Jayendra saraswathi biography samples
And so he fades into the twilight. Sri Jayendra Saraswathi Swamigal will be missed for he had a knack of being forever in the news. His death triggered in me memories of the intense Sringeri vs Kanchi wars that were fought in my family during the 1970s and 1980s. The matter faded out thereafter, at least in chez Ramaiya but it did occupy centerstage for a decade and more.
We came from a strongly Sringeri tradition. My paternal grandfather, V Ramaiya, was an amazingly talented civil engineer who rose to very senior levels in the South Indian Railway Company and later became a Sanskrit scholar. His talent in that area was liked by both HH Abhinava Vidyateertha of Sringeri and HH Chandrashekharendra Saraswathi of Kanchi but for all practical purposes he was a Sringeri man.
He never made his inclination public and if you had to see fanatics then you needed to meet my imperious grandmother and my equally imperious aunt. They were both devoted to (aunt was in particular obsessed with) the Sringeri Sarada Peetham (in our house we could never refer to it as the Mutt/Matham) and therefore took no cognisance of the Kanchi Mutt (in our house you never referred to it as the Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham).
By some quirk of fate, my dad and the majority of his siblings married into Kanchi following families and that gave rise to many peculiar situations. Take for instance the obligatory green-and-yellow-on-the-inside-and-pink-and-blue-outside invitation cards. Which Jagadguru were you to hold responsible for the forthcoming wedding/sacred thread ceremony/seemantham, etc? Many acrimonious debates would take place. One cousin thought he had solved it all by simply stating that the event was with the blessings of the Sankaracharya. But this pleased nobody, because each camp thought he was favouring the other. This battle was such a recurring feature that even today when I get those traditional invites I always look to see who is the Sankaracharya getting all the credit. Not that it Kanchi Sankara Matam I am writing this blog in the aftermath of a controversy involving Kanchi Junior Sankaracharya over paying respect to Tamil Anthem by standing up. Inspired by the controversy, I started looking for the origin and activities of the matam, I am dumbfounded by the falsity on the founding of the matam. The name Sankaracharya appended to the matathipathis of Kanchi, it seems, does not imply that it was founded by Adi Sankara. The history of the matam is steeped in fraud, dishonesty and deception. Before going into the history of the matam, let me give some background information about the past and present matathipathis.
It is a well-known fact the matam never treats Tamil on par with Sanskrit and also never treats non-Brahmins on par with Brahmins. Agnihotram Ramanuja Thathacharyar in a book reminisced about how Tamil was treated as a ‘theettu’ (tainted) language by the late Chandrasekharendra Sankaracharya of Kanchi. Once the Sankaracharya happened to talk to a wealthy Chettiyar in Tamil after having completed his pooja (pooja recitals are done in Sanskrit). So to wash off the theettu of talking in Tamil, he took bath and went to bed. In recent times, during a yagam, Jayendra Sankaracharya seated A.P.Shinde, a Dalit by birth (then a Union Minister) on the floor at a distance and seated Jayalalithaa, a Brahmin, on chair beside him. So much for the caste restrictions of the matam.
Some Brahmins recite the slogan of equality of all Acharyas and pride themselves on their socialistic outlook, but neither they nor the pontiff of Kanchi matam refuse to treat all humans as equals. Though the Kanchi matam claims to stand for Hinduism, it is a matam of the Brahmins, by the Brahmins and for the Brahmins. The Brahmins ascribe utmost sanctity and reverence to the matam but does the matam worthy of it? Sadly not and truly speaking it need not deserve encomiums of divinity and infallibility. The birth of the matam is rooted in lies, frauds and thieved dubi Jayendra Saraswathi and Shankaracharya tradition: All you need to know
He had been keeping unwell for a last few days and was rushed to a hospital near Kamakshi Amman temple after he complained of breathlessness.
Here’s a brief look at the life led by him and the general Shankaracharya tradion:
*Born as Subramanyam Mahadeva Iyer in Irulneeki, a village in Tiruvarur district on July 18, 1935, he became a pontiff of the Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam, founded by Adi Shankaracharya in the 8th century.
*Adi Shankaracharya was also the propagator of Advaita Vedanta, which caused a paradigm shift within Hinduism.
MUTTS AND THEIR SEERS
*Jayendra assumed charge as the Peetathipathi of the Hindu monastery on March 22, 1994 after the demise of the then Peethathipathi, Sri Chandrasekharendra Sarawathi Swamigal.
*As a Shankaracharya, he was seen as an avatar of Shiva (Shankara) and promulgated the concept of Sanatana dharma.
*He led a high-profile life (compared to his predecessor) and is widely believed to have enjoyed a good rapport with many high-level politicians across the country.
*During his tenure as head of the Kanchi mutt, the institution expanded its horizons by setting up several schools, eye clinics and hospitals.
*Much of the discourse surrounding him revolved around the murder of Sankararaman, manager of Varadaraja Perumal temple, for which he was arrested in 2004 and faced a prolonged legal trial. He was acquitted by the Puducherry court in 2013.
*The case took twists and turns with four judges hearing the case as also allegations that the senior pontiff was trying to influence the judgement. Over 180 prosecution witnesses were examined in the court, less than half turned hostile. Many others failed to back the prosecution.
*In 1987, he had suddenly gone missing from the mutt. Three days later, Kanchi seer Sri Jayendra Saraswathi: A seer who saw it all
Born Subramania Mahadeva Iyer on July 18, 1935, Sri Jayendra Saraswathi was in 1954 chosen to be deputy of Sri Chandrasekarendra Saraswathi and 69th pontiff of the revered institution.
In 1994, he became head of the mutt, which, during his stint, rose to be a spiritual and financial power house, running several hospitals and educational institutions, including a medical college. At one point, he was involved in negotiating peace during the Ayodhya dispute. And no Union minister, Prime Minister or President would draw an itinerary to Tamil Naduwithout a stop-over for a darshan at the mutt. “He was a modern day Ramanujar, and started a large number of institutions and helped educate a vast section of backward sections of society. He was not liked by people who saw him as deviating from the norms fixed by his predecessors. He also ventured out of the mutt to reach out to people. But he was misunderstood,” says advocate V Raghavachari.
Controversies peaked, when the senior pontiff was arrested in 2004 in connection with the Sankararaman murder case, and faced harassment allegations levelled by a woman writer. Open negative criticism poured in from the media. On Diwalieve, November 11, Jayendra Saraswathi was arrested on charges for murder of Sankararaman, manager of Varadaraja Perumal temple in Kancheepuram. The seer was in jail till January 5, 2005.
It was nearly eight years later in 2013, that the pontiff and others from the mutt were acquitted of all charges by a Puducherry special court. The territorial administration, which became the prosecuting state after the trial was shifted out of Tamil Nadu, decided not to go on appeal against the acquittal.
According to the then advocate