Śrī Kalyāṇānanda Tīrtha in his Bhadrakālī Pīṭham. In the center, we can see Goddess Bhadrakālī, and on the right a picture of Lord Veṅkaṭeśvara (Balaji).

Photo courtesy of William Thomas (November 16, 1993)

Interesting Connection to Balaji in our Parampara

Photo of Devipuram's Nāmākarṣiṇi Khaḍgamāla Devi depicted in the form of Bālā Tripurasundari/Balaji.

As noted above from the account on the Datta Pīṭham website, it was Lord Veṅkaṭeśvara [Balaji] who came in a dream to Śrī Kalyāṇānanda Tīrtha telling him that he should, after death, pass his Pīṭham to Śrī Gaṇapati Saccidānanda Swami. In a photo (above), we see Balaji picture present in the Bhadrakālī Temple.

Interestingly, in May 1977 Guruji’s received darshan of Balaji (in the form of Bālā Tripurasundari) in Hyderabad, while on a business trip. That was the darshan that changed the trajectory of his life and put him on a path to become a Guru.

Photo courtesy of William Thomas (1994)

Goddess Bhadrakālī in the Pīṭham of Śrī Kalyāṇanda Tīrtha.

Photo courtesy of William Thomas (1994)

Photo courtesy of William Thomas (1994)

Photo courtesy of William Thomas (1994)

Every man should know about God practically and religiously. Unless and until God gives you blessings you will understand what is God.

This handwritten message from Śrī Kalyāṇānda Tīrtha was given to Bill Thomas during his visit to deliver to the devotees at the Rochester pitham.

A Description of the trip to the Bhadrakāīi Pīṭham by disciples of Haran Aiya in April 18, 2006.

Published in the Sri Charka Magazine of Sri Rajarajeswari Peetam, Rush, NY (Blossom 10 Petal, 3 June 2006)

In our daily pujas, as Sri Caitanyananda (whom we fondly call as Aiya) is our Swaguru, we end with our Parameshti guru, Sri Swaprakashananda Avadhuta when we recite our Gurupaduka.

Hence, there is a tendency to forget our gurus beyond or they never come to our mind. As you all know, our Paratpara Guru is Sri-la-Sri Kalyanananda Tirtha. A brief description of what we know of him is given below.

Sri Kalyanananda Tirtha, originally from Andhra Pradesh, South India, was initiated into Sri Vidya upasana around 1945 by his guru Sri Rajarajeshwarananda Natha. In addition to Telugu, he was very fluent in the Hindi and English languages. He settled down at Haridwar, a city about 200 kilometres north of Delhi, on the banks of the Ganges river.

When he did the installation of the Bhadrakali Peetham at the Sapta Rishi Sarovar, at Haridwar, his guru came down from the Himalayas to be with him for the consecration of the Bhadrakali idol. How this brief information was gathered needs some elaboration.

In late 1994, Aiya gave us the task of publishing the second detailed Tamil edition of his book, Sri Vidya Sri Chakra Puja Vidhih. In order to prepare biographical sketches of our gurus for incorporating in the book, I, along with one Golla Srinivas (now residing in the Bay Area of California) visited Guru Garu who was then residing at Anakapalle, 14 km. west of Guruji’s Devipuram.

As he knew only Telugu and Sanskrit, we asked several questions in Telugu and from the answers given, we prepared the biographical sketch of him which appeared in the Book. It did not occur to us to visit Haridwar to meet Sri Kalyananda Tirtha for this purpose. However, that information, though brief, came through one Sri Vishudha Avatar Baba (Bill Thomas, now residing in Holland, Europe). Early in 1994, he had made a trip from Rochester, NY to Devipuram along with others to participate in the consecration ceremony of Sahasrakshi Devi Meru Nilayam of Guruji. At that time, he had made a trip to Haridwar and met Sri Kalyanananda Tirtha. The biographical data with the colour photo collected by him appeared in the Sri Vidya Sri Chakra Puja Vidhih (Tamil) book which was released as the Navarathri Malar of 1995 (first-time Navarathri Malar appeared in printed, bound book form) and English version in 1996. Well, afterwards, we heard of him from Guruji and Aiya that Sri Kalyananda Tirtha left his mortal coil in 1998 or so. It pains me to realize that I had not been to his Peetam and met him even once.

