The Inspirer · 1909 – 1979
HH Sri Pedda Jeeyar Swamiji
Sri Sri Sri Tridandi Srimannarayana Ramanuja Jeeyar Swamiji
“Born in this world to revive Ramanuja's vision — universal brotherhood and universal well-being.”
A Life of Firsts
Seventy Years That Prepared a Century
1909
Born in Kakinada
Born 1 September 1909 to Sri Vangipuram Mangayarya and Choodamba, and named Thiruvengalacharyulu. He would master Sanskrit, Tarka, Nyaya and Vedanta, study the Sri Bhashya, and learn the Bhagavad Vishaya from his guru, Sri Gopalacharya Swami.
1920
A young freedom fighter
Joined Gandhiji's independence movement at age eleven. At twenty, he co-founded the Visishtadwaita Pracharaka Sangham as its Secretary, carrying Ramanuja's message across South India.
1938
India's first Harijan colony
For the first time in the history of India, he donated his own personal land and built 124 houses for the downtrodden at Arthamur village — equality in action, decades before it became law.
1947
Bhakthi Nivedana
Founded the spiritual monthly Bhakthi Nivedana in April 1947 — a magazine that continues to be published to this day.
1954
Sanyasa & the Badrinath Asramam
Took Sanyasasrama at Thothadri, and on June 12, 1954 inaugurated the Asramam at Badrinath, consecrating Sri Srinivasa Perumal with His consorts and Sri Ramanuja in the high Himalayas.
1960–69
108 Sri Rama Kratuvus
Over nine years he performed 108 Sri Rama Kratuvus across India and Nepal — each begun on the Punarvasu star, the sacred fire kept continuously alive — culminating on the Tirumala Hills with a thousand priests reciting the Sri Bhashya.
1973
All India Vedic Conference, Delhi
Organized the first-ever Akhila Bharatha Veda Vidwat Sammelan at Ramlila Maidan, New Delhi, gathering over 3,000 Vedic scholars. Prime Minister Indira Gandhi came for fifteen minutes — and stayed nearly two hours.
1976
Veda Vedanga Vidyalayam
Established the Vedic school at Nadigaddapalem — 'a flowering bed' where great scholars, and as many as seventeen Jeeyars, received their training.
1979
Left for Sri Vaikuntam
On Vaikuntha Dwadasi, December 31, 1979, Swamiji left this world. His Brindavanam stands at Nadigaddapalem, Andhra Pradesh. Two years later, the Jeeyar Educational Trust was formed in his inspiration.
Ashtakshari Koti Havan · Badrinath
In the shadow of the Himalayas, more than three hundred ritwiks chanted the Ashtakshari mantra over ten crore times — a hundred million invocations rising with one sacred fire.
Click to read the full letter · Satya Sankalpa collection, chinnajeeyar.org
A Letter of Testimony · 1983
In the Words of the Great Scholars
Replying to Sri Gopalacharya Swami in 1983, the revered scholar Prathivadi Bhayankaram Annangaracharya wrote of Sri Pedda Jeeyar Swamiji with tears rolling down his cheeks:
“It won't be an exaggeration to say that all the earlier learned Acharyas of our lineage seemed to have together incarnated in the form of Pedda Jeeyar Swamiji… Just thinking of the wide gamut of his activities — from Arthamuru to Badrinath — I seem to be drowning in an ocean of amazement.”
“When the mighty sun sets, the radiance of its rays is transferred to Agni — so also, Pedda Jeeyar's divine radiance has been transferred to and absorbed by Chinna Jeeyar Swami.”
The Legacy Continues
In 1975, a young seeker from Arthamuru — the very village where Swamiji had built India's first Harijan colony — met him and found his life's direction. That seeker took sanyasa in 1980 as HH Sri Chinna Jeeyar Swamiji, and in 1981 formed the Jeeyar Educational Trust with Sri Pedda Jeeyar Swamiji as its inspirer.
After Manavalamamuni, in the Vedic lineage of Bhagavad Ramanuja, it is Sri Pedda Jeeyar Swamiji who carried the divine message to every corner of the country.
Source: chinnajeeyar.org