TIRUVANNAMALAI : In the mid-90s, when M Rajkumar arrived in Tiruvannamalai armed with a Diploma in Siddha Medicine from the Bharat Sevak Samaj, Delhi, he didn’t know what lay in store for him. In 1997, he decided to take up a yoga course with a private instructor. What followed was ten years of rigorous training after which he became a fully certified practitioner.
Today, he wears many a mantle: yoga teacher, pious devotee, Samaritan and a Siddha practitioner. The 52-year-old native of Vaniyambadi in Tirupathur district, a man of modesty, conducts yoga sessions for the destitute.
In 2009, he launched a parallel career as yoga instructor, and has had a steady line of clients ever since. “I teach people of all age groups,” he says. Be it for simple stress-busting to a serious pursuit, anybody, from school-goer to pensioner, is welcome to take his classes. Yoga sessions are divided into daily, weekly and monthly timetables depending on the preference of each client.
In the midst of his twin pursuits as siddha and yoga practitioner, Rajkumar also took up charity, and began offering food and clothing to the elderly and destitute apart from covering their medical expenses. It was a practice he began in 2000, with the earnings he made from his Siddha practice. “I intend to keep it simple, everything from running the yoga class to serving the needy. We do not operate the Siddha centre with an intent to earn profit. It is more than that, which is happiness,” Rajkumar said.
Rajkumar’s modesty is matched only by his piety – for the last two decades, he has been offering Annadhanam every day at the Adi Annamalai temple and performing the 14km circumambulation uninterruptedly, every single day.
And he’s no stranger to the pilgrims and spiritual seekers who frequent the temple. “We have no problem finding food in the temple town. Like Rajkumar, there are others who offer us food. I have been fed plenty of times. I am thankful to those who offer Annadhanam,” a regular visitor on a pilgrimage to Tiruvannamalai said.
He also used his earnings from his career as both Siddha and yoga practitioner to buy a parcel of land in his native Vaniyambadi, which he hoped would serve as a spiritual retreat. “The idea was initially to build a spiritual centre. But then I thought, why not use the land to build a healthcare facility? At the end of the day, all that matters is that people benefit from it,” he said, and donated land to the state. Standing on Rajkumar’s plot now is a Primary Health Care centre. “By donating their land, Rajkumar and wife Annapoorani, have helped thousands of families access medical help,” said a health department official.