| Pujya Dr. K.C. Varadachari was given an
opportunity, by Sri. V.K Narasimhan (his
brother-in-law) to review books on Philosophy,
Psychology and religion that continued for over
3 decades. His reviews appeared almost on all
the Sunday editions of The Hindu, the
prestigious news paper, and got him enormous
reputation as a philosopher.
He was a Research Scholar of the Madras
University from 1926 to 1929. In 1929 he joined
as a Research Fellow of the Andhra University,
then located at Guntur. He then developed close
contact with the Theosophical Society, Adyar and
was influenced by the writings of Madam
Blavatsky and Ms. Anne Besant. During these days
he lectured in the Theosophical Lodges at
Chittoor and Maddanapalle. He was greatly
influenced by the writings of Ouspensky and
other researchers in the field of spirituality.
During this period he also had a brief contact
with Sri Jiddu Krishnamurthy, who did not
however impress him and he was more attracted to
the philosophy of Sri Aurobindo.
During this period he developed very close
friendship with Sri S. Vedantam and Sri. Rajam
of the Murray & Co, that lasted his entire life
period. It is stated that the scholar used to
visit the auctions of the Murray & Co and
purchase books acquired and maintained as
personal libraries by many, presumably
englishmen who were leaving the country after
assignment in service or otherwise. The
interesting and regular customer attracted the
attention of the brothers and finding their
interests had a common base, they became bosom
friends. The affection and love that developed
between them is a story by itself. He was
influenced by them in his understanding of the
Tamil literature particularly relating to the Alwars of Sri Vaishnavism and he also shared his
philosophy and spirituality with them. The
admiration of the friends and the philosopher
was mutual and their intimacy of friendship
worth emulation.
He got both of them later in touch with the
great Master and did yeomen service to them.
After his B.A.(Hons) he joined the Andhra
University then located at Guntur as a Research
scholar and wrote his first book Metaphysics of
Sri Ramanuja's Sri Bhashya.
He joined the Christian College as a Lecturer in
Philosophy in 1930. In 1931 a great scholar Sri
P. Nagaraja Rao who specialized in Dvaita
Philosophy obtained his Ph.D., in philosophy
from Madras University and is believed to have
boasted that the University honored itself by
granting him the doctorate. Prof. P.N.
Srinivasacharya, a great exponent of the
Visistadvaita Philosophy, called Pujya Dr. K.C.
Varadachari and asked him whether he could not
attempt research for a doctorate in
Visistadvaita. This resulted in his thesis
'Theory of Knowledge of Sri Ramanuja‘s Sri
Bhashya’ in a record time of 9 months and he
submitted his thesis to University in 1931. The
script was typed by him. The Madras University
awarded him Ph.D. in 1932 and he became the
first person to get a Doctorate in Visistadvita
from that University. This being a rare
accomplishment Pujya Dr. K.C. Varadachari was
latter called only Doctor by all near and dear.
After being a lecturer in the Union Christian
College till 1932, he worked for a brief period
as Lecturer in the College at Alwaye till 1933.
In 1932 he gave a series of lectures at Bellary
where his father was working on Vedanta called
“Living Teachings of Vedanta”. These lectures
got developed as the basic tenets of his
personal philosophy that was integral and
organismic idealism. The idea that God is the
Soul of all that is in existence and all
conscious being are to live in cohesion and
cooperation with a sense of service to each
other was the theme that he propagated and
practiced ever since. Later from 1936 he worked
at Lingaraj College, Belgaum.
Sri Venkateswara Oriental Institute was started
by the T.T.D. The most Revered Vedantacharya of
the day, Sriman Mahamahopadhyaya Chetlur
Narasimhachariar Swamin was the first Professor
of the Chair of Visistadvaita and
Bhagavadvishaya in the Sri. Venkateswara
Oriental Institute. He Invited Pujya Dr. K.C.
Varadachari to join the Institute as Professor
of Comparative Religion and Philosophy and thus
he moved into his native place where he was to
work till his retirement in the S.V University
in 1962. During his tenure at the Oriental Institute and
later he developed close association with Sriman
D.T.Tatachariar Swami along with whom he has
written many commentaries on the Upanishads
notably Isa, Kena, Katha and Prasna. While
working for S.V.O.I. he organized the All India
Oriental Conference in March. 1940 and got
National recognition for his scholarship in
Vedanta, Nyaya and Western Philosophy. The
conference itself was to be under the
Chairmanship of famous Pundit Madan Mohan
Malavya. Because of his participation in the
Freedom movement at the last moment he could not
come, the organizers of the A.I.O.C. however
decided to take a procession of the photograph
of Pundit Malavya in the streets of Tirupati and
this attracted the attention of the people
towards the Institute as also to the National
Freedom movement. This has resulted in the local
scholars developing a peculiar sort of envy and
they were led to the feeling that they cannot
get recognition so far as his stays at Tirupati.
