One should only accept spiritual knowledge from the bona-fide Parampara
Today is a very holy and auspicious day the Sampraday in which we are following is comes in the disciplic succession with originated by Lord Sri Krsna, Çréla Bhaktisiddhänta Sarasvaté Öhäkura composed a beautiful song glorifying all of the illustrious personalities of our disciplic successions. At the beginning of the creation The Supreme Lord spoke this transcendental knowledge to Lord Brahma, Lord Brahmä in turn repeated the same message to his own self manifesting born son Närada. When I say self manifesting Narada was not born as an ordinary living being he was born directly from his father Brahma. What is it that was given to Narada Muni it was the exact same message that Brahma heard from Krsna
evaà paramparä-präptam
imaà räjarñayo viduù
In approaching the path of spiritual life this is a very urgent and important thing to understand not only in the beginning but through all stages until we attain the perfection stage. And never take birth again in this material world and that is that we should receive the authorized knowledge which is coming through the unbroken chain of disciplic succession. However mystical magical or charismatic a person may be we cannot truly know that whether they are speaking, what they are speaking is the highest truth unless they conceit the disciplic line of great masters in which they have received the knowledge through. Of course previously in this great land of India this was simply a matter of fact that anyone’s serious about spiritual life knew you have to accept from one of the great disciplic successions or sampradyas. But today as Kali Yuga has progressed there are so many people who have manufactured their own religion, their own spiritual paths, their own presentations of how to achieve God and in this way people are bewildered what is true and what is not. When you go into the market place of spirituality you find so many different versions contradicting one another, so many Gurus’, so many Maths, so many ashrams, so many Bhagavans Gods and they are all saying that they are right. So is everybody right? Or is nobody right? How do we know?
Material enjoyment is empty, shallow, superficial and ultimately boring
When I first came to India I was a boy of nineteen and I was very deeply searching for a teacher who could show me the path of perfection because we had lived so many years in a materially affluent country The United States, how many Indians do you know want to go to the United States to live or want to get their children married in the United States so they could live with material luxury and pleasure. Not so much disease, hardship and poverty but I’ll tell you. Living in that culture we were searching for some way out of it for a life with a meaning, a life with spiritual substance material life is empty, it is shallow, it is superficial and ultimately it is so boring that such a civilization has to create all sorts of perverted concocted ways of just relieving their minds of boredom. And those technological discoveries are considered something very great and people here in India want those things very bad. But we should understand their origin is because people are so frustrated because they are simply not learning how to find pleasure in hearing and chanting the glories of the Lord. To substitute that negligence of finding pleasure in hearing and chanting the glories of God they have created CD’s and cassettes and televisions and cinemas and all sorts of computers and all sorts of everything else. So we understood it was not actually worth living a life that was so superficial, that was so meaningless, there must be a purpose. So we travelled through Europe studying Christianity, we travelled through the middle east studying Islam we came to India because we heard that of all places in the world India is the place where people really know God.
How do we understand what is the absolute truth in the market place of religion?
And to my surprise when I came to India I found that the common people wanted to go to America to learn to how to enjoy material life. So we actually had to search harder than we would and then when we entered into the arena of spiritual masters and yogis and Gurus and sadhus we found so many different ideas, so many conceptions, and so many paths. And some people say yatta mat tatata pat all paths lead to the same goal. So I was thinking “yes so let me follow all of them, I’ll take the best from each one and I’ll have my own custom made path of perfection” so I was very submissive student, wherever I would go travelling like a sadhu the Himalayas and the other parts of India. And I discovered that anyone with intelligence could know that they can’t all be right because they are all condemning each other. And they are giving very, very different explanations of what is God and very different paths of how to achieve it. So they can’t all be right and I didn’t believe that they were all wrong but how do we understand that who is right and who is wrong? We met people who appeared to be very ecstatic in their bodily transformations of so called love and who spoke with such incredible power that they would mesmerize people. But as we lived with them we found their personal lives were a contradiction to what they were preaching. We also met yogis who could perform miraculous power creating things, transforming themselves into various ways that material mind would never believe. But still we noticed that their false ego was bigger than the common man on the street and so many people explaining things so deeply philosophical but then the next person is defeating that person’s philosophy with the same expertise and the next person defeating both of their philosophies with even greater expertise. So how do we understand what is the truth and the next we met so many common people who just follow what their families had thought them, you just accept what your father and your mother and your grandfather and grandmother and great grandfather and grandmother. And basically they were following so much rituals they didn’t even what they were doing or why? Is religion limited to superstition and sentiment? So in the market place of spirituality how do we know what is the truth God has come in this world to give us the truth and he has created this world for the purpose of us all knowing the truth. So there must be some indication from God how we can understand and calculate what’s right, what’s wrong, what’s high and what’s low in spiritual knowledge and Krsna explained,
evaà paramparä-präptam
imaà räjarñayo viduù
imaà vivasvate yogaà
He explained that if you want to know the truth then you must accept it through an unbroken chain of disciplic succession. The real Guru is not a magician, he is not a showmen or entertainer, he is not one who mesmerizes you or shows you colored lights or makes you hear sirens in your ears or one who gives you mystical gifts. The real Guru is the humble servant who simply repeats what he has heard from his Guru in the line of Disciplic succession.
