t l .oFc norc offer cadle f:on S.i A.V.GoDalacheaSwami to qrite a khandana for the sarl€ book.Thcn, Our Swami thought. that i! was thc whhof Srl Desrk4 himselfthat be should ondertakctbc work. The book was started and in order16 a\ oid delby io pub|sing. wnrir g 6nd pr iDri t rgwcre done side by side.

DAILY ROUTINE OF OUR SWAMI IOne eould be arnazed at the heavt scbedule

Out Seami lsed to have ever} day. Cett iDgop very early iD the morning ard afler finish_ing the Anushlana and Abbjeamana Aradhan.and also special nrantra japa, he vould bercady waiting, elcn before the arrival of th€first.sisbya, for rhe morninS Kalaksh€pa. Noncof t}e sishyas ba d €!€r s€cn hiB cof)ing latecven on a single day. Afrer the Kalakshepa,tim€ wrll be d€voled for proofcortection andaltotn'eDr of work for lhe press for the dsy,sconposing work. Afr€r rhar, Ijya and Ara-dhana, followed by proof correcrron of BhavaPraka5r(a. Then he woul{1 go rhrou8h tbe!npl,5b rran\ lat iotr of the bools by Srj K.Bhashyam wbich he used to brl!8 €very daylor scruhtry and sogg€srion, and aftor he haol€fi, he would take up ihe Tamil translatiorTben be would go through matry Advaitagrarrthas, to continue the khandana granthaskeady started and corred proof of the abovectc. ln the middle of Swadhyaya Kala, Kalak-sbgpa of some other granthas whrch were per-mitted to be studied in the afte.noon likeStorras et,r. wa. dore before eveoing Sandhya-vandana aDd Upanla"as. l f he wdr l ree w,f t .out Upanyasas )re would devote rhe t ime forpr€padng manubcflp(s eveo after sunset forother books. This would go on till about mid.night. So far, nobody would have 6een brl!doitrg ary other lhing except 6i!1ing s,tth soE€bool or orher, opesed before hrm, tbroughoutrne oay, some ttm€s, some of the stsbyascomirg there for paying tespects! would not benotic€d by him as he would be so much inlmer_sed jD the book. By lumselfhe n€vcr used rogo to bed and sleep rhould cmbrace hiD troar

about midright dua to tircsomcness and ovcr-work,

After thc publicstion ofTiruppavai with tbecommentary, Raksha, it u6ed to be a resulaafeatlre of Our Swami betug invitedto preside Jover lhe Tiruppavai Sadas wherever they q,ere lbeld. Invi tat ions for Upanyasas wer€ Dourinq Iin e!ery day. One norable inr, tar ioo oas froi IBrrhmasri K.Balasubramania lyer, a renow, cd Ischolar iD San5krj t . when Ie conducted a Sam. Imelanam at Ml lapor€ Sanskri t Col leee on I" Bbatt i Kav)a", Our Swami s erudire ipeech Ivr'as very mucb apprecialed botb by the scho- |iarsand the conveDe. Brabma(r i lyer. ITb,s Ilecture helped him ar a tarer srage, which wc Iqould refer to larer l .

I

About lhi ' t ime Sri U. ve. Veokaradrivaram IvenLararagbavachariar Snami. l r ro taa t te Igood forrul€ ro do Sf i Bha\b)a KalaksbeDa Iunder O rr Sw rmi) Chi€f Pr"fes,or in Sanstgrt Iat Vr\e^anandd Col,ege, Madras, canae ro Our ISwdoi with hrs colr€gues, Sr i Rajagopal.n and ISri Subramanrao, (Advarr ins), ro srudy . ,Vai

Iserbr la Darbana". OurSwamy taught rhem Ihi i o*n commeDtaries cal led Rasalana on IVai.e.bika Darlana nbich conraroed maoy IaDcient Sutras oot pubtrrhed

"o far. Tni IRasayana was ooty to rhe manu.cr ipr stage as Ithere was !o r ime for publcat ioo io rhe mrddle I

