Enclyopedia of Dwaitam (Madhva Vaishnavam)

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Jagadguru Acharya Madhva....

THE ESSENCE OF TATVA VADA / DVAITA:

The key point to be noted and remembered is that Acharya Madhva did not discover or invent anything new. All the major concepts enunciated by him were part of the timeless, eternal vedic religion (sanAtana dharma). He brought back these forgotten concepts into the conciousness of humanity, providing appropriate references. The school of philosophy associated with him has different names. Its ancient name is tattvavAda, but it is more popularly known as Dvaita (the dualistic school).

There is a very popular verse, attributed to Sri VyAsa tIrtha, which captures some of the highlights of the Acharya Madhva’s philosophy:

shrIman Madhva Mate harih paratarah

Satyam Jagat

Tattvato bhedah

jeeva ganaah hareh anucharAh,

nichochha bhavam gatAh

Muktih Naija sukhAnubhUti

amalA bhaktishcha tat saadhanam

Haixyaadi tritayam pramaanam

akhilam Amnaayaika vedyo harih

A loose translation of the above would be:

ViShNu is the supreme God,

The world is real,

The five-fold difference between God, living and non-living beings is an eternal fact,

All living beings are dependent upon Hari for their existence

There is a hierarchy amongst living beings, that is eternal (without beginning or end)

Salvation lies in the soul experiencing its intrinsic joy,

Salvation can be attained only through pure and unsullied devotion of God means of knowledge are sensory perception, inference and holy scriptures

Hari is to be perceived in His nature through the holy scriptures and only through them.

In addition to the above points, Acharya made several important contributions to Indian Philosophy. Some of these are:

Bimba-pratibimba: God is the object (bimba) and jIvas are His images (pratibimbas)·

Sarva-shabda vAchatva: every word, every sound is God’s name.

Jeeva traividya: three-fold classification of jIvas into Satvika (fit for liberation), Nitya-samsAri (happiness mixed with sorrow), tAmasika (fit for eternal damnation)

Vishesha: A special characteristic that acts as a distinguishing feature where there is innately no difference.

The concept of “Sakshi” and its importance.

Treating all the Hindu scriptures as an integral entity, unlike others who treat differentiate and discriminate between different portions of scriptures. He showed how seemingly conflicting passages from different scriptures should be interpreted to yield one coherent message.

Providing a spiritual and philosophical interpretation of the Rig Veda. As an example, he interpreted forty sUktas to show how it should be done.

 

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Jai Hanuman

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If you want to post a picture prabhu then..

 

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5. Haribol!

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Srimad Ananda Tîrtha

 

Srimad Ananda Tîrtha, also known as Sukha Tîrtha, Pûrnabodha, and Pûrnapragnya, is the founder of the doctrine of Tattvavâda. He is the last of the great Achâryas of Vedanta, and is also the 22nd commentator on the ûBrahma-Stra <brahma_suutra.html> of Veda Vyâsa. His doctrine asserts, as has already been noted âelsewhere <../shstra/prameya.html>, that the differences are eternally real, and that hence there is more than one absolute real, and that Hari (Vishnu) is the only entity praised in the Shrutis and their adjuncts. Thus, he always identifies the Brahman of the Upanishads <../shaastra/upanishad.html> with Vishnu, and forcefully argues against the dichotomy of Shrutis (tattvâvedaka / atattvâvedaka) as claimed by ââSri Shankarchrya <http://www.advaita-vedanta.org/avhp/sankara-life.html>, saying that such arbitration of apaurusheya scripture is unacceptable both logically and spiritually. He also emphasizes that it is important to understand and specifically reject other schools' precepts, and hence devotes much time to nitpicking analyses and denunciations of other doctrines.

Srimad Ananda Tîrtha is commonly identified with Madhva, the third avatâra of Mukhya PrâNa, the god of life, as given in the âûBaLitth Skta <AnandaT_2.html> of the Rg Veda. The first two avatâra-s are as Hanumân and Bhîmasena, and the third is Madhva, who came down to Earth as a sanyâsî, in order to avoid decimating the forces of evil (as he had done on the previous two occasions, and as he would have done again -- upsetting the flow of Kali Yuga in the process -- if he were not a sannyâsî). Srimad Ananda Tîrtha himself makes the claim to being Madhva in several instances, one of which is in the Vishnu-tattva-vinirnaya verse given on the cover page of this section. It was recognized in his own time, and it has been documented, that he had all two-and-thirty shubha-lakshaNa-s that define a rju-tâttvika-yogî, including the prescribed height of six-and-ninety inches ("shaNNavati angulo.apetam") quoted in the âââMahbhrata-Ttparya-Nirnaya <../sources/mbtn>.

However, he is firmly set against the notion of accepting doctrines because they come from prophets or claimed gods -- he refuses to accept that it is possible to derive a meaningful spiritual system based on any but the apowrusheya texts (the Vedas/Upanishads/Shrutis) and their adjuncts (the Iti-hâsas, PurâNas, etc.). He also dismisses claims that only part of the Vedas are useful, and claims that even the so-called karma-kâNDa portions of them are only meant to worship Hari.

The earliest and most authentic biography of Srimad Ananda Tîrtha is the Sumadhva-Vijaya, a.k.a. Madhva Vijaya, by NârâyaNa Pandita, the son of his close disciple Trivikrama Pandita. There are other English biographies by C. M. Padmanabhachar, C. N. Krishnasvami Ayyar, S. Subbarao, and C. R. Krishnarao, among others, but these are not truly independent efforts, since they draw very deeply upon NârâyaNa Pandita's work.

Madhva was known as Vâsudeva, as a child, and was born in response to a prayer by some brâhmana-s of the Bhâgavata sampradâya, as a result of which Vishnu, who Himself does not incarnate during Kali Yuga, ordered His chief aide Mukhya PrâNa a.k.a. Vâyu to go to Earth, and rescue the mumukshu-s from the unrelenting deluge of the illusionist schools. Therefore, Vâyu was born in Pâjaka-kshetra, near Udupi <udupi.html> (in modern Karnataka state), to Madhya-geha Bhatta. Even as a child, he was extraordinary in every respect, and repeatedly astounded his teachers, and performed several miracles, a notable one being when he freed his father from the clutches of a loan shark, by giving him a handful of tamarind seeds which satisfied the latter completely. He also killed the demon MaNimanta, who attacked him in the form of a snake, by crushing the snake's head under his toe.

At the age of eight or thereabouts, he announced to his parents his intention to take up sanyâsa, and on noting their distress at this pronouncement, promised to wait until another son was born to them. Finally, at the age of eleven, upon the birth of a younger brother (who many years later joined his order as Vishnu Tîrtha) he was ordained into sanyâsa, whence he was given the name Ananda Tîrtha by his guru Achyutapreksha Tîrtha, a.k.a. Achyuta-pragnya Tîrtha. Soon afterward, when his guru attempted to educate him, he astounded the former by his knowledge. It is said that when his guru tried to teach him the noted Advaita text IshhTa-Siddhi, he pointed out, to Achyutapreksha Tîrtha's amazement, that there were 30 errors in the very first line of that work, where its author Vimuktâtman pays obeisance to himself by saying something like: "The only truth is the soul's empirical knowledge. In the presence of this truth the world appears to be an illusory play. The essential soul manifests itself as I, you and everything..."

It was this profound knowledge of all subjects that earned him the title of "PûrNa-pragnya," for "the one of complete wisdom." The initially discomfited but finally greatly pleased Achyutapreksha Tîrtha soon gave up trying to educate the master, and himself made a full conversion to Tattvavâda, under the name Purushottama Tîrtha.

Srimad Ananda Tîrtha is known for his skill at debate and repartee, which were amply evident when he roundly trounced all opponents who dared take him on. One early convert to his school was Shobhana Bhatta; after losing to Madhva in debate, he accepted the latter as his Guru, and was given sanyâsa under the name âîPadmanbha Trtha <../scholars/PadmanabhaT.html>. Two other noted opponents whom PûrNapragnya defeated in debate and converted to ardent devotees, were Trivikrama Pandita, and Shyâma Shâstri -- the latter accepted sanyâsa as îNarahari Trtha <../scholars/NarahariT.html>.

Madhva made two trips to Badarikâshrama, the abode of BâdarâyaNa a.k.a. Veda Vyâsa, and on the first, obtained the imprimatur of BâdarâyaNa Himself for his Bhâshya on the Bhagavad Gita, when the latter made the correction "vakshyâmi leshataH" ("I state infinitesimally"), in place of "vakshyâmi shaktitaH" ("I state as best as I can"). He also founded the Krishna temple <udupi/krishna_mutt.html> at Udupi <udupi>, when he rescued by his spiritual power a ship in distress on the high seas, and got from its captain the apparently useless gift of a large mound of gopi-chandana mud that had been used as the ship's ballast, and which broke open to reveal the long-concealed icons of Krishna, Durga, and Balarâma. This is believed to be the occasion when he composed the âDvdasha Stotra <dvaadasha.html>, a set of twelve stotra-s in praise of Vishnu that is collectively counted as one of his seven-and-thirty works.

There are many notable incidents on record involving Srimad Ananda Tîrtha, and it is futile to hope that a short piece like this one can capture even the essence of his mission correctly. However, in brief, two of them are the ones where he lifted and displaced a boulder weighing tons that was obstructing some construction; an inscription ("Anandatîrthena eka-hastena sthâpitâ shilâ") made on the boulder at the time attests to the event to this day. On another occasion, he led some disciples to a spot where he showed them the long-buried weapons of the PâNDavas, including the great mace he had wielded to telling effect as the mighty Bhîmasena. (Look here <b_support.html> for some more notable events.)

Visual evidence, if one may call it that, of Srimad Ananda Tîrtha being Madhva, the avatâra of Vâyu, was obtained by Trivikrama Pandita when the latter had the great fortune to observe the three forms of Vâyu worship simultaneously -- Hanumân worshipping Râma, Bhîmasena worshipping Krishna, and Ananda Tîrtha worshipping Vyâsa. On that occasion, Trivikrama Pandita composed the âHari-Vyu Stuti <http://www.dvaita.net/pdf/vAyu_stuti_new.pdf>, also called just Vâyu Stuti ("shrimadvishhNvaN^ghrinishhThâ atiguNa gurutama shrimadânandatîrtha ..."). Madhva himself validated the Vâyu Stuti by adding the mangalâcharaNa shloka-s, called Narasimha- nakha stuti <../stotra/nakha_stuti.html> ("pântvasmân.h puruhûta vairi balavan.h ..."), to be chanted in the beginning and at the end of the Vâyu Stuti. This very short work of just two shloka-s is counted as one of his thirty-seven grantha-s.

Srimad Ananda Tîrtha disappeared from amidst an audience, after giving a lecture on the Aitareya Upanishad, on the ninth day of the shukla paksha in the month of Magha in 1317, and now is permanently in Badarikâshrama, where he serves his master Bâdarâyana in person.

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Stage or Form of Bhakti Meaning Name of the Devotee

 

Shravanam Audition Pariskhit

Keertanam Recapitulation Shukamuni

Smaranam Remembrance Prahlad

Padasevanam Service at the feet of the Lord Lakshmi

Archanam Worship(Pooja) Pruthu

Vandanam Salutations with praise Akrura

Dasyam Service(Seva) Anjaneya

Sakhyam Friendliness Arjun

Atmanivedanam Surrendering-one-self Bali

 

The great seer Narada symbolysis the real devotion towards the Lord, always singing the glory and virtues of the Lord.We have to name the twin brothers Lava and Kusha who sang the original Shri.Ramayana in the sacrificial hall (Yagyashala) of prabhu Ramachandra.This art of chanting/singing the name and glory of the Lord is ancient and traces its origin in Padma Purana.The Bhagavat Dharma or singing the glory of the Lord inspired the devotion among others in the society and poetry was evolved into prose explaining its meaning. It further shaped into an educational Institution and was encouraged. It was under the personal care of the Kings /Rulers during those period. This art was used by the Chanikya to expand the kingdom of Mourya Chandragupta with the help of Keertankars(Persons singing the glory of the Lord).In the process this cult was diluted and Keertanakars started praising the rulers of those days and became the Bards instead of Keertankars.This art temporarily lost its real status.

In the 9th century this cult was brought to its original status by Shri.AchalananadaDas <http://padasalgi.tripod.com/achala.html> in Karnataka.In south in Tamil nadu Alwars propagated Bhagavat Dharma.In northern India this cult could not be propogated to expand due to frequent Mohammedan invasions and destruction of the literatures.However Shri.Krishna Chaitanya in Bengal and Shri.Tulasidas in northern India again revived and established the Bhagavat Dharma. In Maharastra this cult was revived by Sant Jyanadev,Ekanatha and Tukarama. In Karnataka right from the 9th century onwards this cult is propagated religiously and systematically by Haridasas.Haridasas of Karnataka the devotees of the Lord have contributed immense treasure of Bhaktiyoga.Haridasas have blessed the whole society to understand the kernel,innermeaning and essence of Indian philosophy contained in the holy scriptures viz.Vedas,Upanishads,Puranas etc. The compositions though appear to be in the usage of the common man ,contains very deep meaning of all Holy Scriptures, which could not have brought to the light or understood by the masses who are ignorant in understanding Sanskrit the divine language.

Shri.Shankarachrya the founder of Advaita Philosophy (monism) has stated that for invoking the blessings of the Lord, upasana, and spiritual well being are quite essential. He has further stated to chant the name of Govinda to attain self-realization. (Bhaja Govindam, Bhaja Govindam).

Shri.Ramaujachrya the founder of VishistaAdvaita(ShriVaishava) has stated Bhakti as contemplation on God accompanied by love.

Shri.Madhavacharya the founder of Dwaita philosophy has described Bhakti as follows:

"Mahatma Jyana purvastu sudrudhaha sarvo Adhikaha sneho Bhaktiriti proktha tayamuktinaryachanyatha"

Bhakti is the combination of supreme knowledge, true friendship, towards Lord, which is the path towards Mukti/Liberation.

The three functions of the mind, intellect, (Jyana), emotion(Bhavana) and will(Sankalpa) have got to be purified to remove ego,to achieve this, one has to practice three yogas.viz.Jyanyoga which purifies our intellect,Bhaktiyoga purifies our emotions and karmayoga purifies our will.We are free to adopt anyone of these paths.Shri.Narada the sage who possess all the three yogas prefers to deal with Bhakti(the true divine love) as it is the easiest and most efficient of all paths. It is like an International highway open to all irrespective of caste,creed,or sex and most easiest one to practice.That is the reason why Haridasas choose the path of Bhakti and propagated the same so that any person irrespective of his intellect,caste,creed,sex can follow this path to achieve the goal of God realization.

"Any vocabulary, any finest words in the world would still be inadequate to explain/portray the unique mission and the message rendered by the Haridasas in propagating the cult of Bhakti for the benefit of the entire mankind."

The compositions of all Haridasas which are in the form of Devaranama(songs in praise of Lord),Keertans,Suladis,and Ugabhogas, etc., all are in the pen-name (Mudrika or Ankita)viz:Purandara Vithala ,Vijaya Vithala, etc., the use of the name of the Lord as mudrika instead of their own names is characteristic of the devotion and humility of the Haridasas.

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Shri.Achalanand Dasaru

The period of Shri.Achalanand Dasaru is said to be the 9th century.However his compositions resemble those of the 16th century literatures.His place of domicile was Haiganpur in Bangalore District. He was an ardent devotee of "Lord Narasimha".

He toured whole of the country and propagated the Bhakti cult/Bhagavat Dharma.He toured barefoot while the idol of his Lord was carried in a nicely decorated palanquin. (Palaki).He used to sing the glory and virtues of the Lord by tuning Tamburi(also called as Tambruhi the meaning speak/sing of Him).The palanquin of the Lord was carried by the invisible RudraGanas and witnessing this miracle people became the ardent devotees/followers of Dasaru.While he was at Pandharapur he was blessed by the Lord Panduranga Vithal.Lord gave him the Darshan (the divine appearance) on one afternoon when Sri.Achalanand Dasaru was offering an Arghya(the religious and customary way of worship)to sun in the chandrabhaga river.From that day all his compositions were dedicated to Achalananda Vithal.

Miracle:

While he was touring Nepal the prince of Nepal died of snake bite,The king of Nepal humbly prayed to Shri.Achalanand Dasaru to save his son .Shri.Dasaru by chanting Garuda mantra summoned the serpent and made to suck back the poison from the body of the prince and he was saved.In his family the Mudduvithal, Gopinatha,Haridas,Timmannadas, and panduranga were the famous Haridasas who propagated the Bhakti cult.

After Shri.Achalananadadasa we are unable to trace the names of any famous Haridasas till 13th Century.Shri.Vijayadasaru(18th Century) in one of his compositions has stated that many Haridasas earlier to the era of Shri.Purandardasa(16th Century) have praised the Lord and has made a special reference of Shri.Achalanandadas and some names of Adya family.However we are unable to name any Haridasas of that period.During the 13th century Shri.Madhwacharya the founder of Dwaita philosophy,( incarnation of Vayudevaru) was born at Pajaka shketra near Udipi in Karnataka.Shri.NarahariTirtha was the 3rd pontiff in the Shri.Madhwacharya`s parampara.He was a great scholar of Philosophy, and Sanskrit.He name prior to becoming pontiff was Swami Shatri.He was serving in the court of King Gajapati of Orissa.Shri.Madhwacharya on his return journey from Badari happen to halt at the Capital of Orissa.His doctrine viz. the Dwaita philosophy is realistic in approach and many scholars including Shri.Swami Shatri entered into an argumentation.SriSwamy Shastri very soon accepted his defeat, and became the disciple of Shri.Mahdwacharya and took Sanyas many other scholars followed suit and became followers of Shri.Madhwacharya.After becoming pontiff Shri.Swami Shashtry was named as Shri.NarahariTirtha.

