Friday, July 6, 2018

Srirangam Madapalli Transformation

From IT in the US to Madapalli in Srirangam
Updated on Nov 10 (Lakshmi Narasimhan went on a 3 day leave in September and has not returned to the temple. He had said that he had given his entire last earnings from his IT firm to the Ramanuja Trust Mission whose Managing Trustee has come under the scanner today and who is stated to have 'gone missing')
The Madapalli at the Ranganathaswamy temple in Srirangam is currently witnessing one of the biggest transformational changes in temples in Tamil Nadu in recent decades. Two software professionals have quit high paying jobs in the corporate world and have joined the Madapalli in an endeavour to dedicate their lifetime to the service of Lord Ranganatha and with a vision to restore the Madapalli to its ancient glory.

40 year old V. Lakshmi Narasimhan had been in a plump job in the IT industry for close to two decades serving as a software architect in top tier 1 Companies. All his life he has been a multi faceted personality. As a student of the Hindu School, Triplicane, he won the budding mathematician award. He was also a poetry writer, violinist and a school topper in Table Tennis. His father Venkatapathy was proficient in the Nalayira Divya Prabhandham and an expert in Sri Bashyam and initiated him into these. But computers dragged him away into the IT world in the late 1990s. During this period in the IT industry, he has been associated with social and religious service organizations and has contributed to charities to propagate the service minded approach of Vaishnavite Saint Ramanuja.

The Big Call – From IT to Madapalli
He had always cherished a dream to perform service at the Ranganathaswamy temple in Srirangam.
During the time, he was contemplating a move back to his roots in Srirangam, he came to know through Vaishnavasri Krishnamachari, publisher of Vaishnava Sampradayam books based in Srirangam that the temple was looking for devoted personnel at the Madapalli. After quitting his job in the IT industry last year, Lakshmi Narasimhan spent time at two ancient Divya Desams – Ahobilam and Badrinath to try and explore divinity. The period there gave him a lot of clarity and refinement on his way forward in life. And he took up the big call to move away from the corporate world to perform service at the madapalli and to propagate the Ramanuja Sampradayam.

When Pon Jayaraman, JC of the temple took charge at the temple a few years ago, he felt a shortage of quality people to run the Madapalli in the traditional way. The Madapalli staff did not even sport the traditional attire while at work inside the temple. He was keen and determined to restore the Madapalli to its ancient glory days but found committed people not easily forthcoming to take up service at the Madapalli.

And when he sent out word that he was looking for devoted people to perform service in a traditional way, Sri Vaishnavasri Krishnamachari managed to elicit a positive response from C.L. Srivatsan, a Post Graduate from NIT Trichy. He was just 31years old and had worked at reputed firms such as Cognizant and IISC, Bangalore. Excited at the opportunity to perform service at the feet of the Lord of Srirangam, Srivatsan quit his high profile job, packed his bags and headed to Srirangam last year along with his pregnant wife. 
Months after Srivatsan joined, Lakshmi Narasimhan took the call to move away from the corporate world and he too has now been serving at the madapalli for since the beginning of this year. 

Securing the IT Professionals for the Srirangam Madapalli
Sri Vaishnavasri Krishnamachari who assisted the temple in roping in these two, has always been a strong advocate for the traditional way of service at the temple “Madapalli is a highly sacred place and there is a certain tradition in the way things are done at the Srirangam temple including the attire - sporting 12 Thiruman, wearing Panchakacham and having a tuft. For decades, the personnel at the temple have disobeyed even the basic tradition."
"Both Lakshmi Narasimhan and Srivatsan were highly qualified professionally and were drawing big salaries. They have sacrificed everything, let go of the financial interests and entered the Madapalli as a cook with a service motive.  There are thousands of Vaishnavites to talk and give speeches on idealism but very few when it comes to practical living and execution. This is particularly visible in the temple Madapalli. There is an opportunity for Vaishnavites to serve the Lord but no one is eager to come forward. Lakshmi Narasimhan is a benchmark for Temple Madapalli across the state. He lives by the tradition. A few more of his clone is required to help in the transformation process at the Srirangam temple.”

Financially Lakshmi Narasimhan, who has also been mentoring Srivatsan, younger to him by almost a decade, does not even get 5% of what he received in his last job in IT. However serving the Lord and performing service in the way Ramanuja wanted has been a truly fulfilling experience for him. In the few months that he has been here, he has received backing from the JC for this traditional way of service ‘The greatest support has come from the JC. He has empowered me to do the right thing in the right way at the Madapalli without fear of opposition.”

Initiating the Transformational Process
Both Lakshmi Narasimhan and Srivatsan have embarked on a number of initiatives that is slowly helping the revival of the Madapalli back to its traditional days.  Cleaning of the sacred well, using organic vegetables and the traditional earthen pots for cooking have been a few.

