Thathuvagnani Vethathiri Maharishi  was born on 14th August 1911 in Guduvancherry, a small village near Chennai to Varadhappan and Chinnammal.

Vethathiri could not get proper schooling, but through his intense passion for learning, he started educating himself from a very young age. He worked for his livelihood as an apprentice weaver, qualified himself as a practitioner of alternative system of medicines, like Siddha, Ayurveda and Homeopathy, was a government employee, a master-weaver owning one thousand looms, and the head of a flourishing textile firm. Later when material wealth ceased,  he kept on smiling and continued searching the wealth of truth. The fluctuations of material well being made him realize the transient nature of the world and empathise with the problems of human beings in the world and spurred him to devise a mechanism to help them lead a better life.

God, origin of man, life-energy, poverty etc. had always intrigued him. He wanted to find answers to these questions. He studied, searched and researched the philosophies, the teachings of Siddha Saints such as Thirumoolar  and  Thiruvalluvar,  Thayumanavar and Vallalar and by meditation he formulated a complete science of living. He transformed the traditional form of yoga and simplified it into the form of physical exercise, kayakalpa, kundalini yoga and introspection, incorporating meditation, ethics and metaphysics.

Based on his theory, he established a World Community Service Centre (WCSE) having its headquarters at Chennai with more than 1500 meditation centres in India and abroad. The WCSE is running a specialised course, yoga for holistic health (physical, mental, spiritual and social health) in more than 100 centres in Tamil Nadu in collaboration with five universities which award diploma, degree, PG diploma and PG Degree on Yoga for Human Excellence (YHE).

His contribution..to yoga and meditation system is of great importance and interest not only in India but all over the He travelled widely and visited counties like-Singapore, Malaysia, Korea, Japan, U.S.A, Canada, Mexico etc. and taught his ideology. On, 09 Jan 1975 he was invited to the United Nations to give a talk on the "Value of Yoga and Meditation." He wrote 70 books and 2000 poems in Tamil and several in English too. He passed away on 28th March 2006 at the age of 95.

India  Post  is  happy  to  issue  a  commemorative postage stamp on Vethathri.

Source : Information Folder issued by Indian Posts & Telegraph Department, Government of India