Dr Venkatesh Thiru Kudanthai Upanyasakar

At a young age, this doctor from Kumbakonam has carved out a niche for himself in the ‘Spiritual Lectures’ world 

A Debut on Kal Garuda Sevai day, an unexpected 30 days Thiruppavai upanyasam at Sarangapani Koil and a chance meeting with Karunakaraswamy transforms his life

As a young student of ARR Matriculation school, Thiru Kudanthai N Venkatesh showed his devotional flavour by reciting and presenting the meaning of the verses from the Bhagavath Gita at the prayer every morning from his early teens. When he was 15, he won the first prize in an oratorical competition organised in Kumbakonam. By this time, he had also begun writing poems. Following a district rank in class XII, he joined Medicine at the Government College in Erode. Seeing his spiritual interest, his professor motivated and spurred him to pursue that interest. Over the last few years, he has captured the minds of the devotees with his style of presentation and a down to earth way of life. Here’s the story.

Like all boys his age, Venkatesh spent his childhood playing cricket on the streets and at school. But by the time he was into his teens, he had begun to probe within as to how he wanted to live his life and what he wanted to do with it. When a professor at college asked all the students as to what their vision was in life, Venkatesh began thinking about his talent and found that his biggest was his ability to express and present. 

மாண் கொண்ட தோல் மார்வின் மாணியாய் 

மாவலி மண் தான் கொண்டு தாளால் அளந்த பெருமானே 

தேன் கொண்ட சாரல் திருவேங்கடத்தானை  

நான் சென்று நாடி நறையூரில் கண்டேனே 

From a young age, he was a regular at Nachiyar Koil in the Thiru Mangai Azhvaar praised Thiru Naraiyur Divya Desam and was devotionally inclined. While there was no big family background in spirituality and lectures, he began reading devotional texts extensively. In the internal assessment exams at Erode, he taught students abstract subjects and they went back and succeeded in the final exam. He found great insights from this and the idea struck him to extend this teaching exercise to the spirituality space.

The Debut Upanyasam

Seeing his spiritual interest, his amma spoke to the Bhattars at Nachiyar Koil and secured him an opportunity to present an upanyasam at the now popular for Kal Garuda Sevai in 2011. It turned out to be a great experience. The Kal Garuda Sevai (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2012/12/kal-garuda-utsavam-nachiyar-koil.html) had by then become a very popular event and huge crowd thronged the temple on that evening. After Kal Garuda had made his way to the mandapam at the entrance of the temple and ahead of the street procession of Perumal and Garuda, Venkatesh presented an one hour upanyasam that turned out to be a hit. He had not yet completed college but he saw a new life for him in this spiritual space and this journey of spreading dharmic messages from the historical scriptures began that evening.

                        

The Thiruppavai Opportunity - A surprise call from HRCE EO!!!

In 2013, he had his Pancha Samskaram from Sirupuliyur Swami at Srirangam. Later that year, during his visit to the Sarangapani Koil as a devotee on the first day of Margazhi, the EO of the temple made a surprise invitation to Venkatesh to present Thiruppavai Upanyasam at the temple during the entire Margazhi. He had no prior experience in daily upanyasams but he went back home immediately, prepared through the day and began his upanyasam that very same day. 

ஆரா அமுதே அடியேன் உடலம்  நின்பால் அன்பாயே

நீராய்  அலைந்து கரைய உருக்குகின்ற நெடுமாலே

சீர் ஆர் செந்நெல் கவரி வீசும் செழு நீர் திரு குடந்தை

ஏர் ஆர் கோலம் திகழ கிடந்தாய் கண்டேன் எம்மானே

A special feature of the Adyayana Utsavam at the Sarangapani Koil is that the 21 day utsavam starts every year on the first day of Margazhi (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2021/12/sarangapani-koil-pagal-pathu-utsavam.html). He decided to stick to presenting only that day’s verse during each of the days of Margazhi and has followed that model ever since in the Thiruppavai Upanyasams over the last decade.

A year after he became a house surgeon and joined night casualty duty which he particularly enjoyed, he had a transformational meeting with Karunakaran Swamy (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2019/09/karunakaran-swamy-president-award.html). It was a meeting out of the blue and quite unexpected and it changed his life completely. Karunakaran Swamy offered to initiate him into ‘Sri Bashyam/ Geetha Bashyam and Vishnu Puranam and Venkatesh has engaged himself in close spiritual discussions over the last decade. He has also reached out to his mentor whenever he has faced challenges in life during this period.

