Nellore: The year-long celebrations to mark the 1,000 birth anniversary of the Sri Vaishnava saint Ramanujacharya which will commence from May 10 at the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams. Ramanujacharya is regarded as the father of Sri Vaishnava philosophy and was instrumental in spreading it extensively throughout India.
The saint was born in 1017 to Kesava Somayaji and Kanthimati in the month of Chaitra in the Hindu calendar under the star Arudra. He mastered the Vedas at the age of 16. He learnt the Ramayana and rendered it 18 times under the guidance of his maternal uncle Tirumala Nambi at Alipiri, the gateway to Tirumala.
In his lifespan of 120 years, he expounded philosophical truths. He synthesised Bhakti and Jnaana, the two folds of characters possessed by the Alwars and Acharyas, the saints and the sages in his philosophy Visishtadwaita.
Ramanujacharya crisscrossed the whole of India to revive and strengthen Sanatana Dharma with his teaching. He is considered to be a crusader for social justice and equality and made remarkable contribution to the uplift of the downtrodden and oppressed classes.
For this, he made a lot of enemies and opposition but he overcame all hurdles with his compassion and penance. Ramanujacharya firmly believed that Lord Venkateswara took the form of Saligrama statue in Tirumala and He was reborn as Vaikhanasa Maharshi and formulated His own puja kainkaryams.
TTD has designed several special programmes to mark the occasion. The most important one being the 'Ramanuja Sancharam' where in a specially decorated vehicle carrying the utsava vigrahams of Lord Sri Malayappa Swamy, Sridevi, Bhudevi and Sri Ramanujacharya will cover all the 106 Vaishnava Divya Desams located across the country.
Apart from this TTD has also decided to bring to light some of the rare works of the great Acharya including Gadya Trayam, Vedantha Sangraham etc.TTD is also releasing Yuddha Kanda and Uttara Kanda volumes of Ramayanam, on this auspicious occasion, with which the series is complete.
