AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
ADHYATMA RATNA KUMBAKONAM C N GURUSWAMI SARMA 1900-1968
CHAPTER 3
ADHYATMA RATNA KUMBAKONAM C N GURUSWAMI SARMA 1900-1968
CHAPTER 3
THE NATIVITY
As if the conglomerations of the planets must usher in a birth to add to the millions in this terra firma, my birth happened as the effect of one such grouping in the heaven. It effect was in my form , curiously. with the sun, Lord of the planets and pivot of the firmament riding through the Taurus with mercury closely on his heels and with venus posited in Gemini along with the philosophical Jupiter in scorpio, the slow moving saturn in Sagittarius and Mars and weak moon in Aries. and cancer being the ascendant sign I am told I was deposited in the world, a congenitally weak and black brat when the constellation was Aswini (Ref 1). Astrologers might read a lot from such a hopeful combination and having scanned this nativity chart in my mature stages of life, I have often wondered how much this combination has failed me in my hopes and aspirations. Suffice it to say that my birth was in a closed kitchen in a choultry built by a zamindar of a village near Palani to whom my mother's paternal uncle was a tutor in recompense for which pedagogic services the tutor was given the run of the choultry perhaps with the onerous supervision and watch over the services considered to be carried over there from day to day.
I have heard it said that with birth pangs, my dear mother ran from the southern end of the city where she and my father had their own residence, to this choultry after all to bring forth this brat she having had a surfeit of daughters in having been unwise to deliver them in her own house which seemed to be reputed to have a preference to the delivering of children of fair sex. (Ref 2). Fortunately as it happened my mother ,by this prudential step, changed my sex and brought forth me on a hot bright forenoon in the month of Baisak corresponding to May some year in the beginning of this marvellous twentieth century.(Ref 3) It is not out of place here to detail a few pre natal predictions regarding this ushering in of my poor self in this wonderful world.
My father happened to be the 4th and last son of an illustrious administrator of the petty state of Pudukkottah in the early nineteenth century. (Family tree-Ref 4). He himself was a self made adventurer almost who left while quite young, left his large estate he being the only son of his father who was gathered to his fathers when he was of tender age.He had probably had his tutoring in samskrit and vedas and was married quite early to his own maternal uncle's daughter. It is said of him that his young wife developed a grouse against her parents and would not partake a meal in their house , this gentle man quietly had his fill and when taunted by his wife that she was hungry coolly replied " You hate my uncle and aunt and their food and so wholesome to me will not be good fodder for you. Such a hatred can bring only starvation." whatever may be the moral of the story might be, it is a good lesson for anyone who has to be sociable here.
The young thing found its wings to heaven and the man was left adrift in the world in a village called anangur (ஆநாங்கூர் ) near Mayavaram (Ref 5). He saw no comfort in the other material belongings of the world and without shackles and driven by deep remorse at the parting with his lovely wife.left his place without anybody's knowledge and seems to have done some wild wandering gathering useful knowledge and meeting great men in the land who drove him back to the house-holder's life again. He reappeared in the moving world at Pudukkottah.state a handsome strapling of eight and twenty years and attacked the citadel straight with his astounding knowledge of astrology. In my life reading of Brighu Nadi it is said of him "त्रि काल मतिमान चेति " etc. This knowledge he pressed into service for advancements in the world and while as a guest -probably unknown and unwelcome then- in the then Diwan's house predicted boldly that he had come there to marry his daughter. What cheek in a "loafer" almost!! His astounding predictions before the then Maharaja (Ref 6) regarding his lost signet ring and other such amazing predictions regarding the matters of state won for him the hand of that maiden whom he wooed at first sight. Behold the Diwan had to give this man his daughter and the marriage was celebrated as a state function. He rose to fame entered into some treaty with the East India company thereby which the state was to pay only 24 amman kasus as royalty or feudal fee to the British. He is said to have introduced Indigo manufacture in the state, was its state astrologer, set up on a fixed basis many charities of which the Friday and Shri Navarathri charities and vidwat sadas are said to be some. Lo! they have vanished today. It is reported that he established Sri Sadasiva Brahmendra Puja in the palace and set apart property for the same at Nerur. This is all what is reported by my father and other relations and I have not been able to get any authentic state records to prove or disprove the same. Anyway in the midst of the coterie he built up in the state, he lived for a pretty number of years with fame as the first citizen and it is said his first seat in the state assembly is kept yet unfilled. Suffice it is to say that he enjoyed life, created a number of good things , fed people in four communicating houses on shraddha days and with his second wife also pre deceasing, left four sons of whom my father was the youngest and a daughter who was married at Kokkarasampeettai a hamlet on the cauvery nearer Trichy than