FP_2020-08 – www.aradhanam.org

Special Supplemental Announcement – 08/30/2020: Srimad Andavan’s Shrimukham in now available in English. With HH’s Anugraham and Kataksham, translation provided by Oppiliappan Koil Dr. Sri. Varadhachari Sadagopan Swamin is given below.

श्रीः

श्रीमते श्रीवराह महादेशिकाय नमः

श्रीमते श्रीरङ्गरामानुज महादेशिकाय नमः | श्रीमते श्रीनिवास रामानुज महादेशिकाय नमः | श्रीमते श्रीवेदान्त रामानुज महादेशिकाय नमः

श्रीमते श्रीनिगमान्त महादेशिकाय नमः | श्रीमते श्रीभगवद् रामानुजाय नमः

श्री सीता लक्ष्मण भरत शत्रुघ्न हनुमत् समेत श्री कोदण्डराम परब्रह्मणे नमः | श्री पेरुन्देवी नायीका समेत श्रीदेवाधिदेवराज परब्रह्मणे नमः

श्री अलर्मेल्मङ्गानायीका समेत श्री श्रीनिवास परब्रह्मणे नमः | श्री रङ्गनायकी समेत श्रीरङ्गनाथ परब्रह्मणे नमः

श्री रङ्गनाथ दिव्यमणि पादुकाभ्याम् नमः

🙏 श्रीमान् वेङ्कटनाथार्यः कवितार्किक केसरी । वेदान्ताचार्य वर्यो मे सन्निधत्तां सदा हृदि ॥ 🙏

🙏 Dear Bhagavathas 🙏

… Samvatsara: Sharvari, 1942; Ayana: Dhakshina; Ritu: Grishma; Masa: Shravana; Paksha: Krishna; Shubha Tithi: Dvithiya; Vasara: Saumya; Nakshatra: Shathabhishak …

ON THIS AUSPICIOUS DAY, SRI RAMACHANDRA JANMABHUMI PUJA IS GOING ON AT AYODHYA DIVYAKSHETRAM.

IN SRIRANGAM DIVYAKSHETRAM, OUR REVERED ACHARYAN, HIS HOLINESS SRIMAD SRI VARAHA MAHA DESIKAN, PITADHIPATHI OF SRIRANGAM SRIMAD ANDAVAN ASHRAMAM, IS LAUNCHING THE ONLINE, TRANSLITERATED MAHAKAVYA OF MAHARSHI VALMIKI, “SRIMAD RAMAYANAM” SIMULTANEOUSLY IN 28 LANGUAGES.

The language set includes

Major Indian languages: Bengali, Devanagari, Gujarati, Gurmukhi, Kannada, Malayalam, Odiya, Tamil, and Telugu
Minor Indian languages: Grantham, Khudwadi, Masaram Gondi, Sharada, Saurashtra, and Tirhuta
Foreign languages: Balinese, Hiragana, Javanese, Myanmar, Newari, Siddham, Sinhala, Soyombo, Thai, Thai Tham and Tibetan
Historical language: Brahmi
Language for the visually impaired: Tamil Braille

His Holiness has bestowed His Anugraham and has graced a beautiful, 2-page Shrimukham which is included as the only introduction in all 196 individual books i.e. for each of 7 kandas as a separate book and for each of the 28 languages. Shrimukham is also included in all 28 master sets with each set containing all 7 kandas. In this masterpiece introduction, our Acharyan, in particular, has pointed to the universal essence of “Srimad Ramayanam” as “Sharanagati Shastra“, the bedrock principle of Sri Vaishnavism.

Here is the video of the inaugural event.

His Holiness Srimad Sri Varaha Maha Desikan

[click on the above scanned image of HH’s Shrimukham to see a full-scale, larger version]

Please enjoy Acharyan’s Shrimukham for pearls of wisdom on our holy and eternal mahAkAvyam. We will be requesting an Ashramam-recommended scholar to give us our Acharyan’s Shrimukham message verbatim in English. We will post it at this website as soon as we can for the benefit of Bhagavathas who do not know Tamil.

