Welcoming HH Sri Sri Raghuvarendra Theertha Swamiji of Sri Bheemanakatte Matha

Pranams and a very warm welcome: to   : His Holiness Sri Sri Raghuvarendra Theertha Swamiji of Srimad Achyuthaprekshacharya Mahasamsthana, Sri Bheemanakatte Matha, Udupi. It is our great privilege and honour to welcome His Holiness today.

Malnad in Western Ghats  literally means "land of rain" or "rain country." Bhīmanakatte, in the rain-drenched Malnad of Karnataka, stands on the banks of the sacred Tunga, with  confluence of Malathi  amidst the lush forests and hills of the Western Ghats.   

When we think of Karnataka’s Malnad, we think of the land of rain — the lush forests, the Western Ghats, and the sacred rivers that have nurtured a remarkable spiritual tradition. And among these sacred places stands Bhīmanakatte, on the banks of the holy Tunga, where the Malathi joins its waters.  There is, indeed, a beautiful geographical and spiritual connection between the two great Krishna kṣetras of our land.

Maha Bharatha and Lord Krishna guides and unites the Nation, all of us.  Here, on the eastern shores of the peninsula, overlooking the Bay of Bengal, stands the ancient kṣetra of Śrī Parthasarathi — Krishna, who took the reins of Arjuna's chariot.”

“Far across the peninsula, on the western shores facing the Arabian Sea, stands Udupi — another great Krishna kṣetra, sanctified by Śrī Madhvacharya.”

“And from Udupi, as we move inland through the rain-rich Malnad, along the sacred Tunga where the Malathi joins it, we reach Bhīmanakatte — the ancient seat of the Bhīmasetu Munivṛnda Maṭha.”

"Tunga pāna, Ganga snāna"

— drink the waters of the Tunga; bathe in the Ganga.

To understand the significance of this occasion,  we need to travel in imagination to the beautiful Malnad country of Karnataka — to Bhīmanakatte, a sacred kṣetra. The Tunga, flowing through the forests and hills of Malnad, is not merely a river of Karnataka. It has nourished a remarkable spiritual landscape of temples, maṭhas, saints and scholars. And on its banks stands the ancient Bhīmasetu Munivṛnda Maṭha, popularly known as Bhīmanakatte Maṭha.

Madhwa Philosophy, also known as Dvaita Vedanta, is the  school of thought  founded by Sriman Madhwacharya in the 13th century,  based on the principles of duality, emphasizing the distinction and separate existence of individual souls and the supreme reality, God.

The very name Bhīmasetu carries a beautiful traditional association with Bhīmasena and the Tunga. The legendary valorous warrior Bheema built this bridge.  The place is  traditionally  associated with Śrī Achyutaprekshacharya, the revered guru of Śrī Madhvacharya.  HH Madhvacharya entrusted his disciple Śrī Satya Tīrtha to Achyutaprekshacharya, continuing this spiritual lineage. Thus arose the Achyutapreksha Tīrtha Samasthāna, from which the Bhīmanakatte tradition subsequently emerged.

The lineage that we honour today therefore belongs to the great Madhva sampradāya — a tradition distinguished by devotion, rigorous śāstric enquiry, teaching and service.    It is particularly gratifying that His Holiness Himself represents the continuation of this living tradition.

Born as Ramachandra Aras in Beejadi near Kundapura, His Holiness received traditional education in Veda and Vedanta and pursued advanced study of the Dvaita śāstras, including Śrīman Nyāyasudhā. On 13 March 2009, He received sannyāsa dīkṣā and entered the Bhīmanakatte lineage as Śrī Raghuvarendra Tīrtha.

There is also a beautiful connection with Udupi in His Holiness's spiritual journey: His sannyāsa dīkṣā was performed at Śrī Kṛṣṇa Maṭha, Udupi.

Today, therefore, we have before us not merely a revered pontiff, but a living link in a long and distinguished paramparā — a paramparā that reaches back through Bhīmanakatte, Achyutaprekshacharya and Madhvacharya, and continues through generations of ācāryas devoted to jñāna, bhakti and tattva-prachāra.

On behalf of  SYMA and all of us gathered here, I offer our most respectful pranāms to His Holiness Śrī Raghuvarendra Tīrtha Swamiji and extend to Him a very warm and heartfelt welcome.

Śrī Gurubhyo Namaḥ.
Śrī Kṛṣṇārpaṇamastu.

