Gurucharitra - Shri Kamalanath Thirtha Sripad Vader Swamiji - Part 2

श्रीमद हनुम-भीम-मध्व-अंतर्गत राम-कृष्ण-वेदव्यासात्मक लक्ष्मी हयग्रीवाभिन्न श्री सीतारामचंद्र वीरविठ्ठला: प्रसीदंतु।।

श्रीमत्कमलानाथ तीर्थ श्रीपाद वडेर स्वामीजी

कमलानाथपादाब्ज भृमरायितमानसम्।
ममतारहितं वंदे कमलानाथयोगिनम् ।।

Part 2

Sri Kamalanath teerth swamiji , spent  thirty five years in serving Guru Sri Indirakanth teerth and the as a peethadhipati for only eleven months.  The workload, either mundane or spiritual that was undertaken by the institution situated in partagali Goa , which is a center for the widely spread GSB samaj , is always ascribed to the head of the institution. So all the works in those over fifty years of Sri Indirakant teerth swamiji are added to the pages in His name. But it is to be noted that in each of the major as well as the minor initiatives of the Guruswamiji in those thirty five years , Shishya swamiji tirelessly worked to make them a success. For all the details of these works, which are numerous and many of them striking , one has to read the history of Sri Indirakant swamiji. There were some prolonged and bitter animosities between some factions of the GSB society, many of which were in Goa, were difficult to handle. The allegiance owned by  these  different factions  was not just Gokarn Partagali math alone. As is well known there are totally three gurupeethas for GSBs and two of them are of Maadhva vaishnava sampradayas and one is smaarta sampradaya.  The internal disagreement over some issue by the different factions seemed to be turning very difficult. Sri Indirakant teerth swamiji and the Shisya tirelessly worked to bring together the different factions. And became successful in creating harmony. There were many other such smaller and greater issues that troubled the internal fabric of the society.  And due to the diplomatic handling of these issues by the Swamijis the social unity was kept up and people could live happily with each other. The period of these Gurus was one of rapid changes in the very basic lifestyle and the old values appeared to be unsuited for the needs that the new modernized , office centered families who had restricted time for social and spiritual life. This kind of new order of society was permanent and the religious heads had to respond to the challenges that were thrown up. The centers of attraction for the newer generation were powerful which attracted them towards alien values and practices , not in accordance with the divine path as was laid down by the parampara for the spiritual enlightenment. The mundane life was now racing to occupy the full day of the people and spiritual side started receding to the corners and appeared to fade out. In these times it was urgent for the keepers of sanatana dharma to keep its force alive and the life saving river flowing in the midst of the society. And it was indeed a challenge met successfully by the Guru and Shishya.
 Sri Kamalanath teerth swamiji was initiated in the year 1907 C.E. and in 1908 accompanied Guru in the teerth yatra to Pushkar, Mathura, Gokul, Vrundavan, Haridvar, Hrishikesh, Prayag, Varanasi, Ayodhya etc. In 1916 teerthayatra to Tirupati , Vishnukanchi , Madhurai, Rameshwar etc was undertaken. The famous old temple of Bete Venkatraman at Honnavar was taken over by the math in the year 1922. And shishya Swamiji worked hard to establish the Muralidhar math at Karwar.The renovation of the old math structures at Gokarn and Venkatapur  can be specially mentioned for the effort put in it. The construction of the two storied structure in front of Ramdev’s garbhagriha in partagali in 1925 and addition to the hall in front of Sri Veeravitthal dev and the kitchen by its side in 1934 etc were other works done by shishya swamiji.
The affairs of the math which had gone a bit neglected during the previous decade were put in order. The math acquired about 150 properties during Sri Indirakant teerth swamiji’s time which were mostly followed and put to order by the personal supervision of Sri Kamalanath teerth swamiji, so that the members of the samaj can gainfully use them for dharmic and social purpose.
                   Sri Kamalanath teerth personally put an effort to solve the internal and external problems faced by the members of the society. These continued efforts made the society to mix well with others and live a harmonious life. On the whole it has to be said that Sri Kamalanath teerth swamiji worked hard for the spiritual and social sides of the GSB society and so much so that His health was also affected.  Ayurvedic medicines did not work well.  Guru swamiji then started giving  teertha with prayers to Lord and over a period of time Sri Kamalanath teerth swamiji recovered completely. The real depth and width of the work of Shishya swamiji can only be appreciated by knowing the history of the math during the period of Guru Sri Indirakant teerth swamiji.
The Rama navami rathotsava festival used to begin from panchami. By donating the income from the assets of His poorvashrama family to the math, the festival now started a day earlier and the rituals were started from chaturthi only.
The most striking incidence was the selection of a person to take on the responsibility of carrying the work of the math. This happened during the lifetime of Sri Indirakant teerth. A student who was studying in the math was observed to be very much concentrated and devoted to the studies and his lifestyle was highly ascetic. He was also very brilliant in studies with almost photographic memory and was progressing in studies of the shaastra at a remarkable pace. He was Govind Acharya from the highly renowned family of scholars from Gangolli. Sri Indirakant teerth expressed His desire for selection of the person before He left for heavenly abode. SrI Kamalanath swamiji adorned the gurupeeth on vaishakha shukla triteeya ( akshaya triteeyaa) shri saka 1864. After a short period of eleven months Swamiji took Samadhi in partagali on chaitra shukla ekadashi shri saka 1865.
May the life story of the guru shower His auspicious blessings on us