Shri.Madhwacharya knew that the original SeetaRam idols were in the custody of King Gajapati and were held in the treasury without worship.Shri.Madhwacharya intended to worship these idols.He instructed Shri.NarahariTirtha to remain in Orissa.The king Gajapati died at an early age leaving behind his pregnant queen.There was dispute among the near relatives of the royal family for claiming to rule Orissa.As there was no consensusness among the royal family it was decided to select the king with the help of an elephant.The elephant garlanded Shri.NarahariTirtha.As he was very well known and was attached to the royal family(was serving the king before taking Sanyas) all citizens happily agreed /accepted him as their King.The coronation was celebrated in 1263.(Indian Antique vol.x|iii(1914) page 264 by Venkobarao)

Luckily queen gave birth to a male child.Prince was declared as the King of Orissa after attaining majority.The royal family of ruler expressed their happiness and gratitude to Shri.Narahariteertha for having ruled the kingdom for many years.In return as a gesture of gratitute for the services rendered by Shri.NarahariTirtha King offered many valuables, which were politely declined by the pontiff and king presented the idols of SitaRam to Shri.NarahariTirtha.These idols were presented to Shri.Madhwaacharya,who in turn gave them to Shri.PadmanabhaTirtha.

Shri.PadmanabhaTirtha handed over the entire Samstanam to Shri.NarahariTirtha on 16-11-1324.Shri.NarahariTirtha had composed many devaranama and keertanas out of which only few are now available.Though the compositions belong to 13th century they closely resemble the compositions of 16th century.In one of the composition he says

"Dharamkke ondu kasu savira honnu

Adharamakke koti honnu onde kasu"

If we practice Dharma even one kasu(the smallest unit of coin in those days) is equivalent to thousand golden coins.If we practice Adharma one crore of golden coins are equivalent to one kasu.This indicates the importance of treading in the path of Dharma.

He composed many devarnama but few are only available now.The compositions by name

"Entu Marulade na nentu marulade" and

"Hariye idu Sariye"

are popular.

Shri.NarahariTirtha revived the Bhagavat Dharma the cult of Bhakti through keertans .His decendants could not concentrate on this cult as they engaged in composing of prose literature.

However his works and efforts made a very deep impact on Shri.Purnadardasa who revived the Bhagavat Dharma/Bhakti cult.

For all the efforts made by him to revive the Bhagavat Dharma/Dasakuta he tops in the Haridas parampara.

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The haridAsAs of Karnataka were preachers of devotion to God and made distinctive contribution to the religious life of Karnataka. They conveyed great and sacred truths in Kannada in a very simple and clear style so as to be understood by common people. Of the four sadhanAs (paths) to liberation or reality, karma mArga, gnAna mArga, yOga mArga and bhakti mArga, most of the Karnataka haridAsAs have recognized the last one, which was the easiest and most fruitful in their early lives. Of all the passions, the unappeased hunger for the heart of the God, Bhakti, is ultimate. haridAsAs moved from place to place and toured the whole towns and villages singing and dancing with single- stringed tambUri instrument, foot bells (kalgejje) and castanets (chatike) being their only musical accompaniments. They did yayiwara (sort of getting alms in the form of rice and other minimum things for a day). Although it is very rare to see such devoted and nobl e haridAsAs in the present century, we still find a few of them who are following all the above attributes of preaching bhakthi, gyAna and vairAgya by singing sweet songs of aparOXa gyAnIs and conveying the messages which are there in the vEdAs, upanishads and ancient scriptures.

 

 

Sri Krishnadasa Muragoda is one such noble soul and bare-foot haridAsa walking around each and every taluk of Karnataka performing bhajans through his melodious haridAsa songs. Sri Krishnadasa is popular in most parts of Karnataka

 

Born to Sri Bhima Rao and Smt. Rama Bai in the year 1923 in Belgaum, he is the third son of the devoted couple leading a sAtvik life. Sri Krishnadasa was attracted to music at a very young age. Initially he studied in Dharwad under Pitre Vakila. Later he moved to Bagalkot under Adabaddi Vaasudevacharaya drama company where Sri Krishnabhuva was his teacher. After a few months there, he studied under Sri Basaraj Mansoor and moved to Pune with Sri D.V.Phulooskar in Gandharva Mahavidyalaya where he studied almost one year. After this he started giving public music performances.

 

Once Sri Krishnadasa accidentally met shrI lakshmIsha tIrtha swAmIji of Sri Kundapura vyAsarAja maTha and on his suggestion he was with the MaTha for six months along with him. Later swAmIji suggested that he go to muLabAgalu. While in muLabAgalu, one day he dreamt where in an aged swAmIji ordered him to do 'tAratamyOkta bhajane'. Next day itself he went to Pandarapura and met Sri Bhima Dasa for dAsa dIkshe. But as a surprise Sri Bhima Dasaru said that he already had dAsa dIkshe. He remembered his mother's blessing, since his child hood to live like a haridAsa and realized that Her word was becoming true.

Since then he is leading a sAtvik life of a haridAsa - daily dEvara pUja, yayiwAra, bhajan, etc. He has given bhajan performances in almost every taluk of Karantaka and a few places in Maharashtra. He also has developed the habit of preparing tuLasi maNi (basil beeds) by hand and janivAra (holy thread) and donates to other vaishnavAs.

 

He remembers more than 800 songs (without looking into any scripts) of aparOXa gyanIs and gives perfomances for long hours without any break. He has special affection and love towards shrI rAghavEndra swAmi and sings more than 125 songs on shrI rAyaru. While he is singing, one can see his pure devotion where in he closes his eyes and sings hours together and when he gets emotional, one could see tears coming out of his eyes.

 

In recent days many of us have come across names ending with dAs or dAsa but Sri Krishnadasa is true to his name by following all traditions of haridAsa with his bhakthi, gyAna and vairAgya. As a true haridAsa he also has composed many songs with ankita as 'sharaNya viTTala' and one song of his ''nadi jana manchAlige nAnu nInu jOdi" (about shrI rAyaru) is quite famous. But while giving performance he sings only aparOXa gyAnIs' dEvaranAmAs and encourages others also to do the same. He preaches that his guru has preached the same that's why he is following the tradition.

 

He considers Sri Mannur Madhvacharya as his Guru. Once when he went to Manthralaya, he had a dream to tour all four corners of India ie Badari, Puri, Dwaraka, Rameshwara, etc. He did this yAthra nine times and he has gone to Badari three times and out of that two times he has gone walking bare-foot.

 

Even today he is leading a sAtvik life as a true haridAsa. When he was fifty years old his guru advised him to get married. He did so and has two daughters and one son. His son is also vaidIka vrutti and studied in shrI sathyadhyAna vidyApITa, Mimbai. Both of his daughters are married and leading happy lives. One of his sons-in-law is Sri Ambarishachar who also has adopted vaidIka vrutti and does gyAna kArya of teaching and pravachanAs in Bangalore.

He is of the opinion that most of the mAdhva maTadipathIs have blessed him and have been kind to all his activities.

 

Even in this ripe age (77 yrs) he is very active and attends most of the ArAdhanAs, puNya thithIs, and gives live bhajan performances and leads a devoted, happy life. At present he lives in JP Nagar, Bangalore.

 

Other than haridAsatva, he has also done other hari sevAs

He used to feed people who were going to and returning from shrI vAdirAjA's ArAdhane in Sirsi. Sirsi is the bus-junction to get to Sonda,. So, people sometimes people come early or in the night and wait till the next day morning to take a bus to Sonda (Sode). Sri Muragoda Dasa used to arrange for supper/dinner for those who were on transit and. He did this hari sEva for 22 years. But he never said that it was done by him, always saying that was hari kArya and he was just a name-sake.

 

These days we do see people indulging in vanity when they acquire a little knowledge, be it philosophy or loukIka (worldly matters). Although Sri Krishna Dasa has acquired so much knowledge, even once he would not utter a word out of mada mathsara. He tries to build the society with peace and harmony. He gives lively examples of his experiences while giving bhajan performances.

 

Sri Muragoda Dasa has has published his collection of haridAsa songs in a book called Bhajana Chandrika. This book contains most of the songs composed by aparOXa gyAnIs. As of now it is in its 12th edition and has sold more than 60,000 copies.

 

Recently, one of his disciples has released a cassette sung by Sri Dasaru by the same name.

 

Innumerable haridasas have descended upon Earth in the mAdhva tradition and have embellished it. These haridAsAs are avatArAs / AveshAs of gods such as nArada (purandara dAsa), brighu muni (vijaya dAsa), ganEsha (gOpAla dAsa), etc.

 

This section attempts to capture the life history and glory of some of them. Apart from their literary prowess, there are several Herculean feats and miracles attributed to them. Justice cannot be done to their great lives in 1 or 2 pages.

 

If you have information on any haridAsa not listed here or want to add to the information presented, please contact us. gnettbiz@

 

shrI purandara dAsa

shrI kanaka dAsa

shrI vijaya dAsa

shrI jagannAtha dAsa

shrI gOpAla dAsa

shrI vyAsa viTTala dAsa

 

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agnAna timarachEdam buddhi sampat pradAyakam | vignAna vimalamshAntam vijayAkya gurum bhaje ||

 

 

Quick Facts

Period: 1687 To 1765

Preceptor: shrI purandara dAsa

Aradhane: kArtIka shukla dashami

Place of rest: Chippagiri, Karnataka

Original name: dAsappa

After purandaradAsa there was a lull in the line of the dAsAs and nearly after more than one hundred years in Raichur district (Chikkalaparvi in Maanavi taluk), a great haridAsa was born to a brahmin couple srInivAsappa and kUsamma in the year 1687 A.D. He was given the name dAsappa and later he became shrI vijaya dAsa. The origin of shrI vijaya dAsaru, however, dates back to the period of kapila vAsudEva. He was bhrigu muni and the son-in-law of Kardama prajApati and dEvahuti. He had the opportuunity to take lessons directly from the Lord himself as kapila vAsudEva. During the chatra yAga he was chosen to find who deserved the offerings of the yAga and was the pioneer in establishing the Harih Sarvottamattvah. shrI vAdirAja tIrtha in his Gundakriya explains in detail the incident of Bhrigu Maharishi going to the three lokAs and that Rudra and Brahma intentionally ignored the rishi so that they were not mistaken as sarvOttama. This matter is very much reflected in his works, as perhaps he is the dAsa who has explained the concept of tAratamya in a very detailed fashion. bhrigu muni incarnated as vijaya dAsaru. However, before incarnating as vijaya dAsaru, he had incarnated as madhvapati, the last son of purandara dAsaru, and his favorite. Even as a young boy, madhvapati had offered naivEdya to hanumanta and made him eat it! It is said that towards his last days, purandara dAsaru once took his favorite son to the vijaya viTTala temple in hampi and told him in confidence, "I wanted to compose 5,00,000 songs and offer them to viTTala. However, it is His will that I stop at 4,75,000. I want you to complete the remaining 25,000 and offer them to viTTala". madhvapati is supposed to have said, "If it is the wish of purandara viTTala, I will definitely do it". To this, his father laughed and replied, "No, not purandara viTTala, vijaya viTTala will make you do it". Even though it was appropriate since it was the vijaya viTTala temple, the true meaning of those prophetic words was that madhvapati would complete his father's wish only in the next birth, as vijaya dAsaru. madhvapati was reborn as the son of shrInivAsappa and kUsamma. His parents named him dAsappa. People used to call him derisively as 'kUsimaga dAsappa'. he was married at a very young age of about 16 years. He had to undergo a lot of hardships and suffer severe humiliation. Finally, when his bad days ended, he visited maNikarNika lake in kAshi. One night, the Lord took on the form of purandara dAsaru and woke him up. He took dAsappa across the river to vyAsa kAshi and made him meet veda vyAsa. He then wrote the word 'vijaya' on dAsappa's tongue and gave him the Ankita of 'vijaya viTTala'. From then on, dAsappa became renowned as vijaya dAsaru, and went on to compose over 25,000 songs, keeping the promise he had made in his previous birth.

[gokulkr 1]

Sri Gopala Dasa

 

Quick Facts

Period: 1722 To 1762

Preceptor: shrI vijaya dAsa

Aradhane: pushya bahuLa ashTami

Place of rest: Uddanur, Karnataka

Original name: bhAgaNNA

Among the 8 haridAsa shreshtAs of Karnataka the name of shrI gOpAla dAsaru stands as an example of guru bhakti to be emulated. The keynote of mAdhva tradition is abject devotion to one's preceptor and dAsaru lived a life in accordance with the above tradition. shrI gOpAla dAsa is believed to be an amsha of Lord ganEsha.

The young bhAgaNNa

In Raichur district, in a place called mosaragallu, there lived a pious couple, maraLi rAyaru and venkamma. They had four children bhAgaNNa, dAsappa, sInappa and rangappa. The sudden demise of the head of the family left the family in lurch and venkamma had to shoulder the responsibility of nurturing the four young boys. She used to work hard in many houses to bring up the children. Seeing her plight two generous people gave her a piece of land and cultivated for her in that land. By the grace of the Lord there was a bumper harvest. The local chieftain angry at venkamma for not working in his house asked for the forfeiture of the crops on the pretext of her using the lake belonging to the state. Appeals of pardon, to him, were of no avail and he remained stubborn. Venkamma was frustrated and cursed her fate. bhAgaNNa could not bear the sufferings of his mother and cursed the chieftain to be childless and the lake to go dry and till today it is so.

 

The mother had entrusted her children to a broad-minded teacher who taught the children with a selfless attitude. One day a rich man performed the thread ceremony of his son and simultaneously extended that opportunity to bhAgaNNa. This was a turning point in the life of bhAgaNNa. His mother insisted that her son chant gAyatri with devotion since it is capable of not only granting what one desires but also because there is no other mantra more sacred than the holy gAyatri. bhAgaNNa took the word as vEdavAkya and used to chant the mantra with greatest devotion. He used to sit down under a peepal tree, after the morning ablutions, and get absorbed in the recitation of the sacred mantra. This continued for years and the people began to doubt the reason for this meditation and some even ridiculed the boy.

 

One prankster poured hot bubbling water on the boy who was unmoved from his posture with closed eyes on dhyAna and to everyone's consternation the person who did the mischief got burns and boils all over his body while the young meditator was unscathed. Then, one day, mother gAyatri was extremely pleased with the sAdhana of the young boy and appeared before him and wrote the bIjAkshara on the tongue of the young boy. This caused a metamorphosis in the life of the boy. He could by the blessings of gAyatri and the grace of shrI hari vAyu gurugaLu not only compose divine songs but also foretell and explain three births of people who stood before him.

 

There are some points to be noted from the above incidents:

 

Firstly the above events reveal how important it is for the parents to instruct their children to do sandyavandana thrice a day and perform gAyatri with great devotion.

 

It also brings to the light that one who catches the feet of gAyatri will never come to any harm and the mother will be a constant companion and savior to the aspirant.

 

brihat sAma tatA sAmnAm gAyatri chandasamaham

(srimad bhagavatgIta, ch. 10, shloka 35)

The Lord Himself has stated the importance of gAyatri in the vibhUti yoga and this incident brings to limelight the role of the holy gAyatri mantra in the sojourn of the spiritual aspirant to emancipation.

 

The lives of such great souls are meant for souls like us ensnared in this samsAra and reiterate the mahima of the mantra and make our janma, sApalya, by reciting the mantra knowing its efficacy at least after listening or reading the life history of such great saints.

 

bhAgaNNA becomes gOpAla dAsaru

bhAgaNNa decided to shift to uddhAnUr and serve at the srInivAsa temple there. Again by the grace of gAyatri, all his wants were fulfilled and the Lord who dispels agnAna, easily alleviated his poverty. His visit to adOni to meet vijaya dAsaru changed his life forever. On the darshana only of his Guru he got the ankita of gOpAla viTTala and he was called as shrI gOpAla dAsaru. This incident again reiterates the importance of a spiritual Guru and mantropadesha even if the aspirant, by himself, is on a spiritually high profile.

 

Then when the dAsaru was proceeding to Udupi to have a darshan of shrI Krishna, there was a dacoit called mandeketta bhImaNNa, who wanted to assault shrI gOpAla dAsaru and his retinue. When he lifted his hand to do so his hand got paralyzed and he fell at the feet of the dAsaru who immediately pardoned him and restored him to normalcy.

