Banker N Muralidharan Promoting Prabhandham and Vedic Learning

When the Vardah Cyclone hit Madras in December 2016, the ancient house of former Syndicate Bank and Repco Home Finance staffer N Muralidharan in T Nagar was falling off and it necessitated a reconstruction. He had been involved in learning and recital of Divya Prabhandham for the previous 15years. 

Driven by devotion, he decided to build a hall as part of the reconstruction, one that would be completely dedicated to the recital of the sacred verses and to students learning these.

When Andavan Ashramam announced the commencement of the Divya Prabhandham class at its center on Desikachari Road in Mylapore in 2003 soon after Muralidharan took voluntary retirement, he joined along with 300 others. His devotional commitment to learning was so high that he was one of only 10odd devotees to stay through the full length of the course till 2010 and get certified by acharya Thiruvahindrapuram Kannan.

Muralidharan  says that his Prabhandham acharya was outstanding. Even today, a dozen years after completion,  the way he presented the pillaianthaathi verses is fresh in my memory and is like nectar to us.

Soon after the Prabhandham course, he began learning the Vedas first from Navalpakkam Varadachari and then over the last decade from Kuruchi Lakshmi Narasimha Swami. 

When Vardah hit, his house was badly damaged. At that time, he had got immersed devotionally into the Prabhandham and Vedas and was reciting Desikar Prabhandham and Stotras as a group. He was keen to reconstruct the damaged house into a Center for Learning the sacred verses. One of his vedic team members, Rangachari, put him on to a structural engineer, Pichandi from Koyambedu, who agreed to reconstruct the building but when he shared the financial details of the reconstruction Muralidharan was in a state of shock and was in tears.

His devotional wish was to make this as a destination for the likeminded who wanted to learn and recite prabhandham and the vedas and a platform for the nextgen to learn the sacred verses and to present on special days in the year. And even as he looks back at that moment when he looked to the Lord for solution, devotional tears roll down once again. For two decades, he had been performing Thirumanjanam every Swathi for Lord Narasimha and he sought a solution from Him.

As per the Lord’s direction, he gave the go ahead to the engineer but did not  have financial wherewithal to fund the construction. 

It was then that he decided to sell all his shares and financial investments to source the finances for this reconstruction. 

On Akshaya Trithiyai day in 2017, the Prabhandham and Vedic Center of Learning “Sudarshan” was inaugurated by Purasai Ranganathan, former GM of Philips and the backbone to Muralidharan’s devotional endeavours.

He looks back with great happiness at the God's blessings "Till then, the prabhandham and veda classes had been in different locations. Now 40students congregated at ‘Sudarshan’ every week for the vedic classes under Acharya Kuruchi Swami."

He also feels blessed that as a team they have been able to follow a religious process during Ekadasi and to have presented Achidram without a break for ten years "We have been reciting Achidram every Ekadasi since 2012 and have just completed the 219th  presentation this month. We celebrated the 200th Ekadasi with a series of Upanyasams including one by Anantha Padmanabhachariar. In the last year, we have also begun reciting Ashwamedham every Ekadasi in addition to Achidram." 

Every year on the 27th day of Karthigai, the group presents Paduka Sahasram at this center of Learning as a one day Parayanam.

When the 46th Jeer of the Ahobila Mutt came to this center earlier this year, he was keen for Muralidharan to add young boys in good numbers to these classes to compliment the presentation of the seniors. And thus over the last nine months, 20 new boys aged below 15 have begun learning Stotra Paadam from Thyaga Varadarajan (Srivatsan), Sanskrit teacher at KV Tambaram.

Earlier this month, on the occasion of Vedantha Desikar’s birthday, all these students came together as a group at Sudarshan Center of Learning. Each of the students were presented a hundi with the objective of encouraging the savings mindset in them. Visaka Hari’s disciple Rishi presented an upanyasam on the occasion.

Every year on the morning of Chitrai Pournami, Srinivasa Perumal of Vedantha Desikar temple, Mylapore makes his way to ‘Sudarshan’.

Sumithra, wife of Muralidharan, has been a pillar of strength in this devotional endeavour. At every sacred congregation, the students and acharya are presented with a special sweet and badam milk. She has also learnt the Divya Prabhandham as well as Yadavabdhiyam, Bhagavatam, Ramayana slokas among other stotra paadams under the tutorship of Smt Devaki, who has trained over 100 students.

When Vardah Cyclone badly damaged his house, he could have gone down and become depressed. Instead he found a devotional opportunity in the crisis and created a new center of learning that has been promoting Prabhandam and Vedas. He has also been constantly encouraging young vedic students to come and present the Vedas at this center. His has been a yeomen service in the spiritual world and one that has taken place over a long period of time.

'Sudarshan' is located on Habibullah Road near Karnataka Sangha School