We warmly thank Oppiliappan Koil Dr. Sri. Varadhachari Sadagopan Swamin for giving the English translation of Srimad Andavan’s Shrimukham with HH’s Anugraham and Kataksham. He is a renowned and illustrious scholar in our Jagadharcharya Srimad Sri Bhagavad Ramanuja’s tenet of Shrivaishnavism and an articulate exponent of Swami Vedanta Desikan Sampradayam. He is a prolific writer who has authored countless articles and hundreds of e-books in English. His famous website www.sadagopan.org is literally an e-library with over 500 publications. His English translation of Srimad Andavan’s Shrimukham is given below.

KaamArtha guNasamyuktam DharmArthaguNavistaram |
SamudramivaratnaaDyam SarvaSrutimanOharam ||

Srimad RaamAyaNam’s glories are celebrated in this manner. This RaamAyaNam has the power to bless one with all auspiciousness and to gain all the desired fruits. Swamy Vedanta Desikan salutes with joy about the glories of RaamAyaNam in his PaadhukA sahasram this way: “PrAchEtasa: Prabhrutaya: PrathamOpageetam“. The commentators state that the ancient poem of RaamAyaNam did indeed happen. Srimad RaamAyaNam is the essence of the four Vedams. It has multifaceted glories. It showers sweet benefits on all people and things.

The other name for RaamAyaNam is SaraNAgati Saastram. It can be considered as ancient epic poetry containing the various sections like the observance of superior ethics in domestic life, building Knowledge about Science and Engineering, cultivating righteousness and enhancing their glories. The descendants of the Raghu Kulam have followed the rigors of cultivating as it were the crops at the right time and devoting their lives to fruitful pursuits such as learning, enhancing wealth, enjoying life during the younger stages of their lives and perform penance in old age and considered that the every minute spent in this manner is a great gain. As Poet Kambar observed, “aaRRal nal aRam allatu ilAmayaal“, the ethical life embodying dharmam is every thing and there is nothing else outside that Righteous path. The Sethu bridge built by Raama based on His understanding of the intricate aspects of civil Engineering is described as a marvel by the experts of Engineering even today.

Poet KaaLidAsan proudly points out the righteous conduct of the descendants of King Raghu such as their control of senses: “VaSinAm RaghUNAm mana: parasthree vimukha pravrutti“. The poet observes here proudly about their exemplary conduct and states that they never looked at the wives of others. They did not display greed in accumulating wealth for the kingdom and conducted their lives free from attachment to fleeting worldly pleasures. They believed that they can earn liberation from repeated births, mukti, through the pursuit of the Bhakti Yogam.

As VishNu sahasra naama slOkam instructs , “Yaani NaamAni GouNAni VikhyAtAni MahAtmana:” they believed that the japam of Sri Raama Naamam conferred on them freedom from diseases of the body and mind as well as fear. They led happy and contented lives. Through the Srimad RaamAyaNa slOkam, “NagarANi cha raashtrANi dhanadhAnyAyutAni cha, nityam PramuditAssarvE“, the greatness of the ancient epic of Srimad RaamAyaNam is also eulogized here.

Srimad RaamAyaNam has 24,000 slokams.Gaayatree Mantram is constituted by 24 aksharams. The RaamAyaNa slOkam “naannOdaka samam dhaanam na dhvAdaSyA: param vratam, na GaayatryA: ParOmantram na maatu: dhaivatam param” celebrates the preeminence of the Gaayatri mantram here. Sri U.Ve. Kasturirangan and his family are performing noble kaimkaryams such as the transliteration of Srimad RamayaNam and others in to multiple languages of the world with the blessings of EmperumAn and the AchAryAs. My prayers are to the EmperumAn’s sacred feet to empower Sri Kasturirangan to perform many such kaimkaryams and become well known in this field.

ittham
SrIvaraaha Yati:

Shown below are a) an image depicting the inscription of the sacred mahAkAvyam’s title, “Srimad Ramayanam” and b) seven specially designed, colorful thumbnail images for the 7 kandas (books). Colors have been selected from the spectrum of vibrant rainbow colors. Each image includes the photo of the hand-drawn kolam representing one event in a kanda and the book title. Clicking on the title inscription will open a web page which gives the option to download/open the entire Srimad Ramayanam master set in any of the 28 languages while the thumbnail images will give a similar option for each kanda.