 

There was a pundit, venkatarAmAchAr, who was arrogant and did not recognize the dAsaru whereas his wife was totally dedicated and prayed for better sense to dawn upon her husband. One day she asked her husband to go to the dAsaru to ask about the future of their son as the dAsa could predict the future. The pundit went in the guise of picking thulasi leaves but the saint told him about the purpose of the visit and also that his son would be a great scholar. The pundit fell at the feet and acknowledged the greatness of the saint. Once, the pundit was doing his evening sandyavandana and gOpAla dAsaru requested him not to give the fourth argya (kAlAdikrakama dosha......) though the sun had set. The pundit was nonplussed but the dAsa showed the sun at the top thereby proving that nothing was possible for an aproxagyAnin. The pundit asked the saint as to when aparoxa was possible to him. The saint said that if he initiates himself into sanyAsa then it would be possible and the pundit did so with the name of vyAsatatvagyaru.

 

Thus, with the guidance of the great saint shrI gOpAla daasaa, the pundit venkatarAmAchAr became a sanyAsi and obtained aparoxa. vyAsatatvagyaru also had the fortune of having the darshan of Mantralaya mahAprabhu shrI rAghavEndra swAmi in his dream.

 

At a place called Manavi, there lived an erudite scholar by the name srInivAsAchAr. He was a pundit par excellence and would discard with disdain all the haridAsAs saying that they did not even know to do the daily pUja perfectly as they were unaware about the myriad forms and various mantrAs to propitiate the almighty. Once, by the will of providence the great saint and the amsha of bhrigu muni, shrI vijaya dAsaru had camped near Manavi and had invited the pundit for partaking of hariprasAda. But srInivAsAchArya simply scorned at the prospect of going to the feast and insulted the dAsa.

 

When shrI vijaya dAsaru inquired the absence of the scholar it was told to him that srInivAsAchArya had stomachache and hence could not attend the tIrtha prasAda. The dAsaru just nodded his head knowing the true reason, for a great aparoxa gyaani he was. Here, gOpAla dAsaru was shocked that His preceptor was insulted and could not console himself. ShAstrAs say that if even we hear about our Guru nindane we should atone for the sin. Since, shrI gOpAla dAsaru had so much of respect for His Guru he fasted for three days to wipe out the sin of just hearing his guru being insulted. What an example of Gurubhakti.

 

gopAla dAsaru gifts 40 years of his life to srInivAsAchArya

This srInivAsAchArya then started suffering from a stomach ailment, which apparently had absolutely no cure and went from pillar to post to cure himself, but in vain. He went to Sholinghur to pay respects to shrI narasimha swAmy and yOgAnjaneya and other places but to no avail. Finally, he decided to go to the place of his elder brother in previous birth and seek refuge at his feet. It was none other than Mantralaya mahAprabhu. When shrI rAghvEndra swAmi was prahlAda, srInivAsAchArya was his younger brother sahlAda. srInivAsAchArya did sEva at the sannidhAna of shrI rAghavEndra tIrtha for some time but unfortunately still the pain continued.

 

So one day, he decided to give up his life. But the Lord had sent him to this Earth for some other purpose and hence there was no possibility of exiting the place before the completion of the same. Then, the saint of Mantralya appeared in his dream and told him the cause of the ailment. srInivAsAchAryaa repented for having done apachAra to the dAsashrEsTa and wanted to make amends. shrI rAghavEndra sripAdaru instructed him to go and meet shrI vijaya dAsaru and get his remedy.

 

This event is a very interesting one if we analyze it. shrI vijaya dAsaru in his bhrigu avatAra had kicked the Lord on the chest and the Lord, the abode of compassion, had pardoned him unconditionally whereas here the same saint was insulted by another pundit and the Lord was unwilling to forgive him. Indeed the Lord is as He says in the ninth chapter of the srimad bhagavadgIta - madbhakta sa me priyah. If we look at another angle the Lord sometimes to uplift a deserving devotee in order to bring down his excess punya, during the course of the sAdhana, makes the devotee commit some unpardonable sin like in the above case and we have to take recourse from the same chapter of the bhagavad gIta, shlokas 30 & 31.

 

 

Apichetsuduraachaaaroo .......na me bhakta pranashyati ||

When srInivAsAchArya fell at the feet of shrI vijaya dAsaru the latter instructed him to go to gOpAla dAsaru and seek remedy for his ailment. Again perhaps satisfied by the gurubhakti of shrI gOpAla dAsaru who did not eat for 3 days the saint asked so. srInivAsAchArya reached uddAnUr and enquired about shrI gOpAla dAsaru and got the reply that he will be at the temple. He did accordingly and found a man sweeping the temple and was clad in a very simple dress. He asked him the whereabouts of the dAsAru's house. The person guided him by giving directions and when he went there again they told them that the dAsaru was at the temple. With the stomach ailment he was shuttling from the temple and the house. Finally he asked the person at the temple where he could find shrI gOpAla dAsa and the saint revealed himself to him.

 

He prostrated and started to sing about the dAsa in mOhana rAga:

 

 

"gOpAladAsa rAya ninna . nA nambide nischaya............."

The compassionate gOpAla dAsaru asked him to come to the tank in the morning after the ablutions and promised to cure him of his disease. The next day, the dAsa made 2 bakri (roti or chappati from flour sans oil) and made abhimantrana of dhanvantri in it with the following song.

 

 

"yenna binappa kElu dhanvantri .........."

dhanvantri dEvata with the kalasha of amrita sprinkled ambrosia (only to cure the sickness) on the bakri to be given to srInivAsAchArya and also explained the futility of his efforts since srInivAsAchArya was destined to die the next day. On learning this, shrI gOpAla dAsaru waited to hear from his guru. As soon as the guru spoke to him he paid his obeisance to him and told him about the predicament. shrI vijaya dAsaru asked him to give 40 years of Ayur dAna i.e. donate 40 years of his life to srInivAsAchArya and he, like ekalavya without any hesitation, agreed to his master's command.

 

This srInivAsAcharya became shrI jagannAtha dAsaru who wrote the magnum opus of madhva siddhAnta in kannaDa - shrI harikathAmbrutha sAra.

 

gOpAla dAsaru gets ready to leave

Thus the saint after making kshetrAdana, decided to go to Tirumala to have the last glimpse of shrI vEnkatanAtha. He weeps singing this song before the Lord, for in the previous visits he used to say that he would come again to get the glorious glimpse of the Lord.

 

 

"hOguvenu baralAre malalillie nAgagirivAsA Isha shrIsha...."

He goes back to uddAnUr to finish his sojourn on this Earth. He calls his disciples and states his previous births as to what were the low births he had to take and how in this birth fortunate to have shrI vijaya dAsaru as his guru and was able to know something of aparoxa and he was to take two more births one in the line of vyAsatatvagyaru and other to one of his own descendants. One fine day, his tamboora string breaks and when his disciple sets about to repair it, he prevents him from doing so saying that it should be used for a new one.

 

On the Saturday of pushya bahula ashtami during the chitrabanu samvatsara (1762 A.D.), he asked for special pooja at the srInivAsa temple of uddAnUr and after that asked his brother dAsappa to bring darba to sit on it. After, sometime his other brother varadappa hails him going on a chariot with messengers of the Lord and wails and breaks up into a song.

 

 

aNNa bhAgaNNa, ni kaNNige mareyAgi puNya lOka sEridiye guruve....

Thus, shrI gOpAla dAsaru lived from 1722 to 1762 after happily donating 40 years of his life on the orders of his guru. Really one has to search in the firmament of the saints frantically to spot such a great personality who was the epitome of gurubhakti.

 

shrI gOpAla dAsAntargata shrI gOpAla viTTala prIthyartam

shrI krisnArpanamasthu

[Guest guest]

http://www.dvaita.org/haridasa/dasas/index.html

 

Enjoy

[gokulkr 1]

Shri Vijaya Dasa had synthesized the sAra of Madhva philsophy in all his works. He had extensively dealt about the shrusTi prakarana, bhUkola varNane and mukti krida in all his padAs. It is estimated that he has composed about 25,000 songs thus making true the words of his father in his previous birth - purandara dAsa.

His literary works include hundreds of suLadIs including the famous kankanAkara suLAdi, which is perhaps the only literary work describing the chakrAbja manDala.

As sample of the songs of shrI vijaya dAsaru and their rAgAs are given below:

On shrI nArayaNa:1. bArayya shrInivAsa bhaktara manege - Karaharapriya

2. bandu nillo dayA pati bandu nillo - Aanandabhairavi

3. bandu nindA kanna mundhe bandu nindha - shrI

4. intA prabhuva kANenO - Mohana

5. sadA yenna hrdayadalli vAsa mADo shrI hare - Ananda Bhairavi

On shrI lakshmi1. pAlise padumAlaye nIne gati - Madhyamaavati

2. pAlisenna indirA dEvi

On shrI mukhya prANa1. bhAravE bhAratI ramaNa

On shrI ganEsha1. sharaNu sharaNembe

2. jaya jaya mUshaka ramaNa

On shrI rAghavEndra swAmIji1. rAghavEndra guru pAvana kAya - Hindolam

2. parama mangaLa mUruti divya kIruti - Souraashtra

The credit of publishing his works goes to Gorebaal Hanumantha Rao who took great pains to do the same. Till today the descendants of shrI vijaya dAsa like pavamAna viTTala dAsa are living and contributing their works to the dAsa charitra.

He also had performed many miracles like the stopping of the chariot of shrInivAsa at tirumala till he had the darshana, etc.

Once he happened to attend the sudha mangaLa of kallur subbaNNAchAr and since he was dressed in a simple manner he was mistaken for a cook who did not arrive in time and was asked to make 'mandige', a kind of sweet to be fed to many brahmins who had assembled there. He did the job with great pleasure because making prasAda to the Lord is the greatest service that can be done to Him. (We are reminded of Bhimasena devaru who disguised himself as a cook and served at virATa dEsha with the same objective). Then when the sudha mangaLa was in progress the pundit who had little respect for dAsAs could not explain a difficult exposition of nyAya sudha. At this juncture shrI vijaya dAsaru placed his hand on a layman who used to bring water and the layman effortlessly cut the Gordian knot. When the hand was removed he returned to his normal self. Kallur subbaNNAchAr realized his folly and prostrated before the saint begging pardon and became a dAsa with the ankita of "vyAsa viTTala" and had composed the "viyaya kavacha" (smarisi badakirO divya charana keragirO, durita taridu poreva vijaya gurugaLenbara,&#8230;). This is part and parcel of all mAdhva incantations in the morning time during the household routine, especially with the women. This is made of only six verses and easy to memorize and brings immense merit to the devotees who recite it.

shrI mOhanadAsa says that when he had gone to mantrAlaya, shrI rAghavEndra swamIji gave darshan to shrI vijaya dAsaru and vijaya dAsaru could behold the wonderful darshan of the pancharUpi paramAtma near the brindAvan. He also is supposed to have witnessed the incidents that were going to take place in future at mantrAlaya.

Once shrI vijaya dAsa and his disciples were in a forest near ahObala. Suddenly they saw a tiger and stopped. Except vijaya dAsaru, everybody else was scared. Being an aparOksha gnyAni, he was able to judge the nature of the tiger. He told his followers that the tiger was actually a pious brahmin, who had been cursed to take the form of a cruel animal. Even in that form, the tiger had full knowledge of its past life (because of all the pious acts performed in the previous birth) and was pining for release from its cruel fate. vijaya dAsaru calmed his disciples down by explaining the true situation. As he was doing this, his disciples observed tears in the eyes of the tiger! He then kept his dEvara peTTige (box containing his vigrahAs) on the ground and composed a prayer to ahObala narasimha, asking Him to show mercy on the tiger. After this, he and his disciples moved back a few steps. An amazing thing happened! With tears in its eyes, the tiger went around the box, and lay down on the ground, and breathed its last! By the grace of vijaya dAsaru, the brahmin's life as a tiger ended! God alone knows how many more lifetimes it would have taken otherwise.

vijaya dAsaru gets ready to leave

At chippagiri near Guntakal shrI vijaya dAsaru attained the lotus feet of the Lord in 1765 A.D after making a yeoman contribution to the dAsa sAhitya. It was a kArtIka shukla dashami day. He can be called as the one who resurrected the dAsa sAhitya because not only he gave life to it but also painstakingly collected all the works of purandara dAsa and other great saints and preserved them for posterity.

After leading such a meaningful life what was all the dAsa wanted. He sings in a melodious note:

dAsa dAsa dAsararu dAsyava koDu...

He gave us several haridAsAs in addition to the 25,000 padAs of his.

Perhaps the biggest beneficiary was his adopted son, mOhana dAsaru. vijaya dAsaru prevented mOhana dAsa's mother from committing suicide, and gave her and mOhana dAsaru shelter in his house. He took care of mother and son as if they were his own sister and nephew, throughout their lives, and helped mOhana dAsaru become a renowned haridAsa in his own right.

The magnum opus - harikathAmbruthasAra - by shrI jagannAtha dAsa was only possible because shrI vijaya dAsa instructed his disciple, shrI gOpAla dAsa to donate 40 years of his life to shrI jagannAtha dAsa.

He was also the great jeweller who gave us gems like vyAsa vittala dAsaru and others, in addition to shrI gOpAla dAsa and shrI jagannAtha dAsa.

Quick Facts

Composed By: shrI vyAsa viTTala dAsa

Composed On: shrI vijaya dAsa

Language: Kannada

shrI kallUru subbaNNAchArya is the author of this work. He also was a renowned haridAsa with the ankita - vyAsa viThThala. There is an interesting story about he became a haridAsa.

He was a famous scholar, renowned for his discourses on nyAya sudha. He treated haridAsas with disdain, considering them as pretenders who mislead ordinary people. His special ire was reserved for vijaya dAsaru since he was the most famous haridAsa then.

Once subbaNNAchArya was in a dilemma since the cook who was supposed to provide the dishes for the lunch arranged in honor of his sudha discourse absented himself with very little notice. However, shrI vijaya dAsaru came there, disguised as a cook and ensured that the function did not stop. Later when people recognized vijaya dAsaru, he humbly requested subbaNNAchArya to continue with his discourse. But subbaNNAchArya, who was furious, refused to do so; he heaped insult after insult on the calm vijaya dAsaru, who heard him out patiently. Finally, when things reached a head, vijaya dAsaru looked around and saw a water-carrier. On questioning, it was obvious that the carrier was unlettered and a total stranger to the shastras. vijaya dAsaru put some akshate (colored rice used for devotional purposes) on his head, and holding him by hand, asked him to lecture on the nyAya sudhA. Wonder of wonders, a scholarly discourse flowed from the lips of the water carrier! In addition to delivering a superb lecture, he even highlighted the portions that subbaNNAchArya himself was not sure of, and clarified all the doubts that the latter had! As soon as vijaya dAsaru removed his hand, the water carrier relapsed to his true self.

subbaNNAchArya was wonderstruck, and truly humbled by this experience. The divine spark in him was awakened, and in a flash he recognized the greatness of vijaya dAsaru. He immediately fell at his feet, and with tears in his eyes, begged his forgiveness and humbly requested him to accept him (subbaNNA) as his disciple. vijaya dAsaru sent him to panga nAma dAsaru, another disciple, who in turn initiated subbaNNAchArya into haridAstva and gave him the ankita of 'vyAsa viThThala'.

This incident proved to be the turning point in shrI subbaNNAchArya's life and he went on to become a great haridAsa in his own right. He regarded vijaya dAsaru as his guru and spiritual father. In fact, before laying down his mortal coils, vijaya dAsaru ordered that subbaNNAchArya should perform the last rites. Such was the bond of affection between them. It is in the fitness of things that he should have composed this great poem.

 

[gokulkr 1]

 

 

The sacred brindavan of Sri Sri Sankarshana Wodeyar the celebrated saint and reputed commentator. of ""Harikathamruthasara" is situated at Karapoondi Village on the banks of the river Cheyyar (Bhahduda nadhi) 3kms. East of Polur in North Arcot District in Tamil Nadu. The saint entered brindavan in 1862 A.D. on Margasirsha Suddha Panchami. Even now, daily puja and aradhana are taking place regularly on a modest scale.

 

The life history of Sri Sankarshana Wodeyar is really interesting and thought-provoking. Just as Purandara Dasa, a great sowcar, renounced everything and became a famous Dasa and earned the reputation of being called as ""Father of camatic music" (Camataka Sangeetha Pithamaha) Sri Sankarshana Wodeyar, son of a big sowcar, and dealer in gold, pearls and diamonds, renounced everything, studied the complete works of Sri Madhwacharya and other-works with bashyas, twice, once under the able guidance of Sri Sri Visva Priya Tirtha, the pontiff of Sode Mutt and again under his guru Sri Sri Satyaparayana Tirtharu, the pontiff of Utharadhi Mutt and became a saint of high order and his masterly study of the sastras enabled him to write his great commentary on the ""Harikathamruthasara" of Sri Jagannatha Dasar.

 

EARLY LIFE

Sri Sankarshana Wodeyar in his poorvasram bore the name of Thammanna Naik. Thammanna Naik was born in 1810 A.D. in the Naik family residing in Mangalvarpet in Dharwar. Gurla Hosur, a village on the bank of the river Malaprabha was the original home of the Naik family. That village was situated in Prasad Taluk (now named as Savadatti Taluk) in Belgam District then in Bombay presidency, now in Karnataka State. The Village is now submerged in the river on account of the construction of the dam near

 

Savadatti. The Naik family was carrying on business as pawnbrokers and as dealers in gold, pearls and precious stones. With a view to extend their business the forefathers of Thammanna Naik migrated to Dharwar.

