Celebrating The First International Day of Yoga

THE YOUNG SWAMIJI
The Young Swamiji
By Kamala Devi
What was he like, the young Swamiji?
He was, his mother said, ‘a very adamant fellow’.
By all accounts, the striking personality of the young Swamiji was clear
to all from his very earliest years.
It had three distinct strands: a resolute and fearless determination,
a capacity to discriminate between genuine religious observance and
superstition, and a deep and abiding compassion for all living beings.
What was the background to this striking personality?
Background
Swami Vishnudevananda was born Swami Kuttan Nair in
Kaninmangalam, near Nemmara, in the Native State of Cochin
(now Kerala) in 1927, a son of the famous warrior caste of
Kerala, the Nairs. The Nairs are an ancient and extraordinary
caste. Although customs and traditions differ within various Nair
communities, they had their own marital customs (sambandham),
their own form of matrilineal inheritance (marumakkathayam),
their own art of warfare (kalarippayattu), their own war goddess
(Bhadrakali), their own cult of ancestor worship, and their own
art form, kathakali (dance drama). In swordsmanship and suicide
squads (chavers) they were similar to the Samurai of Japan.
In feudal times the Nairs formed the chief militia in Kerala, and
travellers were as struck by their valour and military prowess
as they were fascinated by the customs and traditions which
distinguished them from other Keralites. Early writers described
them as ‘exceedingly haughty, proud and bold’.
The Nairs lived in matrilineal joint families known as tarawads.
They generally lived away from the towns in detached houses
with large compounds and good gardens. The plan and other
details of the structure of Nair houses were determined in strict
conformity with the principles of the ancient Hindu science of
architecture based on astrology (vastu).
The tarawad or marumakkathayam family consisted in theory
of all persons who could trace their descent in the female line
from a single ancestress, and a single house could sometimes
contain a hundred people, spanning three or four generations.
Swamiji’s tarawad, or traditional family home, was known
as Valia Peechankurichy Veedu: ‘Peechankurichy’ being the
name of the house, ‘valia’ meaning ‘big’ and ‘veedu’ meaning
‘house’. It had five rooms on the ground floor, six rooms on the
first floor and open space on the third floor for storing grain.
There were also two halls on the first floor and two halls on the
ground floor. All four sides had long sit-outs which were approx -
imately one hundred feet by fifteen feet to accommodate any
number of people during feasts and festivities. Guests coming
from far off villages slept in these courtyards on mats and
pillows provided by the family.
The family had three parcels of land totalling five hundred
acres (five thousand paras) as well as two plantations (‘gardens’)
adjacent to some rivers. Here they grew coconuts, mangoes and
other fruits.
“As a child Swamiji loved bhakti stories
like Kabirdas. He also loved to go for
Temple celebrations.”
Swamiji’s father, Sri Chatthu Panicker, was said to have been
a first class farmer and one of the important agriculturists in the
area. The local people often spoke of the effort he put into his
farming. He would take the bullocks to the field at 3am and
immediately begin ploughing. As the bullocks had to come from
far away they would have started
out at midnight or one am. A great
deal of effort was put into the
land and it was universally
admired as being very beautiful.
It was from his father that
Swamiji first acquired his highlydeveloped
sense of discipline.
Swamiji’s mother was Srimati
Devaki Amma (later Swami
Sivasarananda), the daughter
Swami Vishnudevananda’s
of Srimati Cheechu Amma mother, Devaki Amma, who later
of Valia Peechankurichy Veedu became Swami Sivasharanananda
and Sri Padmanabha Shastry,
a revered Sanskrit scholar and Veda pandit attached to the
Palace of the Maharaja of Cochin. Swamiji’s mother was very
pious. All felt that Devaki Amma had the full characteristics of
her father and that Swami must have had his blessings as well.
There was a pond near the house and a Subramania Shestram
nearby. The land near the Temple belonged to Swamiji’s father
and Devaki Amma would go there and pray every day for at least
one or two hours. Everyone in the family thought that that was
why no one had any diseases among their near and dear ones.
YOGALife |Autumn/Winter 2015
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