Sree R Janardhanan Nair was born on 30 /12/1935 at Pathanamthitta district. He is the chief disciple of Sree Siva Prabhakara Sidha Yogi Swamikal. Janardhanan Nair consider Prabhakara Sidha Yogi as his Guru vice versa yogikal consider him as “Manasaputra”. Janardhanan Nair is also known as Prabhakarasidha Dasa Swamikal. Around 1955 he met the sadu Prabhakara Sidhayogi Paramahamsar. They became friends & later Yogikal consider Nadhakuzhiyil Janardhanan Nair as his son & believed one. Till samadhi swamiji stayed at the residence of Janardhanan Nair. Because of the grace of Sidhayogi Sri Janardhanan Nair get altime opportunity to do seva for Swamikal. After the samadhi of Jagat Guru Sree Siva Prabhakara Sidha Yogikal Janardhanan Nair founded an ashram in the memory of his Guruji.Thus he become the key figure of Prabhakarasidhasramam. Unfortunately he left with untold stories & he dissolved in Guru. In 2015 April he passed away.
AN interview by ANIL
On the 26th of November 2005, Anil went to the house of Janarthanan Nair (ashrama of Yogi) to be told by his daughter that HE was near the Samadhi of the Guru. Anil walked up to the Samadhi and found Mr. Nair preparing for the morning pooja. In the meanwhile Anil took photographs of the Samadhi, near Pulipara Mara and then proceeded with the interview:
ANIL: When was the first time that you met Yogi ji?
J. Nair: 1960! Yes, it was 1960 when I saw Yogi ji for the first time. In the town of Pathanamthitta, near a shop, when the shopkeeper pointed out to me that Swamiji (Prabhakara Sidha yogi) is more than a hundred years old. Enthusiastically, I glanced over to where Swamiji was standing and found a person who looked not a day over 50 years.
I came back home and told about the Swamiji to my brother-in-law (Kottor Madhavan Pilla) and that he was a kalatheethan [a man who passes the restriction of ageing).
My brother in law said he knew about this swamiji but he wanted to see him.
From that day, I took upon finding the Swamiji and finally one day I spotted him near the dwelling of the owner of Anurag theatre, who was well known in the vicinity. I requested Swamiji to please bless my house by walking into it. To my delight and good stars, swamiji accepted my invitation and came to my home. From that day, he became a regular visitor and then decided to start living with me.
From that day to his samadhi, he lived each single day in my home with occasional travels
One day Swamiji told me that I needed to build an ashrama for him. I told him, Swamiji you know I am a poor school teacher and I don’t have enough funds to build an ashrama.
At that time I was only getting Rs 400 as salary and it was difficult for me to even run the household in that amount. At that time I was living in my ancestral home that was below the Puliparan Mala.
But with Swamiji’s blessing soon a home loan was sanctioned in my name and I was able to get some land at the top of Pullipara Rock as Swamiji had wished. We finally managed to build a small ashrama on the top of the hill.
You know there is a history of Pullipara Rock and why swamiji insisted that his ashrama be on the top of it.
As various books related to Lord Ayyppa say, Puli Nayaka Swamiyar, was the chief advisor of Lord Ayyppa. And our Swamiji is the rebirth of Puli Nayaka Swamiyar, who in his last birth stayed in Pulippara Mala. Lord Ayyapa used to visit Pulippara Mala and stay with Swamiyar. Similarly, when Swamiyar visited Panthalam Palace, the abode of Lord Ayyapa, he used to stay there. In those times all this area uptill Sabari Mala was a thick forest.
When Lord Ayyappa decided to move back to the heavenly abode, Puli Nayaka Swamiyar also dissolved in Kailasam with HIM. But as the Shastras (Divine Doctrines) say , any body born on earth will have to attain death on the earth itself (or attain samadhi in the case of sanyasi). So Swamiyar was reborn on our earth as Prabhakara Yogi in AD 1263 as Prabhakara Sidha Yogi in Akavoor Mana in Chowara near Kaladi.
It is then Swamiji revealed to me that He would attain Samadhi in this place that is why He had chosen this place for the new ashrama and to live with me.
ANIL: I heard from somebody that Famous Actor Mohan Lal also got blessing from Yogiji and His blessings are the main reason for his overwhelming popularity and success throughout his career. Is it correct?