We are sure we get God’s original words from disciplic succession
tene brahma hådä ya ädi-kavaye muhyanti yat sürayaù
So there are four principle disciplic successions in the religion of Sanatan Dharma hear in India. And one such disciplic succession originated with Lord Brahma he spoke to his son Narada Muni. Narada rishi in turn spoke to that literary incarnation of Godhead who compiled the great Vedic literatures, Vedvyäsa. Vedvyäsa later explained the same knowledge to Madhväcärya, of course we should understand that from the time of Vedvyäsa to the time of Madhava there were hundreds and thousands of self realized Gurus who passed down this knowledge. But to have a disciplic line written it goes to the beginning of creation is very complex and very difficult. Therefore the great äcäryas have summarized this disciplic succession with the key most important personalities that pertain to our reception of this knowledge. In other words there are so many branches that comes through Evaà paramparä so we would lie to speak about the life of Madhväcärya very briefly. Because it is through Madhväcäryas line of disciplic succession that the Supreme Lord Himself Caitanya Mahaprabhu decided to receive knowledge. And from Lord Caitanya, Rupa and Sanatan, Jiva Goswami, Raghunath das Goswami, Narottam, Srinivas, Viçvanäth, Baladeva, Jaganath Das, Bhaktivinod, Gaurakishor, Bhaktisiddhänta and our beloved Guru Maharaj was the humble and empowered representative of this great line of truth. By receiving through such a line of truth we know one hundred percent for sure that what we are receiving is the original word of God. No magic, the mercy of God is greater than any magic that we can see with our eyes through that sound vibration our heart can be cleansed and brought to its original, natural position of pure unmotivated, uninterrupted love for Krsna.
The Glorious appearance of Srila Madhväcärya
In Karnataka, South Kannada district there is an area which is sometimes called Parsuram Kshetra it was actually created long ago by the incarnation of The Lord Parsuram. Within it today is a very holy place called Udipi a few miles from Udipi is a village of the name of Päjakä-kñetra. It was about little over seven hundred and fifty years ago that there was a great Brahman who lived in Päjakä-kñetra his name was Madhyageha Bhaööa and he very much wanted to have a male son. Because he had no children as time went on he had two male sons born but in their infancy they both died. We should know that on the external level he wanted to a son carry on the name of his family and to perform the Shradha ceremony when he departed that is the Hindu custom. But deeper than that is the Supreme Lord is in everyone’s heart and ultimately it is the Supreme Lord that invokes particular desires within people to further his own mission. So it was the Lord himself who invoked that burning desire to have a son within the heart of Madhyageha Bhaööa. So everyday he would walk long distance between Päjakä-kñetra to Udipi where there was a temple called Ananteçvara and Chandramauli Mandir and in the Ananteçvara temple he would worship the Supreme Lord with great, great devotion. He was performing fasts doing tapasya praying with such sincere feeling “My Lord please grant me a son that will do wonderful work in this world for the benefit of humanity” he performed this yagya of going everyday to this temple fasting and praying for twelve years. And one day the pujari came out of the alter of Lord Narayana and announced that I have received it in the indication that very soon an illustrious personality will be born. The Lord sent väyu, the wind God who has previously incarnated as Hanuman in Ram’s Lila and then he incarnated as Bhima in Krsna’s Lila he sent him to be the child of Madhyageha. His wife’s name I believe was vedavaté and when the child was born he was born on Dasera, very auspicious day of the victory of Lord Ram. He had such beautiful and wonderful qualities; he was the pride and the joy of not only his patents but everyone around.
