhyAtma sAstrAs undertheir lotus feet. One of those times, SrimathEngaLAndavan performed “Athma samarpaNam” to SriKannan swAmi in Amudhan sannidhi.SwAmi had been performing kainkaryam to divya dEsamperumALs even much before becoming Andavan. DuringHis younger days, there was an old woman living in thesannidhi street where swAmi was also living. She was avery pious woman who was performing kainkaryams tomany divya dEsam perumALs that were very dear to her.For Amudham, she made “sArngam” and “ThirumaNN kAppu”in gold, garland in ThuLasi and sALagrAmam forThiruviNNagarappan and also made “kavacham” in silverfor Amudham’s garuda vAhanam ( which presumably tookabout 56 kilograms of silver in those days).Sri KannanswAmi used to help her in performing the above saidkainkaryams looking after the accounts. It seems shebecame to be popularly called

as “Garuda vAhanaPaatti” after this kainkaryam she performed forAmudhan.(To be continued....)Srimath Andavan Thiruvadi,dAsan,venkat Sreenivasan PS: Attached is a picture of Bhagavath vishya Kalakshepa Goshti with Srimath Andavan taken in the early 1970's in Chennai.

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