The statue and complex around it looks damn impressive! It has miniature shrines to all the Divyadesams. Veda Patashalas, Yagashalas, Gaushalas and so forth.
Certainly a huge huge commendable feat achieved!
🙏😀🙏😀
I am not going into the biographical details of the Saint. They are well known and readily available. What is more important is Telugus reclaiming him. Yes, he was of Telugu ancestry in his Poorvashramam. His Inti peru was Aasuri. His father was Keshava Somayajulu. 🙏😀
The person behind this huge project is Sri Tridandi Chinna Jeeyar Swamy, easily the most popular spiritual leaders in the Telugu lands today.
You might like him or not, like his philosophy or politics or not, but he has been working for Dharma significantly in the Telugu states.
Even Jeeyar Swamy's biographical details are well known. Including the huge controversy when he decided to travel overseas! They accused him of breaking Sampradayam, polluting it. Etc etc.
But his way of functioning and his reasoning of his travels seems perfectly fine!
It is important to understand how Sanatana traditions have been suppressed for long in the Telugu states. The exponential growth of the Church and the other predatory religion that has been taking disadvantage of economically poorer sections is a good case study.
Earlier you had several saints, godmen and Hindu spiritual leaders in the Telugu states who worked hard for Dharma in their own ways. Be it Jillellamudi Amma, Viswamji, Sundara Chaitanyananda or Satya Sai Baba or later Sivananda Murthy in Andhra. They contributed much.
In the absence of many of these spiritual leaders, the few traditional Mathadhipathis didn't function beyond their regular territory. In that light, Jeeyar Swamy's work stands out. He went across villages, communities, castes, genders, etc and began gathering support for Dharma.
In the Naxalite-ridden Telangana and feudal rural Andhra, Jeeyar Swamy's brand of spiritual philosophy brought in the much needed solace to thousands of people who were looking for a direction. And he was ready to take the extra mile to make them feel special and loved.
Here is a clipping from one of his travels. You can see how he loves to get involved in this. Moreover, gets everyone around him involved and makes them feel so special. I have met people from different castes and communities who have met him once and worship him blindly!
No Jeeyar Swamy or Mathadhipathi had done this earlier. And in a place like Andhra and Telangana, it was desperately required. Like it was required for the Kanchi Paramacharya once upon a time to walk across Tamil Nadu and rejuvenate Dharma in the peak of Dravidian politics.
But Chinna Jeeyar Swamy wasn't doing something new. He was following the steps of the great Saint Ramanujacharya who also went around unifying hundreds of Hindus as one large community. He believed in the strength of Hindu unity. A thing that is required even now!
So when he decided to construct a statue to celebrate the thousand years of Sri Ramanujacharya, donations poured in. He only had to mention his Sankalpam.
This whole project is supposed to have costed over a thousand crores. Every single rupee came from devotees donations!
You want more?
Less than a decade ago, this man with pretentions of social activism spewed so much poison! He wanted all temples broken down, Vedas burnt, abused Brahmins endlessly. And today he is here!
The iconic baladeer Gaddar!