11,::,.T:ll ;Ti:l:il,,"i"111ii" 8l"friff: Iyana, the Profc,sor fouDd ou! rha! they bad a Irreabure berore thcm. He rmmcdratcty utrcler- Itook to print and pubh:h rhe lame and tho Iwork wa6 brarred iomedrar€ly. The release I$,as arranged at a fuDctron rn Sanskflt Cotlege, IMl lapore. KaDcbi Kamakotr pcetam Srr San: IkaracnarJa SwarEjgal preslded and said rhat b! Ihad ne\er oissed reading e\,eD one book of I

ili iJlii;i'llil"li irilHJ: Ilil;,f,i Icooe acrobs such an erudrre scbolar $eli verst I

i1"l1l.'ii11lLl, "Tlil, llfi , "t I -:I l'*i*l

t35 I

LI

g

h

J

r6rch to tho subject add wishcd hid long lifeto continue thg gradtha nirmaoa work, Brah.Easri Ananiakrishna Sastriar who was present,stood up and said that he had kDown OlrrSwami very much for a long ti6e. He recalledoDe incid€nt when, knowing his genius, h€offered to g€t him a good post ia North Iodiawith a very higb remuaefat ior and Our Swamirefused the o$er saying that he preferred tos€rve Lord Tiruvengadamud4ilar for a lessreldun€ration, as a Professor io HIS college.IIe also said that maDy plople did not knowabout Our Swami's Vidvat. He very siocerelysaid tbat if ody Our Swami would have beeoar Advaita Pandit, tbe Sadas and himselfwould do KanakabhishekaB. For such a grentscholar, he €xpected that the Sadas wouldhonour him with a b;g purse but on the otherhand he fouBd ollt that the publisher did Doiget €nough response from the public and thathc had to go searching for evefi the prjntingcost of the book. Brahmasri Sastriar 6aid rhathe knew about Our Swami writing a khandanagrantha for his Ssta Bhoosbani and for thatsake th.y. the Advait ias, should not bate bimor show disrespect to hiDl. It was customary,he continued, thal pandits usually us€d topraise their own Sidhanta only. Because ithelped the Hindu relegiotr to grow stfonger,But the unique thing he found out by readingOur Sq,ami's granthas, especially lhe khandanagrantbas, was that he hadestablished a bealthyconvention, which should be an eye-operer toall future critics, who write khandana graothasoD other Sidhantas to adopt Odr Swaoi'sway of not attacking 4ny pe$onalrties orofending anybody. Afret readirg Oo. Slvami'sbooks. he 6aid. that one would show more re-gard for him an would ceriainly get more.nlightered orl the subject. Such ilas thegeairess ofOur Swami. Sri Karchi Sankata-charya Swami said in his coocluding rema.ksthat il Hinduism should survive, we should getiDto the habit of codtriblting mdtual donationsbetween Advaitins and Visisht.dvaitins. Healso praisod Our Sw4mi's idieg.ity and his im.

prraial wdy of diticising the priociplas otrlyand that his khandana granthas only broughthim dore regard from hid aod wished him allsucc€ss, At the end Sri'VenkataraghavacharSwami presented the entire copies of thcgrantha to Our Swami sal ing I r 'Weworqhip

God by offering materials cr€ated by HIM;Like that I am worshipping my Revered Guruby oEering the gratrthas crcat€d by hio."

Metrtioning Brahmasri Ananthakrishra Sas-triar, oae 6ore ea.li€r interestirg meetiog bet-ween him and Ou. Swami would bc worthlarrating. One day Brahmasri Sastriar oameto Oua Swam'6 Asrama and doriog the conver-sation, told him, ibat, only Our Swamrwould be $,rititrg the kbandana for his SataBhooshani and his guess got confirmed whenhe heard that the title of AbhiDava Desika wasconferred oo hio. He said that Sri Desikashoold have entered Odr Swimi to wflre th6khandana for a grantha which criticised iisS d t a D o o o s h a n , . O t l S , r m i r e p l i e d t b u s ;' ' I t is rrue lhat t r i rny Vai 'bnavas had alreadyapproached him to take up thb khandaoagrantha. I am besitating b€cause I am afraialthat this 6ay result irl spoiling ourfriendship."Brahoasri Sdrtr iar said that only by wrir i t rgmore aod morc books, our Hinduisd wouldgrow and whole heartedly assu.ed Or. Swadithat it would llotdistu.b the fricndship betwe€trtbem, and urged bin to take up rhe work earlyas he {rould not like anybody else wrling thokhandana. He €ven wert one stepfurther audtold hin that if there was difriulty in frndi{tgfinaflce for that, he would himself undertakothe printing ard publishitrg on behalf of OutSwami; ard afler that he vrould considetwhether he could write orc more repiy to that.FIe was very happy that Ou. Swami wouldwrite the khardara as he was thc onlyqualifiedperson to do that, and that the criticismflouldbc very fair, healthy a d scholarly and withoutoffendiog aDy body, add the AdvaitiN wouldlearu dorg about their own Sidhanta.