 There is a speciality which can be noticed in the vrindavan of Srimad Kamalanath teerth Swamiji. The pratima on the vrindavan of all swamijis is invariably of Hanuman. But in the vrindavan of Srimad Kamalanath teerth Swamiji it is the third avatar of pranadevaru ,Sriman Madhvacharya holding brahmasutra bhashya

Vrindavan of Srimad Kamalanath Theertha Sripad Vader Swamiji 

गुरुचरणाम्बुज दास विष्णु वेंकटदास शानभाग

Gurucharitra - Shri Kamalanath Thirtha Sripad Vader Swamiji - Part 1

(This is a 2 part series about the life of Shri Kamalanath Thirtha Sripad Vader Swamiji, 21st pontiff of Gokarna Partagali Jeevottam Math. This is written by Shri Vishnu Shanbhag of Kumta.) 

श्रीमद हनुम-भीम-मध्व-अंतर्गत राम-कृष्ण-वेदव्यासात्मक लक्ष्मी हयग्रीवाभिन्न श्री सीतारामचंद्र वीरविठ्ठला: प्रसीदंतु।।

श्रीमत्कमलानाथ तीर्थ श्रीपाद वडेर स्वामीजी |

Part 1

The pages of history the samsthaan Gokarna Partagali math have recorded glorious life periods of the Swamijis adorning it and leading the Gaud Saraswat Brahman society in the path of dhrma as laid down in the vedic parampara. The GSB society has periodically faced many harassment from the other sections of the society and hostile political rulings. With the guidance and active role of the peethadhipatis GSB society has come out of it and has reasserted its moral and social strength. We have seen the extreme stress under which the gurupeetha fought to regain its authority under a very hostile and cruel foreign rulers.

Shree Padmanabh teerth swamiji was able to face it and establish the base. Under the young yet enlightened scholar ,Sri Indirakanth teerth swamiji, the math climbed to its peak of dharmic activity. Sri Indirakanth teerth swamiji”s time was yet another period where the problems that cropped up were of different kind. Under the rule of british in Karnataka and portugese in Goa the style of life lead by the society was slowly yet perceptibly changing. And to adjust to the new kind of challenges the rules of dharmashastra had to be constantly tweaked to suit the newer generation without compromising the core dharmic and karmic corpus. Sri Indirakant teerth swamiji was highly sensitive to these needed changes and was very much successful in diplomatically solving the problems faced by the GSB samaj. For example, responding to the demands of new family structure that was coming into the fore, the rule that women should be married off by the age of 12 years was scrapped. Such far sightedness of Swamiji is an example of the anticipation of new order of family and social life that was being shaped up as a result of modernization. The issue of foreign travel was also one of the most vexed one.