Tamarind seeds turned to gold coins by little Vasudev
When he was very young he performed wonderful miracles because he was actually non different then Bhima or Hanuman would come again. It is described that one time in his childhood his father although he was a Brahman he was a land owner. And one time he bought bullock from one businessman and because his crops were not growing properly that year he actually had no money to pay his debt. So in those days people would take advantage of the Vedic custom’s what this person did, this debtor, this person he owed the money to as he came to the house and he told Madhyageha “That I am going to sit at your door and I am going to fast until you pay me the money” now what does this mean, a Grihasta if any guest comes to his house he has to greet him with hospitality and he is not allowed to eat until after his guest eats. So what did this mean either Madhyageha had to break the custom which he never would do because it’s sinful or he would have to fast as long as this person was fasting, so days went by and nobody could eat. Then Madhyageha told his son who was given at the name of birth väsudev he told little väsudev “You should go and eat prasädam” and väsudev said “But what about you” and he told him “I cannot because this guest he is not eating I cannot eat I owe him money and I have no money” and he was using his brain and using all of his facilities to try to figure out how to pay this person back. So little väsudev he went to this guest and he said “Please come with me” and he took him to the back yard of his house and there was a tamarind tree and he picked up a handful of tamarind seeds. And he said “Here you kindly take this” because väsudev was so beautiful, so charming the man just had to do whatever he said. So he opened his hands and väsudev dropped the tamarind seeds in his hands and right before this man’s eyes the tamarind seeds were transformed into golden coins the exact amount that was owed to him. So he went back and he went to Madhyageha and he said “Oh, now that your son has paid me very nicely so you can take nice prasädam thank you very much I am going” “How much my son has paid you?” he told him “He gave me tamarind seeds that turned into gold coins” if you go to Päjakä-kñetra that same tree is still there. It is a great place of pilgrimage for all those devotees who worship the lotus feet of this great personality.
Killing of the demon Maëimän by little Vasudev
When he was only five years old he was given the sacred thread in his education he was so incredibly intelligent that when his teachers would teach him scriptures he would actually correct them whenever they made mistakes and he would actually teach them scriptures. And people one time his father was giving a lecture cause his father was also a preacher, he was a giving a lecture from the Upanishads and he started to misquote a particular Sanskrit çloka. And his son immediately explained what is the right pronunciation of the Sanskrit just a child, another time someone was describing the Puräëas some of the stories and little Vasudev he began to explain with incredible accuracy the details of these stories and when they asked him. “How do you know all these things, no one ever thought you these things?” with great humility he would say “From my previous births” and people were struck with wonder. One time it is explained that a particular serpent, a particular demon, an asura who was spoken about in the Mahäbhärata his name was Maëimän. He was living in Päjakä-kñetra in the form of a huge terrible serpent and little Vasudev he just loved to go out and play in all different place’s, he had tremendous physical strength because he was actually Bhima and hanuman. And sometimes he was at school he was very fond of athletics, practically the whole day he would just be doing sports and he would always be victorious because he was so strong and sometimes his teachers would say “How are you going to learn your studies properly if all day long you are doing sports” he said “I know everything” “But you hardly come to classes you are always doing these sports” he said “You test me on any subjects” and when the teacher tested him he realized that he knew everything. So one day when he was playing out from the bushes, this terrible, horrible demon in the form of a snake just pounced on little Vasudev, roaring with his poisoness fangs ready to bite him. And little Vasudev threw the snake to the ground and with his toe he crushed the serpents head. Hari Bol!. And all the people around saw this they were struck with wonder how was this possible. Meanwhile because of his fight with the snake little Vasudev was late for home and his mother was very much worried about him so she called out “Vasudev, Vasudev come home” and little Vasudev didn’t want his mother to worry. So even though he was a long distance from home with one jump he landed before his mother. Hanumanji ki Jay!! The devotees of Madhväcärya explain that on that day by killing the snake he exhibited his prowess of Bhima and by jumping to his mother he exhibited his prowess of Sri Hanumanji. And if you go to Päjakä-kñetra to Udipi the same place where the snake was killed is still there. There is a rock with the impression of the snake’s body and in dentations of the rock where Madhava powerised his skull with its toe. Hari Bol!.
Vasudev decides to take Sanyaas to render highest service to humanity
So many wonderful pastimes he performed when he was a child. But after he completed his education when he was twelve he was very brilliant he decided he wanted to take Sanyas what is the use of all this material life. Why did he want to take Sanyaas? So that he can be completely free of any other obligation then to preach the glories of the Lord which he considered was the greatest need in the human society. You know there are so many companies and so many factories so many laboratories and so many factories that are trying to provide necessities of life to people. But what is the greatest necessity
Atätho brahma-jijïäsä
Human life is meant for self realization Krsna says in Gita,
janma-måtyu-jarä-vyädhi-
duùkha-doñänudarçanam
That the real problems of life is not lack of food or not lack of education or lack of medical facilities these are problems and no doubt they must be dealt with but the real problem of life is the repetition of birth, old age, disease and death. Because however wonderfully you solve the immediate problems you still have to face death and disease and rebirth. So what is the greatest service anyone can do for human society to expound the true principles of Dharma, pure bhakti by which one can to never take birth in this world again but attain the eternal loving service of the Lord which is the longing, the great longing of every soul. The body wants food the mind wants nice companionship but the soul, the soul is longing for a loving relationship with Krsna. And you are not the body, you are not the mind, you are the soul this body and mind are only temporary superficial coverings. To supply the demands of a person’s soul is the greatest soul is the greatest service to humanity. And Madhväcärya who was at that time little Vasudev he decided that “I want to render the greatest service to all human kind, I want to spread the two principles of Bhakti, of devotion to God and therefore I must take Sanyas” and therefore this little twelve year old boy one day he just left his home and he went to Udupi to find some great spiritual personality who would be his Guru who would give him Sanyas. So there was one very, very learned and pure soul his name was Acyutaprekña, he had his math, his monastery just outside of Udipi.