On 14.8.2o26, Srinivas YOungmens Association [SYMA] entered its 50^th year, having been inaugurated on 14.8.1977.

The Association has plans for year-long celebrations with 50+ medical camps, planting trees and many civic projects.

His Holiness Sri Sri Raghuvarendra Theertha Swamiji inaugurated the Project celebrations at Thiruvallikkeni at SYMA premises on 14.8.2026 and planted a tree symbolically. The foregoing is the welcome speech to Swamiji rendered by me

With regards – S Sampathkumar

An abridged version of this Welcome address was rendered by me welcoming HH Sri Sri Raghuvarendra Theertha Swami and further reduced Tamil version was rendered when Swami was the guest at Indepedence day flag hoisting of TAMBRAS Triplicane on 15.8.2026

kainkaryam [me] at Thiruvallikkeni

 

எங்கள் எம்பெருமானே ! எற்றைக்கும் ஏழ் ஏழ் பிறவிக்கும்

*உனக்கே நாம் ஆட்செய்வோம்*

vintage photo - allikkeni arulicheyal goshti

Life in a divyadesam is always exhilarating – you get to mingle with so many persons 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.   

 

Yesterday got this photo from Mr KV Rangarajan – Thiruvallikkeni Adhyapaka goshti standing near Sri Thelliyasingar gopuram, presumably taken somewhere in late 1970s or early 1980s – thiruther purappadu with Blue house chathiram / CK Stores / Gandhi book centre name boards visible.

Thiruvallikkeni Veda Adhyapaka goshti is extremely organized ~ doing kainkaryam in exceptionally meritorious manner.  In the present goshti, there are  people more than 90 and some in their 60s, 70s & 80s, a few  of them below 60 !!  Divyaprabandha kainkaryam flows from Azhwargal, Acaryas, Swami Ramanujar, our Acaryar Manavala Mamunigal .. .. .. and continues to eternity.  In Triplicane, the Adhyapaka sabai has legal sanctity too.  

My initiation to participating in Nalayira divyaprabandha goshti started in mid 1970s, when a 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) 

In this historic photo – I could figure out in the first line – Swamigal – Sri U.Ve :  Sthalasayanathuraiyavar, Kuvalai Ramanujachar, Sathabhishekam Govinda Narasimhachar, Desur Srinivasachar, Ashtagothram Nallan Chakravarthi Parthasarathi iyengar, Athichozhamangalam Ramanuja Iyengar (my mathamahar); Vinjamur Narasimhachar, Kuram Bashyam, Vanamamalai Sampath [will add more names as and when my Triplicane friends identify and inform me] 

Those days, chinna mada veethi purappadu would take around 20 minutes and periya mada veethi purappadu approx 45 mins.  Brahmothsava purappadus would take around 2 hours.     

This is no chronicle of purappadu and divyaprabandha goshti of Thiruvallikkeni – more of my remembrance of grandfather and others known.    

                   On 18.12.1984, early morning @ 3 am, Athichozhamangalam swami, started from home for Danur masa viswaroopam and Thiruppavai sarrumurai.  After viswaroopam, before thiruppavai sarrumurai, he reportedly collapsed – some (could remember VM Soundararajan) took him in a cycle rickshaw – we at home were alerted – went to a 24 hour dispensary (probably all was over by that time) – were directed to Royapettah Hospital, where Doctors stated that he had passed away peacefully sometime earlier.  

This place ‘Athichozhamangalam’ is really a very small tinydot village nearer Thanjavur – Thiruvarur.    The village Athichozhamangalam lies around 2 km away from the Thirumanthikunam railway station.  The village  Athichozhamangalam comes under Block : Koradachery; in the district of Thiruvarur.  When I went there on an evening in 2012, the  fields in tune with Thanjavur / Thiruvarur belt were lush green – not many knew of this place, even when enquired in nearer places.  Travelled from Kumbakobam – on road to Mannarkudi / Alangudi - Needamangalam - Left - Koradacheri - around 7 km - 4 road junction - Right - ONGC - 400m left - Athichozhamangalam - Byepass road - Ammaiyappan - road to Thirukannamangai divyadesam. 

