Sri Bulusu Surya Prakasa Sastry - Sadhana Grantha Mandali

Sri Adi Sankarachaarya lanti vari prabodhalani, telugu lo manaki andinchina vyakthi, Sri Bulusu Surya Prakasa Sastry garu. Sadhana Grantha Mandali sthapakulu.

prati nela oka pustakanni rasi, achu veyinche iyana lanti goppa vyakthulani chusi na lanti yuvakulu chala nerchukovali. Kanisam nelaki oka manchi pustakam chadavagalagali.

Chaganti Koteswara Rao garu, "Manchi pustakalu - Manchi nestalu" ane amsam meda matladutu iyana gurinchi teliyajesaru.

Idi ayana gurinchi newspaper lo vachina oka article.

PASSIONATE WRITER: Bulusu Surya Prakasa Sastry

He goes about his task religiously

TENALI (GUNTUR DT.): A man single-handedly looking after the responsibilities of writing, proof-reading and publishing each of his 300 books on religion is no mean task, more so when he had no formal schooling. Meet Bulusu Surya Prakasa Sastry, founder of the Sadhana Grandha Mandali at Tenali in Guntur district.

Ninety-seven-year-old Sastry begins his day at 4 a.m. with Yoga. His frail body is no deterrent to the daily routine of performing `sandhya vandaman' and `devatha archanam' in the morning. Sastry then gets engrossed in his passion -- that of writing, translating and looking after the publishing of his books.

Sastry hails from a little-known village in East Godavari district and had made Tenali his home about 70 years ago. He missed his formal schooling, but had the opportunity to study at the prestigious Maharaja College in Vizianagaram and KVR College in Tenali.

He completed Bhasha Praveena, Ubhaya Bhasha Praveena and Vidwan levels of examinations in Sanskrit. He ran astrology columns in a few newspapers before taking up teaching as a profession. The Andhra University gave him the title `Jyothisya Siromani.' He worked as a teacher at Sanskrit College and High School in Tenali for 33 years. Sastry's pilgrimage to the north of the country gave him the much needed exposure and interest in devotional matters. His visit to Geetha Press Prakashan at Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh, publishers on various books on Hinduism at an affordable price inspired him to come out with similar books in Telugu.

One book every month

Thus, he began the Sadhana Grandha Mandali, with an aim to publish at least one book every monthEven today, his books attract many people from across the world. Notable among the books are Sundara Bharata Yatra, Kanchi Paramacharya's teachings and the Telugu translation of `Shankara Grandha Ratnavali' of the Kanchi Shankaracharya, which was reprinted 20 times.

Courtesy: The Hindu news paper, Mar 10, 2006

-------------------------

One more article:

Sadhana Grantha Mandali

Namamsi!

I want to let you Sanskritists to know about a Sanskrit publisher in Andhra Pradesh. Its called 'Sadhana Grantha Mandali' located in Tenali, Guntur district. A Sanskrit scholar Brahmasri 'Bulusu Surya Prakasa Shastry' has started this Mandali in 1950s, while working as a Sanskrit teacher in the Govt. school in Tenali. But he hails from the costal area of Andhra from where a number of Vedic, Sanskrit scholars were born.

Since its inception, this Mandali is doing yeomen service to the Sanskrit knowing Telugu community by way of publishing all the Shankara Bhagavatpada's works translated in Telugu. They have published almost all of the Stotras of Sri Sankara and many upanishadic works are being translated now. The aim of the Mandali is to publish all of the Sankara's works.

This centenarian, sri Shastriji, tirelessly working for a noble cause for the many decades has carefully replies and acknowledges the queries, requests and himself pack the books to be sent through post. His patience even in his 100s is amazing!! In March 2006 I have visited his house(0ffice) to purchase some books and also found the same enthusiasm and zeal like he might be in his fifties. He has enquired about the benefits of computerizing the Traditional knowledge and information retrieval facilities not so much impressed.

Accompanied by his third son, he has a big list of books to be published seeking contributions/donations from the philonthropists, Sanskrit lovers. His dedication and hard work should be a class to the present Management students. If you become a life member to the Mandali, you are eligible to get all the books so far published and also you can avail a 25% discount on the future publications.

Recently, with the help from the trust's fund, Mandali has been entered in to re-designed house with little more space. All of the contributor's names were written on the front walls of the house. One good thing is that one can become a patron to the Mandali just by paying Rs.116/- also. He can be contacted at-
Sri Bulusu Surya Prakasha Shastry,
Sadhana Grandha Mandali,
Tenali, Guntur (District), A.P, India

Courtesy: http://gairvani.blogspot.com/2006/07/sadhana-grantha-mandali.html