The two of them have been bestowed with the responsibility of preparing the Periya Avasaram (full meals), Sheeranam, Sthala Samba and Aravanai. They are also initiating the process of introducing the traditional ten vegetables for the Periya Avasaram for the Periya Perumal. Both of them also recite the Ramanuja Nootranthathi while performing their service at the Madapalli.

The feedback even at this early stage has been very positive. The quality of food has been like never before in recent decades. 
Lakshmi Narasimhan says that while money is essential for basic living, it also poses as a hurdle for Wisdom.  He firmly believes that God would do wonders when one offers complete surrender and is looking forward to this new journey of ‘Sastras’ based life. He is of the view that sacred food presented with sincere devotion to the Lord can transform people.

A Life Defining Change
Madapalli was an unexpected opportunity that came his way and Lakshmi Narasimhan has grabbed it with both hands letting go of everything else in life. He works through the day and night by the fire, bathes in well water, eats just once a day in the traditional way like his ancestors and walks bare foot most of the time. Having dedicated everything to the Lord, he is suddenly feeling a sense of stress free life. If the Lord wills, he does not want to leave the Madapalli at Srirangam in this life time. He is hoping that more like minded people will join him soon in this devotional transformation journey.

Only time will tell.

PS: A version of this story featured in today's The Hindu Friday Review 

44 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dear Prabhu Swamin,

Adiyen just forwarded photograph version of this brilliant article to all my contacts in WhatsApp.

Congratulations. Yet another masterpiece from your side.

Adiyen Ramanuja Dasan,

Anonymous said...

Adiyen, very well chosen words, carefully constructed statements and excellent drafting.

markiv said...

Simply Great , I was hearing this on Tweets now I have read it in detail and believe. Thanks

Unknown said...

Dear mr.prabhu,
We are planning to visit the following temples
1.oppiliappan koil
2.thirukkarugavur
3,koothanoor
And other near by temples. We will be reaching on 24 july morn.from chennai.
and take a train on the same night.
Kindly advise the best plan to visit the abave temples by car.
Advise taxi driver mobile number and approximate cost of the tour .
With regards,
GR

PRabhu S said...

please contact saravanan cab 9994546416 and he will take care.

Prabhu

Unknown said...

Adiyen bow down my head worship the holy feet of both.

Both were bestowed with wisdom by arangan himself.

Both have clearly understood the reasons of their birth.

I feel proud of them.

My humble pranams to their parents who are gifted such mahathmas as their sons

Unknown said...

Excellent posting. Bow before the two
For theiiir wusdon and dedication for Kainkaryam. Srimmathe Ramanujaya Namaha

Unknown said...

Let it be an eye opener for the young generation of our community.

Unknown said...

The search for health, peace and sasthric way of life is more pronounced today than in ancient times. Because the maintenance of vedic heritage and Hindu traditions is the only refuge for brahmins to return to a sathvic way of life worth its name. The sacrifice for service by these two kindles us to pursue the life proper.

Unknown said...

God bless such peoples

Nagamangala Singlachar Sreenivasan said...



Congratulations. Great sacrifice of materialistic world and devoting his life to the devine abode of Shri Ranganathaswamy temple in Srirangam. God bless him .

Jeyasudha said...

May more such people join u in the fight to save our culture and traditional values.greatly appreciate thir family members in allowing this decision Sri lakshmi narasimha and srivatsan kindly accept my humble praname. Hare krishna jai bharatmatha

Unknown said...

It is awe inspiring story of these two technocrats dedicating their time to serve in the Madapalli of the sacred Sri Ranganathan temple, Srirangam. Many may think of devoting time in these kainkaryams and leaving our shastras etc but serving in the Madapalli will be least in the minds of many. I can assure for certainty except these two none have come forward even to serve the Lord in Divya Desams during festivities. Kudos to these two and hoping and praying the almighty fir these tribes to grow only to preserve, conserve and pass on to the next generation so as to safeguard our Visishtadwaitha philosophy as pro index by our Jagdguru Sri Ramanujachariar

Unknown said...

Piravi payan pera kidaitha perum peragum.vaazhthugal

Padmanabha said...

Excellent work.God bless them.

Padmanabha said...

Excellent work. God bless.

Unknown said...

God is great

http://anurekhaskitchen said...

Excellent.Perumalanugraham.

Unknown said...

Inspiring. Purva janma sukrutham has transformed the lives of these two men.

Unknown said...

Great decisions taken by two youngsters,Arangan will protect their family for decades for noble work, it reminds me our grandfather serving 42 years in madapalli in Varadarajaswamy temple,

onewebclick said...

An alternate perspective, 2 Engineering seats are wasted which otherwise would have gone to someone who could have continued to contribute to the science and engineering, secondly they might have taken away Madapalli job of 2 ordinary individuals which don't require sophisticated engineers. If they are dissatisfied with the materialistic world of IT there are better alternatives like working for non-profit, NGO, contributing to open source, educating/coaching/advising upcoming IT professionals with their knowledge & experience rather than cooking at Madapalli. Although, I don't undermine any type of Job or their willingness to serve God and agree it's an individual choice to do whatever they want but the impact to world/community is not at large given their capabilities." Great Power comes with great responsibilities !" I hope they reconsider their decisions at least partly to contribute to scientific community.

