By By the divine grace, we had an excellent 347th Aradhane Mahotsava of Sri Raghavendra Swami and was being performed at Jai Durga Hindu Society, Scarborough and where hundreds of people participated. Bharat Marg wants to thank Sri and Srimathi Ramesh Bangalore and other selfless devotees and volunteers for coordinating and organizing such an incredible function where people from all walks of life could not only participate and enjoy and get blessed.
The program was started with the sankalpa. And it was continued by Abhishekam for the deities. They did the Abhishekam for Lord Raghavendra, Lord Hanuman and King Prahalad. Then the idols were decorated gorgeously with flowers and tulasi mala. Lot of devotees sang songs praising the God. Then they had Archana followed by Maha Pooja. Finally but not the least they had spontaneous feast with 5 varieties of sweets and 21 varieties of dishes.
Let us read and learn who is Raghavendra swamy.
Sri Raghavendra Swami’s real name is Sri Venkata Natha (Venkata Ramana), who is the second son of Sri Thimanna Bhatta and Smt. Gopikamba on Thursday, Sukla Navami of Phalguna masam in 1595, in Chidambaram Tamil Nadu He was a very brilliant scholar from a very young age who learnt to play the Veena very proficiently.
After his father’s death he was brought up by his brother Sri Gururaja Bhatta and completed the initial portion of his education under his brother-in-law Lakshminarasimhacharya’s guidance in Madurai.
After returning from Madurai in 1614, Sri Venkatanatha married Smt. Saraswathi Bai and in the same year and had a son Sri Lakshminarayanacharya. After marriage, Sri Venkatanatha and his family went to Kumbakonam where he studied the Dwaita Vedantha, grammar and literary works under his guru, Sri Sudheendra Theertha.
He never demanded any money for his services and led a life of poverty along with his wife and son. They went without food several times a week. His life was spent in the worship of God and service of humanity, his spiritual guru, Sri Sudheendra Theertharu, was looking for a successor for his math. He had a dream where the Lord indicated that Sri Venkatanatha would be the right person to succeed him. But Sri Venkatanatha initially refused due to his responsibility towards his wife and son but was soon blessed by the Goddess of Learning, where she appeared in a dream indicated that he was to seek salvation as a Sanyasi. Sri Venkatanatha treated this as an omen and changed his mind. The sanyasa ordination took place in 1621 on the Phalguni Sukla Dwitiya at Thanjavur.
During Sri Raghavendra Swami’s time at Kumbakonam, Thanjavur district as a whole was reeling under the effects of a severe 12 years drought. Then Thanjavur Nayak ruler Sevvappa Nayak approached Swamiji and was advised to perform some Yagnas. No sooner were these rites performed, was the region flush with rain and prosperity.
On Dwitiya Day of Sravana Krishna Paksha in 1671, Raghavendra Swami gave a soul-stirring speech to hundreds of devotees who had gathered to watch the event. And this date is celebrated each year as Sri Raghavendra Swamy Aradhana at Brindavana all over the world. The Raghavendra Mutt in Mantralayam housing his Brindavana is visited by thousands of devotees every year.
It is believed he would live for
• 76 years physically on the Earth.
• 300 years in the Brindavana, through his literary work among the people.
• 400 years in the Brindavana without a physical form.
Totally 700 years he will be in Brindavana helping the society and the mankind to come-out from troubles and miseries.
