Pujya Sri Mahaswamy Divya Charitram Part#2

 

Birth – Youth
The holy birth of our Swamiji took place at Vizhuppuram in the Salivahana Sahaptham 1817- year of Jaya, month of Vaikasi, 8th day (20th May, 1894). He was born as the second son to his father who was working as Supervisor of Schools at Vizhuppuram. Having named his first son Ganapathi, Subramania Shastrigal named his second son after the residing deity of Swamigal, also their Kula deity, the holy name of ‘Swaminathan’.

Shastrigal had four sons and a daughter apart from our Swamigal. They were our Swamiji’s elder brother Ganapathi Shastri, younger siblings Lalithambal Ammaiyar, Sambamoorthy Shastri, Sadashiva Shastri alias Sivam, Krishnamurthy Shastri alias Kunju Shastri. Krishnamurthy Shastri learnt Rig Veda from the renowned Mayavaram BrahmaShri Krishna Shastrigal who had served in the Mutt for a long time. He also had the honor of teaching Vedas to our present Peetathipathi Sri Jayendra Saraswathi Swamigal in His youth. Subramania Shastri passed away in his 74th year in July, 1929.

Subramania Shastri performed all samskaras due to by a father in the appropriate age including performing upanayanam for Swaminathan in 1905, at Tindivanam. The 66th Acharya Swamigal of the Peetam had blessed and sent his prasadam for Swaminathan at the time of his upanayanam. Swaminathan also received gifts on this occasion from Shastri’s friend, the zamindar of Soonampet, Diwan Bahadur Arunachala Mudaliar. Swaminathan’s brilliance prompted Shastrigal to home school him till the age of eight. He also trained the boy in music at a very young age. Demonstrating the phrase that “proof of the crop can be seen in its infancy”; Swaminathan was brilliant and was capable of grasping and remembering anything that he saw or heard just once.

Mahalakshmi Ammal would teach all the hymns and stotras that she knew to the kids. Swaminathan like to learn these stotrams very much, but did not get the opportunity to learn Sanskrit at that time. When his father was stationed at Tindivanam, he was enrolled
into second form at Arcot American Mission High School for the first time. Swaminathan was popular for his witticism, humor and especially epigrammatic speaking conveying multiple meaning in a sentence. His father considered him a favorite amongst the siblings and affectionately called him a name after a parrot.

Studies and Prizes
Swaminathan excelled in studies coming first in the class, first in all exams in every grade, won all trophies in every annual day celebrations. He even got the first prize in learning the Bible. All the Christian teachers treated him with affection. Maybe, without realizing it, they were proud of having a future Saint as their student in their school. When Swaminathan was studying in third form, the assistant superintendent of schools, Manjakuppam Singaravelu Mudaliar came to the school for inspection. He was
attracted by the spark in Swaminathan’s face and was amazed at the way he answered all his questions without hesitation. He took Swaminathan with him in his rounds to higher classes, introduced Swaminathan to other teachers and students, asked questions from the higher standard curriculum and was astounded when young Swaminathan answered every question. When he enquired about the boy and found that Swaminathan was the son of Subramania Shastri who worked for him, he called Shastri and told him that his son was going to become a genius one day. Subramania Shastri was very pleased at this comment and thanked him profusely. It did not occur to Subramania Shastri that his son was going to become the Jnana Guru of the whole world. He just thought that Swaminathan would one day hold a very high position in the government.

Acting in a Shakespearean Play
In 1906. when Swaminathan was in fourth form, the students were arranging to stage the Shakespearean play ‘King John’ for the annual day celebrations. They could not find a right person to play the lead role of Prince Arthur. The principal remembered the
twelve year old Swaminathan. He called him and asked him to take up this role.

Swaminathan was very proud that the principal would ask him to play the role. But his class teacher refused to allow him to participate due to his young age. Swaminathan conveyed the principal’s message to his parents and requested them to stitch the
appropriate costume for the character. His conservative parents did not want their son to act in a play; however, they did not have the heart to reject their favorite son’s aspirations. So, they gave their permission to Swaminathan’s acting in the play and also contributed towards his costumes. Swaminathan memorized all the dialogues of the play in just two days. Verbose Swaminathan performed exceptionally and got the commendation of all. He got applause for his monologues and acting and ended up getting the first prize for this play. The teachers visited Shastrigal’s house the next morning and conveyed their appreciation for Swaminathan’s performance in the play.