Dhumappa Naik had two wives. He h_d four sons by the first wife and five sons by the second wife. Thammanna Naik was born on account of his mother having performed seva at the brindavan of Sri Satyadharma Swamigalu at Hole Honnur. Sri Satyadharma Swamigalu is an amsa of Rudra. Thammanna was born in 1810 A.D. (Saka 1732). The Naik family lived quite happily under the undivided family system. It is to be noted that Dhumappa Naik father of Thammana Naik and Venkappa Naik father of Ramanna Naik are brothers. They belong to Bharadhwaja Gothra.

When Thammanna attained the proper age for upanayanam. Dhumappa Naik celebrated the upanayanam of his son in a fitting manner. After upanayanam Thammanna studied sastras under the able guidance of the saintly Bhimavarahachar an in mate of his household and observed ekadasi and harivasara strictly and performed his daily puja with panchabedagnana and Tharathamya. His reputed teacher used to call him a ""Rishi". Thammanna Naik was married at a very early age. In his twenty second year his wife died leaving him and two children.

TRIP TO UDIPI

Thammanna Naik having no mind to marry again, proceeded to Udipi, Rajatha-peeta pura and studied the original works and bashyas of Sri Ananda Tirtha under the able guidance of Sri Sri Visvapriya Tirtha, the pontiff of Sode Mutt, observing the accepted canons of disciple-hood which concluded with mangala. The hidden meanings and esoteric significance of many of the works of Sri Ananda Tirtha so deeply sank into his mind that he lost all sensibility of the existence of life and this led his need to be reduced to the barest minimum. He was immersed in paramathma dhyana according to the Bimbopasa rules until he was 30 years old.

CONTACT WITH THE UTHARADHI MUTT

At this critical moment there appeared on the scene Sri Sri Satyasanthushtaru, the guru of Sri Sri Satya Parayana Tirthar, the pontiff of the Utharadhi Mutt. Having remained stationary for a long time the Mutt incurred heavy expenditure and had no funds to meet the heavy expenditure. Knowing that Ramanna Naik, cousin brother of Thammanna Naik was a pawnbroker and a wealthy man, the pontiff of the Utharadhi Mutt, raised a loan from Ramanna Naik pledging with him for a large sum, the precious bejewelled Navarathna man tapa of Sri Ram Vedavyasa and a golden bowl gifted to the Mutt by Dodda Rajee Bai of Arni Jagir in North Arcot District (in Tamil Nadu). Ramanna Naik without any hesitation gave the amount. After some time when Sri Satya Parayana Tirthar became the pontiff of the Mutt, he started on his itinerary. The Swarniji, during the course of his tour camped in Ramanna Naik's house for a period of two months and performed his daily puja. In due course one day the Swamiji informed Ramanna Naik that his mind was worried in not having the (pledged articles, namely) bejewelled mantapa and the golden bowl during his daily puja time and suggested to him to depute a reliable representative to be with the Mutt to collect and remit the dues from time to time. While Ramanna Naik was .considering this suggestion, Thammanna Naik himself volunteered to go with the mutt to collect the dues. In so doing Thammanna Naik had two things in his view, - one that he could fulfil his obligations to his brother and the family and the other that he could perform thirthayathra with the pontiff. His cousin having accepted his views, Thammanna Naik immediately joined the party of the pontiff of the Utharadhi Mutt and followed the Swamiji for some time. Not wishing to waste precious time as a mere camp-follower, Thammanna Naik studied all the works of Sri Madhwacharya including Sudha, once again during his leisure hours under the able guidance of Sri Sri Satyaparayana Tirtha Swamigalu.

Having completed his studies for the second time ThammannaNaik performed mangala agreeing to bear the entire expenses of the puja of Sri Rama Vedavyasa. After the puja was over Sri Sri Satyaparayana Tirth Swamigal asked Thamanna Naik about guru dakshana and also suggestively asked, it appears, why the Navarathna mantapa and the golden bowl pledged by The-mutt with his brother, Ramanna Naik could not be treated as gurudakshana, equivalent to the entire amount due by the mutt towards the pledged property. Thamanna Naik readily and willingly agreed to give away the pledged articles as guru-daksbana just as king Bali Chakravarthi, had done of yore, and filling his joined palms with water let it out as arpana for Sri Krishna. After the symbolic ceremonial of arpana and meals were over, as per directions of the Samiji Thammanna wrote two letters to his cousin Ramanna Naik-one stating that the entire amount due by the Mutt had been received and another directing his brother to return the pledged articles of the mutt to the messengers carrying his letters from the Mutt. Ramanna Naik en receipt of the letters without any hesitation handed over the pledged articles - the bejewelled rathna man tapa and the golden bowl to the dwarapalakas who came from the mutt. On receipt of the pledged articles from Rammanna Naik Sri Sri Satyaparayana Tirtha-Swamigal was immensely pleased in having got back the bejeweled mantapa and the golden bowl for his daily puja. and considered ThamaMa Naik as his chief disciple and bestowed on him his blessings.

After a few months Ramanna Naik not having received the amount from his brother corresponded with him. Thammanna Naik kept cool without replying and lived quite happily with the mutt. Having had no response from his brother Ramanna Naik went to contact his brother and met him at the mutt. After having learnt what had happened for the amount Ramanna Naik took his brother home with a heavy heart. Ramanna Naik felt very painful over the way in which the family assets had been liquidated. Realising the feelings of his brother Thammanna Naik revealed to his brother that out of his own free will he had gifted away the amount to Sri Rama Vadavysasa as he felt free to dispose of his own share of the family property in the manner he deemed best. This view seemed so reasonable to Ramanna, that he condoned the action of this brother.

TAKING UP SANYASA

The leaven of viragya had so worked in Thamanna's mind that in his 32nd year he proceeded to the sacred shrine of Sri Krishna at Udipi. There he gathered ten elderly and learned brahmins at Danda theertha and in their presence shaved off all but three hairs on the crest of his head as a token of his renunciation and assumed the robes of the sanyasi in preparation for purity accruing from guru upadesa of the pontiff. When he approached Sri Sri Satyaparayana Tirtharu, the guru not wishing that Thammanna Naik should become a sanyasi, sent for Ramanna Naik and advised him to convince his brother Thammanna to be a grahastha and not to be sanyasi. All the efforts of Ramanna Naik in convincing his brother to be a grahastha were in vain since Thamanna Naik was determined and remained adamant in becoming a sanyasi. Thammanna told swamiji that this life could not endure unless he was permitted to become a sanyasi. Seeing the firm determination of Thammanna Sri Sri Satyaparayana Tirthaswamigalu, finally yielded, and consecreated him bestowing on him the name of Sri Sankarshana Wodeyar and gifted him with silver image of his Venugopala Krishna for his daily puja. Thus Thammanna Naik became Sri Sankarshana Wodeyar, a sanyasi, under his guru Sri Satyaparayana Tirtharu, the pontiff of the Utharadhi mutt.

Sri Sathya Dharma Tirtharu

Sri Sathya Sankalpa Tirtharu

Sri Sathya Santhushta Tirtharu

Sri Sathya Parayana Tirtharu

Sri Sankarshana Wodeyar

(Karapoondi).

Sri Sankarshana Wodeyar lived in his house for two months. Finding that his house was not a convenient place for practising his austerities to his satisfaction, he moved from his residence to the temple of Sri Vittala in the centre of the agrahara of Dharwar and lived on Prasada received as biksha.

TRIP TO TIRUPATHI.

Sri Sankarshana Wodeyar had a desire to visit the sacred shrine of Lord Venkateswara at Tirupathi. He went to Tirupathi via Hole narasimapura where on the bank of the river he fell into a mood of tapas which led him to a state of renunciation. of all material needs and finally to give up the customary dietary in favour of uncooked popped grain. After reaching Triupathi he gifted away all gold and silver andjewellery he had to the deserving brahmins keeping with him only his bare needs such as a complete tigerskin for his asana, a bowl and panchapatra made of sandal-wood and other puja pathras. He performed tapas for two months in the sannidhana of Sri Varahamurthi. Lord Venkateswara appeared in his dream and directed him to worship Lakshmi-Narashimha and Yoganjaneya at Ghatikachalam (Sholingur in North Arcot District). When about to start on his yatra he had another dream directing him to settle some dispute at Vellore where the evil minded Satyabodha Samachar was interrupting the seva of Sri Sathyajirayar.by misappropriation of puja materials and instructing him that by settling the dispute the complete merit of a yatra to Rameswaram would accrue to him.

SEVA AT VELLORE.

Accordingly Sri Sankarshana Wodeyar moved to Vellore where with the help of certain grahasthas he successfully instituted a legal case against samachar and performed seva of Sri Satyaji Rayar for a period of nine years. Some devoted disciples of the Swamiji viz., Ami hanumantha Rao, 'Sarna Rao, Madhava Rao, Sanjeevi Rao, and Adhya Srinivasachar took Sri Sankarshana wodeyar to Greemspet near Chittoor where they earnestly studied the most important Madhva granthas, bashyas, and Harikathamruthasara and practised other austerities helpful for inner sadhana. They travelled with the saint to sacred shrines with intense bakthi and sraddha. Gradually as a means of sadhana Sri Wodeyar gave up the use of flour as food and intensified the fasts on suitable occasions and travelled on foot wherever possible and ultimately reached Vellore to greet his guru Sri Satyaparayana Tirtha swamigal. Sri Satyaparayana Tirthar was immensely pleased with the bakthi and the sraddha of Sri Wodeyar in the performance of the seva to Sri Satyaji Rayar and affirming his statement that the full merit of Theertha yathra had accrued to Sri Wodeyar, directed him to continue the seva.

MOVE TO KARAPOONDI

Then Sri Sankarshana Wodeyar with his disciples kept on moving from place to place in the district and its environs and stayed at Oghur in Srinivasa Rao's house until he settled down at Karapoondi village on the banks of the river Cheyyar (Bhahuda nadhi) 3 kms. East of Polur at the instance of Sri Brahmmasamudr(:im Madhwarayar after constructing a mutt on the right bank of the river Cheyyar where the shade of the hill of Sri Sampathgiri Narasimha would be cast (under the shade of an aswatha tree). He entered Brindavan at the age of 52 in the year Dhundhubi on Margasira Suddha Panch ami (1862 A.D.) and was interred at the same spot.

 

INTERMENT AND AFTER

From the information gathered .from a very old man of the locality, an eyewitness at the time of interment it is learnt that Swamiji sent for his disciple Sanjeevi Rao and directed him to get a barber immediately and get himself ready to perform the last rites due to a sanyasi. It appears that Sanjeevi Rao trembled at first on hearing the behest of his guru. Then with the assistapce of others Sanjeevi Rao got everything ready and kept the place . clean to carry out the wishes of his guru and the interment took place in the presence of many persons. (Uthkramaml bhoosthapana). .

Some months after Sanjeevi Rao had a dream on one-night in which his guru Sri Wodeyar had said that be had not carried out the instructions properly. Sanjeevi Rao got up from his bed trembling with fear. Sanjeevi Rao with others went to the spot of interment next morning and on examination to their great surprise and wonder they found that the jata on Guru's head had grown, that the dwadasa namas and mudras in gopichandanam were quite fresh and the kala was fully evident in the patras and other things were in tact. The disciples and other brahmins who had seen the saint alive and at the time of interment affirmed that Sri Sankarshana Wodeyar belonged to the amsa of Sri Rudra. Eight months after the interment a stone brindavan was erected on that spot. The fact that Sri Wodeyar was an amsa of Rudra was further testified by Sri Venkatramanachar of Godavari district to whom Sri Wodeyar appeared in a vision revealing the insignia of Sri Rudhra. Sri Venkatramanchar in token of this amazing vision composed the following stotras-Sri Sankarshana Kavacha, Kalpatharu stotra, Mangalshtaka and Navarthna-malika, which are published in this book. The devarnamas published in this book will reveal that Sri Sankarshana Wodeyar himself was a good composer in the art of music. There is nearly a hundred year old big tiled choultry very near the mutt where feeding takes place on the aradhana days. The choultry is now in a dilapidated condition. It is said that the mutt building with the compound wall and the choultry were constructed with the assistance of many madhwas of the locality and the adjoining villages.

A close study of the Mangalashtakam and Nawarathnamala will reveal the greatness of the saint and in what grandeur the aradhana was celebrated in those days and how the feeding tookplace in the choultry, besides giving a graphic description of the sylvan locality and its environs.

Sri Sankarshana Wodeyar is noted for his erudite scholarship and his masterly commentary on '"'Harikathamuthasara" of Sri Jagannatha Dasa. Such a great commentator should be well remembered everyday and his shrine should be visited especially during Aradhana days to win his grace and make our lives sublime and to make ourselves fit to be true devotees of Sri Hari and followers of Sri Madhwacharya.

The daily parayana of the stotras will bring to the reader divine grace, happiness, prosperity and mental solace and relieve him of all his sins and lead him to the path of god-realization.

 

FOOT NOTE:- A close study of the poet Sri Venkatramanchar would lead one to believe that he himself had performed a yatra to the saint's Brindawan.

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SRI JAGANNATHA DASA- THE HARIKATHAMRITHASARA AND ITS GREATNESS

In the field of religion and philosophy apart from the great Acharyas, the saints of Karnataka developed the cult of devotion through their soul-stirring music and bhajana in their mother tongue. Through melodious songs our famous dasas gave wholesome advice to the common people in ethics and religion. Many of them were highly cultured both in Sanskrit and philosopy and well versed in the study of the doctrines of Dwaita philosophy through their songs in simple and easily understandable style so that everyone whether learned or illiterate could easily follow the path of rightenonsness for God-realization. The central aim of the dasas' works is to inculcate faith in God and the need for the grace of God. This is the only means of salvation for the redemption of the soul from the cycle of births and deaths. The spirit of devotion is inculcated by means of legends, of puranas, epics and the exposition of the doctrines of Dwaita philosophy as propounded by Sri Anandha Tirtha.

 

Among the great dasas who lived after Purandara Dasa, Sri Jangannatha Dasa stands foremost. Aparoksha is the reward for bhakthi and upasana continued in proper form for a certain period. Aparoksha is God-vision. Gnana, bhakthi and Vyragya are the three essential and fundamental requisites for God-realization. It takes place only when the Lord chooses to appear in Divine Light before the inner gaze of the baktha. The form, the Lord chooses to present, differs for each jeeva. The Lord is pleased to appear before only those whom he chooses. Sri Jagannatha Dasa is one of the Aparoksha gnanis.

Sri Jagannatha Dasa was born at Manavi in Karnataka State on Sravane Suddha Dwadasi in the yearkeelaka-Sakha 1649. He was the son of Narasappa a petty officer (Karnam) under the Nawab of Hyderabad. Sri Jagannatha Dasa studied all granthas under able masters. ""Aparoksha gnana marks a turning point in the journey of life. The knot of the heart bursts asunder, all doubts get exploded for ever, the store of Karma vanishes when the Supreme Lord is visioned face to face" thus says the Sruthi. Rupam Haresthatha thasya sarvapapani basmasate Yanthi poorvanyutharani na slesham na yanthi Kaanichith.

"When one sees clearly the-form of Hari according to his own merit at the time of release, then all his previous sins are burnt into ashes and some of his future sins do not attach to him."

(M.B. T. Nirnaya)

One night Sri Padaraja, Sri Vyasaraja, Sri Vadiraja and Sri Purandara Dasa appeared in a dream to Jagannatha Dasa and directed him to read all Madhwa sastras including the Bhagavatham, Bharatham, the Puranas and to compile a book called "Harikathamrutha sara" depicting the greatness of Hari and to dedicate it to Lord Hari. Accordingly by the grace of the Lord and the blessings of the gurus Sri Jagannatha Dasa very quickly mastered all the scriptures and compiled a book called "Harikathaamrutha-sara" in canarese and Sanskrit (mixed), containing the quintessence of all works, - Sruthis, Smrithis, Bharatha, Upanishads, Bhagavatham, Puranas and the works of Sri Madhwacharya, as directed to him in his dream. He composed Harikathamruthasara in 33 sandhis (topics) including palastuthi sandhi to be sung in different ragas just like "Gita Govinda" of Sri Jayadeva.

 

The Harikarthamruthasara contains the quintessence of all the works of Sri Madhwacharya (Ananda Tirtha) and also of Bagavatha, Puranas, Upanishads, Sruthis, Smrithis, etc. Great stress is laid upon bhakthi and nitya karma, as Amala bhakthi is the only sadhana to attain moksha.

In these days it is not practicable or even possible for a detailed study of all the works of our Acharya and understand them in full. Hence the one book that covers all fields of spiritual knowledge is "Harikathamruthsara". It contains all classes of sciences from anatomy to the highest philosophy of the soul and the way to attain Moksha-such as Paramathma mahima, acharana padhathi, Panch a bhedha, tharathamya, Vyapthi Rase Vibhaga yagyas, varnashrama dharma, hari namasmarana mahima, Bhojane, nivedhana paddhathi, prathima puja paddhathi, Bimbopasana vidhi, Sri Narayana avathara rupas, greatness, of sarvothama, Lakshmi and Vigneswara and Kali (Yuga) dharmas as depicted in the Garuda purana and other various matters of philosophy.

Some of the benefits derived from the study of Harikathamruthasara are given below.