There is ONGC exploration on the way and this is a small [really small] village – only fields – no big streets even.  There is a Post Office by the name of the village itself with name board proudly reading:  Athichozhamangalam P.O.  This is not my native village, - it is Mamndur, my father’s ancestral village – the one  identified with the nearest bigger place Dusi Village and known as Dusi Mamandur

 

~ adiyen Srinivasa dhasan -  S. Sampathkumar.
8^th Apr 2026

 

Shri Parasaran felicitation - Sri Parthasarathi Swami Sreepadham trust

 

This day 2019❤️ Sri Parthasarathy Swami Sripadham Trust - 12th year Kainkaryam function

 .. ..  Me doing  welcome address and introducing eminent Guests - Periyamurai mirasu Sri Parthasarathy battar, Dr MA Venkatakrishnan swami, Thiru K Parasaran, Thirukoshtiyur Madhavan Swami, Mr Veera Shanmuganathan, HR&CE, Dr Parthasarathi battar (chinnamurai), Sri Vanamamalai Deivanayagarn swami & Sri Devathi battar [pic credit : Shankar Ramakrishnan Iyer] [23.12.2019]

Thiruvallikkeni Deepavali purappadu 2025 ~ cleaning by SYMA

Deepavali is a festival of happiness – Gangasnanam, New dresses, Sweets and .. .. of course Crackers ! (pattasu!) 

All pyrotechnic compositions evolve heat upon ignition, and this release of energy can be used to produce colour, motion, smoke, and noise. There are applications as well for the chemically- produced heat itself. The use of incendiary mixtures in warfare can be traced back to ancient times, when it provided an effective means of assaulting well-fortified castles.  A Firecracker is a diminutive  explosive device primarily designed to produce a large amount of noise, especially in the form of a loud bang, usually for celebration or entertainment. They have fuses, and are wrapped in a heavy paper casing to contain the explosive compound.  

Firecrackers, are very popular and the town of Sivakasi, down South is very famous for manufacturing quality fire crackers.  For Deepavli, people  light up fireworks near their homes and in streets.   

For us at Thiruvallikkeni divaydesam and elsewhere, Deepavali is double bonanza ~ it couples with Sri Manavala Mamunigal Uthsavam –  this year Deepavali 20.10.2025 was day 3 of the Uthsavam – Deepavali was  celebrated with fervour.  Diwali symbolises the spiritual ‘victory of light over darkness and good over evil’. During the celebrations every house gets  decorated by lighting díyas and drawing rangolis.  

It starts early in the morning ~ ‘the pureficatory bath prior to Sun rise – is known as Ganga snanam’ – bathing in the holy Ganges.  Life starts  with lighting colour matches before bathing – then children rush to burst crackers – in earlier years,  Deepavali would start a fortnight or so in advance, siblings would share the booty of crackers bought – look at them everyday, speak fondly of their valuable purchase, dry them in heat – and in the morning – there would be din .. .. in fact, in my house, my great grand ma, into her nineties would be the first to get up and in the timber oven, she would light one cracker (cheena pattasu) and throw in the backyard, it would explode with a big bang .. .. crackers, new clothes, sweets, elders, cinema, cricket, Perumal purappadu  - life just rolled on .. .. ..  

At Thiruvallikkeni divyadesam, Deepavali evenings are extravagant – the purappadu of Swami Manavala Mamunigal with Sri Parthasarathi would take close to 4 hours even .. .. hundreds of 10000wallahs and special firework would light the air – thousands would walk along with Perumal enjoying the celebrations.  This year too, the celebrations were very very grand.  

Acaryan Manavala Mamunigal Uthsavam – Deepavali purappadu with Sri Parthasarathi Emperuman – Triplicane exploded !   so many many crackers and more than them beautiful fireworks.  So many houses burst big winding electric sarams - thousands of crackers, rockets, flower pots and many other items lit the sky.  

As so much is burnt, one sees the skyline with hued colours .. .. ..   10000 wallah leaves so much of heat and pile of rubbish – and the road itself gets hotter – Mamunigal (Sripadhamthangis), arulicheyal goshti and Emperuman, various kainkaryabarars including Battachars   walk on the road bare-footed ! –   even as the cinders remain partly extinguished, road red hot.  The unburnt crackers, remnants of fire all cause injuries too.   

Sri Thirucherai Sarathy (fondly Lamba Sarathi to us) – is a Vadhyar, Swayamsevak, kudaikarar, Sripathamthangi –  has been sweeping  the deepvali rubbish regularly for Perumal purapadu over the past few years. Srinivas Youngmens Association [SYMA] had organized equipments and people for cleaning. SYMA stands for social service and  back in 1977 – it started with civic activities of cleaning the mada veethis and kairavini thirukkulam.  This year for this cleaning -   Me (S. Sampathkumar), AMR Sundar, VP Manivannan, Aravind, T.P. Srikanth, M.A. Sadagopan, D. Sudarsan, Boopalan, G Parthasarathy, Durai @ R Seshadry and many other  volunteers took to the streets engaging themselves in cleaning with broomsticks and placing the debris at corners, making the streets safe for walking. 

