kudos to the new Adhyapaks of Thiruvallikkeni 2023

kudos to the new Adhyapaks at Thiruvallikkeni divyadesam 2023

 

In every walk of life – how would anyone ensure continuance, which is the mother of all challenges :  – propagate the ideals, infuse youth .. .. !

 

Life in a divyadesam is always exhilarating – you get to mingle with so many persons who are well educated, well mannered, whose life is entwined in service to Emperuman Sriman Narayana.  There would be purappadu on Uthsava kalams and on pancha parvams too.  There are Battacharyars whose exceptional dedication ensures that Emperuman comes out adorning the choicest of flowers, ornaments, dress and more.  There is the  Veda adhyapaka goshti – hundreds of them chant Nalayira divyaprabandham in front of Emperuman on the streets and  chanting Vedam  after the Perumal.   Of the many kainkaryams, Sripadham thangis are  physically associated too and can be very demanding.   Brahmothsavams are extremely engaging for purappadus take long hours – night purappadu could extend to midnight and next day morning starts too early – well, those in service do not think of sleep but think only of kainkaryam (service). 

Arulicheyal   kainkaryam (chanting of Sri Naalayira divyaprabandham in Temples) flows from Azhwargal, Acaryas, Swami Ramanujar, our Acaryar Manavala Mamunigal .. .. .. and continues to eternity.  Of those rendering ‘arulicheyal kainkaryam’ - Thiruvallikkeni Veda Adhyapaka goshti is extremely organized ~ doing kainkaryam in exceptionally meritorious manner.  In the present goshti, there are at least 2 Swamis (Sri U Ve Kavanur Srinivasaraghavan Swami, Sri Kooram Bashyam Swami)  are more than 90+ and still very regular too.  Then there Octogenarians, Septugenarians  & Sexagenarians who are adhyapaks.    In Triplicane, the Adhyapaka sabhai has legal sanctity too dating back to century old  landmark Madras High Court Judgment of 1923 which categorically spelt out the rights of the Prabhandham Ghosti of Thennacharya Srivaishnavaites. 

My initiation to participating in Nalayira divyaprabandha goshti started in mid 1970s, when  bunch of school going students (close to 100+) were taught Peyalwar’s Moonram thiruvanthathi by MA Venkatakrishnan swami, who himself was a college student those days.  To me personally, it flowed through my maternal grandfather Sri Athichozhamangalam Ramanujachar Swami, a tall personality, who was regular in attending to purappadu and was a muraikarar (who had the privilege of starting goshti on the given day of the week).  When I was young – my grandfather and my mother inculcated the habit of going to sandhai, learning divyaprabandham from MAV and attending thiruveethi purappadu without fail. 

Those days, chinna mada veethi purappadu would take around 20 minutes and periya mada veethi purappadu approx 45 mins.  As I could remember, the first line was garnished by Sri U.Ve  :  Kavalkazhani Ananthachar swami, Desur Srinivasa iyengar swami, Anantheri Vathiyar, Kanthur vathiyar (fondly kittachi), Kuvalai Ramanujachar, Ashtagothram Parthasarathi Swami,  Athichozhamangalam Ramanujachar (my grand father),Vinjamoor Narasimhachar,  Thirucherai Ramanujachar, Vanamamalai Sampath swami ~  Sri Varadhanarayana iyengar, Vanamamalai Deivanayagam swami, Kooram Bashyam swami .. and more .. .. then there were: Dr VV Ramanujam, Sthalasayanathu Uraiyavar,  Sri NC  Rangarajan,  MA Venkatakrishnan, Vinjamoor Raghavan, Sathish, Rajappa, TA Raghavan,  MS Srinivasan (MS Seenu)  .. .. ..  and more . .. (and all of them encouraged  the children who enthusiastically came for the purappadu) [obviously there are so many swamins who did great kainkaryam  over the period of time – if I had left out some names, please forgive me or put on the comments, so that I can correct and mention appropriately.] 

The average  age of the goshti (more specifically of the Adhyapakas) naturally was getting higher.  Yesterday it was Sapthavaranam of Aani brahmotsavam of Sri Thelliyasingar and it had a very significant  occurrence.  The initiation of 2 more youngsters – Sri Palappur Lakshmi Narasimhan swami and Sri NR Srinivasan swami (wonder who !)   inducted as ‘adhyapakas’ at Thiruvallikkeni.    

NR Srinivasan has just completed 60 – better known as Singan, never misses out arulicheyal goshti and is very strong in rendering arulicheyal  especially Thirumozhi. He worked in Tamilnadu Newsprint and his son Anirudh too does great kainkaryam.   

Lakshmi Narasimhan may not sound a bell but the name Sekar would !  -  Sekar is so well known – into his mid 60s now !  - worked as a Clearing & Forwarding person – Sekar happily mingles with one and all, especially young kids of the goshti.  He has been active in Manavalamaunigal sabhai too.  Quintessential worker Sekar would do every kainkaryam and elders of the goshti depend on him.  He is extremely regular and never misses out any goshti.   We started learning divyaprabantham together under MAV Swami.    Of the group that learnt santhai from MAV [Sekar, Murali, Me, Sundar, Ravisundar, Govar, Rajathi, Kovalai Raghavan, Baja, Garner Sampath, Vacha and more] – Bakthisaran was the first to sport a tuft – though all of us continue to attend divyaprabandha goshti in our own way, Bakthi had sikai, has been doing great kainkaryam at Sriperumpudur, Thirumalai and other divyadesangal besides Thiruvallikkeni. 

The present day list is Sri :  Dr MA Venkatakrishnan Swami, Kavanur Srinivasa Raghavan Swami, Kooram Bashyam Swami, Vanamamalai Deivanayagam swami, NC Rangarajan swami, Ms Sreenivasan Swami, TA Raghavan swami, Venkatachari Swami, Damodharan Swami, Vasu mama,  Thirucherai Ramanujam swami, Kavalkazhani Rajappa swami,  S Krishnan Swami, TA Bakthisaran swami, Vadhyar Narayanan swami  and present addition of Sekar & Singan today.  

Feeling happy that my close pal  Sekar is an adhyapak now.   Kudos to Sri Singan and Sekar. 

adiyen Srinivasa dhasan

Mamandur Veeravalli Srinivasan Sampathkumar

6^th July 2023.