Sri Raghavendra Swami

Sri Raghavendra is a name that is familiar among Indians. Sri Raghavendra Swami is the patron Hindu saint at Holy Brindavan in Mantralayam (Andra Pradesh). He is respected and worshipped by people of different castes, regions and religions. Many believe that He had performed miracles during His life is verily the wishing tree, fulfilling the righteous desires to all deserving souls. No one has returned disappointed as the Sage who is verily present to this date in the Holy Brindavan answers all the prayers, grants all desires and makes his Devotees happy. He is affectionately known by several names ~ Raghavendra Swami, Gururaja(Gururaya), Rayaru, Parimalachariyar, Mantralaya Prabhu etc. 

Now let us look at his Early Life.

Sri Raghavendra Swami was born as Sri Venkanna Bhatta, the second son of Sri Thimanna Bhatta and Smt. Gopikamba on Thursday, Sukla Saptami of Phalguna month in 1595, when the moon was in Mrigashirisha Nakshatra, at Bhuvanagiri, near present-day Chidambaram in Tamil Nadu. Sri.Thimanna Bhatta and his wife, Smt. Gopikamba had a son, Gururajacharya and a daughter, Venkatamba. 

Sri Venkatanatha proved to be a very brilliant scholar from a very young age who learnt to play the Veena very proficiently thanks to his father and grandfather.

After his father’s demise, young Venkatanatha was brought up by his brother Sri Gururaja Bhatta and completed the initial portion of his education under his brother-in-law Lakshminarasimhacharya’s guidance in Madurai.

Upon returning from Madurai, Sri Venkatanatha was married to Smt. Saraswati, who was from a noble family. The Shastras say that for one who has control of his senses, wedded life does not hamper learning. For Venkatanatha, most of his learning occurred after marrying Saraswati, through the blessings of Goddess Saraswati. So Venkatanatha went to Kumbhakonam, the seat of learning at the time. There he studied dvaita vedanta, advanced works on grammar and other shastras under his Guru, Sri Sudheendra Theertha.

Sri Venkatanatha was already very well versed in bhashyas and consistently prevailed over renowned and reputed scholars, irrespective of the complexity of the debates. He was an ardent devotee of Sri Moola Rama and Sri Panchamukha Hanuman (the five-faced form of Hanuman). He spent a large part of his Poorvashrama life teaching Sanskrit and the ancient Vedic texts to children.

Ordination into Sanyasa as Guru Raghavendra

Thus while his life was spent in the worship of God and service of humanity, his spiritual guru, Sri Sudheendra Theertharu, was looking for a successor to his mutt. He had a dream where the Lord indicated that Sri Venkatanatha would be the right person to succeed him as the pontiff. Sri Venkatanatha initially refused due to his responsibility towards his young wife and son but was soon blessed by the Goddess of Learning, where she in a dream indicated that he was to seek salvation as a Sanyasi. Sri Venkatanatha treated this as an omen and changed his mind. He took sanyasa and Guru named him Guru Raghavendra Theertha.The sanyasa ordination took place in 1621 on the Phalguni Sukla Dwitiya at Tanjore.  Smt. Saraswathi was shocked to hear the news and commited suicide by falling into the well. She became a ghost trapped mid-way between Heaven and Earth due to her untimely death.  He sprinkled some holy water from His Kamandalu on her as a means of granting her last wish. This action granted her moksha by purification.

Guru Raghavendra was great in every respect. He was siddha Purusha (God realized person). He started performing miracles, Blind got their eyesight, Deaf could hear. As the time approached for Swamij and he was 78 years old. It was Thursday, the full moon, He announced to all his disciples that he went by the orders of Shri Hari and he decided to leave this world. 

Jeeva Samathi 

On Dwitiya Day of Sravana Krishna Paksha in 1671, Raghavendra Swami gave a soul-stirring speech in Kannada 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 the after 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 Srimadvacharya. 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 speech, Sri Raghavendra entered the Brindavana specially constructed for him with stone brought from Madavara village, near Manchale. Per his advice these stones were sanctified by Lord Rama, Sita and Lakshmana's footsteps when they visited the village during Treta Yuga.

He had advised his disciples to start arranging slabs around him once the japamala rolling by fingers in his hand become still.

He began reciting the pranava mantra and slipped into deep samadhi. Once his japamala became still, his disciples 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 in Nepal. 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. 

Thus Sri Raghavendra Swami attained Jeeva Samathi on Dwitiya Day of Sravana Krishna Paksha in 1671. This date is celebrated each year as Sri Raghavendra Swamy Aradhana at Brindavans all over the world. 

It is believed he would live for

• 76 years physically on the Earth.
• 300 years in the Brindavana, through his literary work among the people.
• 400 years in the Brindavana without a physical form.

Totally 700 years in the Bridavana helping the society and the mankind to come-out from troubles and miseries