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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.ramanujamission.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


 
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