-t "16 I,SRI ALACIASINCAR'S GENEROSTTY I

Ti:e khandana grantha for Sa{4 Bhooshani,with the iame ol PARAMARTHA BHOO"SHANA, was shaping we1l. The cost wasestimated a! Rs, 10,000/, or more. Sri K.Bhashyani, who was trying to raise lural3approach€d the 44tL Jeer of Ahobhila Mutt,sho wae ar rbar r ime campi lg ar prsb| l ras.The Jeer felt very pleased at our Swamrsefrort ard immedietely donaied Rs, 5,000/- theaBouDt Sri K. Bhashyam as*ed. (Eaflier Sri-sod Alagiasingar bad doqated Rs. 500,/_ forthe coEmeBtary olr Vaiseshika Darsana). Thebook wab progressiDg very fasl aDd Osr Sq,amiwanted to rel€se the book ir Tiruvellore as b€was bortr only wilh the blesgisgs of Lord SriViraraghava Peruoal.

The Goveroment of Inalia wanteal 10insiiiute aD award, v6lid for the lifetime, forth6 most leading Saffkrit Scholar every year.Fo! seleatisg the Dost suitable catdid.te fdrthe opeDiDg year of the Award, the gover[-Inent requested Brahnasi K. BalasubraEanraIyer to suggesr rbe dost suirabre scholar i[SaDskrit. He never had any hesitalion toruggest Our Swami as lhe nqost suitable anddeserr iog scbolar. (presumably rhe impres\rJobe formed *hen the bad lbe opnort ;ui :v rohear Our Swabi 's lec{ure ;o Sausif l t coj ,"""iq the SaD0nelaoam pt"r ia.A ou., Oy-jug;;Guru Sankaracbarya SwaEiof Katrcbi Kama-koti Peeta and orgaDirod by hiEselfhelped bl,cto nake lbiB dec;sioD) After suggesriog rheoame,_ he-mer Sri K. Bhrsbldm (Er.Minisrer)a! ardeot Sisbya of Our S\ ami aEd requrstedbim lo give lhe derai ls of al t l i re publ; iarruudene by Our Seva6i, to be sent to theSovernq|eDt, iD case they asked for moredetai ls. S, i K. Bbasby. lm came ro eJr SwaruraDd told bim of the good news anal both adllrF.€d lbe iolpart ial i ry of Brahoragri lycr jo sug-gesl log Uur ssamr s tran1e aloDe, qi thuut aDyaltemativ6 eventhougb lr6 lrimselfwas a le6aliIrgAdvaitit. Ouf Swafii w5lted to thank htmfor his greatness i! porsod and accompanieal

Sri K. Birashyala to his houle for lhat purDos€and gave Li al l ibe deraih ot Dis pubhcir-oos.t l rELrnasri I )er was tery mucb pleas€d ard goiconrirced that bis selection was the besr oncatd that rhete wa6 oo other scholar availabtewiill a getrius anlivhere near Ouf Swami.s, loget the First Award_

A HOUSE OF HIS OWN :

The laDdlord of the house, in wbich OurSlvami lvas a tenadt, wanted to ext€nct blshouse to fetch n]ore r€!t, and reluctaDtlyrequested Odr Swami to vacate as ea.iy dspossible. Our Swami ktrew thai the landlord,sneed was a ge[uine one atrd wantid lo vacaaeat.the eatliest. One day he mei the Astrologe.Sri Seshadriachar Swami casully who pr€dicrealthat X€ would get a house, very likeiy ol hiso"vu, t0 t [e aol lhern Jirec( ioo fro,n the huusciq whicb he !ras l iv ing, Our Swamr \ .as gointsif, that directioD anal fouad the uaoe. Nltta-rnuni stfeet which appealed to him. whitowalking through ihe sircet, a casual ldend Berhirq 4nd told bim that a particular house wasvacated o41y a f€ry daysl before. When OurSwami went there aad enquir€d, he was ioldlhr l l l rey sad no iDleaLioo to let r [ oul , a9 rbeywdtrtcd Lo sel l i t . Out Swami jmmedia,-r".rde up brs ri"d a" ;";;.;, ;;;;;sl iLable. After inspecrios aDd a l i rLlc bxrgarn,rDe sdrc was setLted. with sr i K. Bbashvam.shelp xhs deed was writteD and the boqs; Dur-chaseal. What a coincidenoe ftat the !a!0; oi.tbe streer is Lbe ndme of rbe f i rst , (afre. Alwars)rravarraka ot OJr.SidhaDta. The trumber ofthe bot l8e was No. 25, aod wc koow No. 2jrela.el to the Jeevatola tatva. The persulrstaying iogiJe the Jeevatda, we al l [oow, isPaaamatma a3 Artaryamin. Does is trot showtbat it w4s the wish of cod IIAYAGRIVAto select the house No. 25 as hjs pernanq!abode.. Toda' we 6od, Lord Hayagrivaoccupt log every nook atrd co|ner of the hou(,io rbc lord of His Di"y" Sr i S;k, i r ' ; , ; ; l ;Peryading Atrtaray&i{ of N{rBber Tweoty tiye.

