Sri Jayatheertharu

||Shri Jayatheertha Gurubhyonamaha ||

Noble soul indeed is he, who feeds the hungry, but the nobler one is he who provides the hungry with a means of livelihood; and the noblest soul is one who provides a means to satisfy one’s quest for liberation, said a philosopher. Shri Jayatheertha Swamiji was essentially one of the noblest souls who unlocked the secret door of the treasure house of the priceless true philosophy for all to attain liberation. His life reads like a fiction.

Much of the earlier life of Shri Jayateertha Swamiji has been lost to the tides of time, leaving behind a few reminiscences. He was born to Raghunathpant Deshpande, a Brahmin chieftain of Mangalwedha, a village, and now a town, near Pandharpur, around 1345 C E, and was named Dhondoo, a name which, among Brahmins, is changed to Dhondo, in normal usage; he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, and as the name suggests, he was probably the only surviving child of his parents; and quite naturally, he was much humoured. 

Dhondopant as he was called, being the son of the chieftain, was less of an Athenian and more of a Spartan; he hardly showed any interest in the pursuit of philosophy in his childhood, although the family did observe the Brahminical tradition prevailing at the time; instead, having been blessed with robust health, he took keen interest in athletics and sports, including horse riding. He thus entered into youth and reached his twenties.

The young and well-built Dhondopant showed considerable interest in worldly matters. He was intelligent and took keen interest in the affairs of family tradition of the village chieftainship. His father Raghunathpant was happy with the progress of his son, who, he thought, would step into his shoes and carry forward the family tradition of the village management; but a very singular incident gave a dramatic turn to Dhondopant’s life, from the one of full interest in materialism to the one of total renunciation, that was also marked by so great a depth of philosophical knowledge that it has remained unfathomed till today.

Once young Dhondopant returning home after a chase of a group of bandits, on horseback, reached the river Bheema. He was thirsty and he quenched the thirst in a most unusual way; he was riding on a horse, he rode the horse deep into the waters of the river and without dismounting, drank water directly from the river like an animal. After thus quenching the thirst, he returned to the bank where he saw a lustrous sanyasin, sitting on the bank; he was Sri Akshobhyatheertha Swamiji of the Uttaradi Math who had been watching Dhondopant since his arrival at the river and his very unusual way of having quenched his thirst. Dhondopant was not aware of the identity of the swamiji, but was very much impressed by the luster he seemed to emanate. He dismounted and bowed to him with reverence, as per the custom, when the swamiji asked him: “Were you an animal in your last birth?”

The question, very unusual yet pertinent, led him to a journey within him; it took him down memory lane, far beyond its known limits, to the Treta Yuga, when, he could recollect, he had been born as Vali, a true devotee of Lord Shri Ram, as Arjuna in Dwapara Yuga, and then as an ox during Shri Madhwacharya’s time, when, as animal, he would carry Shri Madhwacharya’s works on his back and would listen to his discourses and daily patha. He also vividly remembered that once Shri Madhwacharya had, pointing to him in the form of ox, told his disciples that it would be that ox that would write commentaries on his works. Not only did he remember his earlier lives but also recollect all that he Shri Madhwacharya had taught his students in daily patha and the philosophy he had propagated through his discourses. He also realized that he was, in his moola roopa, Indra, the King of the gods, and that he was now born with the avesha of Shesha for the sole purpose of writing commentaries on Shri Madhwacharya’s works, as foretold by Shri Madhwacharya.

Dhondopant was now a totally different man. Having realised his purpose of life, he prostrated before the swamiji and said that he would renounce the world from that moment and pleaded with him to accept him as his disciple; in fact, he said, he had already renounced the world, although the most extraordinary event that led to his actual initiation into sanyasa was still a couple of weeks away.

Raghunathpant, who learned of his son’s renouncement of the world, forcibly took him home and got him married, hoping that marriage would make him change his decision, but when the bride entered her husband’s bed-room on the first night, she found him sitting on the bed under the canopy of hoods provided by a large many headed serpent from behind him; she screamed in utter horror. Her screams brought every member of the family to the bed-room; the members stood transfixed at the sight of the awe-inspiring spectacle. Raghunathpant and his wife realized that their son was no ordinary human being to be lured by worldly pleasures, but a celestial being born for a higher purpose that perhaps demanded renouncement of the world, and permitted him to be a sanyasin.

Shri Akshobhyatheertha Swamiji was no ordinary sanyasin; he was a disciple of Shri Madhwacharya himself and the pontiff of the Uttaradi Math, the fourth pontiff since Shri Madhwacharya. He had a premonition that Dhondopant was the one who would succeed him, and, therefore, he readily agreed to oblige him. The Swamiji initiated Dhondopant into sanyasa around 1366 C E, naming him Jayatheertha, and introduced him to philosophy. 

