Pujyasri Mahaswami Chandrasekarendra Saraswathi Swamigal- Episode 34

The Eighty four year young Acharya’s six long years pada yatra​

Episode 34​

After returning from Kalavai Jayendra Swamigal went to Chennai in December 1975 and he was camping in around Chennai till the month of June. In the first week of June he conducted all world Hindu conference in which Hindus living in all parts of the world participated.He was visiting many places in and around Chennai till March 1976.

In the year 1976 on 5th April the kumbhabhishekam of Kanchi Kamakshi Amman Temple was conducted under his guidance. Maha Swamigal came from Kalavai on the next day of the kumbhabhishekam and had darshan of Devi Kamakshi.

An important incident had happened in February 1976. Maha Periyava’s interviews with foreigners and his lectures at different places from the year 1932 that were published in different magazines were collected and also tapes recorded by Kalki Sadasivam were compiled and published as a book named “Deivathin Kural”. This great task was accomplished by R.Ganapathi with the blessings of Maha Periyava.

Maha Periyava put a condition to Ganapathi. He said to Ganapathi, “It should be as if I am talking in person. The language should be very simple so that everyone could understand.”

The book was published by Thirunavukkarasu of ‘Vanathi Pathippagam’. Thus the first book of ‘Deivathin Kural’ was published. Now the series of Deivathin Kural had completed seven volumes to the delight of the devotees.

Before that in the year 1975 Acharya Swamigal’s devotee S Sambamurthi Sastri had written a book on the life of the Swamigal under the name “Sri Jagad Guru Divya Charithram”. This book was published by Hindumatha Kalacharaprasura Sangam.

In the year 1978 on Tamil New Year day, on his 84th year Acharya Swamigal had departed from Kanchi on a long pada yatra. He had intended to visit Andhra, Karnataka and Maharashtra. Even at this old age he walked 20 to 25 kilo meters in a day. He would start his walk early in the morning and take rest in the afternoon and again walk in the evening. Acharya had taken the same route which he had taken in the year 1933 during his Ganga yatra.

He reached Chinnathippa Samudram near Madanapalle in Andhra on 5th May. He was welcomed with the same fervour and people who had his darshan during his previous visit were thrilled to have his darshan again. He stayed there for ten days. On June 16th he reached the farm of Sri Sayappa situated at Mallenapalle where he stayed during his previous visit. The next day he camped at Sangameswara Temple situated near the river Chitravathi.

Then he continued his yatra passing through many villages and cities of Andhra and reached Hagari an industrial town in Karnataka. He performed Vyasa Puja there and stayed there for 68 days till September 16th. He then went to Dornakal where the then prime minister Morarji Desai had his darshan.

In the month of October he reached sandur where the yuva raja of Sandur had made all arrangements for his stay. Acharya Swamigal celebrated Navaratri puja at Sandur. President Sanjiva Reddy came to Sandur along with his family and had darshan of Acharya.

He had then proceeded to Hampi the famous Vijaya Nagara samrajya’s capital city. He visited the ruins of Vijayanagar, Anegundi and places connected with Ramayana. He visited Pampa, Sabari Ashram, Rihsyamuka, Malyavantam, and Anjanadri where Lord Anjaneya took birth.

Acharya’s 86th birthday was celebrated at Hubli in Karnataka on 13th May 1979. Vedic pundits performed havans and homas on this occasion. On 18th of May he reached Dharwar and stayed there for 15 days. He stayed at the Sanskrit college where Balachandra Sastri who was administrating the college made all arrangements.

After leaving Dharwar on 2nd June he halted at Belgaum and performed Vysa puja and observed Chathurmasya vrath at Belgaum. During his stay there G.D. Birla, the business magnet of India, the queen of Greece along with royal family of Spain and Greece had darshan of Acharya Swamigal.

In the year 1980 while Swamigal was staying at Sathara, Indhra Gandhi who was out of power went to have his darshan.She was nearly sitting for an hour in front of Swamigal with closed eyes. Though Swamigal did not speak to her she felt peace in his presence. When she paid her obeisance to him before leaving, Swamigal held up his hand and blessed her. It is said Indhra Gandhi who was pondering over to choose a new symbol for the next election, chose the hand symbol in the election of 1980 and had won the election with great majority. This incident was mentioned by Maniyan, the great writer and editor of Tamil magazine ‘Idhayam Pesukirathu.’

In the year 1975 When Swamigal was camping at Kalavai Maniyan took MGR to have darshan of Swamigal. In the year 1972 Karunaidhi expelled him from DMK as he started asking for financial details to be made public. Then he floated ADMK(Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazakam) his own party and later it was changed to ‘Akila India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazakam.’ From the year 1972 to 1977 he was seriously mobilizing public support to his party and with Acharya’s blessings he succeeded in his endeavour and became the chief minister of Tamilnadu in 1977.

In the years 1981, 82 and 83 Acharya Swamigal celebrated Vyasa puja at Pandaripuram, Mahakone and Kurnool. These six years of his yatra deserves to be printed in golden letters as a large number of people benefited by his darshan and his krupa kataksham. In February 1984 Swamigal returned to Kanchi.
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Bharanidharan the spiritual writer and one of the editors of Ananda Vikatan had written a book ‘Sri Kanchi Periyavar’ in which he had mentioned about this yatra. On the day of Sivaratri he had his darshan at Dhuljapur where Devi Bhavani had presented a knife to Sivaji.

Dhuljapur is situated on a small hill. Swamigal was camping at a village called Sinthpal at the foot of the hill. There is a temple of Lord Siva in the village and the Lord is known as Mukthakaleswar. After completing his nithyanushtanam Swamigal came to the temple and witnessed the Abhishekam and listened to the Rudra chamaka parayanam. Sadasivam and M.S. Subbulakshmi also had come to have Swamigal’s darshan. She sang ‘Sambho Mahadeva’ in her mellifluous voice with deep devotion which melted the hearts of the listeners. Then she sang the song ‘Maitreem Bhajatha’ composed by Acharaya Swamigal blessing the people all over the world to live in brotherhood and shanthi on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of UN assembly. Incidentally this was the 75th Anniversary year of Acharya’s decorating the Kamakoti Peetam. The people who had his darshan on the day of Siva rathri were really blessed.

Swamigal Camped At Sathara for a long time. During his stay there a temple for Lord Nataraja was constructed in south Indian style and it was called Uththara Chidambaram. The temple was built by the famous Sculptor Ganapathi Sthapathi. As an example for the integrity of our country the southern entrance gopuram was constructed donation given by government of Tamilnadu and the northern entrance gopuram by Andhra, eastern by Karnataka and the western by Maharashtra government. The temple is a replica of Chidambaram Nataraja Temple. As Mahaswamigal had returned to Tamilnadu before the completion of the temple, later Jayendra Saraswathi Swamigal conducted the Maha samprokshanam of the temple.

Jaya Jaya Sankara Hara Hara Sankara!​

To be continued​

 

Dear Bharathi,
It was quite heartening to see your fb for this blog after a long time and thanks for the same.
I am sorry to say that I have come to know about this song sung by Sirkazi from you only. If I could get information about this I will let you know.
Love,
PS