Sri Raghavendra Tiirtha is one of the jewels in the crown of SriMadAnanda Tiirtha. As history has seen, not many have performed miracles, those who did were not Tattvavaadi's and not all Tattvavaadi's performed miracles, and those who did so did not give a basis (ie pramaNa) for their miracles, and not all of them performed miracles through out their lives and those who did after departing from their physical frame are not to be found at all.
Sri Raghavendra Tiirtha is the only saint who has accomplished such a task and he explains that there can be no bigger miracle than the grace of SriHari and Vayu. Where ever he went, places devoid of people became philosophical centers, people who were poverty stricken became wealthy by his grace, diseased became healthy, the deaf and dumb not only got back their speech and hearing but also became intellects, those who were blind by birth got back their sight by his mere presence. Even today, the word is, wherever you reside, whatever you do when you call for him, he will lookup to you as a mother does to her child. Such is the greatness of Sri Raghavendra Tiirtha.
VenkatanaTha: -- As a boy and life in PoorvAshrama1
As mentioned in the Introduction, Venkatanatha grew up under the care of his elder brother GuruRaja. He grew up to be a talented boy. VenkatanaTha became Vidwan VenkatanaThAchraya, also called as veeNe VenkatanaThAchraya because of his abilities in philosophy and music respectively. Meanwhile, brother GuruRaja was busy looking for a bride for his brother. With the permission of his mother, Gururaja performed the marriage of young VenkatanaTha to a good looking and chaste girl by name Sarswathi. Marriage to Sarswathi was an indication that Godess Sarswathi would reside in him from now on. Once again GuruRaja proved the age old saying 'JesThaBratha Pitrusamana' ie 'Elder brother is equal to the father in all aspects'. VenkatanaTha's quest for knowledge did not stop with marriage, in fact it enhanced with the support of his wife. So GuruRaja and his brother-in-law LakshmiNarayanAchar decided that Sri SuDhIndra Tiirtha was the only befitting Guru to VenkatanaTha, so they proceeded to KumbhakoNam. 2. During this period, KumbhakoNam was ruled by the Cholas and was a famous philosophical center. By then Sri Vijayiindra Tiirtha, the principal disciple of Sri VyasaRaja, had composed 104 Grantha's on Dvaita Philosophy, also a master of sixty-four arts. He saved Madhva siddhanta from a very real and serious threat of extinction in southern India, in 16th century. The followers of Madhva siddhanta have every reason to remain grateful to the memory of Sri Vijayiindra Tiirtha's illustrious personality, for all times. When the MayaVadin's(Advaith's) Appayya Dikshita and Tatacharya drew Sri Vijayiindra Tiirtha into philosophical controversies by their unwise criticisms of Srimad Acharya's works, he not only took them on single-handedly but also successfully dispelled them. He crushed the Advaithis once and for all. Having fulfilled the job, Sri Vijayiindra Tiirtha departed from his physical frame handing his responsibilities over to Sri SuDhIndra Tiirtha.
Sri Sudhindra Tiirtha proved to be an apt pupil of such a great guru when he took over as the head of the mata. He rightly incorporated each and every quality of his guru. He also came to be known as a great. Sri Sudhindra Tiirtha was a born genius. With his guru's teachings, he rose to great heights. His guru's way of life was a guiding light in his life. His (desire) to (donate) all his knowledge he had acquired from his guru to the right person was very rare. He was a great man who pledged himself for the service to Madhva Siddhantha in every possible way. The proficiency he had in various shastras enabled him to win over any strong rival. In the footsteps of his Guru Vijayendra Tiirtha, SuDhIndra Tiirtha excelled in many Sashtras, he composed 'SadhYuKthi Rathnakara' a commentry on SriVyasa Tiirtha's 'TharkaThandava', wrote 'VyasaRajA AbyuDya', a drama 'SubdhrAharana' and a Kruthi by name 'Sahithya Samrajaya'. These are only a few of Sri suDhindra Tiirtha's works.