Tanjore . He got his first three sons married as per his choice. His last son was not married when he was in his last days and as a comfort to him probably, he gave him a message namely that he will have a son in his 58th year by his 3rd wife who may be named after him and gave him my birth chart on a palm leaf which my father preseved for a long time. My paternal uncles were each of one variety but the family solidarity was shaken and the elders had their days of luxuriou lives on the earnings of my grandfather and soon spent them out. The third of my paternal uncles was so famed for his knowledge of the then insidiously spreading and much valued Anglo saxon that it was to his glory that he could recite "Rasselas" by heart. (Ref 7). A feat indeed during these times also. he went to Madras and got some passport to practice in the then Chief Court of Madras and with coach and pair and what not spent out his share of his patrimony and my father had to bring down that spendthrift to Sivaganga saving him by settling his share and returning his debts. By then my father who was the youngest had his schooling in the vaideek way and was an expert at sama gana. His next elder brother thought such a gain was no qualification for the the swiftly advancing western civilization taught him English and my father joined the normal school for teachers at Srirangam. The only reply before the admission to the European selecting body being the flabbergasting reply "I come from the northern frontier of Trichinopoly, Pudukkottah state!!" This was too big a mouthful to expect from a brahmin youth in those orthodox days and he gained his admission and schooling to end in a headmastership of udumalpet English School in his early twenties- a coveted post indeed.He got married to his own uncle's daughter in an almost unpretentious way and he used to tell us that he became a vedantin under her tutelage. Imagine a young married couple reading "Gnana Vasishta" on the bridal night and letting the oil in that lamp getting used up until the dawn and its simmering light swept into the room as if not to put a stop to such heart to heart upadesh. Such joy was too short -as it could only be so in such abnormal life - and she left her mortal coil leaving my father again unpartnered in this wide world but she left him an abundance of mental strength and equanimity which had served him during the rest of his life. he had his transfers in more than one of southern districts and wherever he went, he started so many schools as to get him the appellation from his then superior Mr Duncan that he was the" pioneer of education in south India".That apart in one of his visits as an Inspector of his schools in the Ramnad District he met a boy who wrote "Sivamayam" for his answer as his caste to his question. My father was pleasantly surprised but his vedantic training made him sense the future greatness in the boy, whom he hugged and begged of his father to release him from the trammels of schooling and probably life. This boy flowered forth as Sri Ramana Maharishi whose ever present soul breathes around us even today. (Ref 8). Probably I am wandering with the episodes not direct nor relevant but they are worth recording. he had to marry a second time being a man in his twenties (circa 1862-Editor) and he married in Madura District from which time the jurisdiction or circle of relationship extended beyond the state. (state of Pudukkottah is meant here -Ed).
It was said that she was very tasteful, loving and amorous wife and my father used to say that she was, in such activities, gave him all the marital pleasures which his first wife probably denied him. This lady had rich relations and widowed aunts to cater to her wants so much so she was a 'bride' to the last days of her life. Death cast her off from my father and he was again destitute and forlorn in his thirtieth year (circa 1872 -Ed) and one female child the result of that union soon followed its mother. What setback in a man's life?. But his training in Vedantha stood him in good stead. Rather it almost deadened his feelings and created in him, a vairagya of a very high order and he became a recluse from that time. His destiny was otherwise and his second wife's brothers who were then, one of them being a vakil with a voice and anotherr something to do with Ettiyapuram Zamin did not allow him the segregation from life that he yearned for and he was married a third time to their third brother's daughter-my mother. (Could it be around 1885?-Ed). It was during this stage in life that my father was almost reputed to be a "shushka vedanthi" having lost faith in everything except perhaps in an inexorable fate that pursued him. At Sivaganga, he met the Avadhutha -the Judge Swamigal- (also referred to as HH Sadhasiva Brahmendra swamigal later-Ed) (Ref 9) as he was called. he is said to have got down from his Judge's seat in travancore state one day to emerge after a few years of Agnatha vasam as an avadhutha (one who wears no clothes except perhaps a loin cloth-Ed). My father by then had developed a hatred for all sanyasins and even all so called religions and spiritual institutions but this great avadhutha by a glance converted him into a believer in atma Vidya and in people who were proficient in that. My father had his tutoring under him in the Upanishads and in Prasthana Thrayam. proceeding at the rate of one sloka per day. It used to be said that the swamiji was fond of playing with a top and was constantly watching it spinning probably deriving pleasure in "rest in intense motion". The chela of swamiji was then a brahmachari who later on became the avadhuta swamigal of sendhamangalam.
