Sri Satyadhyana Theertharu punya dhina

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hari sarvOththamma, vAyu jIvOththamma

 

shrI gurubhyO namaH

 

A BRIEF SKETCH OF BIOGRAPHY OF SRI SATYADHYANA THEERTHA SRI PANDANGALAVARU

 

Sri Sathyadhyana Tiirtha

1913 - 1943 AD, Pandarapura, Chaithra Shudda Ashtami

 

38th peethadhipathi of Sri Uttaradhi Mutta

 

Sri Sathyadhyana Thirtha of Uttradhi Mutt (1872-1942) was born in an

ancient family of erudite scholors in the village called Chikkodi in

Belgaum District of Karnataka State. It is a prestige & honor to the family

that both his father & the Swamiji became peetadhipathies in their time of

the premier center for philosophy. His purvAsarma name was Sethurama & His

father's name was Jayacharya.

 

Sri Swamiji had his brahmOpadesha at the age of 8 & started his serious

studies in Sanskrit & Shastras under the guidence of his father who was a

great scholor himself. Sethurama continued to study under his father &

other well known pandits of the day. He was extremely intelligent & became

accomplished erudite scholar in all branches of Indian Philosophy grammer &

literature in Sanskrit before he completed his 20th year. He would pick up

any guantlet thrown by any adversory in any branch orthodox learning & win a

resounding victory over him.

 

He was married & lead a normal life of a learned Brahmin householder,

teaching Sastras to many students & scholors. At the age of 40 in 1912, he

became Sri Sathyadhyana Thirtha & peethadhipathi of Uttradhi Mutt.

 

The first outstanding event that took place after he became the

peethadhipathi was his visit to Gaya with his following scholors. He told

the scholors who were managing the affairs of the temple of Sri Vishnupada

that since they were worshippers of Vishnu, they should have conviction in

the philosophy up holding that Vishnu is the supreme God, as revealed in

sadagamas. They in turn arranged a sarva dhrama sammelana, where a

outstanding scholars professing different philophies were invited for debate

& the swamijis was requested to establish his philosophy (i.e. philosophy of

 

Sri Madhwacharya) to the satisfaction of all assembled scholors. Swamiji

accomplished that formidable task & people of Gaya accepted his victory &

became the followers of Sri Madhwacharya.

 

From Gaya, Swamiji proceeded to Kasi where he was holding dailly sessions

of

discussions on Vedanta philosophy. He notified to all scholars that they

were welcome to the sessions & establish their individual opinion in any

branch of Indian philosophy, logic & Sanskrit grammer. Many

scholars came & tried their skill indebate in different subjects, but they

had to accept defeat. The outstanding good nature of the Swamiji

was that he never humiliated any scholar even when the scholar failed to

establish his point. Swamiji appreciated the depth of Knowledge of the

scholar & told him that though there was nothing wanting in his scholarship,

he lost his case because he supported a weak case. He honored the scholars

suitably in the traditional way.

 

Though many great scholars camem the most outstanding Advaita Scholar of the

day Pandit Sivakumar Misra did not come. Swamiji sent special invitation to

him accepting all his conditions. Finally he came & opened the debate by

introducing the proposition " The world is Mithya " . He gave all the possible

evidence from Sruthies, Smurthies & logic from the point of view of

advaitha. Swamiji explained the correct position using the evidence from

Sruthies, Smruthies & logic in a convincing

manner that the " world is sathya " . Sri Mirsa was much impressed with

the erudition of Swamiji, & accepted the arguments of the Swamiji by

saying that he got correct answer for his question. Swamiji appreciated

his scholarship & suitably honored him. He is popularly known as

ABHINAVA ANANDA THIRTHA, the pontiff of the Uttradhi Mutt, the doyen of

saints & the monarch of metaphysicians.

 

In his southern tour, swamiji visited Thiru vannamalai at which in his

speech he said that " Dvaita is the only system of philosophy of the sruthies

& smruthies in all respects & advaita is entirely opposed to the teachings

of Sruthies & smruthies, & as such it is avedic. The advaithies challenged

the statement & said that he swamijee should prove the statement in the

assembly of the pandits. Swamiji accepted the challenge & called a

dharmasammelana at Kumbakonam. Pandits from all parts of India were

invited. The debate was restricted only to the pandits of Dvaita & advaitha

philosophies. A committee of Sanskriti scholars was appointed as judges.

The discussions took place in Sanskrit. It was decided that the proceedings

should be recorded. They agreed

1. that the point to be discussed was whether Geetha teaches dvaita or

advaita.

2. Each side should give a statement in writing in support of the

contention.

3. all evidence in support or against should be from Geetha only

4. The purpose of the debate was only to know the truth & the debate should

be friendly.

 

The discussion was started on the interpretation of " Kshetra " &

" Kshethragna " . Maha Mahopadhyaya Sri Anantha Krishna Sastry lead the

opposition. Advaithies maintained that " Krishna is in human body &

" Kshethrajna " is the jeeva in the body quoting Geetha sloka & Amarakosa.

Swamiji maintained that Kshethra is the whole world containing 24 thatvas &

Kshethrajna is the paramathma who is present both inside & outside of

everything quoting slokas of Geetha & from Bhasya of Sankaracharya of

Geetha. Since he found it difficult to give an convincing reason to

contradict the arguments of the swamiji. Sri Anantha Krishna Sastry walked

out of the debate saying that Swamiji quoted from bhasya of Sankaracharya

against the rules & he would not participate further, even though the judges

pointed out that Bhasya is a part of Geetha & Swamijee has not violated any

agreed rule of the debate.

 

Sri Sathyadhyana Thirtha was a prince among scholars & great lover of

his students. He was prepared to help any one who wished to learn true

philosophy to any extent. The great services he rendered to the

philosophy are writing of books & teaching of philosophy in Kannada so

that even the very ordinary person who is interested in philosophy

should access to all the high & profound ideas of philosophy which are

available only in great works on the subject in difficult Sanskrit.

 

Swamiji was author of the following books. In Kannada, sabhasara

Sangraha Part 1 (Civil Suit), Parts 2 & 3 (GeethOpanyasagalu) (the present

lectures on Srimad Baghavat Geetha in English.

 

In sanskrit Geethasarasangraha, Geethapradhipadhartha chandrika bheda

thurunneva khalu brahma suthrani, , Chandrika Mandanum.

 

Perhaps greater service than the one what is stated above is the fact

that he trained innumerablenumber of Sishyas in philosphy. Even today, most

of the outstanding scholars in Madhwa philosophy like Sri H. H. Sri

Vidhyamanya Thirtha Swamiji of Bhandarakeri Mutt, H. H. Sri Vishweshwara

Thirtha Swamiji of Pejawar Mutt, Prof (Dr.) B. N. K. Sharma are either

his direct sishyas or the sishyas of his shisyas.

 

Sri Sathyadhyana Thirtha Sripandagalavaru attained Sri Hari pAda in 1942

at Pandarapur in Maharashtra State.

 

Reference:

 

Lectures on Bhaghavath Geetha (Dhwaitha Siddhantha Vaijayanthi) by H. H.

Sri Sathya Dhyana Thirtha Sri Padhangalavaru, Uttradhi Mutt

Translated into English by Sri Krishnamurthy

 

Published by Sri M. R. Krishnamurthy & Sri M. N. Gururaja Rao of Mumbai

 

bhAratIramaNamukhyaprANA.ntargata shri kR^iShNArpanamasthu