The writing of an article on our Paratpara guru was evoked because of our visit to Bhadrakali Peetam on April 18, 2006. Though we made a trip to Haridwar and Rishikesh in May 2003, we missed visiting this Peetam. Located at a point where the Ganges emerges from the Himalayas, Haridwar is one of Hinduism’s most sacred cities in India. It takes four-and-half hours by train from Delhi going North-North East.

The Bhadrakali Peetam is about 5 km. north from the Haridwar railway station (with very good approachable roads) close to Shantikung Ashram of the late Shriram Sharma Acharya. It is very close to the west bank of the Ganges. The Peetam’s pictures given below in two parts were taken by Sri Avatar baba 12 years ago. They were taken from a raised 8-foot wide road running in front of all the Ashrams situated in that region.

The huge Peetham’s nameboard does not exist now. Instead, there is a board with words “Bhadrakali Peeth” and below is written Sri Ganapathi Satchidananda, Mysore. Kalyananda Tirtha’s name is nowhere to be found inside or outside the building. Some construction work is going on with workers and dust all over the place. We went inside the temple dwelling and found an idol of Bhadrakali, about 15 inches high, housed in a 3x3 feet mantapam on a raised platform with full alankara and lit lamps. An elderly Telugu-speaking person attends to the daily pujas and rituals of the shrine with his family. At the entrance to the mantapam on the left, we saw a closeup photo about 8x6 inches of Sri Kalyanananda Bharathi and Sri Ganapathi Satchidananda—a photo taken together.

We enquired at the Sapta Rishi Sarovar Ashram across the street about what happened to the peetam, and came to know that about 10 years ago, around 1996, Sri Bharathi donated his peetam to Sri Ganapathi Satchidananda of Datta Peetha, Mysore to look after it when he is gone.

Our Parameshti guru Sri Swaprakashananda is also not with us now. Scores of us have met and talked to him until his last day. He attained the abode of eternal bliss on Gurupurnima Day, 2002. Let us remember him by reading his detailed biography in our Sri Vidya book. I most sincerely thank Bill Thomas for emailing me the wonderful pictures within a few days of my asking. What a professional record keeping system he must have! We met him last year and had a flying visit to Tiruvannamalai before he boarded the plane to Holland.

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Photo courtesy of William Thomas (1994)

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In 1994 while traveling to India to Devipuram for the Meru Temples completion and consecration (kumbha-abhishekam). Haran Sri Chaitanyananda (Haran Aiya) from the Rochester Peetam asked me if i could first go to Śrī Kalyāṇānanda in Haridwar to meet him, document him, and bring him a book that Sri Chaitanyananda authored. I went to Delhi where a father of one of the devotes took me there by car. It was a 5 to 6-hour journey. It was difficult finding the temple hidden away by the Ganges. When we went to the temple door and knocked, Śrī Kalyāṇānanda came out and out of politeness, my guide asked if he was Śrī Kalyāṇānanda. He replied that he was not this man, and said that he was dead and buried on the mountain. He bid us farewell and closed the door. We knew it was him because I had his photo, so we knocked again and his assistant came this time, and we showed him the photo that Rakesh Singhal a Rochester devote took in 1991 when he visited there. This time the assistant remembered Rakesh and let us in. He then explained who we were to Śrī Kalyāṇānanda and I gave him the book from the Rochester temple. A very funny story for me, I can imagine I was the first foreigner to come knocking on his door. He probably could not imagine who I was in his wildest dreams.

Śrī Kalyāṇānanda handed me this note before I left him, after my visit in 1994. He was very pleased with the book that was given to him, and he was looking at this all the while as his assistant showed us around the small temple and also outside in the back where it was placed by the Ganges. It was a very special place. His assistant said it was a message from him for all the followers at the Rochester temple.

In 1991 Dr. Rakesh Singhal, one of the devotees at Rochester Pīṭham, NY, after a long search was able to locate our Parameshtiguru in Haridwar. Here Dr. Rakesh was fortunate to see Śrī Kalyāṇānanda Tīrtha, on Guru Pūrṇimā day and offer him Pāda Pūjā using the Śrī Sūkta Vidhanam followed at the Rochester Pīṭham.