Kannaswamigal – The Upanyasa Chakravarthy to Vedantha Ramanuja MahaDesikan

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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 he 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

 

 

 

 

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