Madhyageha Bhatt consoling Vasudev to come back home
And little Madhava would spend most all of his time there and his father he was hardly seeing his son anymore. And for the father, Madhava, Vasudev was his life and soul he was his everything he performed twelve years of tapasya to have this child. And he raised this child with so much affection and so much love and so much care and he gave him that the best possibly he could give of everything. And now his child who is showing no interest in the family anymore this was breaking the heart of his father.”You must produce offspring and give me grandchildren how can we live without you?” so Madhyageha Bhatt went to Udupi area and there he found little Vasudev twelve year old boy living with at that time he was not only twelve, he was only about eleven, ten or eleven at that time. And he said “You must come home” and he said “No father I am going to accept the life of renunciation” ten years old boy saying like this, how this is possible. His father first he began with sweet words began to encourage him “Come home, Come home” but that didn’t work. Then he started weeping and crying “how you are breaking my heart look what I have done for you, I have done everything for you, I’ve given you life, I’ve raised you cannot do this to me come home” But little Vasudev was not the slightest bit moved by his father’s tears then his father began to angrily chastise at him shout at him demand and order you come home, threaten him the child was strong in his determination. Finally as a last resort the father threatened that “If you don’t come home, I will commit suicide” So little Vasudev got a piece of cloth and tore it to become like a copin and put it on himself and said “Then you commit suicide” then his father fell at his son’s feet and was begging him “Please, please don’t do this to me come home and little Vasudev said “This is a prophecy, what I see is a prophecy because I’ve seen a person like you will never fall at a child’s feet unless he is a Sanyaasi. So the father was saying we have no other children anyways the father went home and told the mother and the mother began to cry and they decided somehow or the other they have to get Vasudev to come home. So Madhyageha Bhaööa again returned to the ashram but by that time Acyutaprekña was going on a tour of some of the southern provinces and Vasudev was with him.
Vasudev seeks blessings from his parents in a unique way
So the father began to run to try to catch up with them and he came to one small little village near a forest on the bank of his river and there Vasudev was with his Gurudev and his father was pleading with him they got in a big argument and everything. In this way father tried everything he possibly could do but then somehow or the other he spoke some words to soften the heart of Vasudev. He said “We are very old and we have no one to take care of us how can you leave us alone like this, who will maintain us we are getting older and older” Väsudev said “All right you talk with mother and you give approval if another son is born then you will give me blessings to take Sanyas” so that was agreed upon not willingly but as a last desperate attempt to try to stop him. But very soon after that she became pregnant and she had a little son and Väsudev came home and asked his parents “Now a son is born, now you give me blessings “ they said “No we cannot give you blessings, you are only twelve years old how can we give you blessings to take Sanyas?” So he told his mother “If you don’t give me blessings to take Sanyas I will leave this place and you will never see my face again as long as you live, if you give me blessings I’ll take Sanyas but sometimes you’ll get to see me” So she decided it’s better to see my son as a Sanyaasi then to never see him. So they gave their blessings not exactly heartfelt blessings but blessings “All right you do it” so then he took Sanyas. This also took place in the Ananteçvara temple, there was a big celebration all the people from all around came because they all loved little Väsudev with such intimacy. And they saw this beautiful little boy with golden complexion taking of his silken robe and jewelry and putting on the drab saffron cloth of a Sanyaasi and he took the danda. And he looked very illustrious and everyone was celebrating, tears were flowing from everyone’s eyes and his Gurudev gave him the name at the time of taking Sanyaas Pürëaprajïa.