after a few years the swamiji left ("left" sivaganga to Madurai-Ed ) and before that he seems to have predicted the birth of a son in a few years. My father had lost faith in almost all such predictions especially when anything conducive to happiness was predicted and about the future. He was a stoid and stern man and when he came to Madura, he got into a group of very eminent men who introduced him to Theosophy and he was soon an FTS (Fellow of theosophical society). That was a few years before my birth. He had four daughters by then (all these children should have been born between 1885 to 1898-Ed) and he was so sufficiently surfeited with family life that he took refuge in theosophical work and in the building of The Brahma Gnana sabha edifice at Sandhaippettai street in Madurai where he permanently lived except coming home for a meal. He took full advantage furlough and all kinds of leave that the Government could grant him preparatory to retirement. He sank himself into translating books like "vichara sagaram, Manisha Panchakam, Datta siva murthy ashtakam and all the Upanishads. .( Ref 10 vichara Sagaram)
It was a notable trait with him that he never put his name for any of his works which appeared over the name of one of his close friends then one A Siva Rao a Desastha Maratha Brahmin. He had long trips over the country for collaborating with people of such eminence as Bhagwan Das (Ref 11 ) and he was lecturing mostly under the protecting wings of the Theosophical Society.(For life sketch of Shri Bhagwan Das Ref Bhagwan Das ).
When he was one day making his Dhyan in the Theosophical Buildings having by then probably got more attached to the theosophical masters. he had a vision of his master , the avadhutha swamigal who in broad daylight asked him to proceed to the choultry where his son was born directing to name the child as Guruswami, laughingly stating that he would not get even white sugar to celebrate the same. Naturally this was a rude shock to him who was pinning his faith to other guardians of the soul, but then my mother's sister came running and panting to announce to him my birth at the choultry. an incident which he could never have anticipated that the Judge Swamigal had saved the embryo by his treatment, while the native Doctors had drugged my mother believing she had mahodharam. So the unexpected child was there. in spite of many handicaps and it is sais twelve months after conception according to ladies calculations. probably an anecdote some months prior to my birth might though not scientifically explain the longer gestation of the child in the womb than normal. it is reported that Sadasiva Brahmendram (It is probably Judge Swamigal who was known in his sanyasarmam by this name- Ed) , the Swamiji who became the family guru, came to Biksha one day when my mother who was then enciente was serving him he saw how pale she was threw down the morsel of food and cried aloud that some brahma hatthi (The act of killing a brahmin-Editor) was going on and he prescribed coconut water for 3 days along with the smearing of sandal paste on my mother's stomach and would partake food only when he was sure that there was no danger to the child in the womb. such is the kindly care of really great Mahapurushas.
with so much of fore telling and trumpeteering was this child born. My mother was the pet of her two widowed aunts who resided with her. she was so simple and so good and unsuspecting that the relatives relieving her of many family and household furniture never even shook her from her lethargy. it is stated that she was taunted in and out of season about her having become the 3rd wife of an old man of her misfortune in having given birth to a number of daughters, of no mean degree in those days, the beginning of the twentieth century and of her certain widowhood. She seems to have had the only comfort ,namely visited sri Meenakshi temple daily and praying to the Holy Mother to give her a son and end her life and relieve her of all obloquy. It is also stated that she was absolutely philosophical in life and nothing out of the way-taunts, insults and inneuendos from her own kith and kin moved or agitated her mind. With an old husband who exchanged a few syllables once in a month to her and two daughters married and sent away (probably Chellammal and Meenammal-Ed) and with a slowly wasting anaemia she never expected presumably from life even when she was thirty two. But like all who have an unswerving and unfaltering faith in the almighty and who have a simple and unified thought without doubts born of study or disbelief she had her prayers answered. She got the male child she wanted and soon had a quiet departure from life surrounded by all in whose eyes she had grown in importance after the birth of a son-disquieting to some who had their own ideas of the division of the slender properties of the family where master was a vedanthi and a recluse and mistress listless and too much believing or even absolutely indifferent probably born out of a wisdom which was not prevalent in the world. She was wise to a degree though young.
The great pleasure of suckling her long prayed for baby was not to be hers as one American Doctor Van Atkin who said that the baby cannot survive on her milk. It was a great loss for the unthinking baby also as it had not even the normal privilege for drawing its sustenance from its own mother. Pity indeed!
The end was sudden in the presence of her father, her husband and doting aunts, and brothers one of whom was married to her second daughter though in pride of youth he refused to take her with him to hos place of employment as she was ailing and losing some hair and was pale. Infra dig indeed!! (beneath one's dignity- partly Latin -Ed).
