The most important temple in Andhra pradesh is the temple of Sri Rama in Bhadrachalam. Situated on the banks of the River Godavari, this temple is a wonder. Just as Sabari who performed pooja to Sri Rama, in this bhadrachalam the Sri Ramar diety was found by an old lady who had performed pooja for many years. Bhadrachala Ramadasar who had taken the post of the tahsildar of this place, converted the dilapilated temple into a magnificient and beautiful temple. The story of Bhadrachala Ramadasar is known by one and all and is a very famous charithram. There have been many movies on this story and in olden days many dramas were played. In the charithram of Bhadrachala Ramadasar, the keerthanais are most famous.
When the king made him a tahsildar, with all the money that had to go for the king, ramadasar built a temple instead. The king who got angry put him behind bars. But Sri Rama and Sri lakshmana themselves came and paid the money back to the king and released him from the prison and this is the charithram of Bhadrachala Ramadasar.
When the king made him a tahsildar, with all the money that had to go for the king, ramadasar built a temple instead. The king who got angry put him behind bars. But Sri Rama and Sri lakshmana themselves came and paid the money back to the king and released him from the prison and this is the charithram of Bhadrachala Ramadasar.
Even today all his songs are very famous and very beautiful. Ramadasar asks Sri Rama himself, "the whole world is looking at me as if I am a wrong-doer, as a thief. With the tax money meant for the king, they say I built the temple and for that reason they have put me in this jail and torturing me. But my conscience is saying that what I have done is not wrong. Is what I have done wrong or right? When the whole world is saying it is wrong, my conscience says its right. Please tell me, rama what is right and please answer my question". Beautifully he looks at Sri Rama and sings "palukE bangAra mAyenA kOdaNDapANi" and asks Sri Rama "could you not just speak one word with me and say, "Ramadasa! what you did was right or you should not have done like that, what you did was wrong. why dont you just speak a word. will pearls or diamonds fall from your mouth? Rama, I thought you wont desert me, look how these people are beating me and you are just watching. If you keep watching and not helping me with this, then people will know that you did not save ramadasar and they will not pray to you anymore." "nammina vArini mOsamu jEsiti nyAyamu gAdura nA taNDri" - sings ramadasar. All these are beautiful keerthanas. In the vamsam of bhadrachala ramadasar, in alluri, a village near bhadrachalam around the year 1806 there was a child being born and the upAsana deity for this child was Sri Narasimha Swamy. His guru was called narasimhadasar and this guru gave the taraka mantra upadEsham of "rama" mantram to this child, this guru would tie anklets to his feet, with a tambura to play with and putting the talam with his cymbals. Just like how all the time Sri Bhadrachala Ramadasar kept chanting the "rama" nama taraka mantram, narasimhadasar instructed the child to keep chanting the mahamantram all the time. This child being born in the vamsam of sri bhadrachala ramadasar, all the time "visrujja lajjAm" as the bhagavathas when they are singing keerthanams will say. "Visrujja Lajjam Yodheethe Mannaamaani Nirantharam" - when saying nama, one must let go of shyness in saying it. One must let go of shyness and chant namakeerthanam. One must be shy of saying lies, cheating or stealing but not chanting namakeerthanam. That prabhu who has created this earth and the world for us, protecting all of us and will anyone feel shy of telling his name. So all the time, wearing anklets on his feet, playing the tambura, holding the cymbals with his hands putting karatAlam all the time, this swamigal will be performing namasankeerthanam. Just because he was born in Allur, the name also stuck to him. Everyone would call this swamigal as Venkatadri swamigal. His name came to be known as Alluri venkatadri swamigal. What he would do is being in bhadrachalam, taking the diety of Sri Naramsimha murthy given by his guru and performing nithya Aradhana to it, tying anklets to his feet, holding the cymbals in his hand, playing the tambura would perform own sAhithyams as well as sing bhadrachala ramadasar keerthanams, both day and night performing the rama nama upAsana and having performed the japam of the rama nama tAraka mantram in the bhadrachala kshetram he came to be have a darshan of rama, lakshmana, seeta, bharata, hanumanta together. Being in bhadrachalam itself, and serving the diety of Sri Ramar, performing daily day and night namakeerthanam. Not just keerthanam for 1 hour or 2 hours but night and day, he will be singing. Then from bhadrachalam he went to thiruvenkatamudayAn and he went there with a desire to serve HIM. Staying in Tirupathi for some days, taking bath in the swami pushkarini he had the darshan of the kaliyuga varadan venkatamudayAn.