All documents are in pdf format and should open in the browser of your choice and on any device without any issues. The e-books are free for personal use and for re-distribution in original format and content. Please do not re-post these documents at any other online medium and also do not use them for any commercial gain. Our humble efforts are voluntarily non-profit in nature and for our dear Kausalya Dasharatha Nandana’s Glory.

We sincerely pray everyone is blessed with the indescribable and enlightening spiritual experience from performing parayana of “Srimad Ramayanam“.

[Click on any of the above images to access the e-books]

We make a special mention here for something deeply personal to our hearts. We dedicate our efforts in memory of our beloved parents.

We hand-typed the phonics-based, encoded text for the entire 24,000 Sanskrit shlokas of this mahAkAvya. The encoded source document is one common source for all generated languages. We use our own proprietary, high-quality software tool that was gradually developed over a decade and finally named TT28 in 2018. Integrated with the Microsoft Office system, TT28 does the transliteration of the encoded source document to all 28 languages listed above and publishes the final, secure pdf documents in a single stream. The entire process is fully automated which includes rule-based and growing dictionary-based, auto-corrections and target language-specific adjustments.

The 24,000 shlokas (verses) are contained in 645 Sargas (chapters) which, in turn, are spread across 7 kandas (books). Our main source of reference for this big project was the 2-volume, sacred book titled “ Srimad Valmiki – Ramayana ” from Gita Press, Gorakhpur, India.

[The set we have is the 7th edition printed in Year 2004]

Gita Press printed just 2000 copies in the 7th Edition in Year 2004. Their First Edition was way back in 1969. We applaud the ‘unknown’ authors of the English translation and book production staff at Gita Press for their devoted, untiring, and literally back-breaking efforts in bringing out this 2000-page, voluminous print edition of the dual-language, 2-book set sixty years ago using typewriters for drafts, manual page composition methods and old printing machinery. It is truly astonishing how they accomplished a monumental and accurate feat with such intense manual efforts in those golden days. The English translation of each shloka is elaborate and elegant.

We have a special acknowledgement to make. We respectfully thank U. Ve. Sri K. Jagannathan Swami to find time in his hectic schedule to take care of our request for HH’s Shrimukham, to offer his input for the book cover-page design and to arrange for the release of the books on an auspicious date by Srimad Andavan. U. Ve. Sri K. Jagannathan Swami is a devout and dedicated kainkaryaparar for the current Pitadhipathi HH Srimad Sri Varaha Maha Desikan and was for His predecessor HH Srimad Sri Ranga Ramanuja Maha Desikan as well.

With our revered Srimad Andavan’s anugraham, we are also delighted to announce the release of the following in 28 languages.

Stotras: All stotra links below take you to the ‘Stotram’ page where a language needs to first selected before opening a document in one of the 28 languages.
1. Sri Vedanta Desikan Swami’s Sri Mahavira Vaibhavam also titled as Sri Raghuvira Gadyam
2. Sri Gayatri Ramayanam – 24 shlokas in the sequence of aksharas in Gayatri mantra from Maharshi Valmiki’s mahakavya Srimad Ramayana
3. Sri Navarathna Mala – selection of 9 shlokas and their association with 9 gems from Maharshi Valmiki’s Sundharakanda in Srimad Ramayana
Devotional Songs: 18 new songs including the crown-jewel, 5 pancharathna krithis of Sri Thyagaraja Swami have been added to the gradually growing list. Please click on this page link ‘new songs‘ or the ‘Bhakti gita‘ menu option at the top of any page at our website.

The new songs are – ‘athiramaniyam‘ (malayalam), ‘aththigiri arulala‘ (tamil), ‘dhuduku gala‘ (telugu), ‘endharo mahanubhavulu‘ (telugu), ‘hechcharikaga rara‘ (telugu), ‘jagadhananda karaka‘ (sanskrit), ‘kana kana ruchi ra‘ (telugu), ‘nagumomu galavani‘ (telugu), ‘pula panpu midha‘ (telugu), ‘rama bhakti samrajyame‘ (telugu), ‘rama namamu janma‘ (telugu), ‘rama rama nivaramu‘ (telugu), ‘rama rama raama rama‘ (malayalam), ‘ramabhadra rara‘ (telugu), ‘ramabhirama ramaniya‘ (telugu), ‘ramachandhraya janaka‘ (telugu), and ‘sadhinchane o manasa‘ (telugu).

