Rama Krathu - A Tribute to HH Pedda Jeeyar Swamy

The Statue of Equality to be inaugurated in the presence of the President of India Ramnadh Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in February will have another milestone. The project will have a Rama Krathu Swadhyana Gyana Stupam. It will be a gallery of Alwars saints of the Vaishnav tradition. In future, every Pillar will be etched with the life and message of the Ramanuja.

Explaining the background of the Stupam, Chinna Jeeyar Swamy said Sri Sri Sri Tridandi Srimannarayana Ramanuja Jeeyar Swamiji (Pedda Jeeyar Swamy) started performing Sri Rama Kratu in 1960. One hundred and eight such Kratus were performed all over India and Nepal. The unique feature of the Kratu was that each one was started at a new place on every Punarvasu star and Agni was kept alive continuously for a period of nine years. In each Kratu, Havan for Sri Rama was done apart from recitation of Sri Ramayanam.

Sri Rama Nama was written on the bricks utilised for the construction of Sri Rama stupas. On the four walls of the stupa, verses from the Samkshepa Ramayanam were engraved. During the entire Yajna, Tadiyaradhana was arranged for all devotees. The Rama Nama written a crore times by the devotees was preserved in each stupa. Out of the108 Yagnas,105 Swadhyaya Gyana Yagnya's were completed during his lifetime.

Three Yagnya's remained unperformed. Chinna Jeeyar Swamiji informed that it was he who accomplished the cherished mission of HH Pedda Jeeryar Swamy and conducted the last Yagnya in Tirumala with 1008 Kundas for seven days in February 1980. He did it immediately after taking Sanyasa Ashram Dharam.

Hence, the Rama Krathu Swadhyana Gyana Stupam assumes importance as part of the Statue of Equality project. It will have a technology interface to help the visiting devotees to access virtually the history and importance of each temple.

Sri Sri Sri Tridandi Srimannarayana Ramanuja Pedda Jeeyar Swamiji was born on Sep 1, 1909 in Kakinanda town of Andhra Pradesh. On the very 7th day after birth, a big king cobra was seen spreading its hoods to protect him. This was an extra-ordinary incident to show the divinity of Swamiji. When mother prayed to Lord, the snake disappeared. Parents named the baby boy "Thiruvengalacharyulu".

Swamiji studied Sanskrit, Tarka, Nyaya and Vedanta at Tuni and various other places. During Swamiji's tutelage under Sri Rangacharya, H.H met Sri Gopalacharya Swami and their friendship culminated in a unique association. Both studied Sri Bhashya under the guidance of a famous scholar Sri Ramanujacharya of Mandasa, Srikakulam. Later, Sri Srimannarayana learnt Bhagavad Vishaya (Tamil Prabandham) from Sri Gopalacharya, who thus became his Guru.

In 1920, young Srimannarayana was very much attracted to the call of Gandhiji and participated very actively in the independence movement of India.

In 1938, for the very first time in the history of India, Swamiji donated his own personal land and constructed houses for the downtrodden. Today, this is known as Harijana Vada in Arthamur village with 124 houses and thus Swamiji became the beacon of hope and inspiration for all the modern social reformers.

When the Dravidian movement was denigrating Lord Rama in Tamil Nadu, Swamiji went to Chennai and performed Sri Ramayana Parayana for 27 days with 300 scholars from Andhra Pradesh.

Without any cooperation from locals, Swamiji boldly conducted the recitation of Sri Ramayanam on the platforms of Chennai Railway Station. Later He spread the message of Sri Ramayanam and Sri Rama Naama at various places and stifled the propaganda of the anti-Vedic movement. Sri Swamiji performed Sri Rama Kratu at Hyderabad too.

In the year 1954, Pedda Jeeyar Swamiji took to Sanyasasrama (monkhood) in the presence of the presiding deity at Thothadri. On June 12, 1954 Swamiji inaugurated Asramam at Badrinath, and consecrated Sri Srinivas Perumal along with Bhudevi, Sridevi, Godadevi, RajyaLakshmi, and Sri Ramanuja on a grand scale.