Doctor, who was invited to the Institute was
considered as “ white elephant “ by the
Devastanams and his salary reduced by 50%. This
they thought would make him leave the place for
good. But then the Professor made a surrender to the
Lord Venkateswara and said he came to serve the
cause of Visistadvaita and Srinivaishnavism and
would not leave come what may. He had to put up
with many situations of insult and disgrace in
the hands of management and his fortitude was
sufficiently built up by such incidents and
became stronger spiritually by the day.
The T.T.D started a Degree College in 1945 and
the management found it convenient to shift from
the Oriental Institute to S.V. Arts College as
Professor of Philosophy. He had the honor of
being the President of the Indian Philosophy
section of the Conference held at Banares
(Varanasi) in 1947.
His growing in stature was not to the liking
many scholars and administrative staff of the
college and the Devastanams. He was consistently
ignored and his juniors were promoted as
Principals overlooking the basic principles of
seniority in service and merit of
accomplishment. This pushed him further into the
realms of spirituality and started to learn the
lesson of disgrace, defeat, demotion and
developed enormous fortitude and forbearance.
During his tenure as Professor in the S.V. Arts
College he was able to convince the management
that there should be a compulsory class on
Religion for every student. During these
lectures he used to become close and maintain
close empathetic attitude towards students who
used to seek guidance and solace from him. Many
students shared their problems personal and
academic with him and received his help. He was
dear to all those who came near him. In the Arts
College and later in the University College he
always defended the students who might have
erred and pleaded with the authorities to take
the attitude of a parent. He was much respected
person by the staff of all cadres in the
institutions in which he served and they used to
volunteer to do personal service to be him also.
The sight of Mr. Ibrahim, watchman of the
University College waiting at the portico of the
college to carry his bag to his room and his
getting back the bag back to the cart in the
evening is some thing no student of the College
would forget.
Later when the S.V. University was started, he
was appointed as Reader and Head of the Dept. of
Philosophy in 1955.This is another shock to him
He was informed by Prof. Ragadhama rao, the
Special Officer of the S.V. University that he
is being invited to be the Professor and Head of
the Department of Philosophy. But Prof
Rangadhama rao was not appointed as the
Vice-Chancellor. The new incumbent to the post
was guided by the powers that be on that day in
the T.T.D. and the local political brass. It was
a strange fact that a member of the selection
committee and who was a teacher to Pujya Dr. K.C.
Varadachari who interviewed for the post of
Professor was Himself appointed as the Professor
after some time. But he reconciled to this
stoically.
His contact with Aurobindonians and others
continued. In 1957, he was invited to
participate in a Seminar at Calcutta organized
by the Pathamandir, He had delivered the annual
lectures at the Madras Study Circle in the first
two years. He was again asked to deliver the
annual address in 1958. He presided over the
Calcutta Birthday Celebrations on 15th Aug 1959.
He was invited to visit the Ashram at
Pondicherry in 1960 to deliver a lecture at
their International Academy.
He did receive recognitions from other sides
also. He was asked to deliver lectures on
“Aspects of Bhakti” at Mysore University, on
“visistadvaita” at University of Travancore and
On “Progress” as part of Principal Muller
Lectures during 1954 and 1955. He was also an
examiner for Ph.D. at the Universities of
Banares and Utkal. He was also the examiner on
Samkhya and allied topics for the Indian
Philosophical Congress, Medals and Prizes.
During the period 1956-62, he guided many
students in their research leading to doctorate
– Ph.D. The prominent persons are Dr. N.V.
Subanna Chary who got doctorate in Aurobindoan
Philosophy and Dr. G.Srinivasan who got
doctorate in Existentialism. Dr. B.V.Ramanujam –
Professor of History was also guided in his
research.
Recognising the worth of Dr.K.C.Varadachari,
Swami Ranganathananda of Sri Ramakrishna Mission
advised the University of Madras to appoint him
as the first incumbent for the post of Professor
of Comparative Religion and Philosophy in the
newly established Swami Vivekananda Chair in the
University of Madras. Thus in July 1965, he got
an assignment in the Madras University to be
first incumbent to the Chair of Vivekanda
Professorship of comparative Philosophy and
Religion. This meant he had to go Madras often
and many times stay at Madras weeks together. He
used to stay with his widowed sister to give her
solace and also conduct meditation classes to
abhyasis regularly. Thus an opportunity was
provided for the aspirants in Madras to derive
benefit from the service he was providing in the
Master’s work. After completion of his
assignment successfully he dedicated the
remaining portion of his life to the cause of
SriRamchandraji Maharaj of Shahjahanpur, U.P.
India.
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