Purapragya Maharaj boldly defeats all bogus philosophy describing the absolute truth
After he accepted the renounced order of life he began to preach very vigorously at that time in that part of India and for that matter throughout India. Most of what we call Hinduism or the religion of Sanatan Dharma was pervaded by the philosophy of Advaita as propounded by Sankaracharya. And there were still some remnants of Buddhist philosophy which teaches Sunyavad, Nirvishesh, so this little child Sanyaasi he was propounding the philosophy of Dwaita which explains that the soul is eternally the part and parcel of the Supreme soul, that the jivatma the spirit soul within the heart of every living being can never become God. That the jivatma has an eternal form in the spiritual world that the Parmatma the Supreme soul has an eternal form in this spiritual world and that form is the form of Narayana or Krsna. And that the perfection of life is to develop pure unalloyed devotion to Narayana or to Krsna and that devotion and that desire to serve is eternal it never ends, That the conception of the soul merging into the oneness of Brahman was an inferior understanding of the Vedic truth and he established it so strongly on the basis of the Upanishads, the Vedas and the Puräëas. And He was preaching so boldly that all of the philosophers of the Gurus and the sadhus of the Shankarite school were becoming very much afraid and so were the Buddha’s because they were teaching that there was no God. The Buddha’s teach that there is no God at that time the Shankarites teach that there is God but ultimately he is formless, he has no personality, he has no attributes that when he appears with a form in this world and he performs Lila that form and Lila is ultimately Maya, it is a temporary manifestation. But in the Supreme sense God has no attributes. So this impersonalism and voidism was rampant. Two great scholars of the Nirvishesh School and the Buddha school Sunyavad they came, these two great scholars came and they publically wanted to make a fool out of little Vasudev, Pürëaprajïa. So they called a debate and everyone around came for this debate and they were debating so ferociously and this little child was so much defeating first he defeated everyone of their arguments and then he began to present arguments and they didn’t have a reply to a single arguments. And they were becoming so frustrated, so embarrassed in front of everybody that a child was annihilating them philosophically. Upon seeing this, out of courtesy because they were so elder to him Pürëaprajïa Maharaj said, “Why don’t you just admit that you have been defeated today and we will continue the debate tomorrow?” so they had no choice either they had to admit defeat or he would go on defeating them and making fools out of them for the rest of the day. So that night they packed their things and secretly disappeared never to return. Hari Bol!.
He would defeat others with great humility and service attitude
In this way so many people would come and we have to know that it was out of great compassion because it describes that when Madhväcärya would be challenged with these opposing philosophies although he would very soundly defeated them he did it with such humility. There was never even the slightest trace of egoism in his personality or in his voice he actually did it is a humble service to those people, he was truly a Bhakta. You know in this world when you are good in debate sometimes (46) inaudible indications of impersonalism and voidism he would completely repute and establish that God is person and it’s an offense to say anything else of him and we should love him and we should serve him. But he did it with such humility, with such a mood of compassion and service that even those who were defeated by him were generally very pleased to be defeated and they would surrender to him and would become his disciples. Seeing this Acyutaprekña decided to perform a ceremony to coronate Pürëaprajïa as the next leader of the math like a king will coronate the son who will be the next king as the Yuvaraj or the prince. And he gave him the name at that time Anandatirhta and at that time he was also called Madhava. And because Madhava was the name of Krsna who is the worship able Lord of this great personality he favored this name above others and from that times his principle name was madhva or Madhväcärya.
Writing the commentary on the Bhagvad Gita
He took many of his disciples on a tour of south India and while he was travelling he happened to come across the chief Äcärya of the Sringeri math of Sankaracharya and he heard about this little boy who was preaching so much against the Advaita School and establishing devotion as the highest and the Supreme path. So he approached the child, young boy at the time and they got in a little bit of a philosophical discussion and he realized that this boy is undefeatable he is going to ruin everything, everyone’s going to become devotees because of him. So he began to present the Sariraka bhäñya the commentary of the Bhagavat Gita of Sankaracharya and little Madhava completely defeated every point. And explained how it is not the highest truth, he established Bhakti Vaisanavism. That time this great äcäryas told him if you don’t accept Sankaracharya’s commentary of Bhagvad Gita then you should write your own you don’t even have one. You have nothing to establish your own philosophy as far as a commentary. So the child said “All right I will take that as an instruction and I will write” but he decided that if he really wanted to write the proper and perfect commentary on Bhagavat Gita he would have to get the blessings of the author of the Bhagavat Gita, Vedvyäsa and Lord Narayana himself. So he decided to go to Badrikashrama’ because in the Shastra’s it is explained that throughout all of Kali Yuga Vedvyäsa never leaves the world he remains in the divine form in the Himalayas in the divine realm of Badrikashrama. So Madhväcärya took his disciples some of them and they went on a long journey by foot from South Kannada Udupi all the way to Badrikashrama. And he got to the place of Badrikashrama; Badrikashrama is a big area was the temple of NarNarayan is Badrinath. Some of you may have gone there and he went into the deity room and he began to pray to Badrinarayan and he began to read some of the commentaries that he was writing on the Bhagavat Gita and his disciples who were outside the deity room could actually hear the voice of Vishnu telling Madhava that “You have my blessings and empowerment to write the perfect commentary of the Bhagavat Gita. So he became very happy and then he decided to go to Adibadri which is a place no human being can attain by mortal means. Way, way deep up in the Himalayas he said “That is the place where Vedvyäsa is residing” so he told his disciples “You should wait here because you will not be able to go there” but one of his