A special mention about the 45-minute, 108-verse devotional song in Malayalam in the above list. Please be blessed to hear the glory of Lord Rama sung so elegantly. It is truly captivating. It is in a CD with the title ‘Rama Rama Sandhyanamam’. We have given a few available YouTube links too.

About photos used at this website and in our published documents: We have used photos of God and Acharyas where needed. Some including the ones with kolams are from our own collection, and some are collected from WhatsApp message forwards and online resources. We digitally re-construct many of the images to fit the publication needs. For the edited images of Lord Sri Rama and His Parivar at His famous Vaduvoor and Madurantakam temples in Tamil Nadu, we took still images from the popular YouTube videos produced by Retired Professor Sri Ranganathan Srinivasan. If any owner of any photo used at this website wants his/her name associated with the photo , please let us know and we would be glad to officially record the credits at this website.

About Language Selection and Cookie policy: With this announcement, you have an elegant new feature at our website – something that we promised in a earlier announcement few years back. The website has a ‘Language‘ menu option at the top. Using this option, you now select a language and keep it persistent across repeat website visits and across days.

When one selects a document, the browser will directly open it in the language you have selected. We do this by storing your preference in a persistent cookie in your device browser. The selection will remain in effect until a) you select a new language, or b) cookie is manually cleared, or c) cookie just crossed its time limit which is currently set to 999 days. Please note the language preference setting is on a per-device basis. In our next release or pretty soon, we will give you the choice to select up to 3 languages and open documents simultaneously in multiple languages. We do not capture or store any personal information using cookies. We are required by law to declare the website policy on cookie usage.

About web links : We use links to re-direct you to other websites in a new window on your browser like YouTube, etc. for viewing videos related to the scope of our work. We do not own any content from any other site and we are not responsible for any subsequent changes, deletions or surprises in contents at the sites referred to by our links. Please be proactive and bring any such concern to our immediate attention in the interest of our community at large by using the feedback link pratikriya.

Interested in volunteering? We have many new exciting website projects stacked up to be accomplished. We can run these projects concurrently with contributions from volunteers. If anyone is interested in volunteering, then please connect with us through the feedback link pratikriya. We will formulate standard volunteering guidelines so we can adhere to reasonable commitments and schedules while being cognizant and respectful of normal ‘laukika’ duties. All volunteering efforts will be fully recognized at this website. We will create a separate WhatsApp contact group for each project for our message exchanges.

We request the following in each and every front page announcement at this website.

We strive our hardest to hand encode and generate the documents correctly. But we may have mistyped something from the input source document or because the keyboard may not have cooperated. Besides, there could be some transliteration bug in the tool that we may not have caught before. But these errors, once found, are very easy to fix both in text and in code. Kindly pardon us for these mistakes. Our eyes wouldn’t believe where they are. But, as avid and critical readers, yours can spot them very easily. Hence, please do offer your corrections wherever and whenever you find them. We will fix all reported errors in batches and re-publish the documents as soon as possible. Please use the ‘pratikriyA’ menu tab above or click on this feedback link pratikriya for your kind feedback.

As always, we pray this website serves as a good reference material for your parayana, prayer recitation and/or learning purposes in your mother tongue and/or the languages of your choice.

We conclude this announcement with Paramoththama Purusha Lord Raghuvira’s supreme and re-assuring charama shlokam in Srimad Ramayana. It is hand-written in the kolam below with the iconic image of Maharshi Valmiki etched in our memories forever.

Sri Ramachandra Janmabhumi Puja Day
August 5, 2020

🙏 adiyOngaL 🙏
madhumathi kasturi
nochalur kasturi sarangapani

🙏 कवितार्किकसिंहाय कल्याणगुणशालिने । श्रीमते वेङ्कटेशाय वेदान्तगुरवे नमः ॥ 🙏

Past Announcements

2018 December

2018 November

2018 January

2015 November – Inaugural