(Note from ANIL: For every astrology student Mohan Lal’s Horoscope is a Peculiar One, according to the Vedic astrology his charts do not predict so much success for him. His horoscope was seriously debated over by my Astroguru and me in 1998. My astroguru predicted that as soon as the Shukra dasa of Mohan Lal ends and Surya dasa begins, Mohan Lal would see a downfall in his career and that his brother would either meet death in some accident or some unfortunate event. But certainly his badly placed surya would give him difficult phase from 13/11/1999 to 13/11/2005 both professionally and personally. I told about these predictions to my friends . later they were surprised at the accuracy of vedic astrology when Mohan Lal’s only brother committed suicide just within the year of his bad phase. But we all were very surprised when no downfall came in his career graph. He was awarded another National Award and gave upon hits after hits like Narasimham , Balettan, Naran ,Aramthampuran etc. this made me thinking and I started doubting the basic principles of astrology and the credibility of astro guru. But all the time I had a strong intuition that there was something extra-ordinary in Mohan Lal’s case, which his charts don’t display.That led to ask this question.)
J. Nair: As I have said earlier Mohan Lal’s uncle, Mr. Gopinathan Nair was a disciple of Swamiji and visited Him regularly. On one such visit Swamiji took out a very attractive Ganapathy Vigraham from his curled hair. Gopinathan Nair was attracted by the beauty of Vigraham (idol) and took it in his hands. He asked Swamiji if he could keep it. Swamiji said that he could only if he could give what the idol needed everyday. Gopinathan promised that he would daily perform pooja and offer nevadhyam (food) to the Ganapathy Vigraham.
Mohan Lal came to stay with his uncle and try his hand at acting. It was then that famous director Fazil was planning a film called ‘Manjil Virinja pookkal’. Mohan Lal decided to try his luck. Before he left for the meeting with the director Fazil and producer Jijo Appachan, his uncle asked him to say a prayer to this Vigraham. They were pleased by attractive personality of Mohan Lal and selected him for the film. From that moment Ganapathy Vighraham became the Ishta Moorty (tutelary deity) of Mohan Lal. Mohan Lal was a very favourite of swamiji also.
ANIL: What was the Swamiji ‘s Relation with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, the founder of ‘Art of living’?
J. Nair: Swamiji was the Guru of Sri Sri Ravishanker. One day some disciples of Siddha asrama visited Swamiji. They invited swamiji for a tour of Bangalore. After reaching Bangalore, the disciples went to attend some other religious function. Swamiji walked out on his own and came to the house of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, who away from his native region in Tamil Nadu was staying in Bangalore. Swamiji met him and taught him various breathing techniques. Before leaving HE blessed him by saying that you shall become very famous in the Art of Breathing.
Swamiji came back to the ashrama in Kerela and said to me that I met Ravi Sahnkar. He would also become famous like Matha Amirthana Maya Devi. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar gained popularity after Swamiji’s samadhi.
ANIL: Is there any Relation with Sri Satya Sai Baba?
J. Nair: There is some strong relation with Sai Baba too, but I don’t know what exactly. That relation was a mysterious one, just like his own life. But I can tell you of one incident. When Sai Baba’s fame spread throughout Kerela, I was also lured into paying him a visit. But Swamiji stopped me by saying that I don’t need to meet him. I compelled but he did not concede.
After months of this discussion, I happened to travel to Madras with my School Manager for some official purpose. After our official duties were over, my school manager said that he wished to visit the Tirupati temple. So we went there. Someone told us that Puttavarti (Sai Baba’s Ashrama) was near Tirupati. My school manager made up his mind to visit there. I was not very eager to go as I did not have Swamiji’s permission yet I tugged along hesitantly.
We decided to go by train but for the first time in many years the train was cancelled due to some engine fault. We decided to take the bus but as soon as the bus started, it’s engine burst into a huge fire. It was then I told him that I am not going without my Guru’s permission and came back to the Ashrama.
When I came back, Swamiji asked me, ‘Did you see him (Sai Baba)? Did you go there?’ I was surprised how he could tell of our attempts. I honestly told him the whole story.
Time carried on with its own pace. I decided to go to Bangalore for a B.ed. admission. Swamiji said to me, ‘Sai baba is in Whitefield, 12 km from Bangalore. Now, go and meet him.’
With my official obligations over, I decided to go to Whitefield. A huge crowd had gathered to see Sai Baba. I made no attempt to move forward in the huge crowd and see Sai Baba from closely. Suddenly Sai Baba walked through the crowd and came very near to where I was. He spotted me and came to me, placed his hand on my head in the form of blessing and said in Tamil, ‘You come here because He told you to do so. Did you get permission from Him?’. I replied affirmatively. Then Sai Baba said, ‘HE and Myself are all One, HE is myself (Njan Than Avan), myself is Him only (Avan Than Njan). He knows everything.’
I was thrilled by that knowledge and thought how I knew the two greatest Yogis and had their blessings also.
Apart from this I do not know what is the mysterious relation between the two.
Siva Prabhakara Sidhasramam 