Upon arrival, venkatanatha studied Pathanjali bhashya, Jaydeva's commentaries, Bhata MimamsA, ShankaraBhashya for Bhamathi commentaries, Prabhakara Mimamsa,and Sri VyasaRaja's TatHpaariya Chandrika. In addition, he learned grammar,music,arts,literature etc., simple style adapted by Sri Sudhindra Tiirtha in his daily teachings made Venkatanatha a great personality at a very early age. Day started with BrahMa Suthra Bhashya, then grammar, Tharka, at the end of the day it was Mimamsa3. Like this, every second was utilized, Sriman MadhvAcharaya said 'ý®äî®n¯v ïw¯ wµî® £®oº rǵհu®z N®æYq ', great learning is possible only for those who realize the value of time like this and not many could be found like Venkatanatha, in fact he was the only one.
Next lessons were SuMadhva Vijaya, AnuMadhva Vijaya, Mani Manjari. Venkatanatha realized that a commentary on AnuMadhva Vijaya would be beneficial. So started the first and foremost Bhashya of Venkatanatha, with the blessings of Sri Hari and Vayu there were no obstacles in his path, the commentary began like this
In a short period, the Vyakyana was finished and was offered to Sri Hari. Like this vyakyana's that started with AnuMadhva vijaya, moved on to Bhava Deepa, chandrika Prakasha, NyayaSudha Parmila. A detailed treatise can be found here. Time passes and one day, Sri Sudhindra Tiirtha has a strange urge, it was nearing midnight and felt that he should go around to see his pupils to see their activities and academic growth. To his surprise, he found one of them was awake and came close to see who it was. It was none other than Venkatanatha who was sitting in front of flickering lamp, had just finished writing Tipani (ie notes) on that day's teaching. Sri Sudhindra tiirtha reminded himself of a Geeta Sloka "‡®¾¯ xý¯ š®î®Á „µ²°q¯w¯º q®š¯ãº b¯S®rÁ š®º‡®±ï±" ie Venkatanatha is awake while the rest of the world is asleep, his words will awaken the rest of the world. Now it does'nt matter who is sleeping, the future is secured. Venkatanatha will awaken the sleeping world. KumbhakoNam was the epicenter of learning. like any Madhva peeta Adhipathi, Sri sudhindra tiirtha did a lot of travelling and with him travelled almost all of the samsathaNa.
Tanjavore4 was another famous center for learning, here they approach the court where 'YaGnarayana dhikshith' was the leading scholar and no one had defeated him. With the arrival of VenkatanaTha, that title seemed far away. The discussion topic was 'KakaTali', after all of the scholars present in the court had given their opinion, Venkatanatha starts the meaning of the workd KakaTali and finally arrives at the full meaning 'that as the crow is aproaching, the Tala fruit which is completely ripenend falls down to earth'. As usual , the losing opponents raised another topic as they could not see any fault in the translation. The next topic was about ' q®y®Ùî®±±u¯äu¯Š®nµ', they started the argument that MudharaDharanE was not in concur with Shruthi's and Smruthi's. Then Venkatanatha alone handles the entire court easily and explains in detail the greatness of the 'MudharaDharanE', in his long explaination, Venkatanatha extacts the relavent information form RigVeda,Shatha BrahmaNa,Atharvana Shruthi,Kantavalli Sruthi, vishnu Padma, Bhramanda and from Mahabaratha. He gives examples from HariVamsha ie Atri,VasishTa, Haritha,Shandilya, Parashara, with so much of proof 'Yagnarayana dhikshith' bows down. That victory to Venkatanatha was also a victory to 'Vaishnava sidhantha'5.
VenkatanaTha's Family life:
Even though, Venkatanatha was the favourite student of Sri Sudhindra Tiirtha, he lived nearby Mata in a small house with his wife and a child LakshmiNarayana. Venkatanatha's success had sprouted jealousy among the others in Mata. While others lived in mata for food and shelter, Venkatanatha lived for education. Unless until there was a hard compulsion from his guru, he never stayed back.
