On this auspicious day of Ramanavami , Please extend your support for our Temple In Canada , Let us Spread our glorious Sanatana Dharma Everywhere !
By Dr. B Basker
Namaskara to all Haribhakthaas.
The great saint who is undoubtedly one of the greatest saints of the twentieth century of the madhva tradition adorned the peetha of Uttaradhi matha for a period of nearly thirty years . He was a philosopher par excellence with a ready wit and profound knowledge in tattvavaada.
It is believed that whenever he visited a place he will first vanquish an opponent in polemics and only then perform pooja and have teertha prasada. Such was His commitment to the shastra of srimadaachaaryaru. He was not only a great scholar but was also a very compassionate soul.
His Holiness had the practice of giving dakshina to all the devotees who had come to partake the teertha prasada and on one occasion his shishya who was coming behind holding the plate of coins accidently let go the plate and the whole heap fell into the plate of a lady who was in a very advanced stage of pregnancy.
Hearing the noise the saint turned back and the shishya was trembling with fear anticipating the wrath of the sage. His Holiness just smiled and said that Sri Sitapathi Sri Ramachandra murthy had decided that she deserved it and asked the shishya to bring fresh coins for distribution. The woman counted the coins and found she had nearly two hundred rupees totally which was a huge sum in those days.
Once while the swamiji had camped at bijapur , a group of people arrived around midnight to the spot where His Holiness had camped as they had been held up do to heavy rains. They were totally famished and were in need of a change of dress and good hot food. The swamiji unrelentingly ordered for the preparation of a sumptuous dinner and also gave them dry clothes to wear. In fact, there was no dry firewood for cooking and the swamiji had ordered the wooden roof of a old room to be removed and used as firewood and the next day had it repaired.
The swamiji entered brindavan on shukla chaitra sapthami at Pandharapur .(this year the aradhana was celebrated on 1.4.2001). Even Anantakrishna sastry, an opponent, had commented that he had not seen Sri Madhvacharya but was fortunate enough to behold Abhinava Anandatirtha in the guise of Sri Sathyadhyaana tirtha.