The bondage of sufferings is removed. It intensifies pathi bakthi to a female and gives happiness to the male and enables one to become ajeevanmuktha. It gives long life, happiness, good health, prosperity and creates intense bakthi. It gives a greater value to the reader than a bath in the Ganges. Finally it leads one to attain Divine grace for the salvation of the soul. It gives peace of mind and leads one to have a calm atmosphere of Godliness and piety.

The erudite scholarship of Sri Sankarshana Wodeyar in having mastered the complete works of Sri Madhwacharya with Sudha and Bashya once under the able guidance of Sri Sri Vishwapriya Tirtha, the pontiff of Sode Mutt and again under his guru Sri Sri Satyaparayana Tirtha, the pontiff of the Utharadhi Mutt enabled him to write his masterly commentary on Harikathamruthasara in Canarese with word by word meaning followed by explanations with proper references. His fame rests' on his famous commentary.

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Sri Vâdirâja Tîrtha -- a short sketch

Sri Vâdirâja Tîrtha is the second highest saint in the Mâdhva hierarchy, being next only to Srimad Ananda Tîrtha himself, in the târatamya. He is widely regarded as being the incarnation of Lâtavya, a rju-tâtvika-yogi and the successor to Mukhya PrâNa. Therefore, even though he nominally had Sri Vyâsa Tîrtha as a guru, he acknowledges only Srimad Ananda Tîrtha himself, as his preceptor. He is an outstanding poet, a very pugnacious opponent, and a most ardent devotee. He is also responsible for creating the paryâya system of rotation, according to which each of the eight Udupi ashhTa-MaTha-s <../madhva/car_street.html> has a two-year spell "in office" at the Krishna temple in Udupi <../madhva/krishna_mutt.html>, with each getting a turn sometime during a sixteen-year cycle. By instituting this system, Sri Vâdirâja Tîrtha changed the previous one of each MaTha getting a two-month term of administration, which had been started by Srimad Ananda Tîrtha himself, and that had started to degenerate. It is without a doubt that of all the saints in the Mâdhva hierarchy, only Sri Vâdirâja Tîrtha had the stature to explicitly recast a system that had been formulated by Srimad Ananda Tîrtha himself.

Sri Vâdirâja Tîrtha's criticisms of countervailing philosophies and schools are carried out with a poet's flair, and always have a raw appeal even to the unschooled, because of their commonsense disguise -- he often uses very simple worldly concepts and experiences to make profound points, which is in sharp contrast to the usual style of presentation that generally tends to make all metaphysics look rather otherworldly and disjointed from everyday experience and understanding. While his poetry and prose writings in Sanskrit mark him to be an extraordinarily luminescent intellect, even in a paramparâ that boasts of many brilliant scholars, he does not make a highbrow rejection of the needs of the less scholarly, and has made significant contributions to the Hari-dâsa tradition, the vehicle to take Tattvavâda to the non-Sanskrit-literate masses, and has translated Srimad Ananda Tîrtha's Mahâbhârata-tâtparya-nirNaya into Kannada. Dr. B.N.K. Sharma writes: "In this respect, his work marks a new and necessary phase in the history of Dvaita Literature and breathes the spirit of a new age which produced other popular exponents of Madhva-Siddhânta, both in Sanskrit and in Kannada" (Emphasis as given by author). Sri Vâdirâja Tîrtha is also well-known as the creator of many stotras, quite a few of them distinctly hortatory, that explain sophisticated concepts in relatively easy terms, and encourage the seeker to give up the bondage of material desire and seek the shelter of Vishnu.

It is said that in a previous birth, Sri Vâdirâja Tîrtha served Krishna in a very special way, by acting as RukmiNî's messenger to Him, just before she eloped with Him as per her own request.

Biographies on Sri Vâdirâja Tîrtha include the Vâdirâja-guruvara-charitâmrta, and the autobiographical work Svapna-vrndâvana-âkhyâna. Sri Vâdirâja Tîrtha lived a long life of 120 years, all but eight or so of them as a sanyâsî. He is said to have, in his early days, been a native of the village of Huuvinakere, Kundâpur Taluk, in modern Karnataka state, but as in the cases of many other saints, a detailed account of his childhood seems to be unavailable, perhaps because it is considered of secondary importance as compared to his achievements as a grown-up.

Sri Vâdirâja Tîrtha wrote many works, not all of which have survived, unfortunately; and of those that have, not all are in print. Among the ones that are in print, the best known and most often read and cited is the Yukti-Mallikâ, which is a humongous treatise that conducts a threadbare logical analysis of different philosophical systems, with the author professing to proceed on the basis of strict rationality, with no fond or hateful preconceptions, and finding, at the end, that Madhva's view is the right one.

 

Notice the definitive usage "ante siddhastu siddhânto," and the use of 'Tattvavâda,' rather than anything else, to name the doctrine which he finds right. Sri Vâdirâja Tîrtha uses his unique blend of wit, sarcasm, and poetic aptitude, to underscore many of the points made by Srimad Ananda Tîrtha and other scholars before him; he communicates with his audience very effectively, by using pithy language peppered with down-to-Earth metaphors. In the Yukti-Mallikâ, we find detailed expositions of Mâdhva positions, as enshrined in the Vishnu-tatva-vinirNaya and other works, on the futility of atheism, the bheda interpretation of the so-called Mahâ-vâkyas, etc. He also refutes the Brahma-Suutra-bhâshya of Shankara, and gives quotes and interpretations not previously employed by Mâdhva scholars.

 

Other works by Sri Vâdirâja Tîrtha include the Mahâbhârata-Prasthâna, an independent detailed commentary on the Mahâbhârata of Veda Vyâsa. This, in fact, is the only authoritative detailed commentary on the Mahâbhârata by a Mâdhva scholar, as Srimad Ananda Tîrtha's âââMahbhrata-ttparya-Nirnaya <../../sources/mbtn> does not offer a line-by-line commentary on the epic. Sri Vâdirâja Tîrtha also wrote a commentary on the Mahâbhârata-tâtparya-Nirnaya, and a translation of that work into Kannada (which has already been alluded to).

Among the other extant works of Sri Vâdirâja Tîrtha, two stand out: the RukmiNîsha-Vijaya and the Svapna-Vrndâvanâkhyâna. The former is considered to be the greatest work of poetry ever written, and was written in response to a work called "Shishupâla-vadha," which described the encounter between Krishna and Shishupâla, and its background. Sri Vâdirâja Tîrtha objected for several reasons, among them the one that the work, whose title literally means "Shishupâla's killing," is inauspiciously named and does nothing to signify Krishna's greatness. He then promised that he would obtain a new grantha within nineteen days, one that would cover the same subject the way it ought to be. He then authored the RukmiNîsha-Vijaya within that period.

 

The Svapna-Vrndâvanâkhyâna was authored in a very special way. There was a deaf-mute and illiterate brâhmaNa, who served Sri Vâdirâja Tîrtha in menial ways. Years after Sri Vâdirâja Tîrtha's Brndâvana-pravesha, he appeared in the deaf-mute man's dreams over a period of several weeks, and gave him the Svapna-Vrndâvanâkhyâna. Every next day, the deaf-mute man would go to the pontiff of the Matha, and recite whatever he had heard in his dream encounter with Sri Vâdirâja Tîrtha the previous night. All that was written down, but could not be made sense of. Finally, many years later, the same man was reborn, and became a sanyâsi in Sri Vâdirâja Tîrtha's own line and came to head his Matha, and he then himself wrote an exposition on the Svapna-Vrndâvanâkhyâna that he had received previously. A fragment of the Svapna-Vrndâvanâkhyâna called the âââAnu-Vrndvankhyna <http://www.dvaita.net/pdf/aNu-v.pdf> is regularly recited by devotees of Srî Vâdirâja.

 

In addition, Sri Vâdirâja Tîrtha composed many devotional songs in Kannada; unfortunately, few of these have survived to the present. We are luckier with respect to his stotras: manuscripts of a few dozen of those have made it to our day, the better known of them being the Dashâvatâra-stuti, the Shrî-Krishna stuti, the Hayagrîva-sampadâ-stotra, the Haryashtakam, the Nava-graha stotra, etc. (see the complete list <VaadiraajaT_5.html>).

 

Sri Vâdirâja Tîrtha's MaTha is one of the eight Udupi MaTha-s, and is headquartered at Sode <VaadiraajaT_3.html>, on the banks of the Shâlmali, and very near the Trivikrama temple <VaadiraajaT_3.html> that Sri Vâdirâja Tîrtha himself installed in the year 1582. Sri Vâdirâja Tîrtha's Brndâvana is there also, and he will stay there for the rest of Kali Yuga, protecting devotees who would otherwise be annihilated by evil.

 

More about Sri Vâdirâja Tîrtha

The disciples of Srimad Ananda Tiritha originally stayed together in Sri Krishna Mutt <../madhva/krishna_mutt.html>. They shared the daily worship amongst themselves. As time went by, the daily worship was divided up so that each of the disciples performed the worship for a period of two months. This inevitably created friction because when certain festivals, etc., came around, it could possibly be years before they each had a chance to personally conduct these ceremonies.

Sri Vâdirâja Tîrtha established the system of worship for a period of two years. In this way, each of the Swamijis could perform all the festivals, etc., and the worship of Sri Krishna could have continuity for a reasonable length of time, unimpeded by the constant changes of administration which occurred under the old system.

It was around this time that the eight MaThas known as "Udupi ashhTa MaTha-s" were established in the vicinity of Krishna Mutt. (More information about these matters can be obtained here <../madhva/car_street.html>.)

This two year system also allows each of the swamijis to conduct the important daily duties concerning the welfare of their disciples and the worship in their own Mutts. It also allows them the time necessary to accumulate the enormous amount of money needed to perform the worship in the Krishna Mutt.

Sri Hayavadana a.k.a Sri Hayagrîva was the form of the Lord Vishnu that Sri Vâdirâja Tîrtha worshipped, and the Lord Himself used to appear in the form of a white horse to please His devotee. It so happened that a goldsmith was trying to make a gold statue of Ganapati. To his surprise, the idol kept taking the shape of Lord Hayavadana. The goldsmith many times, and each time, the cast was took the shape of Lord Hayavadana. The goldsmith got tired and frustrated, and started hitting the idol with a hammer. To his surprise, however hard he hit, no damage was happening to the statue. Then, one day the goldsmith had a dream. In the dream, he saw the Sri Hayavadana Himself telling him to give the statue to the saint who would be approaching him the next day. Sri Vâdirâja Tîrtha then went to the goldsmith, as directed by Sri Hayagrîva, and asked for the promised icon. The goldsmith prostrated at the feet of Sri Vâdirâja Tîrtha and offered the icon of Lord Hayavadana, which the saint then consecrated and used for worship.

 

On another instance, when Sri Vâdirâja Tîrtha was in Pandharapura serving Lord Vitthala, there was a corn field near the temple and the owner of the corn field used to see a white horse coming to his field and graze the corn. The white horse used to eat the dal (lentils) growing in the field, and used to get into the MaTha where Sri Vâdirâja Tîrtha used to reside. The owner got angry, and approached Sri Vâdirâja Tîrtha with a complaint that a horse belonging to the latter was coming to his field and eating his crop. Sri Vâdirâja Tîrtha assured him that he did not own such a horse, and that in fact, there was no horse of any description in the MaTha. The complainant however was not satisfied, since he was positive seeing the horse enter the MaTha; he did a full search of its premises, but could not locate the horse he expected to see.

 

Meanwhile, Sri Vâdirâja Tîrtha, knowing that the horse was the Lord Hayavadana Himself, told the landowner that he was very lucky, and asked him to see the places in his field where the "horse" ate. To his great surprise, the latter saw golden corn at all the places where the Lord ate. He surrendered at the feet of Sri Vâdirâja Tîrtha, and offered his land to the MaTha.

Every day, Sri Vâdirâja Tîrtha would offer a sweet dish called Hayagrîva (a preparation consisting of jaggery, almonds, ghee and kaDale (lentil) by keeping it in a tray and holding it on his head while seated (as shown in the image on the cover page). The Sri Hayavadana used to take a form of a white horse, as indicated, and would put his feet at the shoulders of Sri Vâdirâja Tîrtha, eat the sweet, play for some time like a horse, and disappear into the Hayavadana icon. It is said that Sri Vâdiraja Tîrtha would sing the 'Dashâvatâra-stuti', set to an 'ashvaghâTi' (literally, a horse's trot) beat, to please the Lord, and the latter Himself would appear and dance when His devotee sang to Him.

mAtA rAja matpitA vAdirAjo bhrAtA rAjA matsakhA vAdirAjaH |

sarvasvaM me vAdirAjo dayALuH nA.anyad.hdaivaM naiva jAne na jAne ||

Sri Vâdirâja Tîrtha is my mother, father, brother and friend; he, the compassionate, is everything to me, I know no other deity but he! The translation of "nA.anyad.h daivam naiva jAne na jAne" is a little crude -- what is actually meant is that "anya" deities -- any entities of worship other than that in the târatamya of which Sri Vâdirâja Tîrtha is a part, are not taken notice of. Thus, this is a pledge we make -- that we swear by Sri Vâdirâja Tîrtha's (and his lineage's) iconicity in representing the Lord, and reject other deities as not worthy of respect.

 

Some information about Sode, and assorted sub-topics

Sode, the mini-Udupi:

When Sri Vâdirâja changed the Krishna Mutt's administration from 2 months to 2 years, some critics belived that he was engaged in some conspiracy. At that time Sri Vâdirâja Tîrtha said Lord Krishna is everywhere, and had a mini-Udupi constructed in Sode with the following:

DhavaLa Gangâ (to replicate the Madhva Sarovara of Udupi)

Gopâlakrishna temple (to replicate the Krishna temple)

DhavaLa Gangâdhara (to replicate Chandramoulîshwara)

Sri MukhayaprâNa temple (to replicate the respective temple)

He did not go back to Udupi paryâya later, preferring instead to let a disciple of his worship Krishna. The disciple had been sad because he was getting old, and would not get the chance to worship by the time the next turn came for their MaTha in sixteen years!

Sode is also called Sonda (by local community) and as Swadi. There is a "Tapovana" where Sri Vâdirâja Tîrtha used to meditate, about 5 kilometers from the MaTha. It is a beautiful place with a thick forest, river and mountains. It is known for the notorious leeches it harbors during the rainy seasons.

In Sode, along with Sri Vâdirâja Tîrtha's brndâvana, there are four others forming a square, with Sri Vâdirâja Tîrtha's, the largest of the five, at its geometric center. The five brndâvana-s are described by Sri Vâdirâja Tîrtha himself in the Svapna-vrndâvana-âkhyâna thus:

ahaM brahmA cha vAyushcha vishhNo rudrashcha pa.nchamaH |

I (Sri Vâdirâja Tîrtha), chatur-mukha-Brahma, Vâyu, Vishnu, and Shiva; these reside there, as in Shweta-dvîpa. So, the latter four are the ones who inhabit the other four brndâvana-s.

However, somewhere else in the Svapna-vrndâvana-âkhyâna, it is also said that all 33,000 Crore (3.3 * 10^11) devatâs have been ordered by Lord Hayagrîva to reside in Sri Vâdirâja Tîrtha's own brndâvana; that is one more reason why one who worships him does not need worship anyone else (nA.anyad.hdaivam naiva jAne na jAne -- refer previous page, "More on Sri Vâdirâja Tîrtha").

There is a big jackfruit tree in Sode, under which Sri Vâdirâja Tîrtha used to teach his disciples. Once, a severe bolt of lightning struck this tree. Sri Vâdirâja Tîrtha, the Bhâvi Samîra, gave life to this tree. This tree is still alive in Swadi; the MaTha uses its fruit for Sri Hayagrîva naivedya.

On the way to Sode from Sirsi there is a small village called Huleka, which has a brindâvana of Sri Vyâsa Tîrtha. This is the only place where one can find Sri Vyâsa Tîrtha's brndâvana other than the original one in Nava Vrindâvana.

Arasappa Nâyaka:

He was a bhakta of Sri Vâdirâja Tîrtha and belonged to a lower caste community. He donated acres of lands to Sri Vâdirâja Tîrtha's Sode MaTha. Arasappa had one intersting request to his Guru. He wanted the Sode Mutt to use his community's ganTe (bell -- used during mangaLârati) during the pooja of Lord Hayagrîva. Sri Vâdirâja Tîrtha, who had shown the path to Arasappa Nâyaka's community, accepted his offer. Therefore, even today the ganTe used in Sode Mutt has a Basava (bull) icon on the top of its stem instead of Sri Hanuman, as commonly found in all other ganTe-s used in Mâdhva temples, houses and MaThas.

 

Bhûta-râja

In the first chapter of the Kannada work "Hari-kathA-amR^ita-sAra," Sri Jagannatha Dâsa says:

kR^itti-vAsane hinde nI nAlvattu kalpa samIranali

shishhyattva vahisi akhiLAgamArthagaLOdi jaladhiyoLu |

hattu kalpadi tapava gaidAdityaroLaguttamanenisi

purushhOttamana pariya.nka padavaidideyO mahAdEva || 8 ||

 

Rudra, you served Vâyu as his shishhya for forty Brahma-kalpas in the past, and learned a great number of meanings of âgama-s; then, having performed penance for ten kalpa-s, you became the foremost of the Aditya-s (deva-s) and earned the title of `Purushhottama', O Mahadeva!

