Date of Birth: 25th December 1947.
Place of Birth: Kattubadipalem Village, Nellore District,
Andhra Pradesh.
His Holiness Swami Sundara Chaitanyanandaji is the eighth child of
Sri Perumbuduru Seshacharyulu and Smt. Ranganayakamma, a devout couple of an
orthodox Vaishnava family whose forefathers hailed from Sri Perumbuduru of
Chengalpat district, Tamilnadu. Sri Perumbuduru is also the birthplace of Sri
Ramanujacharyulu. His Holiness arrived into the world at four in the morning.
That was the date, time and place which providence chose for the divinely evolved
being to embody himself as the glorious flute of the Lord to play the music of
divinity to mankind.
In our sacred Hindu culture ‘Brahma muhurtam’ or the small hours
before dawn, is the time when the Lord of the universe is awakened, or rather,
invoked by hymns and prayers. This is the most auspicious and fruitful time of
the day for a ‘sadhaka’ or a seeker after God. As though to awaken humanity to
its forgotten goal, the newborn baby uttered his first cry at four in the
morning.
The blessed mother was enraptured to hear the cry of her son
synchronized with and tuned to the hymn of the Haridasa outside, ‘Hari lo. .
Ranga . . . Hari. Hari lo.. Ranga… Hari’, that echoed through the quiet, narrow
streets of the slumbering hamlet. She, by her maternal instinct perhaps, at
once understood that it was the mission of her son to preach the world that
‘nama sankeertana’, or chanting the name of the Lord was the only antidote to
the miseries of human life. She firmly believed that this was the only cause of
her son’s
advent into the world on the auspicious day coinciding with Gita
Jayanthi & Vaikuntha Ekadasi. It was this faith of the mother that later on
inspired her son to popularize ‘nama sankeertana’ among the masses, both the
lay people and the learned philosophers.
The parents named their son Sundara Rajan, and aptly so! For by
cherishing sacred thoughts, hopes and purposes as he grew up he blossomed into
a beautiful personality. His tremendous spiritual charisma that attracts,
influences and inspires the millions is nothing but the light of the Lord’s
halo that permeates and envelops his whole being.
Sundara Rajan’s habit of closely observing and analyzing the
bitter, inevitable experiences of life had moved him towards the spiritual
world even in his childhood. He kept asking himself and every informed person
he met queries about birth, death, life and rebirth; about the world, its truth
and untruth. His quest went on for years both within and without but he could
draw no conclusion from it. Neither his household nor the teachers in school
could help him find answers to these queries. In his despondency, the only ray
of hope was his pious and devout mother who showed him the path of devotion and
said it would lead him to godhead. He wept at the feet of the Lord day and
night and finally when His grace showered upon him his ignorance vanished and
his misery ceased. His self-unfoldment had burst forth into full bloom in all
its fragrance. The realization of God as the Universal Self led to the
experience of universal sympathy, universal love and universal bliss.
Consequently, he gave up his plans of retiring from the busy world and leading
the life of a recluse. Instead, he made up his mind to serve the society
selflessly and in this way serve Him who is the one effulgent Truth behind all
the world panorama.
A Teacher who understands the thought:
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| SUNDARA CHAITANYANANDA |
Swami Sundara Chaitanyanandaji’s Gita Gyana Yagnas have marked a
new epoch in the history of Hindu culture. As our Guide and Master, he resolves
to make each one of us morally strong, spiritually evolved and ethically good.
He works with diligence and a consistency of purpose to bring about an inward
conversion and the necessary orientation in the wisdom of the individual and
leads him towards perfection.
Param Pujya Swamiji is a great devotee, an ascetic of rare dignity
and a saint of the highest order. He touches the hearts of millions with and
divine grace. In his sacred presence false illusions and foggy notions that
shroud the intellect vanish like vapor before Sun; and mentalities as hard as
bronze and ideas as unbreakable as iron melt like snow.
His writings and speeches have succeeded in convincingly
presenting the scientific conclusions of the Vedas, Upanishads, Puranas and
Itihasas bringing about a change of heart in those who have no faith at all.
His vast knowledge, oratory, literary and intellectual skills have
been fully utilized by Swamiji in training our generation to live the Hindu –
way of life.
Noble in thought, magnanimous in attitude and indescribable in
faculties, Swamiji is a celebrity of great caliber. Today, Pujya Swamiji is deified
and worshipped by millions.
‘Pen is mightier than sword’ goes the saying. The pen has indeed
been Swamiji’s powerful instrument of religious propaganda and missionary work
of spreading the vital values of our culture through his books numbering more
than one hundred. So far, Swamiji has established more than hundred satsangs.
Super-human in his wisdom and power, Swamiji miraculously helps the unfoldment
in each individual through these Satsangs – if the seeker’s intentions are
noble, his faith strong and his dedication complete.
Pujya Swamiji is a teacher who understands the taught. He
consoles, uplifts and fathers the spiritual aspirant in every one of us. His
voice charms the ear and his music thrills the heart. He is an ocean of
eloquence and wherever he speaks, the place of the yagna is transformed into a
pilgrim centre. It is a sea of humanity and we see around us men and women, old
and young, the lay and the learned, students, teachers, scientists,
philosophers, skeptics and atheists listening to him amazed and awe-struck. We
feel we are one among a
congregation of god men and saints. As we listen with rapt
attention time flies, the miracle is worked and we return home pure at heart
and
sublime in thought.
The Blessed Saint:
Sri Swami Shudhananda Bharati, the founder of Yoga Samaj, a
saint-scholar of international renown and a close associate of Sri Shiridi
Saibaba,
Bhagawan Ramana Maharshi, Sri Aurobindo and Swami Sivananda had
given Swamiji spiritual initiation and lauded him as the Torch-bearer of
Sanatana Dharma. Appreciating Swamiji’s erudition and oratory, that has a
flourish of rhetoric and tuneful diction, Pujya Sri Viswesatheertha Swamiji,
head of the Pejawar Math, Udipi, had honoured him with the title Gyana Brahma.
As a founder of more than 100 satsangs Swamiji had been blessed with the title
Satsanga Pracharamani by Pujya Sri Jayendra Saraswathi Swami of Kanchi Kamakoti
peetham. In Visakhapatnam a group of 64 spiritual and cultural organizations
had honored Swamiji with a gold crown and conferred on him the title
‘Arshavidya Vachaspati’. Appreciating the unprecedented level of Swamiji’s
spiritual service to society Swami Chinmayananda had commented:
“The work done by Swami Sundara Chaitanyananda thrills me to no
end. This is exactly what is to be done if they must organize a successful and
silent campaign for our cultural revival through Vedanta study”. In his
foreword written to the book Vishnu Sahasranamam by Swamiji,
Swami Ranganadhananda, President, Ramakrishna Math, had stated :
“The Telugu – speaking world will forever be indebted to Pujya Swamiji
for the number of valuable books he has written on various
subjects”.
.jpg "Swami Chinmayananda Saraswati")
