Raghavendra Swami

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Raghavendra Swami (1595-1671), one of the influential saints in Hinduism, lived in the 16th century. He advocated Vaishnavism (worship of Vishnu as the supreme God) and the Dvaita philosophy advocated by Madhvacharya. He is considered by his devotees to be a reincarnation of Prahlada, the devotee who was saved by Vishnu in his avatar as Narasimha (see Vaishnava Theology). Shri Raghavendra Swami is said to have performed many miracles during his lifetime and is believed to continue to bless his devotees to this day.

Panchamuki

He was an ardent devotee of Sri Moola Rama and Sri Panchamukha Anjaneya (the five-faced form of Hanuman - Pancha meaning five, mukha meaning faces). He performed penance at a place called Panchamukhi, where He received darshan of Hanuman in the form of Sri Panchamukha Anjaneya. There is also a huge statue of Sri Panchamukha Hanuman at tiruvallur, near Chennai.

Mantralaya in present day Andhra Pradesh close to the Karnataka border is the abode of Raghavendra Swami. The Raghavendra Mutt in Mantralaya (previously known as Manchale) is visited by thousands of devotees every year. Raghavendra Swami attained samadhi at Brindavan (sacred tomb) which is located at Mantralaya. Sri Raghavendra Theertha or Sri Raghavendra Swami is also known as Guru Raya and Rayaru lovingly by his devotees.

Guru Raghavendra

  Previous Avatars of Guru Raghavendra

Shanku Karna was cursed to be born, into the world as Prahlada, son of the demon king Hiranyakashipu. Prahlada had ardently devoted to Sri Vishnu, who took the form of the Narasimha Avatar to kill Hiranyakashipu. In his next birth he was Vyasaraja, following the philosophy of Sri Madhwacharya. He was born again as Venkatanatha or Veene Venkanna Bhatta (as he was proficient and unsurpassed in playing the Veena). Venkatanatha was named Guru Raghavendra on being initiated into sannyasa, and is regarded as one of the greatest of madhwa saints.

Early life

 Early life and transition from Venkatanatha to Guru Raghavendra

Sri Thimmanna Bhatta was the grandson of Krishnabhatta, a Veena scholar, who had taught the Veena to King Krishnadevaraya. Initially, this couple had two children named Gururaja and Venkatamba. By the grace of Lord Venkateswara, a third child was born in 1595 C.E. at Bhuvanagiri in Tamil Nadu to Sri Thimanna Bhatta and Smt. Gopikamba. They named him Venkatanatha (some also say that he was called either Venkanna Bhatta or Venkatacharya).

Venkatanatha proved to be a very brilliant scholar at a very young age. Venkatanatha's brother Sri Gururaja Bhatta took care of his upbringing after their father's demise. The initial portion of his education was completed under his brother-in-law Lakshminarasimhacharya's guidance in Madurai. After his return from Madurai, Venkatanatha married Smt.Saraswathi. After his marriage, Venkatanatha went to Kumbakonam. There he studied the Dwaita vedantha, grammar and literary works under his guru, Sri Sudheendra Theertha. He was very well versed in bhashyas and debated with various scholars and prevailed over them. He was also a skilled musician and played the veena, which he had learned in his childhood from his father, very well. He used to teach children Sanskrit and the ancient Vedic texts. He never demanded any money for his services and he had to endure a life of poverty. Many a times, he, his wife and child had to go without food several times a week. But this never deterred the faith he had in the Lord.

Venkatanatha was in the habit of chanting stotras and mantras always in his mind. Once while he was touring Kumbakonam, Venkatanatha was invited to attend a function, with his wife and son. The hosts did not treat him well and wanted him to earn his food by running a chore. So they asked him to make some sandalwood paste, using a grinding slab. The paste was given to all the guests, who smeared it on their bodies. Immediately, the guests complained of a burning sensation all over their bodies on which they had rubbed the paste. Surprised by this, the hosts questioned Venkatanatha, who replied saying that he was chanting the Agni Suktam while grinding the sandalwood, which had resulted in the cool sandalwood create a burning sensation. Such, it is said, was the power of the mantra when chanted by Venkatanatha! Venkatanatha then recited the Varuna Mantra and succeeded in relieving the guests of their agony.