"sarvaloka SharaNya shri seshAdri shikara prabho! abhayam dehi govinda! mahyam dInAya mAdhava!" - whomsover comes and surrenders to HIS feet, he will PROTECT him no matter what is what venkatamudayAn has determined to do always, such a prabhu. In this place called thiruvenkatam there will be so many monkeys, lions, tigers and in those days there were no cars or buses going to the top of the hill and there was no proper path as well. In this temple staying there itself, taking bath in the swami pushkarani, singing and dancing in the streets. Being like this for some time , suddenly he had a desire to see the pEraruzhAlan in kanchipuram. In kanchipuram having seen the pEraruzhAlan coming in the garuda sevai, he fell enormously in love with HIM. On the banks of the vEgavathi river, the place of liberation in kanchipuram itself he intended to stay permanently.
Alluri Sri Venkatadri Swamigal will usually take unchavrithi in kanchipuram. Whatever rice or dhall seeds he would collect, he will then convert into money. With that money he will perform whatever kainkaryam possible for varadarajan in the temple. If some shrubs have started growing in the vimanam, he will remove them. He will clean up the walls of the temple. Identifying all parts of the temple and wherever some form of kainkaryam needs to be performed, he will do so. He also setup a tulasi garden and plucking tulasi from the garden he would offer to the thiruvAradhanam for the perumal. In a very sacred manner, h will pluck and collect the flowers, chanting namakeerthanam always and making a beautiful garland out of it, he will offer to the perumal. Out of a big sandalwood stick, rubbing on it for 2 to 3 hours, he would take a large amount of sandal and offer it to the thirumanjanam for the perumal. In the night, for vardarajan perumal, he will offer boiled milk nicely and deliver it to the palliarai of the perumal. Even today if we go to the deva perumal sannadhi, by the side of the senai mudaliar near brahma theertham water well, we can see a room. In that room, Sri Venkatadri swamigal name is written and only in that room he lived. Being in that room, performing all these kainkaryam to the varadarAja perumal including tying garlands, rubbing sandalwood and taking unjavrithi and with whatever money he could get from selling the grains collected, he would offer them as kainkaryam to the perumal. Going to the nearby deepaprakasa temple in thuppul, he built mantapams and gopura prakArams there. To all the vishnu temples in kanchipuram, he did whatever best he could in terms of kainkaryam and tiruppani. Looking at all these, one should not think these were from rich people but instead these were mainly obtained from the things collected during unjavrithi and converted to money. So that veda gosham is heard everywhere, he helped the students of the veda patashala. Whilst performing this kainkaryam, one day Sri Varadaraja perumal came in his dream and asked that HE wanted wear a crown studded with diamonds. To satisfy HIS request, thinking that he would not be able to get enough from just taking unjavrithi in kanchipuram, he came straight away to chennai and to the sannadhi of parthasarathy temple. When we need something for us, we need to go to about 10 people and ask them isnt it. But kanchipuram varadarAja perumal has asked the vairamudi. So coming to Madras, he stayed at the place of a priest at the parthasarathy temple. But what a surprise, in madras there was a mudaliar named madhuramuthu mudaliar and in whose dream Parthasarathy perumal came and said that since varadaraja perumal needed a vairamudi and therefore Sri venkatadri swamigal has come to chennai. Parthasarathy perumal came in the dream and told madhuramuthu mudaliar to offer money for this kainkaryam. Also in the dream of another named pachaiappu mudaliar, Parthasarathy perumal came and told to offer money. In another person by the name of aranga pillai, Parthasarathy perumal again came in a dream and told that money should be given for this kainkaryam. As we have a street named venkatarangan street, in the dream of the person named venkatarangan, Sri Parthasarathy perumal came and told that money needs to be given for the making of this diamond crown for varadarAja perumal pEraruzhAlan. After the crown was made, starting from chennai with mela, talam and bhajan, the crown was being taken to kanchipuram and offered to the perumal in the garuda sevai by sri venkatadri swamigal. For varadan, crowning himself with the vairamudi felt so cool and wonderful. Then ubhayanachimar swamigal also came in the dream and asked for the vairamudi and was offered the crown as well. Then Sri Venkatadri swamigal started from kanchipuram and came to Srirangam. In