Sri Sri Narahari Tirtha

||Hari Sarvothama Vayu Jivothama||
||Sri Narahari Tirtha Gurubyo Namaha||
||Sri Raghavendra Tirtha Gurubyo Namaha||

Charama Sloka:
|| sasItAmUlarAmArchA koshe gajapateH sthitA |
yenAnItA namastasmai shrImannR^iharibhixave||

Pushya Bahula Samptami is the aradhane of hero of this article(as well as hero of Sri Madhva philosophy) Sri Narahari Tirtha Sripadangalavaru, which falls on 2nd Feb 2024.

His holiness was the Second direct disciple of Jagadguru Sri Madhvacharya.Poorvasharama Name of our holiness was Shyama Shastry.

Orders of Sri Madhvacharyaru:
As per orders of Sri Madhvacharyaru,Sri Narahari Tirtha went to the Kingdom of Kalinga to get the idols of Sri Moola Ramachandra Murthy along with Sri Sita devi which was supposed to be in the treasury of the state.Hence our saint reached Kalinga and was looking for right chance to procure the Idols from the King, and prayed Lord to bless.Incidently, the Kalinga ruler was died and court of ministers wanted to choose an able person to take up the post as regent.They sent an elephant to choose the right choice.As a result, his holiness was selected for that post since that elephant had garlanded him.

Important service to his Guru
His holiness was Minister of Kalinga for 12 years( This fact is recorded in the inscriptions found in Simachala Sri Narasimha temple).After 12 years, when Prince came to right age our holiness expressed about his depart from the post.The King appreciated the service of this great saint and asked him what he needed from his kingdom.Our Saint asked him to give the precious Idols from his kingdom and the King readily granted the same.Thus our holiness returned the Idols to our Acharya Sri Madhva.This instance has been recorded in Narahariyatistotra.His precious job of handing over Sri Moola Ramachandra Murthy and Sri Sita devi to our Acharya Madhva, which he obtained from King cant be easily forgotten by anybody,as this is a great service to his Gurugalu.We have to note that Acharya Madhva is not only the Guru to Sri Narahari tirtha but also to the entire Jagath(as Vedas proves he as Jeevothama).

Mantralaya Mahaprabhu rightly says the same in his work called “Pratah Sankalpa Gadyam”.Our beautiful saint Sri Raghavendra Swamigalu mentions Sri Vayu as “Anantha jeevaniyamaka“-which means Sri Madhva(Vayu) is the controller of all Jeevas,without his grace no one can survive.

Works of Sri Narahari Tirtha:
His holiness has written nearly 10 works of which only few are published.

• Bhava prakashika-Commentary on Acharya Madhva’s Gita Bhasya .
• Tika on YamakaBharata .
• Commentaries on the Ten Prakaranas .

Initiator of  Haridasa kuta:
The initiator of Haridasa kuta is none other than our Jagadguru Sri Madhvacharya.History says he had written many songs in Kannada but there is no proof available today.But we can very well see his style in the lyrics in one of his works called Dvadasa Stotra,which is read in almost all of the Vaishnavaites houses even today.His shishya Sri Narahari Tirtha is of no exception. His holiness wrote many beautiful songs in Kannada and spread Haridasara sahitya to such a great extent,with mudrika as “Narahari”.Some of his songs start with

• Entu Marulade Nanentu
• Hariye Idu Ninage Sariye?
• Harusha dindali kayo
• Brinadavani Tulasi
• Tilako Ninnolage Nine

As his period of stay in this punya Karma bhoomi was nearing to end,our all knowing great saint Sri Narahari Tirtha mahaprabhu decided to enter his brindhavana at Chakra Teertha,Hampi in the banks of the river Tungabhadra.

Let his holiness bless all of us with Gyana/Bhakthi/Vairagya,

Dhanyavadha,

Venkatesh Rajendra Rao.

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Venkatesh Rajendran

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