 

When Vâyu "graduates" to become Brahma, Rudra similarly graduates to become Adi-shesha.

Sri Bhûta-râja is the "bhâvî" Rudra, or the future Rudra, just as Sri Vâdirâja Tîrtha is the "bhâvî" Samîra. He is a deity called `Ugra-tapa', for "the one of ferocious austerities." He, Bhûta-râja a.k.a Ugra-tapa, is worshipped in a manner similar to Shiva, but is not considered Shiva himself.

Sri Bhûta-râja is said to serve Sri Vâdirâja Tîrtha as a watchman, among other things; he guards a corner of the DhavaLa-Ganga tank at Sode. This corner is known as "Bhûtarâjara-koNe" or "Bhûta-râja's corner" and one is not to venture into it. Doing so is punishable by death, as many have discovered to their cost over hundreds of years. While the water is seemingly calm, anyone who swims there is pulled down by Bhûta-râja and drowns. However, only a purposeful miscreant can get there in the first place, since the steps lead from the opposite side, and one can get to that side only by diving from a height or swimming from the opposite side.

Dharmasthala:

Once, when Sri Vâdirâja Tîrtha was travelling, he happened to stay in a forest on the banks of the river Netrâvati, at a place which is now called Dharmasthala in Karnataka. The people who lived in that area of the forest were always troubled by some devils, demons, etc. These people requested Sri Vâdirâja Tîrtha to help them; the latter performed the pratishhThâpana of Sri Manjunâtha (Shiva) and appointed some Mâdhva brahmins to perform the pooja regularly. Today, Dharmasthala is one of the important piligrimage places in South India. It seems it is the only temple in the world where Shiva is worshipped by the Mâdhva community. However, the temple is maintained by the Hegde family, who are influential in that part of the country.

Sri Trivikrama Temple:

The garbhagudi of this temple is actually a chariot made of stone. Sri Bhûta Raja carried this temple for Sri Vâdiraja Tîrtha from Badarikâshrama, the abode of Veda Vyâsa. When he was flying south with the temple in his hand, he had to fight some demons. He used one of the wheels on the chariot to kill a demon. That's why the Sri Trivikrama temple's garbhagudi still has only 3 wheels with a fourth missing.

His robe and pâduka-s:

After the covering stones of Sri Vâdirâja's Brindavana were placed, some of his disciples started crying for being unable to physically see their Guru. Sri Vâdirâja Tîrtha, who had entered the brndâvana wearing his robe and pâduka-s (wooden sandals), threw off the same from "Pushpaka Vimâna" (flying vehicle) for his sad desciples. Even today, on the Âradhana day Sri Vâdirâja's robe and pâduka-s are displayed for devotees.

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Sri Jayatîrtha -- a short sketch

Sri Jayatîrtha is one of stalwarts of Tattvavâda, and is a very senior scholar of the Mâdhva hierarchy, being next only to Srimad Ananda Tîrtha, Sri Vâdirâja Tîrtha, and Sri Padmanâbha Tîrtha. He is responsible for several commentaries upon Srimad Ananda Tîrtha's works, which are all written in a remarkable style that is unfailingly precise, appropos, and eloquent. Not for him the off-topic digressions, dogmatic and malappropos assertions, axe-grinding, and superfluous literary ornamentation, that are so favored by many lesser talents. Unlike them, he never strays from the straight-and-narrow path of logical presentation -- he never uses two words where one would suffice, nor does he use a word when another might be better suited; he is a model of humility, and does not have any agenda except the service of his master. Perhaps as important to his overall worth, he never introduces spurious new material that does not inhere in the works that he exposits. His definitions of complicated Sanskrit terms are a truly outstanding feature of his scholarship -- one is not only instantly made aware of the correct meaning of the term being used and its relationship to the matter being discussed, but one is also given an angelic whiff of the intellectual ambrosia of Srimad Ananda Tîrtha's works. The definitions are rare delicacies, to be savored at great length, and to be valued as literary gems that are known only to a favored few. It is very hard indeed for one who has had a proper exposure to Sri Jayatîrtha's erudition, to settle for, or even to tolerate, the drivel of anyone less.

His clear expositions of Srimad Ananda Tîrtha's masterpieces, coming as they do through his very scholarly writing, contributed in no small measure to giving Tattvavâda its place in modern Vedanta. Through his works, he has firmly established himself as one of the all-time front-runners of philosophical Sanskrit literature, and as a most important disciple of Srimad Ananda Tîrtha. As Dr. B.N.K. Sharma puts it, "He is to Madhva even more than what Vacaspati Misra is to Sankara."

It is said that in a previous birth, Sri Jayatîrtha was a bull that served as a pack-animal, and traveled with Srimad Ananda Tîrtha and his devotees, whose library it carried. When Srimad Ananda Tîrtha would give a lecture, the bull would stand at a distance and listen silently. Once, when some disciples approached Srimad Ananda Tîrtha and asked him which of them would be the one to write commentaries on his works, he told those importunates that it would be the bull that would do so, rather than one of them. At this, some jealous disciples laid a curse on the bull, that it would be bitten to death by a snake, but Srimad Ananda Tîrtha changed the wording of the curse slightly, so that the snake bit the bull and itself died immediately, leaving its victim unharmed.

Sri Jayatîrtha's biographies include Anu-Jayatîrtha-Vijaya and Brhad-Jayatîrtha-Vijaya. He spent much of his physical life in Mangalvedhe, which is about 12 miles south-east of Pandharpur (in modern Maharashtra, and home of Lord Vitthala). He was born in the family of a Brahmin king, and was heir to the throne. He was very handsome, healthy, intelligent, endowed with physical vigor, and given to outdoor activity. Once, while the young Dhond Pant Raghunath (his name during pûrva-âshrama) was horse-riding, he bent down and quenched his thirst from a river without dismounting or even stopping his horse. He was seen doing so by Sri Akshobhya Tîrtha, one of Srimad Ananda Tîrtha's direct disciples, who asked him: "kim pashuH pûrva-dehe?" ("Were you an animal in a previous life?"; literally: "Did you have an animal's body previously?").

At this, the memory of his past life in service of Srimad Ananda Tîrtha flashed in an instant in the mind of the young Dhond Pant, and he was immediately seized of the irresistible urge to give up material living in favor of the higher realm of service to Sriman-NârâyaNa. He was given sanyâsa-dîkshâ by Sri Akshobhya Tîrtha very shortly thereafter, and gave up his kingdom and all its promises of material joys, over the objections of his parents.

Among the works of Sri Jayatîrtha, the best-known is the Nyâya-Sudhâ, which is a commentary on the Anu Vyâkhyâna of Srimad Ananda Tîrtha (which is itself a commentary on Veda Vyâsa's ûBrahma Stra <../../madhva/brahma_suutra.html>). In it, Sri Jayatîrtha refutes various schools' criticisms of the Anu Vyâkhyâna's precepts, clearly defines terms that Srimad Ananda Tîrtha uses, and, in his inimitably exquisite style of usage, shows the logical progression of ideas inherent in the Anu Vyâkhyâna's presentation. His ability, as seen in the 'Sudhâ and elsewhere, to anticipate all of one's objections, and to state them much better than one could oneself, before laying them to rest, is a mark of his proficiency in scripture and eloquence in Sanskrit. It is impossible to think up an objection to Srimad Ananda Tîrtha that he has not thought of before, and one can look forward to a most pleasing sensation of satisfaction at receiving the answer, which is always given with no side-stepping or condescension. A saying that tries to capture the delectable treat that the Nyâya-Sudhâ is, goes as: "sudhâ vâ paThanîyâ, vasudhâ vâ pâlanîyâ," which conveys the meaning that the joy of studying the Nyâya-Sudhâ can only be compared to the joy of ruling a kingdom.

Sri Jayatîrtha's VâdâvaLî, which is an original work, refutes the theory of illusion, and counts as the earliest major Mâdhva polemical text after those authored by Srimad Ananda Tîrtha himself; it also is a precursor to the Nyâyamrta and Tarka-tânDava of Sri Vyâsa Tîrtha, and other later works.

Sri Jayatîrtha's Brndâvana is at Malkheda, in the north of modern Karnataka state, from where he continues to bless devotees who, in spite of their own lack of any significant ability, wish to understand Srimad Ananda Tîrtha's writings correctly.

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Sri Vyaasa Tiirtha (1460-1539) -- a short sketch

 

 

Sri Vyaasa Tiirtha is probably the scholar of Tattvavaada held in highest esteem next to Sri Jayatiirtha. His work has been to write detailed commentaries on the works of Srimad Ananda Tiirtha and Sri Jayatiirtha, and to show Tattvavaada as being placed on a firm logical footing; his work is considered to be of the highest significance, particularly because it is accepted even by his opponents that his understanding of their schools is second to none. Thus, there is no possibility of claiming Sri Vyaasa Tiirtha's critiques to be invalid on account of his having misstated the positions he wishes to criticize. Sri Vyaasa Tiirtha also keeps a tempo that is hard for the less skilled to even conceive of, let alone match. His logic is exceptionally hard to beat, because of his uncanny knack of knowing exactly what the opponent is going to say, and using this information to lead the opponent on to traps of logic that are dozens of steps deep, and impossible to work through or around. One feels that while one gropes in the dark and tries to guess where one is and struggles to find one's way, Sri Vyaasa Tiirtha not only knows one's present position to a nicety, he also knows all the possible ways one might proceed, in advance of oneself, and has a proper plan of action already planned out for any further move one might make. Thus, holding one's own in a debate with Sri Vyaasa Tiirtha is very similar to making one's way across a field laid with mines; one does not know where to put one's foot next, and very often, even a secure retreat to a former safe position is impossible, after one has taken a few steps down in hopes of making progress. In summation, it is hardly a stretch to say that Sri Vyaasa Tiirtha is the very personification of mastery of skill in dialogue and debate, that every logician and philosopher wishes to be.

In addition to his pellucid and luminescent writings, Sri Vyaasa Tiirtha is also known for the influence he had on the Vijayanagara empire, especially for the fact that it was under his tutelage that it had its heyday, and produced its greatest ruler. Perhaps even more importantly, it is noted that he was responsible for providing a healthy atmosphere in which the Hari-daasa tradition could sprout and flourish; he disregarded all highbrow disapprobation of the lower castes, as he showed by his acceptance of the low-caste Kanaka Daasa as a shishya, on par with his other students, and by his even arranging to prove to them that Kanaka Daasa was a greater devotee than any of them.

An inauthentic biography of Sri Vyaasa Tiirtha can be found in the work Vyaasayogicharita, by the Smaarta poet Somanatha (Bangalore, 1926). This is a champu kaavya ("A kind of elaborate and highly artificial composition in which the same subject is continued through alterations in prose and verse" -- from Apte's dictionary) which two was first presented by the poet in Krishnadevaraaya's court using two reciters. The work however makes significant digressions from Tattvavaada, for instance when at the very outset, it names Balaraama as one of the avatars of Vishnu. However, the fact that such a work was even written by an adherent of another doctrine is an indicator of Sri Vyaasa Tiirtha's popularity even among his opponents. An authentic biography of Sri Vyaasa Tiirtha is the one by his immediate disciple Sri Srinivasa Tiirtha.

Sri Vyaasa Tiirtha was born around 1460 in Bannur which is in the Mysore district in the modern Karnataka state. He and his brother and sister were born as a result of the blessings of Brahmanya Tiirtha, and the young Yatiraaja (the future Sri Vyaasa Tiirtha) was presented to Brahmanya Tiirtha after he had completed the a comprehensive study of subjects like kaavya, naaTaka, alankaara, and vyaakaraNa. Having been impressed with the young Yatiraaja's quick mind and great aptitude for learning, Brahmanya Tiirtha secretly meditated to ordain him into the sanyaasa order. Yatiraaja, though respectful of his Guru, had his doubts about receiving such diiksha, and finally consented after receiving a vision in which Vishnu Himself instructed him not to try to avert his destiny.

Shortly after Yatiraaja's ordination as Sri Vyaasa Tiirtha, Sri Brahmanya Tiirtha passed on. Sri Vyaasa Tiirtha left for Kanchi after his succession to the piiTha and spent many years there studying the six systems of philosophy, and thus gave the finishing touches to his mastery of subjects like Advaita, Vishishtadvaita, and Navya-Nyaaya, in addition to Tattvavaada. After Kanchi, he continued his studies at Mulbagal which was the seat of Sripadaraja and a hub for learning like Kanchi. There he studied Vedanta for about five to six years.

Around this time, he distinguished himself at the court of Saluva Narasimha at Chandragiri by winning several debates against renowned opponents. During this time he was entrusted the worship of Lord Srinivasa at Tirupati, a task that he performed for twelve years, from 1486-1498. Sri Vyaasa Tiirtha left for Vijayanagara after persistent invitations by its royalty and ministers, and stayed there for the major part of the rest of his life. Among the several debates he had at Vijayanagara, a notable one is that with Basava Bhatta of Kalinga which lasted for thirty days, before Basava Bhatta lost comprehensively. However the 'golden period' of Sri Vyaasa Tiirtha's life started after Krishnadevaraya ascended the throne of Vijayanagara, for what were the one-and-twenty greatest years of the kingdom's history. Krishnadevaraya had a lot of regard for Sri Vyaasa Tiirtha, as is evident from the historical evidence that shows Krishnadevaraya regarded Sri Vyaasa Tiirtha as his Kuladevata, as well as from several honorific references in the writings of Krishnadevaraya.

Sri Vyaasa Tiirtha is responsible for the continuation of the high regard and recognition earned by the system started by Srimad Ananda Tiirtha. He has been respected by many scholars from other schools, including the likes of Appaya Dikshita, Pakshadhara Mishra, Madhusuudana Sarasvati, and Basava Bhatta. He is known for his warm-heartedness and sympathy even toward proponents of other systems of philosophy, while being a staunch Maadhva himself. In fact, his elucidation of the principles of Advaita and Vishishtaadvaita were so outstanding that he even had pupils of these doctrines, who learned those from him in preference to learning it from a guru in their own tradition.

Among his nine major works, his most important ones are Nyaayaamrta, TarkataaNDava, and Chandrika, collectively known as Vyaasa-Traya. In his magnum opus Nyaayaamrta, he justifies the philosophy of Tattvavaada and shows that Monism is untenable on every ground, and that the reality of the world cannot be rejected, compromised, or diluted for any reason -- physical, rational, or spiritual. The TarkataaNDava is a refutation of the principles of Nyaaya-Vaisheshika. Taatparya-Chandrika, or Chandrika as it is known for short, is a commentary on Sri Jayatiirtha's Tattvaprakaashikaa and deals with the Suutra-Prasthaana of Tattvavaada. It is, in fact, a significant contribution to the literature on the analysis of the Brahma-Suutra, because it makes an in-depth comparative study of the Bhaashyas of Shankara, Raamaanuja, and Ananda Tiirtha.

He has composed beautiful devotional songs in Kannada, thus contributing significantly to the Daasa-saahitya. He was also the Guru of Purandara Daasa and Kanaka Daasa, two outstanding luminaries of the Hari-Daasa tradition, the former also the founder of modern Karnataka music, and is probably the greatest singer-saint in history.

He cast off his mortal body on the 8th of March, 1539. His Brndaavana is at Nava-Vrndavana, which is located on an island in the Tungabhadra river, near Anegondi, very close to Hampi. Here, in the company of eight other eminent Maadhva ascetics, he continues to meditate, and to bless devotees with true knowledge.

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Very good.Keep it up.Ilearnt a lot fromyou.gokulkr is my guru now /images/graemlins/smile.gif

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Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha -- a short sketch

Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha was a `sarva-tantra-swatantra', a master of the sixty-four arts, a winsome and magnetic personality, and the author of over a hundred works (104 are attributed to him). In the eyes of his contemporaries, Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha was verily an incarnation of Srimad Acharya come to reinforce his own siddhanta against contemporary opposition. Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha established his headquarters in Kumbakonam which belonged to the Nayak dynasty. Tanjavur and Kumbakonam were the replica of the Vijayanagara kingdom, in the cultivation of the art of dance, music, literature, Vedic studies and Darshana-s (philosophical doctrines). It was the age of Venkatamukhi, the authority on Karnatic Music, of Govinda Dikshita, the accomplished minister of the Nayakas, of Appayya Dikshita, the uncrowned monorch of Shaiva Advaita, and of Tatacharya the sun of VisishhTâdvaita. It was in this climate of culture and plenitude that Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha found congenial soil for his labour of love in the cause of Srimad Ananda Tîrtha's Sadvaishnava siddhanta. Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha saved Madhva siddhanta from a very real and serious threat of extinction in south India, in 16th century. The followers of Madhva siddhanta have every reason to remain grateful to the memory of Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha's illustrious personality, for all times. When the redoubtable Appayya Dikshita and Tatacharya drew Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha into philosophical controversies by their adverse criticisms of Srimad Acharya's works, Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha took them on single-handedly and successfully dispelled their criticisms.

Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha was not a bigoted sectarian. He was the very essence and embodiment of catholicity of outlook. This is shown by his generous patronage to scholars of different persuasions, and the uniformly friendly relations he maintained throughout his life with his greatest adversary in thought. Kumbakonam is the city of temples dedicated to Lord Vishnu and Lord Shiva in equal strength and prestige. Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha, was, by common consent in charge of all the religious institutions there.