It took hours, it was difficult, strenuous considering the heat, fire and the smoke – yet it was service to Emperuman and to his devotees.  Fall at the feet of all Sri Vaishnavas and pray our Emperuman to give the intelligence of mind in being humble and never criticize or speak ill of those involved in every type of kainkaryam

 

Here is a short video of the cleaning taken by our friend Shyam Balakrishnan. : https://youtu.be/dtlpfYGaxo0

 
 
~adiyen Srinivasa dhasan
Mamandur Veeravalli Srinivasan Sampathkumar
21.10.2025 
  

கங்கா சங்காஸ காவேரி !! ~ bathing in sacred Cauvery at Musiri

 

கங்கா சங்காஸ  காவேரி !!

 

அகண்ட காவிரியின் வடகரையில், திருச்சி – சேலம் நெடுஞ்சாலையில், மேற்கில் திருஈங்கோய்மலை, தெற்கில் காவிரி ஆறு, வடக்கில் புதுப் பட்டி, கிழக்கில் ஊமையாள்புரம் என நடுவே அமைந்துள்ளது முசிறி.

 

முசிறி பரிசல் துறை அருகே புனித காவேரியில் நீராடுதல்.

Me - Sripadham kainkaryam at Thiruvallikkeni

 

 

2018 memory !!  'எங்கும் நாடி நாடி எங்கள் அழகிய சிங்கனே ~ ஹனுமந்த வாகனனே ' .. a much cherished photo *** there are hundreds of youngsters of Triplicane who are involved in Sripadham daily.. .. a chance occasion, celebrated with photo !!  when the day  provided a great opportunity for rendering sripadham  kainkaryam of Sri Azhagiya Singar on Hanumantha vahanam – alongside my nephew AV Krishna, Srinath Vasudevan, Nani mama, Madhavan, Bharathwaj Balaji, Naveen, Rajan, young Guru and many more …  

Sri Embar Jeeyar Swamii at Thiruvallikkeni

 

Pranams to HH Srimath Paramahamsethyadhi Appan ParakAla EmbAr Jeeyar swamy @ 95+ ..

 

This swamy was popularly known as Kumaravadi Ramanujachariar in his purvasraman [i.e., before accepting sanyasam]. Swami is a renowned scholar, known for his exceptional clarity and style of writing and deliverance of kalakshepams. Swami was fondly known as ‘Che Ra’ – was with Dinamani and ran Srivaishnava Sampradhaya magazine “Thirumal” – wrote many books too.

 

Pics posted on FB on - 29.3.2019

Welcoming His Holiness Shri Shri Vidyadeesha Theertha Swamiji, Palimaru Mutt

 Welcoming His Holiness Shri Shri Vidyadeesha Theertha Swamiji;  Jagadguru ShrimanMadhvacharya Moola Maha Samasthanam – Shri Hrishikesha Theertha peetam – Sri Palimaru Mutt, Udupi, Peetapathi.

 

Tamilnadu Brahmins Association Triplicane Unit – financial aid distribution function held on 23.7.2023 at Vyasaraja Mutt, Triplicane.

Bathing ghats of Varanasi - boat ride on holy Ganga

 ஆதிகாலத்தில் 84 படித்துறைகளைக் கொண்டிருந்த கங்கை நதியின் கரையில் இன்று முப்பது மட்டுமே இருக்கின்றன. அதில் முக்கிய மானவை  மணிகர்ணிகா படித்துறை, தச அஷ்வமேத படித்துறை, அரிச்சந்திரன் படித்துறை என்கிறார்கள். 

புனித கங்கையாற்றில் படகில் பயணித்து இந்த படித்துறைகளை காணலாம். 

Any trip to holy Varanasi (Kasi) is complete with reaching the holy Ganges.  There were around 84 bathing ghats in earlier times and with passage of time, there are around 30 – among them the most important could be : Harishchandra ghat, Manikarnika ghat and .. Dashaashwametha ghat where Ganga haarthi takes place daily. 

Travelling in a boat one can view all these ghats !