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Jagadguru
Early life
In the first week of February 1907, the Kanchi Kamakoti Math had
informed Subramanya Sastrigal that Swaminathan's first cousin (son
of his mother's sister) was to be installed as the 67th Peetathipathi.
The presiding Acharya was then suffering from smallpox and had the
premonition that he might not live long. He had, therefore,
administered upadesa to his disciple Lakshminathan before he died.
Sastrigal being away in Trichinopoly on duty arranged for the
departure of Swaminathan with his mother to Kanchipuram. The boy
and his mother started for Kalavai (where Lakshminathan was
camping) to console his aunt who, while also being a widow, had
just given up her only son to be an ascetic. They traveled by train to
Kanchipuram and halted at the Sankara Math. By then,
Lakshminathan had fallen ill:
I had a bath at the Kumara Koshta Tirtha. A carriage of the Math had
come there from Kalavai with the people to buy articles for the Maha
Puja on the tenth day of the passing of the previous 66th Acharya.
One of them, a hereditary maistry (mason) of the Math, asked me to
accompany him. A separate cart was engaged for the rest of the
family to follow me. During the journey the maistry hinted to me
that I might not return home and that the rest of my life might be
spent in the Math itself. At first I thought that my elder cousin
having become the Head of the Math, it was his wish that I should
live with him. But the maistry gradually clarified matters as the cart
rolled on. The acharya had fever which developed into delirium and
that was why I was being separated from the family to be taken to
Kalavai... I was stunned by this unexpected turn of events. I lay in a
kneeling posture in the cart, shocked as I was, repeating "Rama...
Rama," the only prayer I knew. My mother and other children came
some time later only to find that instead of her mission of consoling
her sister, she herself was placed in the state of having to be
consoled
—T.M.P. Mahadevan, The Sage of Kanchi
The 67th Acharya also died, after reigning for a brief seven days as
the head of the Math. Swaminathan was immediately installed as the
68th head of the Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam on February 13, 1907, the
second day of the Tamil month of Masi, Prabhava year. He was given
Sanyasa Asramam at the early age of 13 and was named
Chandrasekharendra Saraswati. On May 9, 1907 his
"Pattabishekam" as the 68th Peetathipathi of Kanchi Kamakoti
Peetam was performed at the Kumbakonam Math. Devotees
including Shivaji Maharaja of Tanjavur, government officials and
pundits participated in the event.
Maha Periyavaal was the head of the Mutt for eighty-seven years.
During this period, the Sri Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam acquired new
strength as an institution that propagated Śankara's teachings. The
devotion, fervour, and intensity with which the Paramacharya
practiced what Śankara had taught are considered to be unparalleled
by his devotees. Throughout his life, the focus of his concern and
activities was rejuvenating Veda adhyayana, the Dharma Sasthras,
and the age-old tradition, which had suffered decline. "Veda
rakshanam" was his very life breath, and he referred to this in most
of his talks.
Though Periyavaa did not get directly into politics, he was interested
in the happenings. At Nellichery in Palakkad (Present Day Kerala),
Rajaji and Mahatma Gandhi met the Acharya in a cow shed. It was a
practice in the mutt to wear silk clothes. But Acharya was the first
one to do away with them and shifted to Khadi robes at
Rameshwaram. He requested his devotees to do away with foreign/
non natural clothes some time earlier at Trichy. The day India
became free, he gave the Maithreem Bhajata song, which was later
to be sung at the UN by M S Subbulakshmi. He gave a speech on the
significance of the flag and the Dharma chakra in it on that day.
Devotees
Periyava's charm invited the rich and the poor, the old and the
young alike to be his devotees. Some of his famous devotees
include, their highness the King and Queen of Nepal, the Queen
Mother of Greece, the Dalai Lama, M. S. Subbulakshmi, Indira
Gandhi, R. Venkatraman and Atal Bihari Vajpayee among others. To
the Acharya, the VIPs and the common man were one and the same.
There were thousands of personal experiences to lakhs of his
devotees, who still revere him, and pray to him as a messenger of
the Supreme or an ultimate Guru.
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