Birth of Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha

Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha was born by the great blessings of Sri Vyâsa Tîrtha. It so happened that Sri Vyâsa Tîrtha had come to a small village where Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha's parents resided. Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha's parents were very old at the time when Sri Vyâsa Tîrtha came to their village and they served Sri Vyâsa Tîrtha with devotion. Pleased by the devotion and servings, Sri Vyâsa Tîrtha blessed the old couple that a charming son would be born to them. The old couple had no children and they lamented, how can we have children at this old age? We are very unlucky and we do not have the puNya (good deeds) to have kids in this lifetime. Sri Vyâsa Tîrtha said, Lord Sri Muula Gopala Krishna has made me to utter these words and it is His sole responsibility to make it come true." Sri Vyâsa Tîrtha also told them that they were going to have two children and they should give one of them to him. The old couple were very happy and promised Sri Vyâsa Tîrtha that they would act accordingly by donating one of their sons to the service of the Lord.

A couple of years passed and Sri Vyâsa Tîrtha arrived at the same village where Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha's parents lived. Sri Vyâsa Tîrtha was given a grand reception by the old couple and they took the saint to their home. The old couple was blessed with two kids having names 'VittalaCharya' and 'Guru Prasada" and they told Sri Vyâsa Tîrtha that his words came true and they are ready to donate the kids to the saint. Sri Vyâsa Tîrtha picked the elder kid 'VittalaCharya' and told his parents not to worry about him and that Lord Krishna was very pleased by this donation. From that day, 'VittalaCharya' becomes a loving kid to Sri Vyâsa Tîrtha. Sri Vyâsa Tîrtha performed 'Choula' and 'Upanayana' to VittalaCharya starts teaching him the Vedanta shâstra-s, tarka, mîmâmsa, etc. After seeing the latter's devotion and vairagya (being totally uninterested in worldly things and totally getting involved in serving the Lord), Sri Vyâsa Tîrtha offered the sacred sanyâsâshrama to VittalaCharya at a very young age and named him as Sri Vishnu Tîrtha. Sri Vishnu Tîrtha under the guidence of Sri Vyâsa Tîrtha became the master of the four-and-sixty traditional arts, and a great scholar.

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Sri Vishnu Tîrtha becomes Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha

Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha was the most loved deciple of Sri Vyâsa Tîrtha. On one ekâdashî day, Sri Surendra Tîrtha along with his students came to visit Sri Vyâsa Tîrtha. Sri Surendra Tîrtha is a saint from the famous Sri Vibhudhendra Matha and the main Deity (paTTa devaru) of that institution is Sri Moola Râma. On the next day, dvâdashî, both saints, Sri Vyâsa Tîrtha and Sri Surendra Tîrtha, performed worship of Sri Moola Gopala Krishna and Sri Moola Râma. The main purpose of Sri Surendra Tîrtha's visit was to get Sri Vishnu Tîrtha and make him his successor. Sri Surendra Tîrtha asked Sri Vyâsa Tîrtha to give Sri Vishnu Tîrtha as a gift. Sri Vyâsa Tîrtha agreed to the request of Sri Surendra Tîrtha. Sri Surendra Tîrtha was extremely happy to get Sri Vishnu Tîrtha as his disciple and made him sit on the throne of Srimad Acharya succeeded previously by Sri Vibudhendra Tîrtha. Sri Surendra Tîrtha renamed Sri Vishnu Tîrtha as Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha and made him the emperor of the Vedanta empire. Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha received the keys for the box which had the idol of Sri Moola Râma, Sri Vyâsa peetha that was worshipped by Srimad Achârya from Sri Surendra Tîrtha, various compositions that were composed by Sri Vyâsa Tîrtha and respectful gifts from the Vijayanagara king Krishnadevaraya. It is said that Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha is an incarnation of Sri Vibhudendra Tîrtha who was the `vidyA-guru' of Sri Sripâda Raja. This is explained in Sri Vijayîndra vijaya (Glory of Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha) as shown below.

vibudhendra yatirdhImAna dhyajAto punarbhuvi |

sevArthaM rAmachandrasya sa mayA paripAlitaH ||

keshAdhishu hamseshhu yo vishhNuriti vishrutaH |

sa eva vibudhendrashcha sa mayA yatirUpadR^ik.h ||

Soon after the swearing in ceremony celebrations, Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha had to win against a great pundit named Sri Krishna Sharma. Sri Krishna Sharma was a undisputed pundit and had in his mind the notion that no one could defeat him. After seeing the glory of Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha, Sri Krishna Sharma challenged Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha to argue with him. Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha got permission from his `vidyâ-guru' Sri Vyâsa Tîrtha to take on the challenger, and explained how the Shruti 'tattvamasi' always supports the `bheda' (difference) between the Lord Vishnu and all the `jîva'-s using the proof shown in the shâstra-s. After a very long arguement, Sri Krishna Sharma became speechless and came to know that Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha was a great scholar. Sri Krishna Sharma accepted defeat, bowed to Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha and said that he had won against many pundits before and had a desire to win against Sri Vyâsa Tîrtha and became unsuccessful in reaching this target. Sri Krishna Sharma continued to say that when it is impossible to win against the disciple (Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha) of Sri Vyâsa Tîrtha, he could not even dream a win against Sri Vyâsa Tîrtha. Although, Sri Krishna Sharma lost against Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha, Sri Vyâsa Tîrtha praised the latter's talent, gave him many gifts and compliments. This shows the generosity and love towards the pundit's knowledge expressed by Sri Vyâsa Tîrtha.

Victory in Kanchi

As we know from history, Kanchi was a center for learning at the time. Hundreds of great pundits were living in Kanchi. The famous pundit Sri Appayya Dîkshita had his residence in Kanchi. When Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha came to Kanchi, Sri Appayya Dîkshita was not in town but, the other pundits were introducing themselves to protect the respect and fame of the city. Many Advaita and VishishhTaadvaita pundits were defeated by Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha in the space of four to five months. After that, Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha had to argue against two great `mîmaamsa' pundits and it appeared as though the debate was reaching a deadlocked state. After a couple of days passed, Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha translated the pundits' 'puurvapaksha' and started criticizing them one by one by giving proofs. The pundits were astonished by Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha's knowledge, spiritual powers, and the way he was tackling the issues. The words coming out from Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha was like the sacred mother river Ganges. Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha concluded his talk by establishing the `siddhaanta' of Srimad Achaarya. The judges were extremely impressed and gave ajudgement declaring Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha the winner. Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha's guru Sri Surendra Tîrtha became extremely happy seeing the victory.

Victory in Karnataka

After the victory in Kanchi, Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha came to Karnataka while Sri Surendra Tîrtha went on tour to Sri Rameshwara. For many days, Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha settled in Karnataka worshipping Sri Moola Raama, giving spiritual advice to the devotees, conquoring many pundits and thereby established the Veda-mata siddhaanta of Srimad Achaarya. Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha was in Kolar, Karnataka for about a month and easily conquered pundits like Sri Sudarshana Charya, Sri Krishna Batta and Araadhya. For the rememberance of this victory, Sri Vijayîndra theeertha built a temple of Sri Vijaya Maaruti which can be seen even now in Kolar. From Kolar, Sri Vijayiindra Tiirtha moved to Tumkur, Karnataka. From Tumkur, Sri Vyaasa Tîrtha and Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha arrived in Udupi to have the darshan of Lord Sri Krishna. While they were in Udupi, Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha came to know that his Guru Sri Surendra Tîrtha was not in good health. Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha got permission from Sri Vyaasa Tîrtha to go to Kanchi in order to take care of his Guru. Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha looked after his guru so well that Sri Surendra Tîrtha became healthy and fit.

Sri Surendra Tîrtha had two main responsibalites. The first one was was to find a successor to rule the Vedanta empire of Srimad Achaarya. This was accomplished by getting Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha from Sri Vyaasa Tîrtha. The second one was to visit all sacred places and temples in India. Sri Surendra Tîrtha decided to undertake the second assignment and one auspicious day he started his tour. After a couple of days, Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha got a message that Sri Vyaasa Tîrtha was very keen in seeing him. Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha immediately started journey to Vijayanagara to see his vidyaa-guru. Sri Vyaasa Tîrtha was very happy to see his shishhya (student) and gave Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha many `upadesha'-s and duties to be performed in order to establish the `siddhaanta' of Srimad Achaarya. In the month of phalguna, Krishna paksha(second half), Chouthi (Fourth day), Sri Vyaasa Tîrtha left this world. Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha left Vijayanagara and moved towards Madurai. During this travel, Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha visited Vyaasa Samudra, NanjanGud and Sri Ranga. From Sri Ranga, he moved to Madurai at the request of the king Vishvanatha Nayaka. At the same time, Sri Surendra Tîrtha completed his India tour and came to Madurai. It took nearly four years for Sri Surendra Tîrtha to complete the tour and Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha was happy to see his Guru back. Both the saints decided to move to Tanjore in order to establish the Veda mata-siddanta there. Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha composed many works during the time he traveled between Vijayanagara and Madurai.

The argument between Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha and Lingaraja.

The citizens of Kumbakonam were delighted to learn about the presence of Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha in Madurai. There were strong reasons to get delighted. For the past fifteen to twenty years, there had lived a Shaiva scholar named Lingaraja in Kumbakonam who not only captured the management of all the temples in the city but also was converting all the Brahmins into Saivites. The Saiva saint was very skilled and was also the possessor of occult powers. The Brahmin pundits were unable to compete with Lingaraja and were extremely dissappointed for not able to stand in front of this Saiva saint. The Bramhin community became extremely happy at the arrival of Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha to Madurai and they requested Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha to come to Kumbakonam and establish the Veda-mata-siddhânta in their city. Sri Surendra Tîrtha after hearing the incidents from the citizens of Kumbakonam, gave permission to Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha to reside in Kumbakonam and stop the disaster of forceful Saiva conversion by Lingaraja. Sri Surendra Tîrtha blessed Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha with best wishes and said that Sri Moola Raama would be pleased by the establishment of Srimad Acharya's siddanta in Kumbakonam.

Then one day, Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha was in deep meditation. Suddenly, he saw Lord Vishnu and Srimad Acharya in his heart. At the same time, Sri Vyaasa Tîrtha appeared in front of Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha and blessed him. Moments later, Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha saw the divine mother sitting on a lion, having many weapons in her hand and having a pleasing face. It was the divine mother Sri Mangalambike in front of Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha came to bless him. The divine mother blessed the saint, prophesizing that he would be victorious in the debate with Lingaraja. Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha came to Kumbakonam and Sri Lingaraja came to know about it. Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha and Lingaraja agree that the arguement be in the temple of Sri Kumbeswara. It was decided that if Lingaraja is defeated he has to stop forceful conversion of people into saivism and surrender all the property and management of the temples to Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha. If Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha is defeated, he would convert into a saivite and become a follower of Lingaraja. Lingaraja started the arguement by stateing that the Vedas have weakness and vedas were human composed . Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha very easily criticised Lingaraja by giving many proofs which showed that Vedas are true and that vedas are not composed by any one(ApouruSheyaa). Vedas are known by three words namely 'Veda', 'Shruthi' and 'Drushthi'. Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha explained the meaning of these words as follows: Veda meaning 'Vedyatha ithe vedaha' which means Vedas are the ones that are understood, Shruthi meaning 'Shrooyatha ithe Shruthihi' which means that Vedas are the ones that are being heard and Drushthi meaning 'Drushyatha ithe Drushtihi' which means that vedas are the ones that are seen. So, Vedas are the ones that are understood, heard and seen and it is not composed by any one. This way, Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha proved his point that Vedas are 'ApouruSheyaa'.

Then came the topic who is supreme. Lingaraja with the help of Kourma, Lainga puranas started to state that Lord Shiva is the supreme and challenged Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha how he can prove that Sri Naaraayana is supreme. Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha said although it is mentioned that Lord Shiva is supreme in puranas like Lainga, Kourma etc., this point is against the Shrutis and Saathvika puranas and so it is not true. Also, puranas like Lainga,Shaiva etc., are thamasik. Lingaraja became furious and demanded how Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha can prove that Lainga, Kourma puranas are Thamasik. Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha gave proof by stateing that this division (Saathvik, Raajasik and Thaamasik) is done by Sri Veda Vyaasa himself who is the authority said as follows.

Vaishnavam Naaradeeyam Cha thatha Bhagavatham Shubham Garudam Cha thatha Paadmam Varaaham Shubha Darshane ShaDeThani Puranaani Saathvikaani Mathaani why Bramhaandam BrahmaVaivartham Maarkaandaiyam thathaiva cha BhavidhshyadhVaamanam Braamham Raajasaani Nibhodhamae Maathsyam Kourmam thatha Laingam Shaivam Skaandam Thathaiva cha AagnaeYam cha ShaDethani Thaamasa NirayaPradaha

which means that there are six puranas that are Saathvik. These puranas are Vishnu, Naarada, Bhaagavatha, Garuda, Padma and Varaaha. The Raajasik puranas are Bramhaanda, BramhaVaivartha, Maarkaandaeya, Bhavishyothara, Vaamana and Bramha. The six thamasik puranas are Maathsya, Kourma, Lainga, Skaanda, Shaiva and Aagnaeya.

Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha also mentioned that the Smruthi Shaastras are of three kinds Saathvika, Raajasa and Thamasa. The judges got convinced about the proof given by Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha and told Lingaraja that the proof has been given. The judges continued to state that since the debate was based on Shastras and only texts that can be believed are the Saatvika ones, so, as per the Shrutis and Saatvika Puranas, Sri Naaraayana is the Supreme (Sri Hari Sarvothamma) and Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha is correct in this arguement.

Lingaraja now turned the point towards Lord Narasimha. He started telling that Lord Narasimha was defeated by Sri Veera Bhadra. Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha criticized this by stateing that the information about Lord Narasimha being defeated by Lord Veera Bhadra is in Skaanda Puraana. Skaanda puraana is Thamasik and hence cannot be taken as a proof. Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha very cleverly solved this point by quoteing that in Shaiva puraana, it is mentioned that Lord Rudra in the form of Sharabha defeats Lord Narasimha. But, in Skaanda puraana, it is mentioned that Lord Veera Bhadra defeats Lord Narasimha. So, who defeated Lord Narasimha? Is it Lord Rudra or Lord Veera Bhadra? If you say it is Lord Rudra then, it is against Shaiva puraana. If you say it is Lord Rudra then it is against Skaanda Puraana. Lingaraja's argument was based on the Thamasa puranas and Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha created a suspision in Lingaraja's argument. Lingaraja became so confused and all the people who were watching the argument were amazed at the way Sri Vijayîndra Tiirtha disproved Lingaraja's point by creating this suspision. Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha continued further and said that the authentic information is only in Saatvika puranas and since Lingaraja's point is based on Thamasik puranaas which is against various Shrutis, Smrutis and Saatvika puranas, it is a bluder to tell that Lord Narasimha was defeated by Lord Rudra or Lord Veera Bhadra. Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha described Lord Narasimha as 'Narasimhasya KaeValam Jyothireka ManaaDyantam' which means that Lord Narasimha is Infinite and who has no destruction. For the one who is infinite and who is undestructable, how can it have an end? So, as mentioned in the Saatvika puranas, Lord Narasimha destroyed Sharabha. Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha gave one more proof from a Shruthi as 'Harim Harantha Manuyanthi VishVasyeeShaanam VrushaBham Matheenaam' which means that Lord Rudra who is praised by 'Eeshaana' word was destroyed by Lord Hari(i.e. Lord Narasimha). Also, the Smruthi states that

BramhaanaMindram RudramCha Yamam Varunamaevacha| Nihasya Harathe YasmaaThasMyaaDharereHoochayathe||

Which means that Lord Bramha, Lord Indra, Lord Rudra, Lord Yama, Lord . get destroyed by Lord Hari (i.e. Lord Narasimha) during the Pralaya period. This means that Lord Hari is the supreme(Sarvothamma), Lord Hari is the creator, Protector and destroyer of these worlds, Lord Hari is the ParaBramha as mentioned in the Vedas, Shrutis, Smrutis and Puraanas.

This way the argument went for many days, and everyday, Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha turned out to be the winner and all the points that Lingaraja upheld were very easily turn down by Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha. At last, Lingaraja became speechless and accepted the defeat by bowing his head.

Needless to say, the judges concluded that Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha was won the argument. Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha praised Lingaraja that he was a great scholar and could not establish the Shaiva matha because all your arguments were based on thamasik puranas which are not correct. Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha commended Lingaraja that it was a great pleasure to argue with a scholar like him, wished him best wishes and gave lot of gifts to him. Lingaraja then came forward, bowed at Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha and surrendered the keys of all the temples and the Shaiva mutt. Lingaraja then decided to leave the town of Kumbakonam.

Establishment of Sanskrit University(Vidyaa peetha)

Kumbakonam was chosen by Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha to establish a Sanskrit University. Establishing a Sanskrit University was one of the dream of Sri Vyaasa Tîrtha. The university was the center for learning Vedas, Chandassu, Vyaakarana, Astrology, Tarka, poetic arts, Puraanas, Dharma shastra etc. The university provided excellent boarding and lodging facilities. The king of Vijayanagara Sri Chavappa Nayaka offered lot of land and money for the developent of the university. The university had the atmosphere of the old guru kula style. Sri Surendra Tîrtha became the chansellor of the university. The sanskrit university became one of the best centres for learning in India.