t3? I

9e VISISIITADVAITA PRACEARINI SAEBA:

Sir V. T. Krishnamachariat Swaoi, once

came to Madras and was discussing wittr his

irieBds, about tbe publishiBg activities of OurSwaDii, about whom he had heard a lot IIe

felt that Sri K. Bhashysm was getting old aadshould not b€ buldetred with 6ote work a1ld

he watrted to do something substantial for thepublicatiotr to progr€ss without aBy diffculty.

IIe called his friends, Sri Anantasayanamlyedgar S tami(Governor) aod Sri D R Swami(Advocate), and afier discussios. decided !o

sta.t a Register€d Sabha atrd gather meml,ers

id good numbel so that the membelship fees

would form the basic fund to start its aciivilies.They decided on the Dame of VisishtadvaitaPrachadni Sabha aad Sir V.I. K. Swami expres'sed his desire that, maioly, Our Swami's books

shouid b€ published in addition to other books

on om Samp.adaya' Tbey also d€cided lo asksri V. s. Jaganna:han, who just gol rerired asan o6cer from Eutsah Shell add who sas

also the Dephew ofsir V. T. K. Swami, to betheSecretary. Sri V. S. Jagaf,natha Iyengar waseery etrthusiastio and esroll€d Eore th3n 1,000Eembers, aqd since lheD, had be- 'o masagiogthe afrairs ofthe Sabha idao exemplaly andefficient m4nner. This Sabha undertook to€ke ove! the publications of the 40C0 DivyaPrabanda6s, first, This gave Odr Sw4mi a

ereat ndancial relief, and he felt v€ry happyihat his "Raksha" commeolary coulal be

compleied wrlhout aoy fdrther hilch for all lde4.000 Pasuraos,

P.{RAMARTEA BHOOSITANA RBLEASB t

Aftangeoetrts were made foi the release of| .be book, Pdramarlba Boooshaoa, at Tiru 'yellore {as per tbe original satrkalpa of OotSwami), where the 18ft Malola Sadas wasberog h€ld that year. Srioad Alagiasitrgar hadi-o\ i red prodi ls from al l drrecLioos. Our Sf laoi ,dlecr€d by Srimad Alagiasidgar, read out$Ioe portions froE the grantha alld explaiaedlie coDtetrts tbeaeof io his owa oaslerelt way,

and the Sadss aDd Srimad Alagiasingar weaeyery much pleased. TheB the formal releaseof the book was made.

Sri Narsyrna Iyergar Sl?:di of Kafilf, Ithowas ihe 6rst dooor for lh-_ book, was k€ptioforned froro time to time about the pacgressof the grantha, and after lelease also. IIe wasvery happy asd wrote to O|rr Swami about lhewonderful way Lbe bJok q/ds wrjiLea. twrLh,oa week aftef s€eirg the book be passed away,whicb gave ar impression that God Almighttretaitr€d him o!]y to fulfill his desire of thepublication of the book.

At T'nagar. MaCras, Sri Bhashyam spoke iothe Sadas, cooveoeJ io felicitate Orr Swa6l.He erpiained to the audieoce lhat the publica-tiod was beiig do[e silgle-;randed by ourSw3Bi, which couid aot hive b€en done evetrby big SaEsiaff with mady scholars. Thedain reasons, he said, for the Success ofthepaog.amde were Our swami's wide andccoprehensive ktrowl€dge of all the Shastrasand Sri Suktis of aldrost all the impcriantcommeoirtors before l i L! i icr made bimself-sufrcient without aDy tr€ed tc refer toadybody o. io any oahel suihor fol clarifica.lion; his etrlhusiasd i:i lhe publicalioo of hisbooks, without erpectiog anything in returnand his cotrsideration that the Ni.mana of tb€g.aolhas was the Eain Purushartha. Sfi (.

Bhashyam said lhat th€ Aslika wo.ld, $peciallyfrom Sri D.sika Sampradaya should removeItre burdetr of collecdng funds, leeving hloenough tioe to concetrhaie on the Nirmana{ork. IIe €stimated lhat at loast a Lakh ofrupees s/ould be n:eded foc the publtcaLio!p.ogramnoe of Our Swami, as otharwise, theAstika vorld would be ioosirg a g.eat lreasule.

