Kannaswamigal – The Upanyasa Chakravarthy to Vedantha Ramanuja MahaDesikan

[Guest guest]

Srimathe Ranga Ramanuja Mahadesikaya namaha

Srimathe Srinivasa Ramanujam Mahadesikaya namaha

Srimathe Vedantha Ramanuja Mahadesikaaya namaha

 

Kannaswamigal – The Upanyasa Chakravarthy to Vedantha Ramanuja MahaDesikan.

 

Adiyen wishes to share a few of my experiences of this great acharyan

whose centenary thirunakshatram we are celebrating.

 

True to Munitryam heritage he can be viewed as a combination of

Yathirajan, Swami Desikan and TirukuDandai Desikan. For those that had

the bhagyam of knowing him will vouch he was all three in one!! (or

probably more)

In his poorvashramam days, the mahan who was called Kannan swami was

undoubtedly the unparalleled among upanyasakars. Always brimming with

gyanam and vairagyam he turned out to be quite wealthy for those days,

after all.

It was sometimes mentioned that he would remark about going in a car

to next street from his thirumaligai in Mambalam. It is this very same

mahapurushan who gave up everything and after taking sanyasam took to

the so called 'highways of India' trveling from South to North and

East to West. True to some of the obligations of sanyasashramam he

kept moving constantly covering the breadth of India. On the way of

course he inspired, transformed and mersmerized common folks and

scholars alike. People of all walks of life, religion and caste were

attracted to him, somehow because of his engaging small-talk or

scholarly upanyasams.

 

Every place that this mahan treaded with the bare soles of his feet we

know he surely and absolutely left a huge mark behind – it was in the

form of a flourishing ashramam, temple or patashala, almost always.

Every major city can probably attest to that.

If only we looked up from his thiruvadi, we can still hear the echoing

of His upanyasams. They were the most lucid, entertaining and

scholarly, even of the most difficult thathvaarthams of SriVaishnavism

and believe me every one of them was like that.

 

A lot of my reminiscing comes from my boyhood spent at Jayanagar

ashramam and his visits to Bangalore, for which he had a very special

liking – not the place but The People there. My parents would take my

brother and me almost everyday to spend the entire evening to be with

the Acharyan, and this happened for the months he was there. There was

something about him that attracted so many people to have his

blessings.

There was probably none that missed his eye, with whom he did not have

atleast a few minutes of conversations. Well two minutes into it,

people around would be bursting into laughter for a really catchy

remark he made or a subtle observation of people and things around

him. The beauty of the times were that the environment had strictness

associated with sanyasashramam, yet was so lively and joyous.

 

For the ones that have had the bhagyam of listening in person to his

upanyasams you will recognize, in our lifetime there was and never

will be one like it ever again (pardon me here, it is like remarking –

my Mom's cooks the best, but…). His Thiruppavai upanyasams, Bhagavad

Vishayam, Ramayanam, Geethai etc. attracted people in numbers like

that of a rock concert of these days. Mami's and Mama's, people young

and old alike turned out in such huge numbers at Malleshwaram and

Jayanagar and other places.

Most people back in the 1970s and 60s of India spent their Money and

time wisely, every bus charge, auto fare or Petrol fill-up was done

with caution, but in spite of that day after day 30 days at a stretch

people turned out to listen to this Acharyan whose commentaries were

most delectable. From his simple examples of every day life to

Sakkarai pongal he had something for everybody to help understand our

sampradayam. Adiyen can recall his description of something as simple

as a dhadhiyodhanam, which would immediately take the simplest person

to the madapalli, and the more complex ones to Brindaavanam or

Vaikuntam in his varnanai, such was his delivery.

 

Now if we could for a moment pause, to look or imagine his physical

eyes, well the divinity of it was none to compare against. I would

like to say it was surely better than the Lord he loved the most, of

course only next to the lord at Kudanthai. His eyes absolutely

reflected karunai for everybody that went up to him and the steely

toughness to guide us through life.

He had such a keen observation, in the many hundreds and thousands

that came to his upanyasams, he knew to remark if somebody had'nt

attended that day or was late and even spent a few extra minutes on

small talk waiting for somebody to arrive – a scholar or an ordinary

loukikan has surely this baghyam, am sure. He truly through his divya

kadaksham has touched many, many people's hearts and lives. He made

everybody that came to him feel welcome and important, that many

people even today will tell you that they were so so close to this

mahan. True to his poorvashramam name he lived the life of Dear Kannan

to one and all, and adiyen can only imagine us to be gopikas of lore.

 

Srirangam Srimad Andavan Ashramam is celebrating this event in a grand

manner at Srirangam on the 28th March and is also being web casted

live for one and all to see. Please join in celebrating and

remembering The greatest acharyan of our times.

Vist www..org for details on the webcast.

Besides Sri Ramanuja Mission Inc. USA, a branch of the ashramam is

helping celebrate the event in many centers across USA, Singapore,

Indonesia, Australia, Canada etc. Please join one of those

celebrations, details are in the web page above.

And finally, if you would like to send in an acharya sambhavanai a

small token to celebrate a great life (Acharyans and yours too) please

do so, details are available at the website above.

 

His thanian reads -

Srimath vEdhAntha rAmAnuja munikarunalabdha vEdhAntha yugmam

Srimath ShrIvAsa yogIswara gurupadhayOr arpitha swAthma bhAram

Srimath Sri ranganAthAhvaya munikrupayA praptha mOkshasramam tham

Srimath VEdhAntha rAmAnuja munimaparam samshrayE dEsikEndram