disciples his name was Satyatirtha, he began to follow him because he was always at his side. In fact Madhväcärya would not write but he would dictate and whatever he would dictate Satyatirtha would write down and this is the way he would make his commentaries of the Vedic literatures. So Satyatirtha was walking and walking for many days and Madhava day and night he just kept walking through deep, deep snow way up in the Himalayas. He didn’t stop to eat, he didn’t stop to sleep and it was very high. And Satyatirtha was completely exhausted they were going on for days and days and days and one day Madhava looked back at him and said “You should return back” and then he took his hand and went like this and he went like this because he is actually Väyu the wind God a wind came and pushed Satyatirtha all the way back to where all the other devotees were waiting Hari bol and then he told the devotees this what happened. Now it is said that people previously had tried to find Vedvyäsa at Adibadri but generally they would never return so actually before he left for that journey he wrote a will. He said, “I may or may not live to come back” what was his will he had no possessions, he had no property. His will was he thought them to always preach the pure principles of Gita, Sanatan Dharma and always practice bhakti. So with great enthusiasm and expectation he achieved the hermitage of Vedvyäsa and at that time Vedvyäsa was sitting in the assembly of great sadhus and he was explaining Bhagavat philosophy to them. And Madhava was so happy that he came to his Guru and with utter humility he fell down like a rod and he laid there in full prostration bowing down to his spiritual master. Feeling the greatest ecstasy and fortune that “I am seeing my Guru” that time Vedvyäsa, he gave him what we would call initiation by accepting him his disciple and he also gave him his blessings to continue his work of commentating on the Bhagavat Gita.
The advent of Udipi Krsna from Dwarka
So it was there that he completed that commentary and with the blessings and the love of his Guru upon him he returned. And with his disciples they returned to Udupi and began preaching and began delivering Krsna bhakti to everyone. It is explained that Madhväcärya besides being a great scholar and very, very physically strong and powerful he was also a very beautiful singer and he wrote wonderful bhajans and he used to sing with very sweet loving voice the glories of Krsna. So one day he was singing beautiful songs composing them as he was singing them in glorification of Lord Krsna as he was walking to the ocean side. And when he came to the sandy beach there was a storm and in this storm there was a boat coming from Dwarka. And that boat got caught in the sand and actually began to sink because of the storm and the boatman didn’t know how to save himself. And Sri Madhväcärya was at the shore and he took his chadar and he began to wave it and as he waved at the storm ended. And then he just waved to the boat and as he waved to the boat the boat became free from the entrapment from the sand and came to the shore. And the boatman was so grateful, he had so much precious goods on this Cargo ship of his he said “I want to give you a gift, I’ll give you anything, I’ll give you everything what would you like?” and Madhväcärya said “I am a Sanyaasi, what do I want your material gifts for but Sanyaasi’s put on tilaka. And you are coming from Dwarka and Dwarka is the place where Gopichandan comes from Do you have any Gopichandan on your boat?” and the boatmen told him that “It just so happens that this Gopichandan which is mud, earth that in order to balance the boat so that the weight was equal sometimes we use these big blocks of Gopichandan for that purpose” he said “You just give me that nice tilaka” So they had this big, big mounds of Gopichandan and they started taking them off the boat and as they took one of them off the boat it broke open and as it cracked open there was a beautiful deity of Lord Krsna. Bhagavan Sri Krsna ki Jay! Udupi Krsna ki Jay!
Dwarkadhish becomes BalGopal for the pleasure of mother Devaki
The story of that Murti is very wonderful it is described that at the time that Lord Krsna was living in Dwarka in the palace of Rukmini. Devaki, Devaki once approached Dwarkadhish Krsna and told him that “I actually gave birth to you in Mathura but the first night of the birth you told us to take you to Gokul and your entire childhood you were raised by Yashoda Devi and then finally when you came back to Mathura you were already grown up. So I never got to see the beautiful form of BalGopal but I’ve heard so many wonderful stories about it can you please kindly give me the Darshan of your wonderful form of Bal Gopal?” so at that time Lord Krsna the king of Dwarka at the time he transformed himself into his Vrindavan Lila form, where he was stealing butter and he had mother Yashoda used to churn butter and Krsna would sometimes when he would steal it, he would hold the churning rod with one hand and the rope in another and the butter in another. So he showed her that beautiful form and she was very happy. And Rukmini happened to see that beautiful Darshan as he was revealing it to Devaki. So Rukmini later on asked Krsna that, “Please I want to worship you in that form because I see that this form is more beautiful and loveable than any other form” so Krsna made a beautiful deity of Him with the churning rod in one hand, with rope in another and butter in another. And Rukmini worshipped that deity as her ishtadev but at the time that Dwarka when most of the Dwarka went under the ocean just after the disappearance of Lord Krsna that deity was actually put into the Gopi tala, where all Gopi chandan is coming from and it was under the ground. So when the boatmen took Gopichandan he took a big block but the deity was in that block and revealed itself to Madhväcärya. This is the Lila of the Lord. So Madhväcärya was so happy he told some of his disciples “Let us bring this deity back to Udupi and built a nice temple for him” so they tried to lift him but he was so heavy thirty men could not even budge the deity from the ground. So finally Madhväcärya said “Alright let me do it” and he effortlessly picked it up and began to carry him back to Udupi. And as he was carrying he began to compose beautiful songs in glorification of Krsna. And to this day the followers of the Madhväcärya line in Udupi the tattvavadis they sing these beautiful prayers that Madhväcärya composed upon the advent of Udupi Krsna. And then he had a nice temple by that time he had so many followers even kings were surrendered to him he could have built a huge temple like Srirangam but he wanted to keep it very simple. For those of you who have gone to Udupi you know it’s a very simple temple he wanted to keep it like that he wanted Krsna to be more in the centre rather than the temple and worship in that way.
