Sadhu Prof. V. Rangarajan – A SADHU WITH A DIFFERENCE

SWATANTRYAVEER SAVARKAR LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD 2009
PRESENTED TO SADHU PROF. V. RANGARAJAN

Sadhu Prof. V. Rangarajan, Founder Trustee of Sri Bharatamata Gurukula Ashram & Yogi Ramsuratkumar Indological Research Centre, Sister Nivedita Academy, Sri Bharatamata Mandir, Krishnarajapuram, Bangalore, was honoured with the award of Swatantryaveer Savarkar Sadaka Gaurav Ratna Puraskar-2009 in a colourful function held at Puttanna Chetty Town Hall, Banglaore, on Wednesday, December 9, 2009. The Award instituted by Akhila Bharata Hindu Maha Sabha, Karnataka, was conferred on him for excellence in social service and in recognition of his outstanding achievement and yeoman service to the country.

Sri Sri Sri Pallakki Narayana Mahaswamiji, Durvasa Kshetra, Shivamogga, presented the award and honoured the Sadhu with a shawl and a citation, in the presence of Sri Chandra Prakash, National President of the Sabha and Sri Praveen Kumar Sharma, National Spokesperson of the Sabha. Sri M. Vasudeva Rao Kashyapa, State President of the Sabha, introducing the Sadhu,  referred to the  four decades of outstanding service of Sadhuji in spreading the message of Vande Mataram and the glorious history of great patriots and revolutionaries of India’s freedom struggle, especially through the publication of Vande Mataram, the story of the immortal song, and Saga of Patriotism, the biographical accounts of valiant revolutionaries and patriots, and also the setting up of a unique temple of Sri Bharatamata at Srinivasanagar, Krishnarajapuram, Bangalore.

Veteren Freedom Fighters and men of achievements in various fields from different parts of the country were also honoured on the occasion.

HIS HOLINESS SADHU PROF. V. RANGARAJAN

A Profile

SADHU PROF. V. RANGARAJAN, the Founder Trustee of Sister Nivedita Academy, was born on 22nd October 1940 to Sri S.R.Venugopalan and Smt. Janakiammal at Ernakulam, Kerala State, India. He did his Post Graduation in M.A. (Philosophy, First Rank holder from University of Madras). Inspired by his Siksha Guru, H.H. Swami Chinmayananda, and mentor, Sri Guruji Golwalkar, he entered into dedicated service to the Hindu cause four decades ago and has shouldered important responsibilities in institutions like Chinmaya Mission, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, etc. He served as Bureau Editor, Hindustan Samachar News Agency; Associate Editor, Yuva Bharti, Vivekanda Kendra Patrika and Brahmavadin; Secretary, Chinmaya Mission, Viswa Hindu Parishad and Swami Vivekananda Medical  Mission; and Visiting Professor of Indian Thought and Cultural Heritage of India in  Sacred College and Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan, Chennai.  

SISTER NIVEDITA ACADEMY was founded by the Sadhu at Chennai in 1977 with the blessings of stalwarts like Acharya J.B. Kripalani and Swami Chinmayananda, and it has been rendering yeoman service to the Hindu cause in India and abroad, spreading the glory and greatness of Mother Bharat and our most ancient culture and heritage. The maiden publication of the Academy was “Vande Mataram” by Sadhu Rangarajan, the inspiring history of the immortal song of Bankim Chandra, to which Acharya Kripalani wrote a fitting foreword. The book has seen three editions in the last three decades. “Saga Of Patriotism” by Sadhu Rangarajan and R. Vivekanandan, a work on the patriots and revolutionaries of India, has seen two editions.

TATTVA DARSANA Quarterly, the official organ of the Academy, was launched in 1984 and Swami Chinamayananda rightly pointed out in the inaugural issue, “Sri V. Rangarajan is fully capable of delivering the goods through the journal, TATTVA DARSANA, which is the urgent need of the times. It is my firm understanding that he has the spiritual preparation, in both study and practice, and by a conspiracy of destiny, he had a gruesome total training in all areas of journalism. When such a well equipped person, having the necessary intense consciousness of our culture, starts a jourjnal, it cannot but assert our goal. Even though the market is saturated with trash, I am confident that TATTVA DARSANA will have all success, and I am looking forward to seeing its glorious trail of service to the Hindu Nation.” The journal is now entering into the twenty-seventh year of publication.

BHARATAMATA GURUKULA ASHRAM & YOGI RAMSURATKUMAR INDOLOGICAL RESEARCH CENTRE, named after His Holiness Yogi Ramsuratkumar of Tiruvannamalai, the deeksha guru of the founder of the Academy, Sadhu Prof. V. Rangarajan, and set up at Srinivasanagar, Krishnarajapuram, Bangalore, in 1999, is dedicated to train a lay order of missionaries of Mother Bharat to serve Her children all over the world.

A TEMPLE FOR BHARATAMATA AT BANGALORE

Adoration and worship of Bharatamata, our Jamabhoomi. Punyabhoomi, Karmabhoomi, and Mokshabhoomi, is the hallmark of Hindu Dharma. The Vedas and Puranas proclaim the glory and greatness of our Motherland. Sri Rama extols Mother and Motherland as greater than the Heaven—Jananee janmabhoomischa swargaadapi gareeyasi. She is the Mother of all our Gods and Goddesses, saints, seers and holy men and women whom we worship and for whom temples have been erected all over the country and abroad. However, rarely we find a temple dedicated to Bharatamata whom even modern saints and savants like Bankim Chandra, Swami Vivekananda, Mahayogi Sri Aurobindo, Sister Nivedita, Swatantrya Veer Savarkar and Mahakavi Bharati eulogized as the manifestation of Mahashakti and presented before us the concepts of Ananda Math and Bhavani Mandir. The Academy undertook a very sacred task of setting up a unique SRI BHARATMATA MANDIR in its premises at Srinivasanagar, Krishnarajapuram, Bangalore 560 036. This temple is now a place of congregation of all children of Mother Bharat, irrespective of caste, creed or nationality, to offer worship to the Loka Guru, Bharatamata, and to spread Her message, Vasudaiva kutumbakam—the whole world is one family. The temple was consecrated by H.H. Jagatguru Swami Vishwesha Teertha Maharaj of Udupi Pejawar Mutt, on December 8, 2004. An exquisite idol of Bharatamata has been installed and Deshamaatrukaa Pooja and Havan are performed by all devotees directly.

