Thiru Kurungudi Sudharsan Sthaneegam

Quitting a Top IT firm in Chennai at 35, Sudharsan has returned to Azhagiya Nambi Divya Desam to perform lifetime service 

Last week, this section featured a story on a long time resident of Thiruvallikeni quitting a corporate job in his early 40s to return to his hereditary home in Vaanamaamalai Divya Desam where he is currently performing Madapalli service at the Thothadri Nathan temple. This story is about another Thiruvallikeni resident, who aged only 35, has quit a high paying IT job after over a dozen years in the sector and returned to Thiru Kurungudi to take up service as a  Sannidhi Paricharakar at less than one tenth the IT salary.

Dreams to become a doctor but gets into IT

A student of DAV Gopalapuram, S Sudharsan was keen to become a doctor and secured 95% in Class XII Board but even that was not enough to secure him a seat in a medical college. He took to BE (Comp Science) in a private college in Chennai and joined a Top 3 Tier I IT company as a Programme Analyst in 2010. Amidst the competitive IT landscape, he made good progress but within him he knew that the corporate world was not his ultimate destination and was always keen to return to Thiru Kurungudi.

The transformation towards a spiritual journey

He was initiated into the Nalayira Divya Prabhandham by Suresh (Sindhu’s appa - https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2023/10/thiruvallikeni-thiru-kurungudi-sindhu.html) during his collegiate years and also learned the sacred verses from Thirucheraia Narayanan and Pachadi Parthasarathy. And like Nambi Thothadri Srinivasan (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2025/05/vaanamaamalai-thothadri-srinivasan.html), he too was a regular at the Prabhandham Ghoshti at Thiruvallikeni. During his Corporate years, he began listening to the lectures of Velukkudi Krishnan and this created an interest in him Divya Desam Kainkaryam.

Inspired by Mannar Koil Acharya

PS Narasimha Gopalan, a descendant of Periya Nambi and one responsible for the restoration of the Rajagopalaswamy Kulasekara Azhvaar temple in Mannar Koil, Ambasamudram had been pitching for those to return to hereditary locations to perform temple service. Ahead of Nambi’s procession to the Nandavanam on the fifth day of the Vasantha Utsavam, Sudharsan told this writer in his newly renovated home next to Venu Srinivasan’s Trust on North Street that his Acharya - Mannar Koil Narasimha Gopalan Swamy – had initiated the thought in him to return to Thiru Kurungudi as there were not enough Kainkaryaparas there to perform daily service. 

His appa quit family life when Sudharsan was still at college and came to Thiru Kurungudi to head the Mutt as the Jeer in 2009.

Quits Corporate work at 35

While taking to temple kainkaryam had been in his mind for a while, the decision to quit the IT job was sudden and he made his way to Thiru Kurungudi. It was Mannar Koil Narasimha Gopalan who spoke to the Jeer to provide Sudharsan with an official Kainkaryam engagement at this Divya Desam pitching with the Jeer that at a time when there was a serious shortage of service personnel in remote temples in TN, the arrival of Sudharsan at 35 would be a great Kainkaryam asset for the temple and that they should utilise his presence by providing him with a full time daily Kainkaryam. 

Perarulalar Ramanuja Jeer has great regard for Narasimha Gopalan Acharya in the way he has single handedly managed the Mannar Koil temple and as per his suggestion, assigned the Sannidhi Paricharaka Kainkaryam to Sudharsan. 

It has been almost six months now and Sudharsan has been enjoying every bit of it though he has found the Kainkaryam a lot more taxing than he thought it would be. 

Sannidhi Paricharaka and Madapalli Kainkaryam

His role at the Azhagiya Nambi Sannidhi entails getting everything read for Vishroopam including Theertham and then supporting the archaka during the Thiruvarathanam and other pooja services. Both in the morning and evening, he lights the lamp in all sannidhis during the ten days of his kainkaryam every month. 

In addition to the ten day service at the Azhagiya Nambi Sannidhi, he performs another ten days of Paricharaka and Madapalli Kainkaryam at the Thiruparkadal Nambi Sannidi and has taken a liking to the Madapalli cooking.

Interested in Pushpa Kainkaryam

Into the future, he is also keen to perform Pushpa Kainkaryam by plucking flowers from the Nandavanam and knotting the flowers into a garland and presenting those to Nambi.