Srirangam too, whatever tiruppani he could do he did. He would sing the keerthanams of Bhadrachala ramadasar as well as the keerthanams self composed by him. One day Sri Ranganathar coming in his dream told him that his pandiyan konda, the sundara pandian konda had some crack but this cannot be repaired, so he asked to get a new crown for HIM similar to that. HE also mentioned the details and size of the crown. So far Sri Venkatadri swamigal had never come to Srirangam, he had indeed been to thiruvenkatam and then to kanchipuram, therefore all the details of the sundarapandian kondai, bhagavan described in detail in his dream. So instead of making a crown in real, he made a crown as per the specification seen in his dream and when this was installed on the head of Sri Ranganathar it was so apt and fitting that all were astonished. When he was in Srirangam performing unchavrithi he had a made a vow, that today if he did not get the things in his unchavrithi to the extent of 10 rupees at least, then he would fast on that day. Looking at such a bhagavathOttamar who was fasting, there was a person by name singamiyengar in srirangam, who would daily make it a point to give 10 rupees to him. In order to install this beautiful sundara pandi kondai for the bhagavan, for that purpose alone he came to madras. Then bhagavan said that after looking at the crown, in the front of the crown there should be a stone and HE also described where from this stone should be taken. The stone should come from a person named madhavan seth, whose father has kept it safely preserved for bhagavan in his cupboard. Bhagavan instructs Sri Venkatadri swamigal to approach madhavanseth and get it. Who is this madhavan seth holding such a beautiful diamond and manikyam. In chennai, there was a sowkar by name kashidas and he says he knows the person named madhavanseth very well. When madhavanseth opens his cupboard and looks inside he is astonished to see the stone there meant for the bhagavan. There is also a letter written for Sri Ranganathar by his father and he is surprised at how he would know this and write so and keep in the cupboard. When the crown was given to be setup with this stone, the maker who was working on this crown took the original stone and instead replaced with a fake stone. Sri Ranganathar came once again in a dream and mentioned that this is a fake stone and the original stone by madhavanseth is not present in the sundarapandian kondai. Also bhagavan mentioned in the dream the exact place where the stone was being hid. So he went again to the place of the maker and got the original stone and fixed it to the crown beautifully and offered it to the bhagavan. Not only did Sri Venkatadri swamigal offered the pandian kondai, he offered many jewels as well as the crown for the thAyyar. He did whatever kainkaryam he could do in srirangam. He obtained sanyAsam at 71 years and was re-christened as Thiruvenkata Ramanuja jeeyar. Going to thirumAzhizhancholai and other divya deshams he then returned back to Srirangam again. It was english government then. Lord Napier was the governor of madras then. Somebody had told Lord Napier that there is a mahatma in Srirangam, and that he possessed great tEjas, being called Allur venkatadri swamigal who would sing day and night and has obtained sanyAsam recently. So to see this mahatma, Lord Napier arrived in Srirangam to see him. Such was the greatness of this swamigal. People around the temple would say that in year 1877, the month of mAsi, sapthami, Monday, perumal had come in the dream of Sri Venkatadri swamigal that he would be taken to Sri vaikuntam, two months ago itself bhagavan had said that he would be taken at such and such a date to the paramapadam. Exactly as predicted on that day in the midst of all his devotees performing namakeerthanam in the midnight at 12 am, his kapAlam burst open and a jyothi went from that. Day and night in his life he only performed the namakeerthanam. In akandanama, leaving all shyness, wearing the anklets on his legs, playing the tambura, performing bhajans with his cymbals just by performing unjavrithi and with whatever grains and things he had from that, our periyaperuma, arangan, perumal in thirumAzhizhancholai, deepaprakAsha perumal performing just kainkaryam to bhagavan, he lived. His thiruarasu is today next to the Azhavandhan padikkai which we can see even now. Each year on the day when he attained paramapadam, all the jewels he had made for Sri Ranganathar will be adorned and on that day we can see the perumal bedecked in full glory.
Subham
Radhe Radhe
Read more translations of the other episodes at: http://aranganinarumai.blogspot.com/
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