Wonderful pastimes of Srila Madhväcäryas travels
There are many stories of Madhväcäryas travels when he would be preaching. Sometimes he would manifest the ability to eat of Bhima and one day he was travelling and they offered him a big full meal and then they brought in two hundred bananas for everybody and they said to Madhava “Please take some bananas” so he ate all two hundred bananas. Hari Bol. Other times he would eat hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of bananas anyways when he wanted to eat a lot he could eat whatever anyone wanted to give him. And people used to wait to see whether he would get indigestion but he never got indigestion Hari Bol!. At this time he really established the temple at Udupi he very, very carefully thought his disciples to how to worship the deities he gave eight of his principle disciple’s Sanyas and gave them the charge of the temple alternating. And he established so many wonderful rules and regulations that are being followed to this day in Udupi. And he was writing so many books and was giving so many lectures and preaching and travelling but then he decided he wanted to see his Gurudev again Vedvyäsa in Badrikashrama. By this time he had many, many followers on their way there was a king a very cruel king and whoever was passing on this road the king wanted to dig a lake because it’s a pious activity to dig a lake. But whoever they were he would force them they have to stay there and help him dig the lake and no one was allowed to leave until the lake was complete and he wouldn’t pay them anything and he had a soldiers force whoever was around you dig and they were digging.
So Madhväcärya he is a Sanyaasi, great Äcärya with his disciples the kings soldiers came and said “You dig this lake until it’s done and no pay” So Madhväcärya said “I want to meet the king” Madhväcärya was so convincing that he started to talk to the king “Actually you want us to dig this lake very good but you are such a great soul that if you teach us the proper way to dig it, then we will dig properly after all what great men do commandment follow and your great, your royal so you come and show us the proper way of digging this lake”. So the king began to dig and by Madhväcäryas mystic potency he became so absorbed in digging himself the king that Madhväcärya and his disciples they all just left and left the king to dig the lake himself Hari Bol!. On another occasion of course you know at that time parts of India were under the Mughal rule and there was one river and the Hindus were not allowed to cross the river and the son of the king of the Mughals from Delhi was actually stationed on the other side of the river with huge armies. And the Hindus said, “You cannot cross this river the soldiers will kill you and torture you and all your followers” so there were no boats going. So Madhava and his followers crossed the river anyway and as soon as they reached the other side the soldiers arrested them and decided to kill them. And Madhava said, “I want to meet your king” we couldn’t believe that he was asking to meet the king, he was about to be killed. So they, he was so convincing and he was so beautiful and charming that they brought him to the king and the king was shocked. He said, “Do you know you are about to die with all of your disciples?” and Madhava said, “I am not afraid of death, you cannot kill the soul” He said “That same divine god who have created you have created me and I am doing his work so why should I fear death?” And the king was so much, he was actually preaching a sort of inter faith the king was so charmed to hear the truth coming from the fearless mouth of the Sanyaasi that he actually worshiped him and gave him all facilities even asked him to stay with him. But Madhava said, “We are on our way” So they proceeded. So many wonderful stories ultimately they attained Badrikashrama and again Madhväcärya humbled himself with great respect and love before his spiritual master. And at that time Vedvyäsa gave him blessings to make a commentary on the entire Mahäbhärata and it was there in Badrikashrama that Madhväcärya compiled his commentary of Mahäbhärata. And then Vedvyäsa also gave him eight Shaligram as a personal gift and to this day the Sanyaasi äcäryas of the Madhava line still worship those eight Shaligram Shilas. After getting again the loving blessings of his Gurudev he began to travel, there are so many stories of Madhav travel. One time it explains because he would travel through with his followers through jungles which were filled with dacoits and robbers. One time a whole band of robbers they decided to kill Madhava and his followers and steal whatever they had, so Madhava took a piece of cloth and wrapped it into a ball and threw it where the robbers were and by his divine potency that piece of cloth appeared to be gold. So the robbers thought it was gold and they all began to fight over it and in the process of the fight they all killed each other Hari Bol! Another time Madhava had one very simple Brahmachari disciple his name was Upendratirtha he was just very simple, very peaceful, very loving and one time a band of one hundred robbers came to kill them. So Upendratirtha right in front of all the devotees eyes he grabbed a sword from one of them and he started fighting and he defeated all hundred of them and everyone one was just struck with wonder how could he, he never knew how to fight how could he do this then they looked at Madhava and he was smiling and they realized that Madhväcärya is Bhima and he actually empowered his disciple to defeat them. And on another occasion his disciple Satyatirtha was attacked by a man eating tiger and the tiger leaped on him and opened his mouth and was about to devour him when Madhväcärya just took the tiger and punched him and the tiger became so scared that he ran away, anyway there are many stories like these.
