THE AHOBILA MATH
The Ahobila Math was founded in 1398.Math in Sanskrit language, means a religious institution. Ahobilam is the place where it was founded. Ahobilam is a holy centre near the town of Cudappah,Karnool district, Andhra Pradesh, India.
You may remember the name Sri Adivan Satakopa Yatindra Maha Desikan mentioned in guru parampara in the previous page.His original name , prior to founding the Ahobila Math was Srinivasa.He was born in a place called Melkote, near Mysore in Karnataka state, India(1378). At a young age,he went for studies to the town of Kancheepuram,Tamil Nadu, India.Kancheepuram was an university Town in those days( In some ways, it still is).There, he studied the scriptures under the great scholar, Gatika Satam Ammal. When he was about 20 years old, he had a dream one night,in which Nrismha (the 4th incarnation of Vishnu-Narayana)appeared before him and instructed him to come to the hloy centre of Ahobilam. He reported this dream to his guru next day. His guru said that he also had a dream where Nrisimha had instructed him to send his disciple to Ahobilam and gave permission to Srinivasa to go to Ahobilam.
Srinivasa travelled a distance of about 500 kilometres to reach his destination.Ahobilam is group of seven hills,with about 9 temples dedicated to Nrisimha located on them. When he reached the top of the hills,Sri Nrimha appeared before him in the form of a Sanyasi and initiated Srinivasa into Sanyas(a life of renunciation, celibacy and holiness).He also gave him a Lakshmi Nrisimha figure for his worship.He instructed him to travel round the country preaching the philosophy of Ramanuja, initiating people into Srivaishnavism, (Samasrayana) and making people perform Prapatti for salvation. ((Samasrayana and Prapatti MUST be performed through a true Acharya only ! please read the life of Vedanta Desika for details.Link www.vaishnavism.net/des.doc )
Srinivasa thus became the founder of the great institution of Ahobila Math. Shortly this event,he visited another holy centre at Alwar Tirunagari in the extreme south of the state of Tamil Nadu. There, Nammalwar( mentioned in the guru parampara earlier), through a vision, gave him the title of Van Satakopa jeer.( Satakopa is another name of Nammalwar.) Since he was the first Head of Ahobila Math he is known as Srimad Adivan Satakopa Yatindra Maha Desikan.(Desikan means preceptor. Yati means someone who has renounced the world and taken Sanyas.)
For a period of about 60 years, the first Jeer( one who has conquered) faithfully carried out the instructions of Sri Nrisimha.He travelled all over India Preaching the message of Ramanuja and Vedanta Desika.By the time he ascended to Sri Vaikunta, The Ahobila Math was a mighty institution, with disciples all over India. Many kings were the disciples of the Jeer.He had initiated countless numbers of people into Sri Vaishnavism and also had them do Prapatti.He had also nominated as the next head of Ahobila Math, one of his finest desciples.
The present Jeer of of Ahobila Math, Srivan Satakopa Sri Narayana Yatindra Maha Desikan, is the 45 th in the line of sucession. He succeeded the 44th Jeer, Srivan Satakopa Sri Vedanta Desika Yatindra Maha Desikan(1895-1992), who was the Head of Ahobila Math for 35 years from 1967
THE PRESENT DAY AHOBILA MATH
The present day Ahobila math is among the largest institutions of its kind. It has well over a million disciples. Even though the majority of these are in India, these days ,it has a following in many countries of the world.
Please remember that like most Hindu instututions, Ahobila Math does not proseletise. It has no intention what ever converting any one and taking him away from his own religion.Yet its services are available to the entire humanity.
As pointed out earlier,this institution has no fixed head quarters. How ever there is an administrative head office which you can contact for information.The address:
Sri Desika Bhavanam,30,Venkatesa Agraharam,Mylapore,Chennai 600004India
Tel.91-44-4611540
Or, you can contact me.E mail link cgopinat@yahoo.com
