The Punya Thithi of Shri Vijayeendra Thirtha Swamiji will be held at the Temple on 31 December 2015 Margashira Bahula Shasthi.
Sri Vijayeendra Thirtha Swamiji blessed us all by doing the Prathistha of Lord Ugra Narasimha at our Temple. This day every year we remember this great Guru.
5.00 PM Hagalothsava
7.00 PM Maha Naivedya , Mangala Arathi, Darshan Seva, Bhoori Samaradhane
9.30 PM Ratri Pooja, Deeparadhane, Ratha Utsav, Nitya Utsav, Bhandi Utsav, Vasant Pooja
Please note:
Guna Gana of Sri Vijayeendra Thirtha Swamiji
Talk by Sri U. Ravindra Shenoy will be held at 7.00 PM at Laxmi Narayana, Vyasa Maharshi Vidyapeetha.
Sri Vijayeendra Thirtha Swamiji
Dwaita philosophy is the only true philosophy that stresses on reality of the world, difference between the animate, inanimate and the Supreme power. This was the true meaning of the Vedas and was propagated by Sri Madhwacharya called as Tatvavada. But even after Sri Madhwacharya reestablished the true meaning of Vedas and propagated his Tatvavada, there were times that Advaitin scholars refuted the Tatvavada. These would be minor objections that had crept up only due to wrong or incomplete understanding of both Vedas and Tatvavada. Everytime, such aberrations were met strongly by Dwaita scholars and pontiffs.
Sri Vijayeendra Guru Sarvabhouma a renowned dwaita scholar- sanyasin, after Sri Madhwacharya and Sri Teekarayaru. Sri Vijayeendra Teertha was the student-disciple of yet another great scholar sanyasi of the same times. i.e., Sri Vyasaraja. Due to his great scholarly abilities and his divine powers he was sought by Sri Surendra Teertha, the pontiff of Kumbakonam matha. Sri Vijayeendra Teertha was not just a pontiff with knowledge of the dwaita philosophy but he was also well versed with 64 arts and skills some of which are considered to be unknown to pontiffs. During his student days itself he was a scholar with great knowledge. Vyasaraja also had one more great scholar-student, Sri Vadiraja Teertha of Sode Matha.
Now knowledge is something that becomes sharper and more renowned when it is able to meet the challenges posed by different schools of thought. Normally Madhwa sanyasis are thought to be well versed with shastras and that they would only have sound knowledge of the philosophy that they firmly believe in. Hence, the opponents thought that the Sanyasis wouldn’t have an iota of knowledge of the materialistic arts. This prompted exponents of many arts to try and test Sri Vijayeendra Teertha’s artistic talents. This was further fuelled by many advaitin scholars who were jealous of the fame Sri Vijayeendra Teertha achieved over a short period of time.
The scholars experienced that they could not challenge and defeat Swamiji in philosophy or Vedas. And these scholars were of high repute like Appayya Deekshith, and Lingarajendra. Each of them were defeated comprehensively by Swamiji and so some of them also tried to test Swamiji in other arts and hence Vijayeendra Teertha was untroubled by these moves of the scholars, he dismissed the challenges with ease. Vijayeendra Teertha did this not to prove his greatness or that his skills were great, but to prove that the Madhwas had achieved expertise in all the Shastras. The Swamiji displayed his versatility in different arts. The Swamiji himself gave an open challenge to all the experts to try to defeat him in their art or expertise. Thus not one or two, but in all the 64 fields of knowledge Swamiji displayed his extraordinary scholarship.
The following lines from various works of contemporary scholars of Vijayeendra Teertha highlight on his mastery or proficiency in variety of arts.
There are many historic documents recording the feats of Sri Vijayeendra Teertha and also illuminating his proficiency in 64 arts. Prominent among them are:
- Gurugunasthavanam by Sri Vadeendra Teertha which was done about 50-55 years after the Mahanirvana of Sri Vijayeendra Teertha.
….स्फुटविदित चतुःषष्टि विद्याविशेषः
which clearly indicates that Sri Vijayeendra Teertha had proficiency of 64 types of major arts and it was proven through competing with the experts or masters of the art and having beating each of them at their own game.
- The most famous historical record that came during the period of Sri Raghavendra Teertha (the pra-shishya of Sri Vijayeendra Teertha and the disciple of Sri Sudheendra Teertha) i.e., the Sri Raghavendra Vijaya quotes…
चतुःषष्टि कलाविद्याजुषे विद्वन्म्होमुषे |
जयिन्द्रज्योतिषे कुर्यां वन्दनानि यशोजुषे ||
Mulki and Sri Vijayindra Teertha’s relations.
Though Sri Vijayindra Teertha travelled across the nation in his quest of popularizing the Tattvavada of Srimadacharya, he stayed at Kumbakonam for a larger part of his life time.
Sri Vijayindra Teertha was travelling towards Udupi via Hampi. Hampi or Pampapura was one of the main cities of the them Vijayanagara Kingdom later destroyed by Bahamani and Bijapur muslim rulers. Sri Vijayindra Teertha very sad to see the devastation of grand Vijayanagara empire which was once a great center for education under the guidance of their guru Shri Vyasarajara Swami and under leadership of Sri Krishnadevaraya. When Sri Vijayindra Teertha Swamiji was walking in streets of Hampi a snake interrupted HH’s way and when HH saw through the divine vision it was confirmed that snake wanted to show something and HH followed the path of snake which went inside the barren well. When the seer told his attendants to get inside the well and search they found a beautiful idol of Shri Ugra Narasimha which was tearing the stomach of the demon Hiranyakashipu, and an idol of Varaha and Sri Venkataramana. Sri Vijayindra Teertha consecrated the idols of Varaha at Varahapura, Varapuzha in Kerala and Sri Venkataramana at Cochin, Kerala. Later Swamiji got a divine intervention to consecrate Sri Lord Ugra Narasimha on the banks of river Shambhavi and Swamiji thus came to Mulki and consecrated the Lord.
The anugraha of Sri Vijayindra Teertha is remembered regularly during the Divatige Salam to the Lord, that the idol was consecrated by Sri Vijayindra Teertha.
- by U Ravindra Shenoy