The pleasure of having a male child overwhelmed all her other desires and she forgot her disappointments from her own kith and kin who did not evince much interest in her and her offsprings. It is said that she was losing her health very fast and was all anxious to entrust her God given gift to some one who will dearly rear it up with the sense of the plighted word to her on behalf of the child. That devoted friend was a vaishnavite lady in whose hands the child was entrusted. she almost seemed to have had a foresiight of the events to follow. She sent messages to her eldest daughterr who was keeping house with her husband at Chingleput gathered around her, her husband and paternal aunts to one of whom Ammalu Athai as she was named , she seems to have handed over her jewels for sale and purchase of lands for her son. She probably felt that she was not of that type to influence her aged husband who was beyond her comprehension by his ways and bent of mind. Almost within a few weeks on one Ekadasi day in the month of Vaikasi she asked all to bathe and eat and be happy and quietly and gently passed away. It was a shining lamp that glowed ; and spirited out. She had nothing to feel sorry for nor had she any desired left unfulfilled. Those who reviled her for having married an aged man andthose who positively thought that she will be left on their hands after him, all were deceived and Goddess Meenakshi gave her the best of repose.
I rarely remember her passing out of life but I gathered later the details of that glorious end. The dharma of a Hindu house wife was fulfilled and her task done, the spirit flew away from the body in peace. I also heard that the only man whow as deeply affected by the incident was her father and my maternal grandfather, Muthuswamy iyer already an old man. It is told that he had a sudden stroke of aplopexy or paralyis and was unconscious for days and had to be carried to his village, over which he reigned with glory all the many decades before this stroke holding his might to the best scion of the Kalla race and infact he was the dictator, guide, friend and philosopher for the weak and lowly and the downtrodden Harijan was always his protege.
________________________________________________________________________Editor's notes:
1.My grandfather's description of himself as "dark brat" is not to be taken literally. He was not dark complexioned if we consider the normal complexion of south Indians especially Tamilians. He was, in fact more handsome than most of the men I have met. This is a remark made more in self deprecating nature than as a fact.
2. The choultry which my grandfather (Guruppa) mentions namely Koolappa naicken Choultry does not exist today. Hence it is not possible to estimate the distance of the choultry from Guruppa's house. Guruppa's parents lived in Menkattu pottal. St George Church is the church Guruppa mentions as a church behind the house later in his book. (It was established in 1887 ).This place at present Madurai Google map is given below. I have heard my uncle (Periappa) saying that the present YMCA building was the location of the house in which Guruppa's parents were living. Menkattu ppottal is Tamil word created for Main Guard Square, the name British gave for the ground where their troops were garrisoned in 1825. For more information, one can look into the history of Madurai. Main Guard became Menkaattu and Square or ground became pottal in typical Madurai Tamizh.
3. It is somewhat disappointing that the year of birth has not been revealed. Since the astrological chart has been prepared, the year must have been available in the horoscope but for some reason my grandfather chose not to part with it.
I have the medal which was awarded to him as the student in 1916 when he was in V Form. This puts his year of birth as 1900./1901. There is one difficulty May 1st of these years is not having aswini star.
For seeing the photo of the medal you can click the link below.
https://drive.google.com/?tab=wo&authuser=0#folders/0B9lANa77RKheWGZQam5KalhBY3c
The inscription in the front side of the medal is as follows
Coronation Medal C N Guruswami 1916 WMHS Tiruvallur
On the rear side, George V figure along with the words George V King Emperor is inscribed.
Link for everse side is given below.
https://drive.google.com/?tab=wo&authuser=0#folders/0B9lANa77RKheWGZQam5KalhBY3c
4. For family tree Please click on the link below. years of births and deaths are best guesses subject to correction.
https://drive.google.com/?tab=wo&authuser=0#folders/0B9lANa77RKheWGZQam5KalhBY3c
5.Anangur is a small Village/hamlet in Kuttalam Taluk in Nagapattinam District of Tamil Nadu State, India. It comes under Mekkirimangalam Panchayath. It is located 49 KM towards west from District head quarters Nagapattinam. 3 KM from Kuttalam.
10. VICHARA SAGARAM: Tamil
translation by A. Siva Rao of the Hindi original by Swami Nischala Das;
pub. by Sri Vasudeva Brahmendra Saraswati Swamigal Library Committee, 88,
Pattamangalam Street, Mayiladuthurai-609001.. Price not mentioned. (See the article in " The Hindu" in the link)
This the only book available now of the books mentioned in the chapter as written by my grandfather's father. You may see the web site for more details of the book.
11. Bharat Ratna Shri Bhagwan Das : Born in Varanasi, India, he graduated school to became a deputy in the collections bureau, and later left to continue his academic pursuits. Das joined the Theosophical Society in 1894 inspired by a speech by Annie Besant. After the 1895 split, he sided with the Theosophical Society Adyar. Within that society, he was an opponent of Jiddu Krishnamurti and his Order of the Star in the East organisation. Das joined the Indian National Congress during the Non-cooperation movement and was honoured with the Bharat Ratna in 1955. for more details you may see the link pasted below.
