Srimad Ananda Tiirtha

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Srimad Ananda Tiirtha

 

Srimad Ananda Tiirtha, also known as Sukha Tiirtha,

Puurnabodha, and Puurnapragnya, is the founder of the

doctrine

of Tattvavaada. He is the last of the great Achaaryas

of Vedanta, and is also the last of 22 commentators on

the

Brahma-Suutra of Veda Vyaasa. His doctrine asserts, as

has already been noted elsewhere, that the differences

are

eternally real, and that hence there is more than one

absolute real, and that Hari (Vishnu) is the only

entity praised in the

Shrutis and their adjuncts. Thus, he always identifies

the Brahman of the Upanishads with Vishnu, and

forcefully argues

against the dichotomy of Shrutis (tattvaavedaka /

atattvaavedaka) as claimed by Sri Shankaraachaarya,

saying that

such arbitration of apowrusheya scripture is

unacceptable both logically and spiritually. He also

emphasizes that it is

important to understand and specifically reject other

schools' precepts, and hence devotes much time to

nitpicking

analyses and denunciations of other doctrines.

 

Srimad Ananda Tiirtha is commonly identified with

Madhva, the third avataara of Mukhya PraaNa, the god

of life, as

given in the BaLitthaa Suukta of the Rg Veda. The

first two avataara-s are as Hanumaan and Bhiimasena,

and the third

is Madhva, who came down to Earth as a sanyaasii, in

order to avoid decimating the forces of evil (as he

had done on

the previous two occasions, and as he would have done

again -- upsetting the flow of Kali Yuga in the

process -- if he

were not a sannyaasii). Srimad Ananda Tiirtha himself

makes the claim to being Madhva in several instances,

one of

which is in the Vishnu-tattva-vinirNaya verse given on

the cover page of this section. It was recognized in

his own time,

and it has been documented, that he had all

two-and-thirty shubha-lakshaNa-s that define a

rju-taattvika-yogii,

including the prescribed height of six-and-ninety

inches ("shaNNavati angulo.apetam").

 

However, he is firmly set against the notion of

accepting doctrines because they come from prophets or

claimed gods --

he refuses to accept that it is possible to derive a

meaningful spiritual system based on any but the

apowrusheya texts

(the Vedas/Upanishads/Shrutis) and their adjuncts (the

Iti-haasas, PuraaNas, etc.). He also dismisses claims

that only

part of the Vedas are useful, and claims that even the

so-called karma-kaaNDa portions of them are only meant

to

worship Hari.

 

The earliest and most authentic biography of Srimad

Ananda Tiirtha is the Sumadhva-Vijaya, a.k.a. Madhva

Vijaya, by

NaaraayaNa Pandita, the son of his close disciple

Trivikrama Pandita. There are other English

biographies by C. M.

Padmanabhachar, C. N. Krishnasvami Ayyar, S. Subbarao,

and C. R. Krishnarao, among others, but these are not

truly

independent efforts, since they draw very deeply upon

NaaraayaNa Pandita's work.

 

Madhva was known as Vaasudeva, as a child, and was

born in response to a prayer by some braahmana-s of

the

Bhaagavata sampradaaya, as a result of which Vishnu,

who Himself does not incarnate during Kali Yuga,

ordered His

chief aide Mukhya PraaNa a.k.a. Vaayu to go to Earth,

and rescue the mumukshu-s from the unrelenting deluge

of the

illusionist schools. Therefore, Vaayu was born in

Paajaka-kshetra, near Udupi (in modern Karnataka

state), to

Madhya-geha Bhatta. Even as a child, he was

extraordinary in every respect, and repeatedly

astounded his teachers, and

performed several miracles, a notable one being when

he freed his father from the clutches of a loan shark,

by giving

him a handful of tamarind seeds which satisfied the

latter completely. He also killed the demon MaNimanta,

who

attacked him in the form of a snake, by crushing the

snake's head under his toe.

 

At the age of eight or thereabouts, he announced to

his parents his intention to take up sanyaasa, and on

noting their

distress at this pronouncement, promised to wait until

another son was born to them. Finally, at the age of

eleven, upon

the birth of a younger brother (who many years later

joined his order as Vishnu Tiirtha) he was ordained

into sanyaasa,

whence he was given the name Ananda Tiirtha by his

guru Achyutapreksha Tiirtha, a.k.a. Achyuta-pragnya

Tiirtha. Soon

afterward, when his guru attempted to educate him, he

astounded the former by his knowledge. It is said that

when his

guru tried to teach him the noted Advaita text

IshhTa-Siddhi, he pointed out, to Achyutapreksha

Tiirtha's amazement,

that there were 30 errors in the very first line of

that work, where its author Vimuktaatman pays

obeisance to himself by

saying something like: "The only truth is the soul's

empirical knowledge. In the presence of this truth the

world appears

to be an illusory play. The essential soul manifests

itself as I, you and everything..."