As Sri Indirakant teerth Swamiji was responding nicely to the needs of society swamiji thought of appointing an able shishya. A very capable disciple by the name of Sri Vyasa Rao Acharya was chosen. The disciple was from a very learned archak family of chikkankod village of north canara. The disciple was initiated and given the good name, Shree Narahari teerth. The Shishya turned out to be a very good pupil and was being trained under Guru swamiji. Unfortunately within a year of initiation the shishya swamiji left His mortal body due to a short term of illness, in the month of Margashirsha, shrishaka 1819.

This incidence had its own effect on everybody. The accounts of its effect on Guru Sri Indirakant teerth are a bit different in the two books . The Marathi book describes Swamiji was grief stricken and was very much withdrawn for next few years and stopped having meals. But guruparampara , where the last chapters are written by Sri Kumta Narayana Acharya notes down that a mahajnaani like Sri Indirakant teerth swamiji will not be affected by the demise like a common person. Sri Indirakant teerth swamiji has written a beautiful Marathi commentary on bhagavad geetaa and would not have been affected like an ajnaani and left eating meals in grief. As Sri Kumatha Narayanacharya studied under swamiji and was personally close, his account as recorded in Gurparamparamruta book are more authoritative. So the reason for the anna tyaaga must be for a different reason and we can only make a guess about it. It must be a strong kind of penance, an ugra tapas, for the betterment of the society. If it was due to grief there was no reason to stick to the vrata and not eat anna lifelong and subsist on minimal food like fruits. Sri Indirakant teerth swamiji never had anna for the rest of life. And Swamiji turned more and more inwards though He looked after the well being of the math and followers. The bright spark was missing and to find the necessary drive to rekindle the fire in the samaj Sri Indirakant teerth swamiji was readying for a long teerthayaatra of aasetu himaachala. When this wish was placed before the members of samaj, majority of the people wanted Swamiji to appoint a disciple as the shishya before leaving for teertha yatra. It was already ten years from the demise of the earlier one. When the request for a disciple was put forth to Sri Swamiji , He gave permission to find the right vatu. A committee was formed and a wide search was made which turned futile. They could not find and select any fit person.
After a reasonable time, Sri Indiranant teerth swamiji arranged for a mahasabha and invited all members of the matha’s disciples. In the sabha Swamiji Himself declared that appointing a shishya before going on for the teertha yaatra will be completed and told the people that Swamiji already had a fit person to receive the deeksha. Everybody was surprised when Swamiji declared the name of the vatu. He was none other than son of an archaka , Sri Vaikunth Narayan Acharya , who was working in the partagali matha itself. People were surprised that they could miss such a person who was so near. But Sri Indirakanth teerth Swamiji had already noticed the brilliant young dedicated personality who was a student in the matha itself. The horoscope was immediately demanded and the scholars of the math present in the sabha and swamiji examined it and found it fit. Permission from the parents was sought which was readily given and Swamiji asked the kaul from Ramadev , Veeravitthal which was also granted by Lord. And in the same mahasabha the name of future shishya was declared.

The sanyasa deeksha muhurta was later decided to be on vaishaakha Krishna panchami, shri saka 1829. And the name given to the shishya by the guru was Sri Kamalanatha teerth.
In next instalment we shall see the history of these divine Guru Shisyas.

गुरु चरणाम्बुज दास। विष्णु वेंकटदास शानभाग

Part 2: https://krishnavishnuhari.blogspot.com/2017/03/gurucharitra-shri-kamalanath-thirtha.html