I have heard it said that with birth pangs, my dear mother ran from the southern end of the city where she and my father had their own residence, to this choultry after all to bring forth this brat she having had a surfeit of daughters in having been unwise to deliver them in her own house which seemed to be reputed to have a preference to the delivering of children of fair sex. (Ref 2). Fortunately as it happened my mother ,by this prudential step, changed my sex and brought forth me on a hot bright forenoon in the month of Baisak corresponding to May some year in the beginning of this marvellous twentieth century.(Ref 3) It is not out of place here to detail a few pre natal predictions regarding this ushering in of my poor self in this wonderful world.
My father happened to be the 4th and last son of an illustrious administrator of the petty state of Pudukkottah in the early nineteenth century. (Family tree-Ref 4). He himself was a self made adventurer almost who left while quite young, left his large estate he being the only son of his father who was gathered to his fathers when he was of tender age.He had probably had his tutoring in samskrit and vedas and was married quite early to his own maternal uncle's daughter. It is said of him that his young wife developed a grouse against her parents and would not partake a meal in their house , this gentle man quietly had his fill and when taunted by his wife that she was hungry coolly replied " You hate my uncle and aunt and their food and so wholesome to me will not be good fodder for you. Such a hatred can bring only starvation." whatever may be the moral of the story might be, it is a good lesson for anyone who has to be sociable here.
The young thing found its wings to heaven and the man was left adrift in the world in a village called anangur (ஆநாங்கூர் ) near Mayavaram (Ref 5). He saw no comfort in the other material belongings of the world and without shackles and driven by deep remorse at the parting with his lovely wife.left his place without anybody's knowledge and seems to have done some wild wandering gathering useful knowledge and meeting great men in the land who drove him back to the house-holder's life again. He reappeared in the moving world at Pudukkottah.state a handsome strapling of eight and twenty years and attacked the citadel straight with his astounding knowledge of astrology. In my life reading of Brighu Nadi it is said of him "त्रि काल मतिमान चेति " etc. This knowledge he pressed into service for advancements in the world and while as a guest -probably unknown and unwelcome then- in the then Diwan's house predicted boldly that he had come there to marry his daughter. What cheek in a "loafer" almost!! His astounding predictions before the then Maharaja (Ref 6) regarding his lost signet ring and other such amazing predictions regarding the matters of state won for him the hand of that maiden whom he wooed at first sight. Behold the Diwan had to give this man his daughter and the marriage was celebrated as a state function. He rose to fame entered into some treaty with the East India company thereby which the state was to pay only 24 amman kasus as royalty or feudal fee to the British. He is said to have introduced Indigo manufacture in the state, was its state astrologer, set up on a fixed basis many charities of which the Friday and Shri Navarathri charities and vidwat sadas are said to be some. Lo! they have vanished today. It is reported that he established Sri Sadasiva Brahmendra Puja in the palace and set apart property for the same at Nerur. This is all what is reported by my father and other relations and I have not been able to get any authentic state records to prove or disprove the same. Anyway in the midst of the coterie he built up in the state, he lived for a pretty number of years with fame as the first citizen and it is said his first seat in the state assembly is kept yet unfilled. Suffice it is to say that he enjoyed life, created a number of good things , fed people in four communicating houses on shraddha days and with his second wife also pre deceasing, left four sons of whom my father was the youngest and a daughter who was married at Kokkarasampeettai a hamlet on the cauvery nearer Trichy than Tanjore . He got his first three sons married as per his choice. His last son was not married when he was in his last days and as a comfort to him probably, he gave him a message namely that he will have a son in his 58th year by his 3rd wife who may be named after him and gave him my birth chart on a palm leaf which my father preseved for a long time. My paternal uncles were each of one variety but the family solidarity was shaken and the elders had their days of luxuriou lives on the earnings of my grandfather and soon spent them out. The third of my paternal uncles was so famed for his knowledge of the then insidiously spreading and much valued Anglo saxon that it was to his glory that he could recite "Rasselas" by heart. (Ref 7). A feat indeed during these times also. he went to Madras and got some passport to practice in the then Chief Court of Madras and with coach and pair and what not spent out his share of his patrimony and my father had to bring down that spendthrift to Sivaganga saving him by settling his share and returning his debts. By then my father who was the youngest had his schooling in the vaideek way and was an expert at sama gana. His next elder brother thought such a gain was no qualification for the the swiftly advancing western civilization taught him English and my father joined the normal school for teachers at Srirangam. The only reply before the admission to the European selecting body being the flabbergasting reply "I come from the northern frontier of Trichinopoly, Pudukkottah state!!" This was too big a mouthful to expect from a brahmin youth in those orthodox days and he gained his admission and schooling to end in a headmastership of udumalpet English School in his early twenties- a coveted post indeed.He got married to his own uncle's daughter in an almost unpretentious way and he used to tell us that he became a vedantin under her tutelage. Imagine a young married couple reading "Gnana Vasishta" on the bridal night and letting the oil in that lamp getting used up until the dawn and its simmering light swept into the room as if not to put a stop to such heart to heart upadesh. Such joy was too short -as it could only be so in such abnormal life - and she left her mortal coil leaving my father again unpartnered in this wide world but she left him an abundance of mental strength and equanimity which had served him during the rest of his life. he had his transfers in more than one of southern districts and wherever he went, he started so many schools as to get him the appellation from his then superior Mr Duncan that he was the" pioneer of education in south India".That apart in one of his visits as an Inspector of his schools in the Ramnad District he met a boy who wrote "Sivamayam" for his answer as his caste to his question. My father was pleasantly surprised but his vedantic training made him sense the future greatness in the boy, whom he hugged and begged of his father to release him from the trammels of schooling and probably life. This boy flowered forth as Sri Ramana Maharishi whose ever present soul breathes around us even today. (Ref 8). Probably I am wandering with the episodes not direct nor relevant but they are worth recording. he had to marry a second time being a man in his twenties (circa 1862-Editor) and he married in Madura District from which time the jurisdiction or circle of relationship extended beyond the state. (state of Pudukkottah is meant here -Ed).
