Aacharya Madhava

Dear fellow aatmans, First up, kindly accept my Belated Vijayadashami wishes. On this wonderful eve ,I Invoke the blessings of the great Vaishnava Saint and philosopher, Acharya Madhava and the Ramabhaktha Vayuputra Hanuman before attempting to write up on this special post on the eve of his jayanthi. He is one of the three great achaaryas (Adi Sankara and Sri Ramanuja , the other two) that walked Mother India. Let us take a sneak peak into the life and teachings of Acharya Madhava . Srimad Ananda Tirtha commonly identified as Acharya Madhava was born in South Kanara (karnataka) in the 1200s as the third incarnation of Mukhya Prana , after Ramabhaktha Hanuman and the strong and loyal fighter in Sri Krishna's Army, Bhimasena. Even as a child, he was into spirtuality , showing extraordinary intellectual maturity often astounding his teachers. He got ordained into sanyaasa at a tender age of 11 by Achyutapreksha Tirtha, his Guru. Soon he astounded the Guru with his knowledge which fetched him the title, PoornaPrajna (the one with complete wisdom ) . He defeated several budhists and advaitins in debates and spreaded the Glory of Narayana wherever he went. Once with his spiritual power rescued a ship battling in the high seas. He was asked to take gifts from the captain but he took only a mound of "gopi chandana " from him and when it broke , he got a Krishna icon . Seeing that , in Bhakthi he composed the famed Dwaadasa Stotra on his way back to Udippi , where he established the temple and the Ashta-Mathas later. Dwaadasa Stotra is a set of 12 beautiful garlands of pristine bhakthi superimposed on exceptional spiritual wisdom. It is normally recited when naivedya is offered to the Lord. It is supposed to bring wisdom to the reader and the listener as it has anti-venomic properties.:) In this stotra , the acharya says " I salute the Lord , who showers the moonlight called happiness on the devotees" Apart from this, being a Dwaita philosopher, he has written his own commentaries (bhasya) on Gitas , the upanishads and other Vedanta Sutras. His philosophy, TatvaVada , more commonly known as Dvaita , in a nutshell, emphasizes the importance of bhakthi to stay free of the distress caused by Kali. Being a re-incarnate of Hanuman , this is of no surprise at all. He has described the infinitesimal majesty and the glory of the various parts of Narayana just like Hanuman portrayed the appearane of Sri Rama to Sita Devi. One might want to remember that great poets and saints like Purandara dasa , Kanakadasa , and Sri Raghavendra of Mantralayam were all Tatavavaadists. All his teachings can be imbibed in a tablet form as given below Kuru bhumksva ca karma nijam niyatam Hari-pada-vinambra-dhiya satatam Harireva paro harireva gurur- Harireva jagat-pitr-matr-gatih Tadalam bahu-loka-vichintanaya Pravanam-kuru-manasa misha pade Translation : Do thy duty allotted by God to thee And eat what comes to thy share ! Hari is God Supreme, Hari the teacher great, Father and mother too is Hari. Stop then thy worldly cares endless, Pin thy mind at the lord’s feet boundless Let we all follow the royal path of bhatki laid by such great acharyas to transcend ourselves beyond materialistic clutches by permanently getting a visa in the Karaunaa Samudra and experience the glory of that feet of Sriman Narayana. I am very pleased and blessed to have had my birthday in such an auspicious time:) P.S The interested can know more about him @ www.tatvavada.org JAI AANJANEYA SWAAMI KI JAI ACHARYA MADHAVA SRI SITARAMACHANDRAARPANAM