Pujya Sri Mahaswamy Divya Charitram Part#10

 

Educational Techniques
The method of schooling given to the Swamigal was very unique. Ordinary folks treat their teachers with respect and devotion and learn from them. However, the scholars who taught Swamigal would pay their respects and devotion to him before and after their lessons. In spite of this, Swamigal paid full attention and learnt from the scholars with utmost respect and concentration in order to grasp all knowledge. Some of the subjects learnt by our Swamigal included arts, Vyakaranam, Tharka shastra (Science of Logic), Vedantha, Meemamsa etc. The teachers, who were learned scholars, found it very easy to teach our Swamigal due to his sparkling brilliance. This village became the favorite pilgrimage spot of our country’s most famous scholars and leaders in the years 1911 through 1913.

Amongst our Swamigal’s teachers, some of the renowned ones were Painganadu Panjapakesa Shastrigal, Mahamahopadhyay Shastra Ratnakara D.Venkatasubba Shastrigal, Shastra Ratnakara Vishnupuram Swamy Shastrigal and Thiruvisainallur V. Venkatarama Shastrigal. There were others who stayed in the mutt as aasthana vidwans and dedicated their time educating Swamigal. Some of them are Mahamahopadhyay
Painganadu Ganapathy Shastrigal, Mahamahopadhyay Karungulam Krishna Shastrigal and Kodi Kannikadhanam Ubaya Vedantha Rajagopala Thathachariar.

It shouldn’t surprise anyone to know that Swamigal, on top of learning all these arts, also learnt the French language. Late Keerthanacharya C.R.Srinivasa Iyengar used to visit and stay with Acharya often. As Swamigal showed interest in learning Marathi and in Marathi works, the mutt officials engaged a Marathi pundit to stay at the mutt for three years. Swamigal had engaged him in researching a lot of Marathi literary works.

Swamigal’s interest in Tamil was unique by itself. During what little free time he had, he got Tamil scholars to train him in Tamil grammar and literature. He continued to research into Thevara, Thiruvachakam, Periya Puranam, Thiruvizhaiyadal Puranam and Thirukural. He did not allocate any time to learn fine arts. During his interaction with artists excelling in fine arts, during his free time, he absorbed the intricacies of all fine arts. Amongst the different component of arts, it was music (sangeetham) that was most like by Swamigal.

Swamigal used to take walks in the sand dunes in the middle of Cauveri and enjoy the natural beauty, and sometimes get absorbed in meditating in solitude in the beautiful surroundings. Swamigal liked to take photographs of picturesque sceneries. In those days, there used to be a person who would follow Swamigal with a camera. Swamigal would order him randomly to take pictures of certain scenes. As he was familiar with the intricacies of photography, he would give suggestions and tips to photographers while taking pictures. Moreover, he would advice them on techniques to employ while developing the films, negatives etc. Swamigal also became well versed in Mathematics, Astrology and astronomy. In order to obtain training in these subjects, Swamigal had requested Marur Ramaswami Shastrigal (who was the student of Thiruvaiyaru Sundaresa Shrowdhrigal) to stay in the mutt for a number of years and had supported his family also. Swamigal loved to hear Thevaram being sung. Especially, when people who had set it to good music visited the mutt, he would sit with them for hours together and make them sing different Thevarams and also sing with them. Swamigal was also attracted to learn Vaishnavite scriptures including Thiruvaimozhi.

Swamigal stayed in Mahendramangalam from 1911 to 1914 and then returned to Kumbakonam. There is a Sankaralayam established in Mahendramangalam at the place where Swamigal had his Vidyabhyasam. Swamigal was twenty years old when he left Mahendramangalam after completing his studies. Within this short period, he turned out to be extraordinarily brilliant in all lines of studies, starting with Puranas and the history of each sthalam. Once Swamigal grasped something, he never forgot it. He absorbed all knowledge from scholars and subject matter experts who visited him and also applied that knowledge to investigate and analyze the basis of such subject matter. There are very few who can be compared to our Swamigal in the way he interacted with people, analyzing the capabilities of the folks that he met.

When Swamigal was camped at Kumbakonam, he used to visit Gangai Konda Chozhapuram, situated 30 miles away, at least once every year. He visited the Shiva temple that was built in the same design as Tanjore Periya temple and research the artifacts found there. P.V.Jagadeesa Iyer from the archeological department and Engineer Anathazhvar helped Swamigal with this research. Finally, it can be said that our Swamigal after this education, by the young age of 20, obtained all the knowledge required for this position as Peetathipathi.