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Theertha Swamiji of Sode Matha was held at Krishna Vadiraja Kalyana Mantapa and at facts about Sode Matha and about the Swamiji were highlighted by Sri Pushkar Achar and his disciple Sri Ramesh Achar. Musician R.K. Padmanabha too spoke and sang a song in praise of Sri Vadiraja. Sri Pushkar Achar said: 1) The work Swapna Vrindavanakhyana has many esoteric details. It says that a monk of the Sode Matha with a body of golden hue will inscribe the slokas of the work in stone in Sode. Sri Visvothama Theertha fits the description. 2) The work refers to four of five incarnations of one soul who composed it: as a dumb person, as a king in Kashi, as a brahmin in Kashi ( his name is mentioned and he is said to be the guru of one of Pushkar Achar's ancestors), and as Sri Vishvapriya Theertha Swamiji of Sode Matha who lived many years ago. One evening during the Brahma Rathothsava in Udupi, the chariot caught fire. Sri Vishvapriya Theertha Swamiji prayed to Sri Bhootharaja even as all the devotees ran away from the spot to avoid the fire. It rained immediately and the fire was doused. Strangely the chariot kept moving even though nobody was around to pull it. Sri Bhootharaja himself pulled the chariot and blessed the Swamiji. 3) Sri Vadiraja chose Sode as his brindavana spot because it is the favourite abode of Lord Hayagriva. The Trivikrama temple, Swamiji's pooja mandir and the vrindavana area are equivalent of Vaikunta, Anantasana and Shvetadweepa. The exact spot of Sri Vadiraja's brindavana is where LordHayagriva resides. 4) Sri Vishvothama Theertha's guru Sri Vishvendra Theertha told his disciple at the time of sanyasa deeksha not to get concerned or worried about sudden sounds of blowing of conch, pealing of bells etc at odd hours even though no pooja is being performed in the Sode Matha. It is said that celestials too worship the idols of Sri Bhoovaraha and Sri Hayagriva at a time of their choosing. 5) Sri Vishvothama Theertha often reminded Sri Pushkar Achar that the latter's ancestors had written commentaries on Swapna Vrindavanakhyana and that he should give the copies to the Swamiji. Sri Pushkar Achar was surprised as he had never mentioned anything about the works of his ancestors to the Swamiji earlier but Shri Swamiji was aware of all these facts. around 11 p.m. with a copy of the commentary. All the lights were out and the temple staff, on being woken up, said Swamiji had retired for the day and cannot be met. But to everyone's surprise Swamiji came running down at around 11.15 p.m.,invited the Achar inside, opened the pooja room and placed the mansucript on a silver plate and performed mangalarathi. Tears of joy rolled down his cheeks all the while. 6)Swamiji visited Badari and then proceeded to Vasudhara, the source of Saraswathi river about 6 miles from Mana, the last village in steep climb in the midst of a narrow rocky path. Halfway through it, he felt tired and decided to return to Badari base camp. Three bees, with golden wings, appeared from nowhere and went around Swamiji. He immediately felt a fresh surge of energy and climbed up to Vasudhara, performed pooja and returned. The belief is that the bees are actually gandharvas without whose blessing no one can go to Vasudhara. 7) Swamiji wanted to visit the vrindavans of great Madhva swamijis near Hampi and set out barefoot when the river had receded. He asked Pushkar Achar to carry the box containing idols of Sri Bhoovaraha and Sri Hayagriva. Achar was thrilled and began his walk. He took one step forward and five sharp thorns on the river bed pierced his legs. He yelled in pain and involuntarily put the other leg forward. Another five thorns pierced his other leg. He could not put the box down. He asked a matha boy to carry the box but the boy refused because his legs too had been pierced by thorns. Surprisingly, Swamiji was moving ahead barefoot with speed. Pushkar Achar and the boy were amazed. Then they simply prayed to the Lord and Swamiji and moved forward. Achar says that till today he does not know what saved him and what made him forget the pain. 8) Swamiji was about to enter a mutt for pooja in Kundapura region when he saw a dog writhing in pain on the ground. It had sores/boils all over its body and its legs were weak. Swamiji was sad and thought of sprinkling theertha on the dog but changed his mind. After pooja he could not take his mind off the dog, came out and sprinkled theertha on it and went away. After some hours he came out and saw the same dog running around and chasing another dog all over the road. The boils were gone except for one shaped like a swastika in the middle of its body. 9) Pushkar Achar said Swamiji was like the Saraswathi river, "gupta gamini." He had enormous spiritual powers and deep learning of Shastras and Ayurveda and even took interest in "gandharva lipi." But he avoided the limelight. And was so humble that he once asked Pushkar Achar, whether he(Swamiji) would be able to chant the Lord's name at the time of his death. Pushkar Achar was shocked and said "Swamiji! I should ask you this question, not the other way round." Swamiji chanted "Rama Rama" a couple of times and left for his eternal abode. His jaw had lowered considerably when he passed away, after chanting "Ma." Pushkar Achar said "Ra" burns away all sins in the heart and "Ma" expels the sin. Obviously Swamiji had expelled whatever traces he had of such things and stood pure. Musician R.K. Padmanabha said: "I was a nobody till the 1990s. In 1992, I had a dream one night. I was carrying a bag. Sode Swamiji and Pushkar Achar appeared and placed a pair of padukas in it. The dream ended. I was confused. I had not met the Swamiji at all in my life and I had seen Pushkar Achar once during a discourse. I then met the Swamiji. 'Who are you' he asked me. I identified myself. 'To which matha do you belong' was his next question. I said "Sankara Mutt." Then I asked him to clarify the dream. Swamiji said " I don't know you and I do not have the power to appear in your dream. It must be Sri Vadiraja and Sri Bhootharaja in our form and the placing of the padukas in your bag perhaps indicates that you need to serve Sri Vadiraja. Do what you want." R.K. Padmanabha continues: "Then I started to learn about Sri Vadiraja. Amazingly my career took off like a meteor. Then I composed 50 songs on Sri Vadiraja in 50 days. I owe everything in life to this great monk." Recently R.K. Padmanabha organised a big programme on Sri Vadirja. Amazingly, towards the end of Sri Pushkar Achar's discourse, at around 8 p.m., one rose flower rolled down from the decorated photograph of Sri Visvothama Theertha and fell near the feet of Sri Pushkar Achar. There was thunderous applause. Achar placed the flower on the heads of all devotees. He also said that he is always open and ready for any discussion on the life and works of Sri Vadiraja including his "R^juthva." He shared this with few devotees around. No one could make out which place Shri Swamiji was referring to. On his way back, they happened to stop at the well where Shri Gopala Dasara asthi are retained (there is a charitra attached to it). As soon as he got down Shri Swamiji realized that this is the same place which he dreamt of and within moment he just fell down offering his sastanga pranamas to Shri Gopala Dasaru. I was told my chikkappa(Shri HNV Dasa) & my father who also happened to visit kshetras along with Shri Swamiji that the area was full of thorns, unclean, etc. but Shri Swamiji did not bother to think on all those. Such is the greatness of Shri Vishwottama Teertha Swamiji. |
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