At Mylapore, S.i Desika's temple was theveDue ofatrother Sedas presided ove. by Sri K.Kes4va Iyengar Snar4i, ACvocate, and aaerudite scholar bo:h in SeNkrit aDd Taodil.He spoke in pra$e of Our Su,ami's capaciry for

138 l

gratrtha nirmana, and said that considering thenudber of his publica!ion s, the work wa! almosta Diracl€. I{e specialiy apreciated the Narbe,Ou. Swami chose for the graatha (Pa.aDarthaBhooshana) whicb was ve.y apt; and also thenamiDg of every arguemert as PRASADA.Sri U. Ve. Karapaukadu Veni.aLacbar Suydmi,(a sishya of Our Swami), aD erudite scholar inTarka ald Vedanta, a popular Upaoyasaka anda great Acharya in his own SaEpradaya, spokenext a d expressed his admiralion at OurSwami's genius, 6nd imB€diaiely paid anamouDl of Rs.250'-and took otr lyforr copies,for the use ofhis sishyas. At I'nagar, in thespace adjoining the house of Brabmasri S. N.Dave, a m€eiiDg was held in a specially erecledpandal, for the purpose of f€licitatitrg OurSwami. Sr i Dav€. bixrqeltr ao Upanyaeak. i rEnglisb, a gr€et adrDirer of Our Swami, actauDch Advaitin and who allvays preferredXo lecture on Vishnu Bhakti, used to idviteOl]l Swami for Upanyasas in the abovepaodal aDd many sc:rolars spoke aboui th€greatness of Our Swami. DufiDg the meeting,a special messenge. caoe fror! Sri KanchiKamakoti Peeta Sankeracharya Swami andpresenled a purse containig Rs. 500i- andconveyed the Acharla's greai appreciation ofthe scholarly gedus of Ou. Swami in oDemore book.

Itr short, the entire soholar world from sllthe three Sidhaotas, praked Our Swami for hiscapacity to emDloy special Yuktis as and wh€!situations arise, folly supported by PramanaVakyas, which made the granlha a oomprehen-sive codmentary od Sata Dhooshani itselfwhich was requir€d for the better under.standing of Sri Desika's ideas in writing thebook, the lack of whic'o aloDe caused thewriting of Sata Bhooshani by Our Swami'sg.eai friend, Brahnlasri Sastriar, The otherimportant pciats which th€ scholars apprecia.ted were: the clarliy lrith wbicb th€ Praoalravakyas were discussed sho witrg lhe PRAIIBEAVILASA of Ou. Swamii the healthy c.ilicism

of rhe Advaita Sidhalta s{ich would b!apprecialed ev€Il by the Advaita soholars inolu.ding the author hims€lf; the Slokas composedand employed throughout the graotha to stresda point which were shitriEg like " Diamondoset ir Gold ". etc. etc. It ivas the unanimou!opiniotr of all the scholars that ev€n if theenti.e grantha coold not be read by anybody,the Poems at the begianing and end of eacbArguement (Prasada) would be eojoyabl€ andwould be enough to expose the authoa as agreat POET. In facl the enlir€ scholar \rorldwho were acquaitrtel with Sfi Desika's books,6wore that Sri Disika himself had written thatbook (Paramarlha Bhooshqn) to bring out lhegreainess of hi$ owtr grantha.

A GREAT LOSS :

At this time, Sri K. Bhashyam passed awaysuddenly due to hearl attack lvhich was a greatloss to Off Swami. The Sampradaya lost agood patror as he was also a stauqch believeain Grantha Nirmada, like Our Swaoi, as themai vr'ay to spread ouf Srmpradaya. OuaSwadi f€It it his duty, and cooplet€d thcEnglish lranslaiion of the granthas whioh hcstarted and released them. (Vedanta D€epaaod Gitartha Satrgraha etc.) The pfogre$ ofthe Divaya Prabandas was quite satisfactory,as the same was taken over by the V. P. Sabha.

PRBSIDBNT'S AWARD-RECEIVING INDELHT :

The Govt. of lndia, afler tbey got the reportfrom Brahmasri K. Balasubramaoia Iyer, (itseems) made special and secret enqsiries aboutihe wo.thin€ss of the oDly recommendation fo!the Award, as that was the Fir6t Y€ar oltheAward. Reports from local ofEcials at Madras,and also froa Sri Anantasayanam Iy€ngar atDelhi lv€re obtaioed and Gnally decided ooOut Swami and tbe same was annouDoed. OurSwami was invited to Dolhi to receiv€ thcAward aDd the same was present€d by HisExcellency Dr. Rajendra Prasad, Preride[t oflodia. Ar that Lrde, bciog th6 Fr$t A,ydrd,