It was said that she was very tasteful, loving and amorous wife and my father used to say that she was, in such activities, gave him all the marital pleasures which his first wife probably denied him. This lady had rich relations and widowed aunts to cater to her wants so much so she was a 'bride' to the last days of her life. Death cast her off from my father and he was again destitute and forlorn in his thirtieth year (circa 1872 -Ed) and one female child the result of that union soon followed its mother. What setback in a man's life?. But his training in Vedantha stood him in good stead. Rather it almost deadened his feelings and created in him, a vairagya of a very high order and he became a recluse from that time. His destiny was otherwise and his second wife's brothers who were then, one of them being a vakil with a voice and anotherr something to do with Ettiyapuram Zamin did not allow him the segregation from life that he yearned for and he was married a third time to their third brother's daughter-my mother. (Could it be around 1885?-Ed). It was during this stage in life that my father was almost reputed to be a "shushka vedanthi" having lost faith in everything except perhaps in an inexorable fate that pursued him. At Sivaganga, he met the Avadhutha -the Judge Swamigal- (also referred to as HH Sadhasiva Brahmendra swamigal later-Ed) (Ref 9) as he was called. he is said to have got down from his Judge's seat in travancore state one day to emerge after a few years of Agnatha vasam as an avadhutha (one who wears no clothes except perhaps a loin cloth-Ed). My father by then had developed a hatred for all sanyasins and even all so called religions and spiritual institutions but this great avadhutha by a glance converted him into a believer in atma Vidya and in people who were proficient in that. My father had his tutoring under him in the Upanishads and in Prasthana Thrayam. proceeding at the rate of one sloka per day. It used to be said that the swamiji was fond of playing with a top and was constantly watching it spinning probably deriving pleasure in "rest in intense motion". The chela of swamiji was then a brahmachari who later on became the avadhuta swamigal of sendhamangalam.
after a few years the swamiji left ("left" sivaganga to Madurai-Ed ) and before that he seems to have predicted the birth of a son in a few years. My father had lost faith in almost all such predictions especially when anything conducive to happiness was predicted and about the future. He was a stoid and stern man and when he came to Madura, he got into a group of very eminent men who introduced him to Theosophy and he was soon an FTS (Fellow of theosophical society). That was a few years before my birth. He had four daughters by then (all these children should have been born between 1885 to 1898-Ed) and he was so sufficiently surfeited with family life that he took refuge in theosophical work and in the building of The Brahma Gnana sabha edifice at Sandhaippettai street in Madurai where he permanently lived except coming home for a meal. He took full advantage furlough and all kinds of leave that the Government could grant him preparatory to retirement. He sank himself into translating books like "vichara sagaram, Manisha Panchakam, Datta siva murthy ashtakam and all the Upanishads. .( Ref 10 vichara Sagaram)
It was a notable trait with him that he never put his name for any of his works which appeared over the name of one of his close friends then one A Siva Rao a Desastha Maratha Brahmin. He had long trips over the country for collaborating with people of such eminence as Bhagwan Das (Ref 11 ) and he was lecturing mostly under the protecting wings of the Theosophical Society.(For life sketch of Shri Bhagwan Das Ref Bhagwan Das ).