புள்ளினை வாய் பிளந்திட்டாய் 

பொருகரியின் கொம்பு ஒசித்தாய் 

கள்ள அரக்கியை மூகோடு 

காவலனை தலை கொண்டாய்

அள்ளி நீ வெண்ணெய் விழங்க அஞ்சாது அடியேன் அடித்தேன்

தெள்ளிய நீரில் எழுந்த செங்கழுநீர் சூட்டவாறாய்

Unmatched peace and happiness at Thiru Kurungudi

Months after he quit the high paying IT job, he says he has found a new sense of peace and satisfaction “There were opportunities to move up the ladder in the IT job but one always encountered jealousy and it was something I had to face every day at work. There is a peace in this kainkaryam and when the thought process is clear that the intention of my presence here is purely service related, the Kainkaryam becomes all the more enjoyable.”

Utsavam Kainkaryam

During the Panguni Brahmotsavam, Sudharsan also performed the service of presenting Theertham to the devotees at the street procession. He also doubles up as a Sripatham when there is a shortage of personnel to carry the Lord as was found last week at the procession to the Nandavanam.

At the utsavams, Sudharsan is also involved in distributing Thaligai to the devotees and his model of distribution stands out among the personnel there. He credits the Mannar Koil Acharya Swami for this learning “When I performed Kainkaryam at the Utsavams in Mannar Koil, he would often ask me to present the Thaligai in large quantities to the devotees and only what is finally left should be taken by us. I have taken to that model and hand out as much prasadam as possible to the devotees so they go back happy and satisfied.”

Improvement areas 

In the six months he has been at the temple he has identified areas of improvement and is hoping that going forward he will be able to contribute in those areas “Streamlining the madapalli process, use of technology in the documentation process, maintaining traditions in as many areas as possible. The Kainkaryaparas took to multi tasking in the century gone by and I see myself being involved in any kainkaryam that is expected of me at this temple.”

As far as his own learning goes, he says there is a lot to learn. He is in the process of learning Kattiyam, Veda Vinnappam and Stotra Paadams and is hoping that sometime in the near future he will be able to present these before the Lord.

His Thatha's devotional story inspires him

He refers to an example of his Thatha’s Kainkaryam serving as a real motivation to him “My amma’s appa performed service at the Thirumalai Nambi Sannidhi at the Mahendra Giri Parvatham. Once when he had walked all the way to the top of the hill, he found that he had not carried the salt and walked back home to pick up the salt. Such was his commitment to the Kainkaryam. I want to see if I can perform this service with that kind of devotional commitment to Nambi." 

Interestingly, within months of him returning to this Divya Desam, his elder brother, Jagannathan, also a member of the Prabhandham Ghoshti at Thiruvallikeni, quit his IT job in a top Tier 1 IT company in Chennai and he too has returned to Thiru Kurungudi to join Sudharsan.

                Elder brother Jagannathan - quits Top Tier 1 IT company

As the Jeer of the Thiru Kurungudi Mutt told this writer last week (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2025/05/thiru-kurungudi-jeer-mega-plans-for-mutt.html), there is a shortage of Kainkaryaparas at this historic Divya Desam and not many are willing to make their way back to remote temple towns. Sudharsan had been reasonably ambitious at his work and had grown to become a technology architect when he quit the job late last year. With an almost 15 year experience in the IT space, there was a career beckoning including overseas growth opportunities but Sudharsan has chosen a different path in his life – that of performing a lifetime service at the feet of Nambi of Thiru Kurungudi. Having been a part of the vibrant Prabhandham Ghoshti at the Parthasarathy temple, he says he does miss that bit about Thiruvallikeni but this new found peace in this remote Divya Desam in Thiru Kurungudi is something he has come to enjoy. Like Thothadri Srinivasan at Vaanamaamalai, Sudharsan too talks very little and his focus is entirely on the Kainkaryam at hand.

The enjoyable experience of these last six months is likely to keep him firmly grounded to his roots at this Divya Desam. More importantly, selfless temple service as a way of life that Sudharsan has chosen should serve as an inspiration to other youngsters to return to their hereditary towns to dedicate themselves to Kainkaryam as was the way till the middle of the previous century.  As an immediate testimony, his elder brother has joined him within months at this temple. One has to wait and watch if more Kainkaryapas will return from cities to their hereditary locations.