Chennai: We live in an age and time where school education is prioritised than everything. Children learn the subjects, write exams and go on to become professionals. All the while we slog to lead a happy and content life.
But only when we reach sixties, we start thinking about the purpose of life and analyse if the materialistic accomplishments have given us the happiness for which we went behind all our adulthood.
However, people choose to give up the worldly pleasure of going through the education system and being employed by a corporate with a fat cheque when the realisation happens at an early age.
One such person is G Gajanan Ganabadigal, a disciple of Sringeru Mutt Veda Patashala Sankaracharya Mahaswamigal, from the neighbourhood who found no joy in going behind money.
Instead he dropped off school and learnt the holy scriptures and now is on a quest to share the knowledge he acquired.
At present, he is associated with Shree Bharathiya Veda Vidya Gurukulam in the neighbourhood which was started by T V Ramaswamy, a resident of Nanganallur in 2014.
When Ramaswamy sought the advice of the swamigal for an acharya, he directed Ganabadigal to be the teacher due to his immense reverence towards the culture.
“It is to spread the sanatana dharma without any deviation or by compromising in its ethos and values in this materialistic world, I began the gurukulam,” said Ramaswamy.
The patashala provides training for children who want to learn vedas for free, however, Ganapadigal feels students of the current generation are not spiritually inclined. The students are trained in veda, agama sastra, Sanskrit, jyothisham, saiva siddhantha, music, yoga, vedic mathematics, thirumarai and shilpa sastra.
“Young boys discontinue their Vedic education within a year or two as they come to know that they cannot revel in worldly pleasures, that is, watching movies or socialising with friends. They must realise that fulfilling their materialistic needs does not make them happy, but backfires them as the list keeps growing,” shares Ganabadigal.
But he also emphasises that one need not learn it full-time, but at least devote a portion of their day towards surrendering to the Lord. With this motive, Ganabadigal teaches 10 children the vedas and hundreds of residents learn the mantras and suktas whenever they can.
While there are people from other parts of the country are waiting to study vedas, Ramaswamy and Ganapadigal are constructing a patashala, they are looking for financial donations to keep doing the good deed.
Interested people may reach Ramaswamy at 9445113583 and the gurukulam is located at 2/36, Third Street, Shanthi Nagar, Adambakkam.