When he was one day making his Dhyan in the Theosophical Buildings having by then probably got more attached to the theosophical masters. he had a vision of his master , the avadhutha swamigal who in broad daylight asked him to proceed to the choultry where his son was born directing to name the child as Guruswami, laughingly stating that he would not get even white sugar to celebrate the same. Naturally this was a rude shock to him who was pinning his faith to other guardians of the soul, but then my mother's sister came running and panting to announce to him my birth at the choultry. an incident which he could never have anticipated that the Judge Swamigal had saved the embryo by his treatment, while the native Doctors had drugged my mother believing she had mahodharam. So the unexpected child was there. in spite of many handicaps and it is sais twelve months after conception according to ladies calculations. probably an anecdote some months prior to my birth might though not scientifically explain the longer gestation of the child in the womb than normal. it is reported that Sadasiva Brahmendram (It is probably Judge Swamigal who was known in his sanyasarmam by this name- Ed) , the Swamiji who became the family guru, came to Biksha one day when my mother who was then enciente was serving him he saw how pale she was threw down the morsel of food and cried aloud that some brahma hatthi (The act of killing a brahmin-Editor) was going on and he prescribed coconut water for 3 days along with the smearing of sandal paste on my mother's stomach and would partake food only when he was sure that there was no danger to the child in the womb. such is the kindly care of really great Mahapurushas.
with so much of fore telling and trumpeteering was this child born. My mother was the pet of her two widowed aunts who resided with her. she was so simple and so good and unsuspecting that the relatives relieving her of many family and household furniture never even shook her from her lethargy. it is stated that she was taunted in and out of season about her having become the 3rd wife of an old man of her misfortune in having given birth to a number of daughters, of no mean degree in those days, the beginning of the twentieth century and of her certain widowhood. She seems to have had the only comfort ,namely visited sri Meenakshi temple daily and praying to the Holy Mother to give her a son and end her life and relieve her of all obloquy. It is also stated that she was absolutely philosophical in life and nothing out of the way-taunts, insults and inneuendos from her own kith and kin moved or agitated her mind. With an old husband who exchanged a few syllables once in a month to her and two daughters married and sent away (probably Chellammal and Meenammal-Ed) and with a slowly wasting anaemia she never expected presumably from life even when she was thirty two. But like all who have an unswerving and unfaltering faith in the almighty and who have a simple and unified thought without doubts born of study or disbelief she had her prayers answered. She got the male child she wanted and soon had a quiet departure from life surrounded by all in whose eyes she had grown in importance after the birth of a son-disquieting to some who had their own ideas of the division of the slender properties of the family where master was a vedanthi and a recluse and mistress listless and too much believing or even absolutely indifferent probably born out of a wisdom which was not prevalent in the world. She was wise to a degree though young.
The great pleasure of suckling her long prayed for baby was not to be hers as one American Doctor Van Atkin who said that the baby cannot survive on her milk. It was a great loss for the unthinking baby also as it had not even the normal privilege for drawing its sustenance from its own mother. Pity indeed!
The end was sudden in the presence of her father, her husband and doting aunts, and brothers one of whom was married to her second daughter though in pride of youth he refused to take her with him to hos place of employment as she was ailing and losing some hair and was pale. Infra dig indeed!! (beneath one's dignity- partly Latin -Ed).
The pleasure of having a male child overwhelmed all her other desires and she forgot her disappointments from her own kith and kin who did not evince much interest in her and her offsprings. It is said that she was losing her health very fast and was all anxious to entrust her God given gift to some one who will dearly rear it up with the sense of the plighted word to her on behalf of the child. That devoted friend was a vaishnavite lady in whose hands the child was entrusted. she almost seemed to have had a foresiight of the events to follow. She sent messages to her eldest daughterr who was keeping house with her husband at Chingleput gathered around her, her husband and paternal aunts to one of whom Ammalu Athai as she was named , she seems to have handed over her jewels for sale and purchase of lands for her son. She probably felt that she was not of that type to influence her aged husband who was beyond her comprehension by his ways and bent of mind. Almost within a few weeks on one Ekadasi day in the month of Vaikasi she asked all to bathe and eat and be happy and quietly and gently passed away. It was a shining lamp that glowed ; and spirited out. She had nothing to feel sorry for nor had she any desired left unfulfilled. Those who reviled her for having married an aged man andthose who positively thought that she will be left on their hands after him, all were deceived and Goddess Meenakshi gave her the best of repose.
I rarely remember her passing out of life but I gathered later the details of that glorious end. The dharma of a Hindu house wife was fulfilled and her task done, the spirit flew away from the body in peace. I also heard that the only man whow as deeply affected by the incident was her father and my maternal grandfather, Muthuswamy iyer already an old man. It is told that he had a sudden stroke of aplopexy or paralyis and was unconscious for days and had to be carried to his village, over which he reigned with glory all the many decades before this stroke holding his might to the best scion of the Kalla race and infact he was the dictator, guide, friend and philosopher for the weak and lowly and the downtrodden Harijan was always his protege.
