Sri Sheshadri Swamigal


Sri Seshadri Swamigal was born on January 22nd 1870 in a small village near Kanchipuram in South India in the renowned family of Kamakoti. He learnt vedas(Hindu religious literature) at a very young age. An incident in his childhood reveals the greatness of his power when his mother took him to a temple fair and he touched an idol from a seller who had all the idols sold out like hotcakes, which were not getting sold out earlier. This gave him the name "Thanga Kai"(golden hand). Since he did not have any worldly attractions, he became a sanyasi (ascetic) and came to Tiruvannamalai at the age of nineteen and remained there till he attained Mahasamadhi(a subtle state of divine bliss) in the year 1929.

When Ramana Maharshi came to Tiruvannamalai he went inside the 'Badala Linga' shrine in 1000-
pillar Mantapa in Arunachaleswarar Temple for meditation to avoid disturbance. He was in deep
meditation for many days and ants started eating his legs and tighs. Seshadri swamigal saw this and
told to his devotees that Ramana is not an ordinary man and the world needs him. So he asked them
to bring out Ramana. Then he dressed Ramana for the wounds caused by ants. Afterwards Ramana
started meeting people and started preaching.

Unlike Ramana, Seshadri never stayed in place in Tiruvannamalai and preached his teachings. The
main thing he used to bless people and cure them from dieseases.

Sri Seshadri Swamigal used to roam around and visit shops in Tiruvannamalai. During such visits, he used to throw the articles from the shops. The shops he entered used to do good business on that day and so shopkeepers used to eagerly await his arrival. To this day, the shops in Tiruvannamalai have his photos as a symbol of good luck and prosperity.