Sri Guruji Golwalkar Hindu Resource Centre is coming up in the premises of Sri Bharatamata Mandir and its library consisting of twenty-thousand books, rare journals, CDs, DVDs, Audio and Video Cassettes will be at the disposal of research scholars and students from all over the country and abroad who want to do research on Hindu thought and culture.

SADHU’S VISITS ABROAD

Sadhu Rangarajan visited South Africa for the first time in 1984 to edit the YOGA LESSONS FOR CHILDREN, a prestigious publication of the Divine Life Society of South Africa, on the occasion of Swami Sivananda Centenary. He addressed the World Hindu Conference at Durban in South Africa in 1995. Subsequently he has set up the branches of the Academy in the country and has made nine more visits. His last successful tour of South Africa for Hindu Dharma Prachar was from May 2 to August 2, 2009.  He has also visited Mauritius, Reunion, Botswana, Kenya, Singapore and Nepal carrying the message and mission of Mother Bharat to Her children in those distant lands and set up branches of the Academy in Singapore, Kenya and Botswana. Sadhu Rangarajan is also a member of the International Coordination Council of Vishwa Hindu Parishad Overseas and participant in the Vishwa Dharma Prasar Yaatra of sadhus and sants to different countries. Lauding the work of Sadhu Rangarajan abroad, his Shiksha Guru, H.H. Swami Chinmayananda, said “We need such champions of Hinduism, who scream into the ears of the sleeping Hindus, reviving and revitalizing in their hearty consciousness of their proud past.”

Sadhu Prof. V. Rangarajan received initiation from his Deeksha Guru, H.H. Yogi Ramsuratkumar Godchild Tiruvannamalai, on April 26, 1988.  Since then he has been traveling all over the country and abroad, propagating the Ramanama Taraka Mantra in accordance to the command of his Master.
 
H.H. SWAMI CHIDANANDA, World President, Divine Life Society, Rishikesh, in his speech, following, Sadhu Rangarajan’s address in Swargashram, Rishikesh, on October 26, 1987, spoke about Sadhu and said “I will take this opportunity for saying a few worlds about Professor V. Rangarajan.  He has shared his lofty ideas and inspiring thoughts with us all in a very very dynamic and thrilling manner.  You all know, ‘Brahmavit brahmaiva bhavati’ – ‘Knower of Brahman becomes Brahman’, and you also know: ‘As a man thinketh so he becometh’. Constantly thinking about Swami Vivekanandaji, constantly thinking about such noble patriotic souls like Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, Aurobindo Ghosh and Subramanya Bharatiyar, who saw in India a veritable Divine Shakti, a veritable deity, not merely a land, not merely a nation, but a living force of all our hearts, a dynamic, a potential force to transform humanity into divinity – thus, in their inner intuitive vision they beheld the eternal, living reality, the true saviour, Bharatvarsha, and the redeemer if not today at least tomorrow of the future of mankind; they adored, they eulogized in their intuitive vision their spiritual identity of their self with the soul of India, Bharata Shakti – and Professor V. Rangarajan, who is amongst us, in constantly thinking about these lofty souls, their sublime ideas and their inner spiritual intuition of their Divine Mother, beloved Motherland, Matrubhoomi, Bharatvarsha, he has imbibed verily their fervour – their patriotic fervor – and love for India, and the great spirit of adoration of India so that when he speaks, their own words come through him.  Constantly thinking of Vivekananda, he has himself become an inspired orator”

A SADHU WITH A DIFFERENCE

Late Sri Anwar Shaikh, in his Quarterly, Liberty, published from Prescott, England, paid a tribute to Sadhu Rangarajan and said, “In India, a sadhu is an ascetic who has turned his back on the world and attained Siddhi through this process.

“However, Professor Rangarajan is a sadhu with a difference. Why? Because he is not only a devotee of God but also a lover of Bharatamata, a doctrine close to my heart.”

Referring to the activities of Sister Nivedita Academy, Sri Shaikh said, “A worthy aspect of the Academy is that it actively promotes the ideal of Spiritual Nationalism. This is true Hinduism for being the righteous and liberal way of life but has been turned into a swamp for lacking patriotic zeal and action. The Spiritual Nationalism of India is not a vice but a great virtue because it does not seek to aggrandize narrow nationalism and this is confirmed by the fact that Sister Nivedita was an Irish and not an Indian lady. The Professor Sadhu Rangarajan quite rightly believes that the Veda is the ambassador of universal brotherhood, thus making Hindu Dharma the religion of mankind. This is why he started the International Ramnam Movement to bring about world peace through message of unity.

“Rashtra Dharma is the true ideal of the Academy. It means that as there is an individual self, there is also a national self and one should seek self-realization through the patriotic service of national self, which is none else by Bharat Mata, the Mother of us all, the Divine Incarnation.”

Sri Anwar Sheikh dedicated his article “Bharatamata” to Sadhuji.

It may be recalled that Sadhuji was the recepient of “Wisdom International Award” in the year 1977.

 

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