His guru, Sri Sudheendra Theertha, was looking for a successor to his math. Sri Sudheendra Theertha had a dream where he saw the Lord indicate that Venkatanatha was the right person to succeed him as the pontiff of the math. So Sri Sudheendra Theertha communicated his desire to Venkatanatha. Venkatanatha was devastated by the request of the guru as he could not take up this responsibility for he had a young wife and a son to care for.

But by divine intervention and after being blessed by the Goddess of Learning herself, Venkatanatha changed his mind. The sannyasa ordination was to take place on the second day of the bright half of Phalguna Masa in 1621 at Tanjore. On the day Venkatanatha was to ascend the peetha, Saraswathi was required to stay at home. However, at the last minute she was seized by a desire to see her husband's face for the last time. She ran towards the matha throwing caution to the winds. Unfortunately, deeply engrossed in the desire to see her husband, she did not see an old and unused well on the way, and fell into it. She drowned and died. Since her death was an untimely one, she became a ghost. Even as a ghost, her only desire was to see her husband and so she went to the matha. By the time she arrived, the function was over Venkatanatha had become a Sannyasi under the name of Sri Raghavendra Theertha. Sri Raghavendra sensed his wife's presence immediately and sprinkled some holy water from His Kamandalu on her, granting her moksha or liberation from the cycle of births and deaths. This was her reward for a lifetime of dedicated and selfless service to Sri Raghavendra.

Miracles of Sri Raghavendra Theertha

After ascending the peetham, he embarked on a series of pilgrimages. Wherever he went, he spread the message of Shrimadacharya, defeating scholars of opposing doctrines, writing commentaries and notes, teaching the shastras to enthusiastic students, and encouraging local scholars. He continued to bless and cure his devotees of ailments and afflictions wherever he went. It once so happened that a prince was bitten by a poisonous snake and the prince died immediately. And when Rayaru came to know about this, he revived the prince by removing the venom of the snake from the body of the prince by summoning the same snake which had bitten the prince. In another miracle of his, his devotees arranged a special puja in his house, and a kid who was playing in the kitchen fell into a huge cauldron of juice and drowned and Guru Raghavendra revived the dead child by sprinkling holy water from the kamandalu on to the child. The Badshah of Bijapur, who had great reverence for Rayaru, presented him with a rare gem-studded necklace. Rayaru offered it into the homa-kundam, annoyed by which the King asked back his necklace. Rayaru put his hand in the fire and retrieved the necklace back for the King.

The miraculous healing powers of Sri Raghavendraswami spread far and wide. Some mischievous boys wanted to test Rayaru. On his pilgrimage route, one of them lay down pretending to be dead fully covered by a white cloth. The understanding was that the boy should not get up when Rayaru sprinkled water and asked him to rise but should get up when the command was given to him by his friends. When Rayaru passed by that place, the drama was enacted as planned by the boys. One of them asked the Guru to revive the boy who was lying on the ground. But the guru simply said that the lifespan of the boy was over and he could not do anything to help the boy. His friends, with a view to mock Sri Raghavendra Swami, asked the boy lying on the ground to get up, but to their utter shock, they realised that he was really dead. In Sirasangi, another gentleman, with an intention of testing Guru Raghavendra, gave him a dry wooden pestle and asked him to make it sprout new leaves. After Rayaru sprinkled water from his kamandalu, the dead wood started sprouting. In another incident, Sri Guru Rayaru was proceeding to Adoni. Venkanna a cow-herd boy prostrated before him and sought his blessings, upon which Rayaru blessed and advised the cow-herd boy to pray to him at times of difficulty. After a few days, the Nawab of Adoni, who was passing by, stopped and asked Venkanna to read a message as he was not himself literate. The illiterate Adoni could not comply with the Nawab's order, which infuriated the Nawab. Venkanna earnestly prayed to Sri Guru Rayaru to save him. Surprisingly, the illiterate cow-herd could then read the entire text which contained very good news, due to which the king made him the Diwan of Adoni. The Nawab decided to test the Guru's powers and brought a plate of meat covered with a cloth and offered it to Rayaru. Rayaru sprinkled some water on the plate and when the cloth was removed, the meat had turned into fresh fruits. The Nawab fell at the Guru's feet begging for pardon, and he requested the Swami to ask for any favour or gift that he wished. Guru Rayaru asked for the Manchala village, which later came to be known as Manthralaya. It is said that it is at this holy place that Bhakta Prahlada performed a great yaga.

