A.P. Upendra Sharma
Guru Upendra was born in 1915 at
Kannur, Dharmadom Desham, as the youngest of four siblings to Govindan and
Lakshmi amma. Young Upendra left for Calcutta after his
Precollege education following an opening in the East India Company. He then got enlisted in the British Army
following which he was assigned to part take in the theater of World War II,
sailing to Iraq
by ship. He had received two gallantry
awards from the Queen during the call of duty in Iraq . He also received two more medals, from the
Indian Army, following Indian Independence, for his meritorious service. His stint in the military that took him to
various provinces of India
helped him learn many regional languages.
His conservative upbringing had made him a shiva bhakt, and his travel
across the length and breadth of India stirred his curiosity and
fascination for spirituality. Upendra
Sharma once happened to be challenged by an ascetic, while offering oblations
on the banks of the Holy Ganga. This
left him garbled about concepts of devotion, God, and life. The ascetic directs the bewildered Upendra to
find the answers to the intrigues of spiritual realm in the book “Light of
Truth” by Swami Dayanad Saraswati.
Upendra Sharma becomes fortunate to be introduced to the divine truths
in the Holy Vedas under the tutelage of the Arya Samaj school of thought at
Haridwar.
Following more than a decade of
Vedic studies, Upendra shifted his base to Kochi , Kerala, following his retirement. He gets actively involved with the Central
Kerala Arya Samaj and closely associates with Madhavji and helps Vishwa Hindu
Parishad in mass reconversion efforts in Ramakalmedu, Malabar, and
Meenakshipuram. Upendra then began to
contribute significantly for Vishwa Hindu Patrika and Arshanadam on many topics
pertaining to Vedas and other religious topics.
During this time, Upendra takes under him Shri Jayan and Shri
Radhakrishnan who were in their 20s, as disciples, who extensively assisted him
in translation and essaying on various topics to publish in magazines and
newspapers. Shri Upendra went on to
publish a slew of books promoting the Vedas and Indian philosophy as well as against superstitions and
distortions of mythology.
In the late 70s, Upendra began
conducting mass vedic yagna for the common man at Pavakulam, which was a
revolutionary event that saw unprecedented public participation, for which he
collaborated extensively with Sri Narendra Bhooshan, who was a pioneer and
luminary devoted to the propagation of the Vedas. Following the demise of Guru Upendra in the
year 1987, his students were guided under the instructions of Sri Narendra
Bhooshan at Chengnannur.
AV Radhakrishna Vedic
He is one of the first students
of none other than Guru Upendra - doyen of Vedic propagation following Arya
Samaj school of thought, under whose tutelage Radhakrishna Vydic was blessed to
learn the Holy Vedas following a gurukula tradition. Following the demise of
his Guru, Vydic learned under the tutelage of Sri Narendra Bhooshan.
Radhakrishna Vydic went on to
master Vedic Sanskrit following his passion to translate vedic texts to both
English and Malayalam. He went on to master languages of Latin, Greek, French,
and Spanish to gain insights of Western concepts of spirituality and to enrich
many of the books he has authored.
He is presently the Director of
Guru Upenda Veda Vidya Prathistan, an organisation dedicated to the spread of
the Holy Vedas. His classes are being conducted presently in gurukulams at
Palaghat, Iringalakuda, Ernakulam, and Trivandrum .
He had undergone 10 years of
vedic studies following the gurukula system, under the instruction of his vedic
master, Shri Upendra Sharma. After the
completion of vedic studies he pursued study of European languages like Greek,
Latin, French, and Italian as he wanted to make a comparative study of
languages of the world with sanskrit and make an overview of world literature
with vedas. He insists on his disciples to read and
understand the vedic manthras in a new pathological approach under the light of
etymology and its meaning without prejudice of the western scholars those, who
have put forth fallacious versions due to ignorance and in most cases as their baggage of prejudice during the colonial era.
Shri P.K. Jayan
Shri Jayan was born to Smt
Punnakutty P.P. Kumaran and to Shri Chanayil CR Bhargavan in the year
1956. His religious mother had stirred
in him a deep fascination for Hindu mythologies. He had gained keen interest in the puranas
and ithihasas during his school days. Providence brought Guru Upendra to relocate from Varanasi to a house in
the immediate neighborhood of Shri Jayan. It
did not take much time for the word to spread and for Shri Jayan, then in his
early teens, to be introduced to Guru Upendra.
Shri Jayan became one of the
students of Guru Upendra, who worked very closely with the Guru aiding him in
translating manuscripts on crucial topics suggested by the Guru for Vishwa
Hindu Patrika and Arshanadam as well as many of the books published by Guru
Upendra. This apart, the duty of
introducing his Guru to the faithful during temple satsangs
He was born in Poonjar, as Raju,
in Kottayam district in the year 1951 to Kumara Menon and Sarojiniamma. After his college education in St.George College
Following his retirement from the
Revenue Department in year 2011, he embraced Vanaprastha Ashrama. In year 2013, he accepted Sanyasa Diksha
from Paropakarini Sabha, Ajmer ,
which follows Maharshi Dayanand Saraswathi’s tradition of vedic life. Following his initiation, he adopted the name as Darshanananda Saraswati, and is leading an ascetic life at an ashram in Bharananganam, Kottayam.
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