SRI RAGHAVENDRA SWAMY VIRACHITA "RAMACHARITRYAMANJARI"

SRI RAGHAVENDRA SWAMY VIRACHITA "RAMACHARITRYAMANJARI"

INTRODUCTION

SRI Raghavendra Swamy (1595-1671) is one of the most revered saint philosophers in Dwaita School. He entered the Brindavan alive in 1671 at Mantralaya, currently in Andhra Pradesh, which is now a pilgrim centre with scores of devotees visiting the place, each day. He is believed to be alive within the Brindavana and blessing his devotees and fulfilling their desires.

Life:

The pre-sainthood name of Sri Raghavendra Swamy was Venkatanatha and some sources mention the name as Venkata Ramana. He was the second son of Sri Thimmanna Bhatta and Smt. Gopikamba. He was born on the Thursday in Shukla paksha of Phalguna masa on the Navami tithi (1595). He was born at Bhuvanagiri, near Chidambaram in Tamil Nadu. Historically, Sri Thimmanna Bhatta (the father of Sri Raghavendra Swamy) was the son of Sri Kanakachala Bhatta and the grandson of Sri Krishna Bhatta, who was a Court Artist in the Court of Sri Krishnadevaraya. Sri Krishna Bhatta was an accomplished player of Veena. Sri Gururajacharya was the name of the elder brother of Sri Venkatanatha and they had a sister named Venkatamba. Sri Thimmanna Bhatta and Smt. Gopikamba offered prayers to Sri Venkateshwara in Tirupati and were blessed with the second baby boy and hence he was named as Venkatanatha.

Even as a child, Venkatanatha was very brilliant and clever. He had learnt to play Veena from his father as well as grandfather at a very young age. Venkatanatha received his initial education from Sri Lakshminarasihmacharya, the brother-in-law of Sri Gururajacharya, who brought up Venkatanatha after the demise of Sri Thimmanna. The early education of Sri Venkatanatha was at Madurai, as Sri Gururajacharya was living there.

Sri Venkatanatha married Saraswati Bai in 1614 and the couple was blessed with a son the same year, who was named Lakshminarayanacharya. After marriage, Sri Venkatanatha and Smt. Saraswati Bai started living in Kumbhakonam. It was in Kumbhakonam where Sri Venkatanatha received education in Dwaitha Vedanta, Literature and Grammar from Sri Sudheendra Tirtharu.

Sri Venkatanatha was very studious and his grasping power was exemplary. Very quickly, Sri Venkatanatha achieved master over Vedas, Bhashya and Upanishads. He participated in scholarly debates and defeated most renowned scholars of the time in the debates. He was worshipping an idol of Sri Rama, which is now called as Moola Rama and is being worshipped by successive sires of Sri Raghavendraswamy Mutt in Mantralaya, even today. Sri Venkatanatha also consecrated and worshipped Panchamukhi Pranadevaru, five-faced Lord Hanumantha.