Maha Periyava and Ra. Ganapathy

     In the year 1957, for about ten minutes Maha Periyava kept looking at a young person who had come (reluctantly) with his parents for Periyava's Dharshan. The young man was Ra. Ganapathy with a very slim build and poor health caused by some previous illness. The intense gaze had caused much discomfort to the young person who felt greatly relieved when at the end of ten minutes, the family took permission from Maha Periyava and left.

Yet, the discomfort lasted for nearly four days, except that this time, Ra. Ganapathy was unable to fathom his inability to forget about the dharshan. Something was bringing his thoughts back to Periyava, urging him to convince himself that humanity which he had wanted to avoid tradition and the advice of Sages before the meeting (he being a radical), actually required the Acharya to guide them on the path to life.

It wasn't until 1994, the world would get to know what had transpired in 1957, when Ra. Ganapthy wrote about that transformation, in the souvenir prepared to commemorate the 100th year of Maha Periyava's birth. The text of this write up also finds a place in Ra. Ganapthy's book titled "கருணைக்கடலில் சில அலைகள் : Karunaik Kadalil Sila Alaigal".

Ra. Ganapathy was blessed to receive Maha Periyava's divine grace and remained close to him recording with detail the essence of Maha Periyava's discourses and meetings with scholars and great many devotees. The seven volumes of Deivathin Kural and close to a dozen books about Maha Periyava stand testimony to his true devotion to the Acharya.

We are also fortunate to be able to hear the voice of Ra. Ganapathy, who shunned visibility and led his life devoted to one cause. Here is a link to the short audio clips from an interview given to G.Vaidyanathan, secretary

http://mahaperiyavapuranam.org/குரல்-தொகுத்தவரின்-குரல்/
http://mahaperiyavapuranam.org/குரல்-தொகுத்தவரின்-குரல-2/
http://mahaperiyavapuranam.org/குரல்-தொகுத்தவரின்-குரல-3/

ஸ்ரீ ரா.கணபதி அண்ணா கண்ட மஹாபெரியவா : Maha Periyava as Ra. Ganapathy saw him, is a series of presentations hosted at

https://mahaperiyavaa.blog/2018/02/22/maha-periyava-as-shri-ra-ganapathy-saw-him-part-1/

These have been taken from the books written by Ra. Ganapathy. Their availability on the web is a great boon to devotees in the absence of printed copies of the books.

About Ra. Ganapathy

Ra. Ganapathy was perhaps the one person with whom Maha Periyava had shared some details of his (Periyava's) life, especially the early years. Some of these have been included in the books written by him.

Ra. Ganapathy had won appreciation from the public for his series in Kalki under the weekly title "Arul Vakku". Deivathin Kural was consequence of those articles, as also the series he wrote on the life of Adi Shankara (Jaya Jaya Shankara) which appeared in Kalki

Sometime during 1980s Ra. Ganapathy, with a journalistic career which began even before had joined Kalki, felt a need to retire from writing. At this time he was advised by Sri. Satya Sai Baba to continue his work on Deivathin Kural. Later, during 1990s he also became a devotee of Yogi Ramsurath Kumar.