It
was during summer of 1998 I met Prof. Rao, to seek his blessings and guidance to
bring out monthly Magazine, Sugunamala in English from Puttige Matha, Udupi, while a
Kannada Edition was already available since 1985. Sri Sugunendra Tirtharu of
Puttige Matha, Udupi directed me to meet Prof. SKR for guidance. He received me
with a smile in his Jayanagar home in the afternoon. He put me at ease and
heard about what exactly I need. He was attentively listening to me on what I plan
for this as its Editor.
After
taking a brief from me, he pulled
out a part of an
inland letter, artistically tore it and began scribbling in his neat and small
writing. Prof. Rao has very neatly jotted down all points to guide and help me
out to bring out a Religio-cultural Magazine with limited readership, yet come
out with interesting reading material. He could easily decipher requirements of
such a magazine, not very scholarly, yet getting articles from experts in
related fields like Madhva Philosophy, Vedic lore, Puranas in simple, yet
highly readable in English language, which he said ‘Challenging’ task. In fact,
he politely said: he has no time to speak in detail on this, due to his prior
commitments on an ensuing Kosha Project, which he showed me.
I
knew he had already published a book, ಪೂರ್ಣಪ್ರಜ್ಞ ದರ್ಶನ on the content of Madhva thought, with inputs on origin
and historical background of Udupi Mathas, which had stroked a controversy. We never spoke about it either. After thanking
him, I came out quite satisfied.
Prof. Saligrama Krishna Rao Ramachandra Rao was born in 1925 at Hanasoge, near Mysore had
his education in Nanjanagudu and Mysore, with specialisation in Psychology and Philosophy, he knew
Sanskrit already through his father and other Gurus. He began his career as researcher
with Indian Institute of Science, later worked with NIMHANS, prestigious
institution for study of Psychology, even medical aspects and treatment
thereon, where he taught and trained researchers. Later, he was with Bangalore
University before he began contributing to National and International Journals
on Indian Psychology, Yoga and incidentally books on various topics related to
Indian thought, Chinese and Japanese counterparts, made Aanand Coomaraswamy
accessible to local readers in India. I cherish enlightening memories of meeting this great
scholar.
No comments:
Post a Comment