Rayaru has performed many miracles, and continues to bless his devotees even to this day. His sincere devotees can always feel his presence irrespective of where they are in the globe. Guru Raghavendra was visible to Sir Thomas Munro, the then collector of India from the British empire. The testimony of Munroe appears in a copy of the Madras Gazette.[1] Rayaru is ever present in the Brindavana at Mantralayam. He still miraculously cures all afflictions of his bhaktas, if they completely surrender to him. Deserving people have got back their lost vision, hearing and many have been cured of various terminal illnesses also by just chanting "OM SHRI RAGHAVENDRA” with devotion and by pleasing Guru Raghavendra. Devotees pray to Sri Raghavendra by chanting the famous shloka "Poojyaya Raghavendraya Sathya Dharma Ratha Yacha Bajatham Kalpavrukshaya Namatham Kamadenuve." Sri Raghavendra is magnanimous and benevolent and countless devotees of Guru Rayaru testify to the miracles he has performed. Some more miracles and real life incidents of many devotees of Sri Guru Raghavendra are described at various sites on the internet. [2] [3]

Also, Guru Raghavendra's last speech, before he entered the Brindavana, can be viewed online.[4]

Last speech and Brindavana

Before entering Brindavana in 1671, Raghavendra Swami gave a soul-stirring speech [5] to hundreds of devotees who had gathered to watch the event. Some quotes from that speech are as follows -

"Without right living, right thinking will never come. Right living is performing one's ordained duties according to one's station in life without hankering after the fruits of the actions and on the other hand offering all one's activities to the Lord. This is real sadachara (right living). This is real karma yoga."

"Social work done for the good of worthy people should also be considered as the Lord's worship. In short, our life itself is a worship. Every action is a puja. This life is precious. Every second of our life is precious. Not even a second that has gone will come back. Listening to the right shastras and always remembering Him is the highest duty."

"Always keep away from people who merely perform miracles without following the shastras and yet call themselves God or guru. I have performed miracles, and so have great persons like Srimadacharya. These are based on yoga siddhi and the shastras. There is no fraud or trickery at all. These miracles were performed only to show the greatness of God and the wonderful powers that one can attain with His grace. Right knowledge (jnana) is greater than any miracle. Without this no real miracle can take place. Any miracle performed without this right knowledge is only sorcery. No good will come to those who perform such miracles and also those who believe in them."

"Have devotion to the Lord. This devotion should never be blind faith. Accepting the Lord's supremacy wholeheartedly is true devotion. Blind faith is not devotion. It is only stupidity. We should have devotion, not only for the Lord, but also for all other deities and preceptors in keeping with their status."

After this Sri Raghavendra began reciting the pranava mantra and slipped into deep samadhi. At one stage the japamala in his hand became still. His disciples who understood this sign started arranging the slabs around him. They arranged the slabs up to his head and then, as per his earlier instructions, they placed a copper box containing 1200 Lakshminarayana saligramas that had been specially brought from Gandaki river. Then they placed the covering slab over it and filled it with earth. They poured twelve thousand varahas (abhisheka) over the brindavan that they had built.

Raghavendra Mathas

Devotees of Shri Raghavendra Swamiji have built his Mathas all over world. In these Mathas, religious rituals and ceremonies are carried out as per the tradition and customs followed at Mantralaya.

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