Just as the biography of a man starts with his birth, and will go behind it to trace the biological growth and development of the seed in the womb, so too, to write the life of a realised saint, of the stature of Sri Swami Tapovanam, it is to trace sincerely the adventures of his soul in its onwards flights to God-Realization. A Mahatma starts his career, in a new world, with a new personality, and maintains absolutely a new set of relationship. Once a Sanyasi, he becomes dead to his entire past. And yet, ordinarily we have almost an unhealthy curiosity to trace the life of the Mahatma, before he reached the Gate of the Temple to ring the bell in adoration to the Infinite.
Sri Swamiji Maharaj was no tame individual to whom, even after ten years of intimate service and total surrender could I discover the necessary courage to ask of his .personallife before he took Sanyas. Some scrappy material is certainly available in his own words and here below we are tracing them as best as we can.A boy was born in Palghat Taluk, in Kerala, in a fairly medium sized village called Kuzholmannam in a house called "Puthan Veedu" (New House) in 1889 to Smt. Balamba and Sri Achutan Nair. The child was named Subramaniam. He was called by the parents as Chippu Kutty, and this pet name was taken lip later on by all his friends and admirers, all through his life till he took Sanyas.
His early education started with the village teacher and soon he had his ordinary education in the schools at Koduvayur, Kollengode and Alattur. The educational system available and the subjects taught therein were not to his taste and, therefore, the young boy at an early age of fourteen stopped going to school and came to stay in his father's house in Koduvayur.
This was a great disappointment to his father, who being a fairly rich landlord, had his own ambitions to see his son educated and employed as a Government Official. Sri Gurudev himself remembered the painful interview the son had with his father. Expressing his utter disappointment, the loving father one day exclaimed: "What a pity when hundreds and thousands of children bemoan that they have not the means to educate themselves, you, who have sufficient means must decide not to continue your education!"
Chippu Kutty did not run away from the school because of idleness. He had the greatest reverence for knowledge, and thirst for learning. He had independently thought of his problem and had come to his own conclusions regarding the type of education that would satisfy him. The boy replied, "Father, I have not discarded education. Only I have stopped attending the school". Thereafter, with the help of some well-read persons in the vicinity, the intelligent boy started his self-study, and gained a tolerable mastery over the English Language.
Sri Swamiji Maharaj was no tame individual to whom, even after ten years of intimate service and total surrender could I discover the necessary courage to ask of his .personallife before he took Sanyas. Some scrappy material is certainly available in his own words and here below we are tracing them as best as we can.A boy was born in Palghat Taluk, in Kerala, in a fairly medium sized village called Kuzholmannam in a house called "Puthan Veedu" (New House) in 1889 to Smt. Balamba and Sri Achutan Nair. The child was named Subramaniam. He was called by the parents as Chippu Kutty, and this pet name was taken lip later on by all his friends and admirers, all through his life till he took Sanyas.
His early education started with the village teacher and soon he had his ordinary education in the schools at Koduvayur, Kollengode and Alattur. The educational system available and the subjects taught therein were not to his taste and, therefore, the young boy at an early age of fourteen stopped going to school and came to stay in his father's house in Koduvayur.
This was a great disappointment to his father, who being a fairly rich landlord, had his own ambitions to see his son educated and employed as a Government Official. Sri Gurudev himself remembered the painful interview the son had with his father. Expressing his utter disappointment, the loving father one day exclaimed: "What a pity when hundreds and thousands of children bemoan that they have not the means to educate themselves, you, who have sufficient means must decide not to continue your education!"
Chippu Kutty did not run away from the school because of idleness. He had the greatest reverence for knowledge, and thirst for learning. He had independently thought of his problem and had come to his own conclusions regarding the type of education that would satisfy him. The boy replied, "Father, I have not discarded education. Only I have stopped attending the school". Thereafter, with the help of some well-read persons in the vicinity, the intelligent boy started his self-study, and gained a tolerable mastery over the English Language.
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