The king of Vijayanagara empire requested Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha to come and settle in Vijayanagara for some time. Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha with the permission from Sri Surendra Tîrtha accepts the offer and moves to Vijayanagar. The king of Vijayanagar expresses his desire to perform RathnaaBhisheka( Honor of sitting on the Vijayanaga throne) to Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha. Although, Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha did not like it very much, he had to accept the request made by the king. Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha sat on the throne of Vijayanaga empire, the pundits praise Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha as 'Sri MadVaidika Sadvaishnava Siddantha SamsthapanaAcharya Sri JagadGuru Sriman MadvaAcharya Mukya Samsthaana Poorvaadhi Mateya Vidyaa SimhaasanaaDheeshwara Srimad Raghunandana Tîrtha SriPaada karakamala Sanjaatha, Srimath Surendra Tîrtha Sripaada Varakumaaraka Srimad Vijayîndra Tîrtha Yathi SaarvaBhouma Jaya Jaya'. The king of Vijayanagara offered many land, Gold, and many other precious metals to Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha. Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha contributed everyhing that he received from the king to the pundits and to the sanskrit university. The people of Vijayanagara were amazed at the generosity of the saint donated all the wealth for a good cause.

Wizard surrenders to Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha

One afternoon, Sri Vijayîndra Tîrtha was reading some works and a disciple came running and told the saint that a wizard from Kerala has come to see you. The appearance of the wizard was so dreadful and he started talking to the saint with a attitude 'Are you Sri Vijayiindra Tiirtha? You defeated Lingaraja and said that any one can challenge you in 64 different arts. If are bold enough, can you challenge my wizard craft?'. Sri Vijayiindra Tiirtha very seriously tells the wizard that by Lord Sri Hari's grace he can easily win against the wizard craft. The wizard then drew seven concentric lines and placed a lemon in the centre. The wizard started mermurring some words and said that this wizard craft is very dangerous and you have to cross all the seven lines and get that lemon fruit. The wizard continued to tell that at each line crossing there is fire, weapons and snakes to kill you. The wizard said 'Are you sure you want to take this task?'. Sri Vijayiindra Tiirtha with a smile said to the wizard that your wizard craft based on devil worship should be criticized and people like you are bad elements in the soceity and it is not a big deal to defeat you, one of my student will take the challenge. Sri Vijayeebdra Tiirtha called one of his student named BheemaSena and told him get the lemon crossing the lines. BheemaSena, bowed to Sri Vijayiindra Tiirtha and started to cross the lines one by one. When BheemaSena crossed the forth line he saw a a big ball of fire and the fire was turned into milk and sprinkled on him. At the fifth line, a snake approached him and to the surprise a Garuda bird came and carried away the snake. At the sixth line, a sharp weapon came to destroy BheemaSena. Sri Vijayiindra Tiirtha meditated on Lord Moola Raama and the weapon was transformed into a flower garland and BheemaSena had it in his neck. The wizard bacame very afraid at the action of BheemaSena and did not know what to do. BheemaSena easily crossed the seventh line, lifted the lemon and laid it at the feet of Sri Vijayiindra Tiirtha. Thus, it was a victory to Sri Vijayiindra Tiirtha and the wizard accepted his defeat. The wizard bowed at Sri Vijayiindra Tiirtha and said that none so far had guts to defeat him but, I got defeated by a student of yours. Sri Vijayiindra Tiirtha advised the wizard not to practise the wizard craft and move in a good path. Sri Vijayiindra Tiirtha chanted on Lord Narasimha, composed a song on the lord called 'Narasimha Stotra' to commemarate the victory and surrendered the victory certificate at the feet of Lord Narasimha. This icon of Lord Narasimha can be seen even now in Sri Raghavendra swamy mutt as 'Shodasha Baahu(16 handed) Sri Narasimha Murthy'.

Many other miracles shown by Sri Vijayiindra Tiirtha

Sri Vijayiindra Tiirtha has shown many many miracles which have proved that the saint is undispuetably victorious. Some of the miracles shown by this great saint are as follows.

Victory over a famous Gymnast

A very famous gymnast contested against Sri Vijayiindra Tiirtha. The gymnast displayed various plays like walking on a rope, climbing a tall bamboo log and displaying his talent on it. Sri Vijayiindra Tiirtha appreciated the gymnast but, commented that using support like rope and bamboo to display the gymnast talent is common. Sri Vijayiindra Tiirtha called some of his students and told them to connect the pedestle(Gopura) of two temples Sri Kumbeswara & Sri Saaranga pani using banana leaf thread. Sri Vijayiindra Tiirtha went up the pedestle of Sri Kumbeswara temple and started walking on the banana thread and reached the pedestle of Sri Saaranga paani temple. The thread was so delicate that even touching the thread would cut it and Sri Vijayiindra Tiirtha walked on this kind of thread. The gymnast was shocked to see such a miracle and accepted his defeat.

2. Deva Daasi accepts the defeat

A deva daasi challenged Sri Vijayiindra Tiirtha to defeat her. It seems the deva daasi was a master in Kaama Shastra. Sri Vijayiindra Tiirtha called one of his desciple and gave him a flower garland and told him to tie to the right hand of deva daasi. The very moment the flower garland touched the woman, she experienced great happiness and fainted. After some time she woke up, surrendered to Sri Vijayiindra Tiirtha and told all the people that 'What a kind of surpraise?', I got defeated by touching a flower garland given by a desciple of Sri Vijayiindra Tiirtha.

3. The secret of Indriya Nigraha(Control of senses), Jeethendra(control of mind) Sri Vijayiindra

A couple of days have passed after Sri Vijayiindra Tiirtha defeated the deva daasi, a Bramhin from Kerala wanted to know how the saint can control his mind (Jeethendra). The Bramhin was accompanied by a couple of beautiful women and they were irresitable. The bramhin said that these women would perform their tallent in front of you(Sri Vijayiindra Tiirtha) and you should not become unstable(Should have a stable mind). Sri Vijayiindra Tiirtha accepted the talent and to make the test more interesting, he called one of his student and told him to bring a banana leaf and used the banana leaf as a Koupeena. The beautiful woman started showing their talent in front of Sri Vijayiindra Tiirtha and tried to win the heart of Sri Vijayiindra Tiirtha. Sri Vijayiindra Tiirtha kept his mind at the lotus feet of Sri Moola Raama and started meditating on Lord Sri Naaraayana. Sri Vijayiindra Tiirtha started thinking on the word 'Naaraayana' which means 'Naaraanaam Ayanaha Naaraayanaha' i.e. the one who is full in good qualities and the one who is praised by the Apourusheya Vedas as the one who does not have any weakness(Dhosha). The beautiful women group started to sing with their great voices and started dancing in front of the saint but, it all failed. The women were shocked at Sri Vijayiindra Tiirtha's control of senses but, continued to play lot of tricks. Sri Vijayiindra Tiirtha kept his mind at the lotus feet of Manmatha Manmatha(Father of Manmatha) Lord Vishnu and kept all his senses at the lotus feet of ParaBramha(Supreme) who is Lord Naaraayana. The group of beautiful woman failed to accomplish their task and were terribly shocked seeing the control of senses Sri Vijayiindra Tiirtha had. The group of woman surrendered at the feet of Sri Vijayiindra Tiirtha and asked him for forgiveness. All the people who were witnessing the contest cheered on Sri Vijayiindra Tiirtha and shouted 'Ajeya Sri Vijayiindra Tiirtha victory victory to you, Jeethendra Sri Vijayiindra Tiirtha Victory to you'.

4. Victory against a Buddhist from China

The glory of Sri Vijayiindra Tiirtha was spread over India and other countries. The title 'Ajeya'(victorious) to Sri Vijayiindra thertha was most appropriate as the saint used to win against all who were talented in sixty four arts. It so happened that a Buddhist wanted to contest against our Sri Vijayiindra Tiirtha. Sri Vijayiindra Tiirtha easily conquored the buddhist by showing lot of proof in the Vedas and Shastras. The buddhist was amzed at Sri Vijayiindra Tiirtha and told to the mass of people that he had never in his life seen such a scholar like Sri Vijayiindra Tiirtha.

5. Mastery in jewelary art.

There were some people in Kumbakona who were jealous of Sri Vijayiindra Tiirtha and they inspired a jeweler named Vinayaka Ramachandra joshi to contest against the saint. The jeweler invited Sri Vijayiindra Tiirtha to the contest. The jeweler and Sri Vijayiindra Tiirtha started to work on a ornament. Both of them worked for many hours for a couple of days and each of them came up with a beautiful ornament made up of nine different pearls. The judges saw both the ornaments and the ornament created by Sri Vijayiindra Tiirtha was much superior than the jeweler. The jeweler was stunned seeing the art work of the saint and told the judges that this kind of jewelery work is not possible by a normal human being and the saint must be a 'Devamsha Sambootha' i.e. a Sura or Deva. Sri Vijayiindra Tiirtha had carved the Lord Sri Raama, Sri Seetha and Sri Laksmana in the ornament and this ornament (Sri Raama padaka) can be seen even now in Sri Raghavendra Swamy mutt.

6. Sri Basava(Ox) transformed into Sri Hanuma

Sri Vijayiindra Tiirtha's fame started growing day by day and this became a real pain to some people who could not resist it. There were a group of wicked people who were supporters of Sri Lingaraja who was defeated by Sri Vijayiindra Tiirtha, waiting for a chance to bring a black mark to the saint. As mentioned earlier, the management of all the temples belonging to the sects of Advaita and Vishishtadvaita in Kumbakonam were held by Sri Vijayiindra Tiirtha and the people beloging to these two sects were living in peace and harmony. The wicked group worked out a plan wherein they tried to separate the people belonging to the sects of Advaita and Vishishtadvaita. The wicked people thought that by separating these two sects, it would bring a black mark on Sri Vijayiindra Tiirtha. The temples of Sri Kumbeswara and Saaranga Paani were separated by a lake. Right from ancient times, the lake belonged to Sri Saaranga Paani temple. The wicked group of people approached the priests of Sri Kumbeswara temple and told them that the lake belonged to Sri Kumbeswara temple and not Sri Saaranaga Paani temple. The priests beleived the wicked people words and this slowly spread to the sects of Advaita and Vishishtadvaita which created a cold war between the sects. The wicked people convinced the Advaita people sect that the lake has many signs belonging to Lord Shiva and so the lake belonged to Sri Kumbeswara. Sri Vijayiindra Tiirtha came to know about this cold war and decided to stop this cold war. A test was arranged to see if there were really signs of Lord Shiva in the lake. It was decided that if the lake had Shaiva signs then the lake will be the property of Sri Kumbeswara and if it had Vaishnava signs it would remain the property of Sri Saaranga Paani. On the night before the test day, the wicked group of people brought thousands of Lord Shiva Linga stones and they drowned them in the lake. The next morning was the test day and Sri Vijayiindra Tiirtha came near the lake, meditated on Lord Sri Moola Raama and poured some MantraAkshita(Red colored sacred rice) into the lake. A team of four to six people dived into the lake and they started bringing the items that were found in the lake. What a surprise!! All the items taken out from the lake were idols of Lord Sri Hanuman and Sri ShaaliGraama stones. The wicked group of people could not beleive themselves as they had personally poured thousands of Lord Shiva Linga stones into the lake. It was the miracle and the great devotion of Sri Vijayiindra Tiirtha that all the Sri Basava and Lord Shiva linga stones were transformed into Sri Hanuma and Sri Shaaligraama stones. This proved that the lake belonged to Sri Saaranga Paani temple and the sects of people belonging to Advaita and Vishishtadvaita who beleived the words of wicked group nodded their heads in shame and surrendered to Sri Vijayiindra Tiirtha to pardon them. The wicked people group who were desciples of Sri Linga Raaja fled the scene in shame.

Sri Vijayiindra Tiirtha names Sri Sudheendra Tiirtha as his successor

There was a great scholar named Sri NaaraayanaAcharya who was a desciple of Sri Vijayiindra Tiirtha. Sri NaaraayanaAcharya was a expert in Nyaaya & Vedanta shastra, was a great poet and belonged to Shastika community. Sri Vijayiindra Tiirtha offeres the Paramahamsaashrama to Sri NaaraayanaAcharya and the new saint was named Sri Sudheendra Tiirtha.

For many years, Sri Sudheendra Tiirtha served Sri Vijayiindra Tiirtha with great devotion and respect. On 28th June 1614, Sri Vijayiindra Tiirtha decides to make Sri Sudheendra Tiirtha as his prime successor and placed him on the throne sat by Srimad Acharya. Sri Vijayiindra Tiirtha gave the keys to Sri Sudheendra Tiirtha for the boxes containing Sri Moola Raama and other sacred idols and the library having the sacred works composed by Sri Vijayiindra Tiirtha and other saints. Sri Sudheendra Tiirtha performed the pooja of Sri Moola Raama the same day he was named the prime successor. Sri Vijayiindra Tiirtha preached many upadeshas to Sri Sudheendra Tiirtha and to his devotees.

Sri Vijayiindra Tiirtha completes his incarnation

Sri Vijayiindra Tiirtha gave his final upadesha(teachings) to his devotees by telling that the teachings preached by him were the same preached by Srimad Acharya. Sri Vijayiindra Tiirtha urged his devotees to follow the path shown by Srimad Acharya and said that this path will lead a person to the doors of Sri Vaikunta (the home of Sriman Naaraayana). Sri Vijayiindra Tiirtha then started meditating on the lotus feet of Sri Moola Raama and started chanting 'Om namo Naaraayanaya'. The sacred word 'Naaraayana', 'Naaraayana' started coming out of Sri Vijayiindra Tiirtha and there was a bright shine of Bramha tejas coming out of the saint. Finally, Sri Vijayiindra Tiirtha, offered his 'Aatma Phuspa'(life) at the lotus feet of Lord Sri Naaraayana and the saint successfully completed his incarnation on this earth. Sri Vijayiindra Tiirtha was very respectfully and with great devotion was placed in a Brindavana in Kumbakonam.

Sri Sudheendra Tiirtha could not resist the separation of his guru Sri Vijayiindra Tiirtha and started crying like a small child. Sri Sudeendra Tiirtha accompanied by great scholar devotees took a holy dip in the river Cauvery and performed the pooja of Sri Moola Raama in front of Sri Vijayiindra Tiirtha brindavana. After the pooja, Sri Sudheendra Tiirtha placed the idols of Sri Moola Raama, Sri Jaya Raama and Sri Digvijaya Raama in a gold plate and placed it over the the sacred Brindavana of Sri Vijayiindra Tiirtha. Sri Sudheendra Tiirtha then performed kanakaabhisheka(pooja by pouring items made of gold), mahamangalaarathi(seva of many lights) and bowed at the brindavana. Sri Sudheendra Tiirtha then composed the charama sloka of Sri Vijayiindra Tiirtha as shown below.

BhakThaaNaam MaanaSaam Bhoja Bhaanave Kaamadhenave NamaThaam Kalpatharuve Jayeendra Guruve Namaha

Born by the grace of Sri Vyaasa Tiirtha in 1517, Sri Vijayiindra Tiirtha got his education from Sri Chandrika Acharya. The saint was then gifted by Sri Vyaasa Tiirtha to Sri Surendra Tiirtha, ruled the throne of Srimad Acharya, served his guru Sri Surendra Tiirtha, showed many great miracles, won many scholars which proved that he was undoubtedly victorious(Ajeya), got respected by many kings and emporers, composed 104 great works, reestablished the siddanta of Srimad Acharya, in the year 1614 offered the throne of Srimad Acharya to Sri Sudheendra Tiirtha and at the orders of Lord Sri Vishnu and Srimad Acharya completed his incarnation by offering his 'Aatma Phuspa' at the lotus feet of Lord Sriman Naaraayana.

Some of the 104 works by Sri Vijayiindra Tiirtha

Bramhasutra Bhasyaa Tippani Tatva Maanikya Peete Bramhasutra Nyaaya Sangraha Nayamukuraha Nayanamanjari Madhva Siddanta Saarodhara . . and other works to be added here.....

Sri Guru Vijayiindra Thiirtho Vijayathe. Sri Man Moola Raamo Vijayathe. Samastha Sanmangalaali Bhavanthu.

Sri Vjayeendra Tiirtha Guruvanthargatha Sri Bharathi Ramana Mukya Praananthargatha Sri Moola Raama Sri Krishna Sri Veda Vyaasatmaka Sri Lakshmi Narasimha Preeyatham Sri Moola Gopaala KrishnaArpana Masthu.

[Guest guest]

Hi

 

where do i get these .mp3 songs downloadable?

 

do you have any sites in mind?

 

thanks

san

[Guest guest]

 

Namaskara,

 

nanu sri gopaladara hadugalanna thumba istavagiddu, adaralli Poojyaru rachisida "Palisennanu Deva" hardina padagallnu (Lyrics) hudukuthidenne, thammalli iddare dayamadi nanna emailge kalusikoduvira (raghdeep@gmail.com)

 

Dhanyavadagolondige,

Raghavendra