The glorious disappearance of Madhväcärya
Of course we are not so much concerned with these wonderful miracles of Madhväcärya because we understand that he is incarnation of Hanuman and Bhima, we take great pleasure in hearing them but far more important to us than that are what he thought and the purity and the compassion of his life that is really of the greatest importance. He established the principles of pure bhakti through his life and through his words and through his writings. And he came at the time when bhakti was seen to be something very inferior and very unauthoritative due to the Advaita School of influence. And everything he established was never on the basis of his own words but he established it all by proving on the authority of the Shastra’s, of the Vedas. So Madhväcärya lived such a perfect life of devotion and revealed to so many millions and millions of people the perfect life of devotion. When he was about seventy nine years old almost eighty years old, he was in Udupi at the Ananteçvara ashram or the temple and there was a certain place, there was a slab of stone about three feet by three feet that he used to sit on and give his lectures. And on this very day that we are celebrating today Sripad Madhväcärya he was speaking on his favorite Upanishad the Atreya Upanishad he already indicated to his followers that he would be soon leaving this world. He told them, “When I leave this world, I am going to go to live at Badrikashrama to live with my Gurudev; you will not see me anymore” So as he was sitting and speaking on the Atreya Upanishad he came to particular verse where he was ecstatically glorifying Lord Krsna and at that time his body just disappeared. And the cloth that he was wearing and the garland that he was wearing just fell on the stone platform and it is explained that at that moment flowers began to fall from the sky on that raised platform. In this way Sri Madhväcärya disappeared from this world but through his teachings, through his life’s example he lives forever in our hearts. Lord Sri Caitanya Mahäprabhu, he accepted initiation from Ishvarapuri who was the disciple of Mädhavendra puri, who was the disciple of Laxmipati Tirtha, who was in the disciplic succession of Madhväcärya and in this way the Supreme Lord Himself personally revealed the highest truths.
Caitanya Mahaprabhu gave us the highest knowledge in the simplest form
There are four most important, authorized disciplic successions the Brahma Sampraday from Braham, the Sri Sampraday which originated from Laxmi devi, the Rudra Sampraday and the Kumara Sampraday. And therefore four very, very great exponents that appeared in this age Kali Yuga to really teach the pure principles of those sampradyas in a magnificent way. One was Ramanujacaraya, Vishnu swami, Nimbarkacharya and Madhväcärya, what Lord Sri Caitanya Mahäprabhu did is he extracted the essence from each of these four sampradyas and he thought them. From the Madhväcärya Sampraday he thought the worship of the deity of Krsna and the reputation of impersonalistic and atheistic philosophies. From the Ramanuja Sampraday he thought the path of Raga bhakti spontaneous love and service to the vaishnavas. From the Vishnu swami Sampraday he thought the principles of how to take complete shelter of Krsna Vallabhäcärya also came into the line of Vishnu swami Sri Krsna sharanam mama that Krsna is the only shelter. And from the Nimbärka Sampraday he thought the highest position of Srimati Radharani and the Gopis love for Krsna was the ultimate expression of divinity. So in this way Sri Caitanya Mahäprabhu thought this philosophy of Acintya bhedabheda Tattva and he personally accepted the ancestry, spiritual ancestry Sri Madhväcärya although he was universal in his approach. And ultimately Lord Caitanya Mahäprabhu thought that by understanding these simple basic principles that we are eternally the servant of the servant of Krsna. And if we learn how to associate with Vaishnavas properly and serve the Lord and in that mood if we chant the name of the Lord then all the conclusions and all the realizations of all the previous äcäryas will be revealed to us. Sri Caitanya Mahäprabhu came to give this sacred teachings to everyone without discrimination in such a simple form that only the Lord himself could give something so high, so deep and so philosophical in such a simple form and for this we are eternally indebted to Lord Caitanya Mahäprabhu and his followers for giving us this wonderful opportunity to come together to glorify all of these great saints to the chanting of the holy names.
Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare,
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare
