Guru Raghavendra is the great Gnanendra

Guru Raghavendra is the great Gnanendra, since he contains vast ocean of knowledge, wisdom, courage and great spiritual powers.

Guru Raghavendra contains the powers and knowledge, equivalent to the Demon Guru Shukracharya and the Deva Guru Brihaspati Bhagavan. When Lord Brahma has cursed his divine attendant, Shankukarna, to take few births in the earth, Shankukarna was very much worried, and asked his master Lord Brahma to reconsider his decision. But, Lord Brahma with a smiling face has answered. ”Oh my Dear Shankukarna, don’t worry about my curse, since it was intentionally given to you by me, by considering it to be the wishes of Lord Vishnu. You are going to incarnate in this earth only by taking noble births, and during the time of your “GURU RAGHAVENDRA AVATAR”, you would be considered equivalent to the celestial Deva Guru, Brihaspati and the Demon Guru Shukracharya, and, hence, you no need to worry about taking births in the earth”.

As per the curse given to Lord Shankukarna, after taking few noble births in the earth, now, at this present Kali Yuga, he has taken the birth as a great Madhwa Saint, “GURU RAGHAVENDRA”. During the time of his Prahalad Avatar itself, he was blessed both by the Divine Gurus, Brihaspati and Shukra, and hence Guru Raghavendra is capable of granting boons to his devotees, and he also solves their problems immediately.

In a Guru Raghavendra Stotra, he is praised as a more knowledgeable person, and contains the features of Lord Brahma. Our great Guru contains knowledge equivalent to his master Lord Brahma Deva itself, since Ma Saraswati permanently dwells on his soul. During his Vyasaraja Avatar, once he drank the poison wilfully, since it was offered as a Prasad to Lord Rama, and the poison also didn’t cause any harm to his body. He was able to do like this, since during the time of his Prahalada Avatar itself, he has undergone lot of punishments, but, however, he was able to successfully come out from all those severe tests.

Even if we drink some poison without our awareness, it would not cause harm to us, provided if we keep sincere faith and bhakti on Gururaja. Some people used to invoke the powers of the deities to others with bad motive, but it would not be applicable in case of our respectful Guru Raghavendra, since our beloved Guru would never cause any harm to us in any manner, since the main purpose of his avatar itself is to do only good things to others.

We can give the wonderful title, ‘ANNA BABA’, to our marvellous Guru Raghavendra, since with his blessings, daily thousands and thousands of devotees are being fed two times a day at Mantralayam, the holy abode of Guru Raghavendra. Apart from afternoon lunch which covers wholesome food with other dishes, daily night, mostly tiffin items, would be offered to the devotees. Hence most of the devotees who visit Mantralayam used to finish their lunch and dinner only at the Annadana Hall present at Mantralayam.

Similar to Ma Annapurani who offers food at Kashi and Horanadu, Guru Raghavendra also provides food to the visiting pilgrims, since he didn’t want his poor devotees to starve without food and water. We can also describe Guru Raghavendra as “ANNASWAROOPA”, “ANNARAJA”, “ANNARAYA”. Before becoming a Madhwa Saint, while he was leading a family life, as a house holder, our Great Guru has suffered from severe poverty. For most of the days, he used to consider only the Tulsi water as his food. Even if he gets some food grains from his neighbours, he used to give it to those who seek alms from him. That’s why, in Mantralayam, food is being provided on a daily basis, even during the times of natural calamities like famine, cyclone, floods and earth quakes. But during Solar and Lunar Eclipse and Ekadasi days, food would not be provided at Mantralayam.

In a famous Kannada Song, Guru Raghavendra Swamy is described as “ANNAPURNESWARA”, which means, the giver of wholesome food to all those who ask for food. Guru Raghavendra is a soft and gentle saint and there is no need to get afraid of him. Even in some Mutts of Guru Raghavendra, devotees would praise him, and worship Lord Vishnu to grant more number of years to our Great Guru. Some of the devotees would even worry whether someone would invoke black magic on to our holy worshipful Guru. But our Guru contains abundant powers even than that of the almighty! Our Guru is being protected and surrounded by innumerable deities, and hence, no one could cause harm to him. As per our Guru’s advice, let us feed poor people and other living beings on a daily basis, as per our financial status, in order to make our Guru to smile with happiness in appreciation to our noble act.

Raghavendra Swamy is a great Guru, and he can also be treated as a Demi-god, since he is the incarnation of Lord Shankukarna, the Divine Attendant of Lord Brahma. But some of the devotees would call him as “KADAVULE”, “BHAGAVANE”, god, due to their staunch bhakti on him. As per the Madhwa Philosophy, Raghavendra Swamy must be considered only as a Guru, but, based on the significance of his previous avatars we can also consider him to be the Chief most demi-god, similar to the Prajapatis, Lord Daksha Bhagavan and Lord Manu.

Most of his devotees believe him to be an incarnation of Lord Vishnu, since Guru Raghavendra has performed lot of miracles on their lives. Hence he can be described as a beloved deity to his devotees, and as a popular Madhwa Saint. After the completion of his tenure in the Mantralayam Brindavana, Guru Raghavendra would return to Satya Loka, the Holy abode of Lord Brahma Deva, and then, he would transform into his original form, Sri Shanku Karna Deva and start doing his divine service under his master Lord Brahma Deva.

During the time of our death bed, hearing the Mantras of GURU RAGHAVENDRA is highly advisable. Guru Raghavendra acts as a mediator between us and god, and, hence, we would get a fearless and peaceful death. Worrying about our next birth is of no use, and we have to leave such types of worries under the lotus feet of Guru Raghavendra.

In a famous Kannada Bhakti song, Guru Raghavendra is described as the treasurer of Punya, since, whoever worships him sincerely, and does good activities, can avail some good Karma from the treasurer Guru Raghavendra. Our Guru would also recommend to the Divine Accountant Sri Chitra Gupta, to write off some of our bad karmas, when it was performed by us even without our knowledge.

Guru Raghavendra Swamy is the most unforgettable Saint, since he dwells in the souls of his devotees, and showers his abundant grace like the vast Ocean. Similar to the Holy River Ganges, he is cleansing our sins, gives food and quenches our thirst by creating rainfall even in the parched desert region. He is the Holy Devata Sri Shanku Karna, the Brave, prestigious, generous and courageous Sri Prahalada Bhagavata, the great emperor Sri Bahlika Raja, and the Holy Madhwa Saint Sri Vyasaraja.

Similar to adorning the precious gold ornaments to Lord Ayyappa from the ornament Box, also called as Thiruvabarana Petti, the Mantralayam priests can also adorn the ornaments from the ornament Box to the idol of Sri Prahalada, the utsava idol of Guru Raghavendra, during the annual Aradhana festival days in order to show our love, honour and respect to the great Guru. There are various ways to please our beloved Guru Raghavendra, and one such way is to decorate him with beautiful garments on the auspicious festival days.

Rich devotees while donating ornaments to the Mantralayam Temple can also donate an ornament box, in order to create happiness to Sri Prahaladazhvar. When Prahalada, who is in the form of Guru Raghavendra creates happiness in the lives of his devotees, it is also our duty to show our gratefulness to him by wonderfully decorating him with flower, flower garlands and with costly golden ornaments. Similar to buying ornaments to our children, we can also buy some nice golden ornaments and donate it to Guru Raghavendra Swamy Temple, Mantralayam.

Similar to child Krishna, Sri Prahalada is also considered to be a divine child, and similar to Krishna, he has also performed lot of miracles and divine plays during his childhood. Hence it is our most important duty to extend our support to Sri Prahalada also, and similar to adorning jewels to Lord Ayyappa during the Makara Jothi Festival day, the priests and the staffs who belong to Mantralayam must have to take the ornament box (Thiruvabarana Petti) on their heads, and also, they must have to circumambulate inside and outside of the temple premises, in order to make the devotees to have a glimpse of the wonderful ornament box, and they must have to adorn it to Sri Prahalada during the annual Aradhana festival days in presence of the huge number of devotees.

While Narasimha was granting boons to Prahalada, he has said, “Hey my dear Prahalada, you would rule your kingdom in a prosperous manner through my grace, and after ruling your kingdom for a long time, and even during the time of your Guru Raghavendra Avatar, you would be sincerely worshipped by your devotees, by adorning valuable jewels, and they would also keep those jewels on an ornament box and would carry it on their heads, during the time of your Jeeva Samadhi Day”. Hence by considering the above boon in our mind, we have to make proper arrangements to do such nice things in order to please our ever loving friend, Child Prahalada.

Hence let us eagerly wait for the auspicious day, in order to have a glimpse of our lovely Prahalada, who would be adorned with costly ornaments, and who would be treated with great honour and respect.

“OM SRI GURU RAGHAVENDRAYA NAMAHA”
WRITTEN BY
R.HARISHANKAR