 

It was this profound knowledge of all subjects that

earned him the title of "PuurNa-pragnya," for "the one

of complete

wisdom." The initially discomfited but finally greatly

pleased Achyutapreksha Tiirtha soon gave up trying to

educate the

master, and himself made a full conversion to

Tattvavaada, under the name Purushottama Tiirtha.

 

Srimad Ananda Tiirtha is known for his skill at debate

and repartee, which were amply evident when he roundly

trounced all opponents who dared take him on. One

early convert to his school was Shobhana Bhatta; after

losing to

Madhva in debate, he accepted the latter as his Guru,

and was given sanyaasa under the name Padmanaabha

Tiirtha.

Two other noted opponents whom PuurNapragnya defeated

in debate and converted to ardent devotees, were

Trivikrama Pandita, and Shyaama Shaastri -- the latter

accepted sanyaasa as Narahari Tiirtha.

 

Madhva made two trips to Badarikaashrama, the abode of

BaadaraayaNa a.k.a. Veda Vyaasa, and on the first,

obtained

the imprimatur of BaadaraayaNa Himself for his

Bhaashya on the Bhagavad Gita, when the latter made

the correction

"vakshyaami leshataH" ("I state infinitesimally"), in

place of "vakshyaami shaktitaH" ("I state as best

as I can"). He also founded the Krishna temple at

Udupi, when he rescued by his spiritual power a ship

in distress on the

high seas, and got from its captain the apparently

useless gift of a large mound of gopi-chandana mud

that had been

used as the ship's ballast, and which broke open to

reveal the long-concealed icons of Krishna, Durga, and

Balaraama.

This is believed to be the occasion when he composed

the Dvaadasha Stotra, a set of twelve stotra-s in

praise of Vishnu

that is collectively counted as one of his

seven-and-thirty works.

 

There are many notable incidents on record involving

Srimad Ananda Tiirtha, and it is futile to hope that a

short piece

like this one can capture even the essence of his

mission correctly. However, in brief, two of them are

the ones where

he lifted and displaced a boulder weighing tons that

was obstructing some construction; an inscription

("Anandatiirthena eka-hastena sthaapitaa shilaa") made

on the boulder at the time attests to

the event to this day. On another occasion, he led

some disciples to a spot where he showed them the

long-buried

weapons of the PaaNDavas, including the great mace he

had wielded to telling effect as the mighty

Bhiimasena. (Look

here for some more notable events.)

 

Visual evidence, if one may call it that, of Srimad

Ananda Tiirtha being Madhva, the avataara of Vaayu,

was obtained

by Trivikrama Pandita when the latter had the great

fortune to observe the three forms of Vaayu worship

simultaneously -- Hanumaan worshipping Raama,

Bhiimasena worshipping Krishna, and Ananda Tiirtha

worshipping

Vyaasa. On that occasion, Trivikrama Pandita composed

the Hari-Vaayu Stuti, also called just Vaayu Stuti

("shrimadvishhNvaN^ghrinishhThaa atiguNa gurutama

shrimadaanandatiirtha ...").

Madhva himself validated the Vaayu Stuti by adding the

mangalaacharaNa shloka-s, called Narasimha- nakha

stuti

("paantvasmaan.h puruhuuta vairi balavan.h ..."), to

be chanted in the beginning and at the end of

Vaayu Stuti. (Here is an audio file of about 445 Kb,

containing a recitation. To listen to this, you will

require to have

the appropriate sound-playing software installed on

your machine. Refer to the Stotra Page for tips on

where to get

more information about such software.) This very short

work of just two shloka-s is counted as one of his

thirty-seven

grantha-s.

 

Srimad Ananda Tiirtha disappeared from amidst an

audience, after giving a lecture on the Aitareya

Upanishad, on the

ninth day of the shukla paksha in the month of Magha

in 1319, and now is permanently in Badarikaashrama,

where he

serves his master Baadaraayana in person.

 

 

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