In 2015, he secured a Government job and joined the Government Hospital in Kumbakonam where he continued to perform the professional role of a doctor.

Facing New and Unexpected Challenges in Life

Very quickly his spiritual lecture series became popular but it also saw encounter new challenges that he had not hitherto faced. There was demand for his Upanyasam from across the country and overseas, In 2018, he went on an overseas tour to Dubai to present an upanyasam there. Being present on social media led to viewers raising controversial questions on spiritual topics. He was new to this and initially found it challenging to handle. In 2019, he understood the concept of the success of TV serial makers and launched an online video series explaining the 1000 names of the Lord but here too a few controversies followed him with the online audience raising poking questions. 

It was Karunakaran Swamy who gave him the confidence to continue with his upanyasams "In spiritual lectures, mental focus and strength is very important. It is important not to get distracted" Karunakaraswamy told me, says Venkatesh. He began to see each of these as lessons for life and interestingly now keeps a count of the lessons he has learned from his Upanyasams and the hard hitting feedback from the audience that have held him in good stead since.

Moves up into the ‘Sadas’ space

It was also his mentor who asked him participate in the Sadas at the Vanamamalai Mutt. His mentor has always tested his ability to face new challenges and in one of the Sadas, Karunakaracharya surprised him by asking him to present in Sanskrit what he had just presented in Tamil. “It shook me completely for a minute but I gathered the courage, collected my thoughts and presented in Sanskrit much to the delight of my mentor” recalls Venkatesh of that day.

That presentation gave him greater confidence and he has thus far participated and presented in 35 Sadas.

Within a few years of his debut at Nachiyar Koil, he has gone on to present Upanyasams in Geneva, Frankfurt, Luxemburg and Paris. Following the Pandemic, he presented to the audience in the US.

Quits Govt Job, Starts own Clinic

While he was thus presenting upanyasams around the globe, he continued to don his professional role as a doctor at the GH in Kumbakonam. Venkatesh has always risen to the challenges he has faced in life even at a young age. Hence when in 2020-21, he was transferred from GH to the Primary Health Center a move that he felt would lead him into mundane work, he contemplated quitting the Govt job. But prior to taking this call, he was blessed to have got great insights from the Head of the Poundarikapuram Mutt in Srirangam. “When I was in a bit of a confused state, He gave me the confidence that Lord Ranganatha would take care of me. He provided insights about what every devotee should do at Srirangam. He asked me to perform a pradakshanam of the seven prakaras starting from the outermost prakara and then quit the Government job” he told this writer even as his caring amma provides him with another tumbler of hot water.

A day prior to this writer meeting Venkatesh, he had a chance to meet the Head of the Poundarikapuram Mutt in Thiru Kudanthai and the latter expressed happiness at the Doctor starting his own clinic while at the same time continuing to spread the dharmic messages among people through his spiritual lectures. 

Now into Nalayira Divya Prabhandham

After presenting insights into the 1000 namaas, he wondered what next “Many of the devotees listen to the Nalayira Divya Prabhandham but I realised that not all know the indepth meaning of each of these sacred verses. I decided to present insights into the word by word meaning of the sacred verses.”

A saivite devotee who met this writer in front of the Kapaleeswarar temple on Tuesday said as to how she has been captivated by his presentation on Divya Prabhandham and how she wants to now understand the meaning of all the 4000 verses.

He has also written books on Sampradayam and its relevance to annual festivals in Perumal temples. 

Unflinching Devotion as a way of life

He does not see Upanyasam and his lecture series as a money making opportunity. “Philosophical explanation of scriptures is my way of life. I see any financial returns from Upanyasam as Prasadam.” 

He points to the story of Karunakaraswamy as an endorsement of this. "Facing financial challenges, my mentor's forefathers had sold their lands including the Thiru Maligai in Vaduvur that left them saddened. He went to Lord Rama and challenged him that he had taken everything from the family but the Lord would not be able to take away the Bhakthi from him. 4 decades later, after securing back the financial strength, Karunakaraswamy was able to get back the same Thirumaligai in its same form and structure and the name of the man who sold it back to him was Kothanda Raman!!!"

"That is my real inspiration. If we show unflinching devotion towards the Lord, he will bless us. Hence only Spiritual Power can help us sustain my upanyasams and not focus on money" says 32 year old Dr. Venkatesh even as he gets ready to head to his clinic in the evening.