INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION

श्रीमते  श्री लक्ष्मीनृसिंह परब्रह्मणे नम:  

श्री मट्टपल्लीनाथम प्रणतोस्मि नित्यं नम :  

Sri UVe Velukkudi Krishnan SWamy needs no introduction to Tamil people all over the World for his powerful lectures on Sri Vaishnavam of Sri Ramanuja Siddhanta. He lectured on Srimad Bhagavdgita on the Doordarshan Poigai Tamil TV channel daily on all working days for nearly 750 days. This used to be telecast as 'kannanin aaramudhu' in the morning from 6:30 to 6:45 AM (a repeat telecast in the evening from 6:30 to 6:45 PM) in Tamil starting from January, 2007. Since this was the first time I was listening to Gita in such a detail, I first thought of translating the gist in the form of a mail to my children living abroad. Then on the advice of my son, I created a blog and started writing the lectures in English. Earlier I used to scribble the lecture on paper and then translated it. But since speed of writing was very much limited and with my own limitations in listening and writing simultaneously, I recorded the lectures on audio cassette tapes and then translated by replaying with pausing and reverse and forward techniques. Thus I could try verbatim translation, only limited by my English knowledge. But this started after the lectures had progressed to some extent. I also started this adventure after skipping the first few lectures.

Now in 2015, I perused those writings and felt that I could rewrite the lectures from the beginning resorting to the recordings available in the website maransdog.net and youtube, and editing whatever was already written so that a full compilation could be presented. Also in my earlier translation work, I had missed a few lectures due to variety of reasons. I thought in the present blog I could get those missed lectures also translated. I have also used the Internet to get more visual aids to make the reading interesting.
Before I venture I prostrate at the Divine feet of the Divine Couple Sri Rajya Lakshmi sametha Sri Mattapalli Yogananda Lakshminrusimha Swamy, at the lotus feet of my Acharyas of Sri Ahobila Mutt and at the lotus feet of UVe Mukkur Sri Lakshminarasimhachariyar. The last mentioned is fondly remembered by our group, as Sri Mukkur Swamy. Though I had listened to his lectures in the 1970's, I came into intimate contact with him in 1987, in New Delhi, when at our request he decided to perform the 90th Sri Maha Narasimha Maha Mantra yagnam in New Delhi. My family and I were so much blessed to be fortunate to host him and his family whenever they came to Delhi.We, like many others, regard him as the incarnation of Sri Nrusimha and hold him in very high esteem and respect.
I also prostrate at the lotus feet of Sri Velukkudi Swamy for the honey soaked lectures in which he has explained the subject very clearly and lucidly. I was fortunate to listen to a seven day lecture on Srimad Ramayana by his illustrious and famous father Sri Velukkudi Varadacharya Swamy.  I take this opportunity to thank Doordarshan for arranging the lectures and telecasting them and to maransdog.net and youtube for archiving the original lectures in Tamil and making them available for the public.