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

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

Thirukkudanthai Andavan. This is the thirdVolume in the series.*******************************************************Life as a GruhastABy the age of 14, swAmi having mastered the whole ofDivya prabhadham became a leading member in theadhyApaka ghosti. It is no wonder that swAmi became somuch involved with Amudhan, who was considered to be“Dravida sruthi dharsakan”. At the age of 16, He gotmarried to Sri vEdavalli ammAL. She was the sixthdaughter of Neduntheru krishnaswAmy Iyengar. For hislivelihood, swAmi started giving upanyAsams at a veryyoung age.SwAmi used to visit Tanjore ( to Geetha sabha rununder the leadership of Sri Rangaswami Iyengar) everySunday to render kAlakshEpams on Geetha Bhashyam.SwAmi had to return back to kudanthai the same dayeither by bus or train. If it got delayed, His fatherwould come and wait for Him either in the bus stand

orrailway station. After seeing swAmi returning, Hisfather would silently return back to their gruham withrelief. As soon as swAmi came back home, His motherwould serve him dinner. One could imagine swAmi’sparents showering so much of love, care and affectiontowards Him. Four sons and two daughters were born toswAmi in his gruhasthAsramam.A sabhA under the leadership of Sri. U.Ve. RamaswamyIyengar was started in Thirukkudanthai to spread theprinciples of visishtAdvaitA philosophy. It was named“ParAnkusa bhakta sabhA”. SwAmi served the sabhAworking with his friend, Sri. Elayavalli swAmi for along time. He also released a magazine through thesabhA and published rare works of our philosophy. Healso used to visit places like pudhukkOttai toparticipate in vidhwath sabhAs. Financially situationbecame tougher for swAmi to run His family. With thehelp of His friend, Pidil Raja Manickam Pillai,

swAmiwent to Thiruvananthapuram and showed his prowess inMahArAjA sadas and received a gold medal andsambhAvanA from the king. After his father’s demise,swAmi with the blessings of his AchAryA, decided to goto Chennai to take care of his family. Srimath AkkurAndavan sent a note to Sri. U.Ve. A.S. VaradAchArswAmi who was doing kumkum manufacturing business tohelp out swAmi that would fully utilize Hisextraordinary knowledge in our sampradAyic matters.Move to ChennaiWhen swAmi went to chennai, Akkur varadAchAr swAmirequested Him to stay in his thirumALigai and arrangedfor swAmi’s rendering of kAlakshEpams in varioussabhAs through out the city. Since swAmi had come newto the city, He could not find opportunity to giveupanyAsams that frequently. Many times it so happenedthat when the person who usually used to giveupanyAsams in a sabha couldn’t make it on a

particularday, swAmi was called for the upanyAsam. NeverthelessswAmi was very determined in His resolve. Thiscontinued for some years when swAmi was in chennai andHis family was in Thirukkudanthai and they had toendure hardship that came along the way.SwAmi’s style of upanyAsamKannan swAmi had His own distinct and inimitable styleof rendering upanyAsam. It simply mesmerized thelisteners who were always seeking more at the end ofHis upanyAsams. At that time His contemporaries inupanyAsams were stalwarts such as kArppangAduvEnkatAchAriar swAmi, kAnchi vidwAn prathivAdhibhayankaram AnnangarAchAriar swAmi. With Divyadampathi’s and all His poorvAchAryAs’ full blessings,SwAmi with his scintillating style of deliveryattracted the listeners far and wide and set themrapturous. He simply made a revolution during thosetimes.With NammAndavan’s soft and good words, rare innermeanings

collected from Akkur Andavan’s rAmAyanamupanyAsams, and PoorvAchAryAs’ excellent commentarieson AlwArs’ aruLiccheyalgaLs , swAmi provided rareinsights into all the subjects He dealt with duringthe upanyAsams. This kindled interests in listeners’mind and ears like never before who were all veryblessed and fortunate to have had this greatopportunity.SwAmi’s voice was so much delectable to hear that it’snot exaggerating to say that it was sweeter thanhoney. The words coming out of his mellifluous voicewould be very soft and would not be harsh sounding atall. There will be a lot of fun filled stories in HisupanyAsams that would bring laughter to the listenersand at the same time it would never be hurting toanyone. At the time of lecture, swAmi would render itin such a way that His tone would be very normal butat the same time it will be extremely witty. He wouldmake listeners very easily understand the

complexinner meanings of our philosophy with practicalexamples. With absolutely no modulation or excitementshown in His voice or His thiruMEni, swAmi would mergeHis style based on the pulse of the crowd for thatparticular day. SwAmi was also very time consciousduring his upanyAsams. He would make sure theupanyAsams start and end on the scheduled time. Thiswould often make listeners wanting for more at the endof each upanyAsam so much so that they would come backto the mandapam the next day of upanyAsam, well aheadof time so that they could get a place very close tothe dais.=======================================================(To be continued....)Srimath Andavan Thiruvadi,dAsan,venkat Sreenivasan PS: Attached is a picture of Late Sri. Shankar Dayal Sharma, former president of India, calling on two Yateeswaras, Srimath Thirukkudanthai Andavan and

Srimath Mukkur Azhagiyasingar swamis.

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