Shri Jayatheertha Swamiji was a prodigy; initiation into the shastraic study was figuratively like opening of sluices of a large water reservoir from which water gushes out with great force that turns vast barren land into lush meadow; he made phenomenal progress in all branches of the Vedic and allied literature; he mastered all schools of thought –Vedic and non-Vedic- acquiring an astonishingly deeper knowledge of Madhwa philosophy in a very short time. He proved himself to be a rare genius, a diamond of the first water, and soon succeeded Shri Akshobhyatheertha Swamiji as the Pontiff, Uttaradi Math.

Shri Jayatheertha Swamiji had an exceptionally vast and deep knowledge of all scriptures. He could see beyond the written words and sentences of the philosophical and religious texts; he could read the true meaning underlying the statements and could explain it with ease, including the words and statements that seemed to contradict the text and the spirit of the work. He had an exceptionally sharp intelligence and an equally sharp memory. He was a logician, a dispassionate analyst, a grammarian with an in-depth knowledge of its nuances, and an etymologist. His extensive knowledge coupled with his eloquent speech, had lent him an extraordinary ability to prove his point conclusively in debates, of which he had many during his tenure, when he encountered many truly great scholars: and in each of the debates, he proved the view points of Dwaitism, leaving no iota of doubt in the minds of the opponents, who acknowledged his in-depth knowledge of a very wide range of subjects.  It was truly a glorious era of the Dwaita philosophy.

The magnum bonum of Shri Jayatheertha Swamiji is the works he penned. He was a poet; he knew the heart of Shri Madhwacharya and wrote commentaries on his works in a secluded place-a cave- near Yaragola; he has 21 works (18 commentaries and 3 independent works) to his credit, and all are of great philosophical worth. Shri Vidyaranya, a colossus of knowledge and one of the greatest Adwaita scholars of his time, was so ecstatic on reading the commentaries of Shri Jayatheertha Swamiji, Sriman Nyaya Sudha in particular, that he arranged for a procession wherein Shri Jayatheertha Swamiji was mounted on a decorated elephant with all his commentaries.

Of all the commentaries of Shri Jayatheertha Swamiji, Shriman Nyaya Sudha, the commentary on Shri Madhwacharya’s Anu Vyakhyana, has been regarded as the magnum opus, the edifice of Madhwa philosophy, a work that ascends to such rarefied sublime heights of pure philosophy that it has been accorded the highest status in Dwaita philosophy. In fact, the study of Dwaita philosophy is considered incomplete without the study of Sriman Nyaya Sudha. Shri Jayatheertha Swamiji who wrote such great commentaries (teekas) came to be known as Teekacharya.

Despite his Himalayan stature in every conceivable respect, he was the embodiment of simplicity; he was humble to the core; he had the highest respect for his mentor Shri Akshobhyatheertha Swamiji. He expressed his desire, probably the only desire he may have ever voiced as sanyasin, that his Vrindavana be erected by the side of that of his guru at Malkhed, on the bank of the river Kagini; and his successor, Shri. Vidyadhirajatheertha Swamiji fulfilled his desire, when the Swamiji shed his mortal frame in 1388 C. E, when he was still young; he was in his early forties.

Shri Jayateertha Swamiji was the pontiff of the Uttaradi Math from 1365 to 1388 C E, the period during which he took Maadhwa philosophy to unimaginable heights. It was indeed a golden era not only in the annals of theUttaradi Math, but in the Maadhwa movement as a whole.  

In Suthra Prasthaana :-

1. Brahmasutra Bhashya Teeka – Tatvaprakashika

2. Anuvyaakyaana Teeka – Sriman Nyaaya Sudha

3. Nyaaya Vivarana Teeka

In Geetha Prasthaana : –

4. Geetha Bhashya Teeka – Prameya Deepike

5. Geetha Tatparya Teeka – Nyaaya Deepika

In Upanishat Prasthaana :-

6. IshaavasyOpanishad bhaashya Teeka

7. Shat PrashnOpanishad bhaashya Teeka

In PrakaraNa Granthaas :-

8. Tattva sankyaana Teeka

9. Tattva Viveka Teeka

10. Tattvodyota Teeka

11. Maayaavaada Khandana Teeka

12. UpadhikhanDana Teeka

13. Prapanchamithyaatvaanumaana KanDana Teeka

14. Karma Nirnaya Teeka

15. Kathaa Lakshana Teeka

16. PramaaNa lakshana Teeka

17. Vishnu Tattva Nirnaya Teeka

In Ruk Prasthaana – 

18. Rugbhaashya Teeka

In Swatantra Granthaas –

19. VaadaavaLi

20. PramaNa paddati

21. Padyamaala

Shri Jayatheertha Swamiji’s vrindavana is located on the bank of the river Kagini at Malkhed; the river flowing silently has provided a serene backdrop to the vrindavana. Shri Jayateertha Swamiji, who preached philosophy, when he walked the earth, now guides the true aspirants from within the vrindavana.

Courtesy: Shri Ramachandra Tammannacharya Gutti & Uttaradi Math

|| Shri Krishnarpanamastu ||