As the days went by, there was famine and poverty everywhere, and Vekatanatha was not spared from it. His poverty grew more and more everyday. Venkatanatha was reduced to one piece of cloth which he had to pull on for the days ahead. Saraswathi wore torn clothes. Different varities of food became a dream. Finally, Venkatanatha was reduced to one meal a day. If there is 2 Ekadahsi6 in a month for everyone, Venkatanatha had to do away with 2-3 Ekadahsi within a week. Home was going from bad to worst, during rainy season, water poured from the roof. Such was the poverty stricken Venkanatha's life. Still, he did not lose any patience, he continued his service and teachings. Added to this, one day thieves walk into his home and take away all the cooking utensils. Then instead of grieving, Venkanatha says, that, if someone is stealing from him, then he should be more poverty striken than himself. Such was the compassion, and only great souls like ShankuKarna can show such an attitude. Venkatanatha, continued struggling, but never did he think of begging or selling away his treasure of knowledge. His logic that we want all the wealth that god gives, so why should you say no to the poverty that he as given ?. So he did not give up his Pravachana and teaching his students. Venkatanatha who was drowned in the nector called the Shastra of SrimadH AnandaTiirtha, the heat of poverty could not touch him. Sarswathi was truly a DharmaPathni (Chasteful wife), who followed him all ways. To live with venkatanatha, see, hear became food,clothing and jewels for her. They were reduced to eating on floor, torn cloths were Peethambra, and thought of Sri Hari were their delicious food.
Venkatanatha, did not show of his poverty, he visited Mata with Angara and AkashathE 7 so that no one would suspect that he had not take food for that day. Such a poverty will dirve an ordinary human being down to earth. But for venkatanatha poverty could not hinder his services to Sri Hari, it became a blessing, It was an indication to his Sanysa and enthroning of ParaMahamsa Peeta. When born to Hinranya kashupu, Prahalada was untouched by the devious demons, today in KaliYuga, the same Prahalada (as Venkatanatha) who lives in poverty is untouched by it.
Invocation towards Sanyasa:-- Sri Sudhindra tiirtha lets venkatanatha know that he is the successor to the ParamaHamsa Peeta.
Sri Sudhindra Tiirtha knew the hardships that venkatanatha was going through, but was waiting for the divine intervnetion. Sri Moola Rama appears to him in his dreams and tells him "Venkatanatha is the only befittng to take the Peeta and continue his service to the mankind. He is born with a purpose, to lead the befitting to the path of Mukthi". Till that day Sudhindra Tiirtha had not made his move towards asking venkatanatha to take up sanysa DikshE. Prior to this Sri Sudhindra Tiirtha, had given Sanyas Ashrama to a person by name Sri Yadhavendra tiirtha, but he had not given him the Peeta or Yadhavendra tiirtha was intersted in it.. After the days precedings were over, Sri Sudhindra tiirtha calls on venkatanatha and tells him that - Sri Moola Rama desires you to continue pooja in his place". Venkathanatha was astonished and for a moment he was speachless, then he says, that where is he and Sanyasathva ?, and how can he carry the burden of vidhya Lakshmi and he is not the fit person for it. Moreover he is a family man with a child to care about. Venkatanatha knew that Sanayasi means not just wearing the Safron cloths but sanyasa means to give up the worldly desires and win over Kama. PeetAdhipathi is not like becoming a king, there is a huge responsibility, its not just doing poojE, but also having the ability to make others do it. Its impossible for me to carry this load of Sri Mata and cross the ocean. Sri Sudhindra tiirtha tries to convinence him by telling that he will be supporting him all aspects and there is no one else who has the ability to undertake such a task. Then venkatanatha replies "sanskrit quote goes here" , I have a young and dependent wife and a small child who's thread ceremony is not yet over. When my family is in such a position, question of taking up sanysa does'nt arise at all.
If I am to hear such a thing, I will have to take leave once and for all and will not be back.
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VenkatanaTha: -- As a boy and life in PoorvAshrama1