Unknown said...

This is truly unbelievable in today's world. I bow down on their feet which will itself show me the path for Motcham.

Unknown said...

அந்த ஸ்வாமிகளின் திருவடிகள் அடியேன் தலைமேலனவே 🙏

Unknown said...




they blessed with periya perumal

akshay said...

Not everyone get such a great service, their dedication and determination on top of it with perumal anughragam they reached the another level in their life, which is never be posiible like adiyen, pray Arangan to fullfill their wish of serve Arangan their life. Adiyenin sastanga pranam to both greats.

Unknown said...

These two are pure diamond; feel happy to have heard about them, wish I wads young enough to have given company to them!truly inspiring,I bless them and their family good health always

VJ said...

They have shown us "HE is the ULTIMATE".
My humble pranams.

Unknown said...

Unbelievable enkal kudumbathorada namashkarankal kadavil kribai avaruku intha thruimpam

Unknown said...

It would also be a perspective to say that 2 budding engineers will get jobs vacated by these people and 2 persons who otherwise would have joined madapalli as a compulsion and only for their livelihood would would work extra hard and land up in better paying jobs by the grace of lord Sri ranganatha. Life is a circle. Service to mankind in any form is what sustains us....

Unknown said...

Aseervatham. U both are blessed.

Unknown said...

Aseervatham God bless closer to them. Every vaishnava must do Kainkaryam like this. Boon. Indeed.

Unknown said...

Great,it will motivate others
When kanchi Sankara mutt lamented that there are not getting enough students to their vedic class though everything is free, this article will motivate others

Sudarsan said...

Need to fall at the feet of these Ramanuja Dasas. Rarest of rare will foresake a high paying job and take up tradition. Kudos to this Swami's wife who is truly a Saha Dharma Pathni, that she supports her husband in this kainkaryam. May their family be blessed by Srirangam Divya Dhampathis, and many more youngsters take up traditional roles( including agriculture, weaving, pottery, spiritual, temples). Also hope this JC cleans up the temple administration to eliminate long queues for Darisanam

Unknown said...

Ramanujarya divyagnya andhatam abhivardhatam, adiganu u are doing right thing..

Adriyan Karthik said...

Rangan Sevai Bhagyam Ranga Ranga

kannan said...

So fortunate

Unknown said...

Namaskarams.
There's a request from Kanchee madam also for volunteering in many areas like finance, maintenance, civil, Pooja activities etc. This may be suitable for retired people also. Benin Aasirwatham. Visit from sydSyd.

Unknown said...

It is lords comment to serve him and it is not so easy to get comment from lord both have served lord in earlier birth it is tuff time to go for lords sevice when they can lead a luxury life blessings of lord will be with them at all time parents and family members are blessed to have association with such people I am also blessed feel proud to say that my cousin is associated with lord service

Unknown said...

Great. I am at loss of words to precisely give my admiration. God Sri Ranganathar Thunai. Sarvam Vishnu mayam jagat.

lakshmikumar said...

You need lot of courage and conviction to quit covetous jobs.God bless them.
The Srirangam prasadham selling stalls ate to be improved. The weight measure of the prasadhams is not indicated in the pricelist. The counters are not hygienic.

Anantha Somayaji said...

AUM NAMO NARAAYANAAYA...MY PRANAAMS TO VASUDAIVA KUTUBAKAM

Unknown said...

Namaskaram,is there any way of contacting these 2 gentlemen and learn of their experiences.it is very rare to see such young people.

Anonymous said...

இந்தப் பெரியவர்களின் இறை சேவையில் அடியவன் இணைய விரும்புகிறேன் 👏👏எனக்கு வயது 32 ஆகிறது ஆட்டோமொபைல் இன்ஜினியரிங் முடித்துவிட்டு சிங்கப்பூரில் பணிபுரிந்து குறைவான தைராய்டு சுரப்பி காரணமாக வேலையை விட்டு வீட்டில் உதவி புரிந்து வருகிறேன் இந்த இடைப்பட்ட காலத்தில் ஸ்ரீவைஷ்ணவஸ்ரீ Chennai எம்பெருமானார் சம்பிரதாயம் நூல்களை வாங்கிக் படித்து சிறிது ஞானம் பெற்றேன் அதனால்தான் என்னமோ ஸ்ரீரங்கம் கோயில் என்னை காந்தம் போல் இழுக்கிறது என்ன செய்வது சைவ சம்பிரதாயத்தை சார்ந்தவைஅரங்கனின் அருள் கிட்டவில்லை

Tulasidhar said...

Well, in the grand scheme of things controlled by the Supreme Lord, one would realize that by watering the roots of the tree nourishes the entire tree. Serving Lord Ranganatha and pleasing Him, pleases and serves the humanity at large. Thank you for understanding....