________________________________________________________________________Editor's notes:
1.My grandfather's description of himself as "dark brat" is not to be taken literally. He was not dark complexioned if we consider the normal complexion of south Indians especially Tamilians. He was, in fact more handsome than most of the men I have met. This is a remark made more in self deprecating nature than as a fact.
2. The choultry which my grandfather (Guruppa) mentions namely Koolappa naicken Choultry does not exist today. Hence it is not possible to estimate the distance of the choultry from Guruppa's house. Guruppa's parents lived in Menkattu pottal. St George Church is the church Guruppa mentions as a church behind the house later in his book. (It was established in 1887 ).This place at present Madurai Google map is given below. I have heard my uncle (Periappa) saying that the present YMCA building was the location of the house in which Guruppa's parents were living. Menkattu ppottal is Tamil word created for Main Guard Square, the name British gave for the ground where their troops were garrisoned in 1825. For more information, one can look into the history of Madurai. Main Guard became Menkaattu and Square or ground became pottal in typical Madurai Tamizh.
3. It is somewhat disappointing that the year of birth has not been revealed. Since the astrological chart has been prepared, the year must have been available in the horoscope but for some reason my grandfather chose not to part with it.
I have the medal which was awarded to him as the student in 1916 when he was in V Form. This puts his year of birth as 1900./1901. There is one difficulty May 1st of these years is not having aswini star.
For seeing the photo of the medal you can click the link below.
https://drive.google.com/?tab=wo&authuser=0#folders/0B9lANa77RKheWGZQam5KalhBY3c
The inscription in the front side of the medal is as follows
Coronation Medal C N Guruswami 1916 WMHS Tiruvallur
On the rear side, George V figure along with the words George V King Emperor is inscribed.
Link for everse side is given below.
https://drive.google.com/?tab=wo&authuser=0#folders/0B9lANa77RKheWGZQam5KalhBY3c
4. For family tree Please click on the link below. years of births and deaths are best guesses subject to correction.
https://drive.google.com/?tab=wo&authuser=0#folders/0B9lANa77RKheWGZQam5KalhBY3c
5.Anangur is a small Village/hamlet in Kuttalam Taluk in Nagapattinam District of Tamil Nadu State, India. It comes under Mekkirimangalam Panchayath. It is located 49 KM towards west from District head quarters Nagapattinam. 3 KM from Kuttalam.
Mahaperiyava (Kanchi Kamakoti Shri Jagadguru Chandrasekarendra sarawathi swami avargal) has spoken about anangur. ( It could have been named as Aa Nalgur ஆ நல்கூர் (a place where cows are bred)) ,nearby Mekkerimangalam being the gracing ground. Maha periyava said the congregation of brahmins in aanangur was natural as brahmins need cows for their vedic rites. Mahaperiyava also spoke the connection of this place with a puranic incident when due to some curse Ambal became a cow and Shri Maha vishnu became the shepherd.
Further details can be had from the following reference.
6. The Maharaja could be Raja
Raghunatha Thondaiman who ruled from 1825-1839 and who was known for his religious bent
of mind.
7. The
History of Rasselas, prince of Abyssenia by Samuel Johnson published around 1800.
8. Sri
Ramana Maharishi was born in 1879 and had his primary schooling in Tiruchuzhi till 1891 according to
Ramanashram website. Ramanar's father passed away in 1895. So, this incident
may have happened in 1890 when my grandfather's father was Inspector of schools in
Sivaganga which is 45 km north of Tiruchuzhi. The jurisdiction of Inspectorate of Schools was apparently big in those days. The transition
of Guruppa's father's career from Headmaster udumalpet High school (It exists
even today as Udumalaippettai Government Higher secondary school) to Inspector
of schools is not clear but must have happened around or slightly before that
time.
9.Judge
swamigal ( H H Sadasiva Brahmendra swamigal) He took samadhi in Pudukkottai in 1908 according to a website maintained by Shantananda ashram. sendhamnagalam swamigal was the sishya of Judge Swamigal and Guru of Shantanda
swamigal with whom my grandfather shared a friendly relationship. Photo of Judge swamigal is given below.
This the only book available now of the books mentioned in the chapter as written by my grandfather's father. You may see the web site for more details of the book.
11. Bharat Ratna Shri Bhagwan Das : Born in Varanasi, India, he graduated school to became a deputy in the collections bureau, and later left to continue his academic pursuits. Das joined the Theosophical Society in 1894 inspired by a speech by Annie Besant. After the 1895 split, he sided with the Theosophical Society Adyar. Within that society, he was an opponent of Jiddu Krishnamurti and his Order of the Star in the East organisation. Das joined the Indian National Congress during the Non-cooperation movement and was honoured with the Bharat Ratna in 1955. for more details you may see the link pasted below.
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