Shri Nrusimha Saraswati
Shri Nrusimha Saraswati
Shri Narasimha Saraswati नरसिहसरस्वती (Nrusimha Saraswati) is
considered the second avatar of Shri Dattatreya. The only way we
know about his life is through the remarkable and most influential
book in Marathi literature, Shri GuruCharitra written by Shri
Saraswati Gangadhar, one of the most talented poet and philosopher
ever known in Marathi literature in Maharashtra.
Shri Narasimha Saraswati (henceforth referred in the article as Shri
Guru) is considered as the incarnation of Shri Shripad Shri Vallabha
who lived in Kuravpur. Shri Narasimha Saraswati is considered as the
Guru by the Datta-Sampradaya people. His life story as given in Shri
GuruCharitra is read and followed by hundreds of thousands of
devotees. Shri Saibaba is also considered in this lineage of the
Swamis or Gurus.
His name is Narahari or Shalgramdev that was kept at the beginning.
His father's name is Madhav and mother's name is Amba-Bhavani. They
lived at Karanjapur which is modern Lad-Karanja in Maharashtra. His
surname is Kale.He was born in Deshastha Brahmin family. At Lad-Karanja
there is the original house where he was born. Although the house is
no longer in the original shape, but still some parts remain and
have been converted in to a temple.
The study of his life and life events have put his time to be from
1378AD to 1458AD when he took Samadhi in Kardali-van (Jungle of
Kardali trees). The only documented source of his life is Shri
GuruCharitra. The writer of this book did not have direct contact
with Shri Guru, but possibly had the original Sanskrit version of
the Guru-charitra in front of him written by one of the four
disciples of Shri Guru. The disciple is Shri Siddha. The whole book
is written as a conversation between a disciple Namdharak and Siddha.
His Guru Tradition (Guru-Parampara)
Shri Narasimha Saraswati comes from the tradition of Shringeri Math.
Jagatguru Shri Adi Shankaracharya also comes from this same
tradition. The guru-lineage is as follows: Shankar - Vishnu - Bramha
- Vasishtha - Parashar - Vyas - Shuka - Gaudpadacharya -
Govindacharya - Shankaracharya - Vishwarupacharya -
Nityabodhghanacharya - Dnyanaghanacharya - Dnyanamottamacharya -
Dnyanagiri - Simhagiri - Ishwartirtha - Narasimhatirtha -
Vidyatirtha - Vidyaranya - Vidyatirthasaraswati -
Malayanandasaraswati - Devatirtha Saraswati - Yadavendra Saraswati -
Krishna Saraswati -Narasimha Saraswati.
Shri Vidyaranyasaraswati (1295CE-1386CE) was the heading the
Shringeri math from 1380CE to 1386CE. Although there are several
names in between Shri Narasimha Saraswati and him, one must remember
that it is not necessary that the subsequent successors to the
Shringeri peeth (throne) were young, as the age of the disciple
could be more than his guru. In fact Shri Sayamdev and his son
Nagnath (forefathers of Shri Saraswati Gangadhar) both were
disciples of Shri Narasimha Saraswati at the same time. Shri
Narasimha Saraswati's love of music possibly comes as a tradition
from Shri Vidyaranya to Shri Narasimha Saraswati. Shri Vidyaranya
was very fond of music.
His Disciple Tradition (Shishya Parampara)
Shri Narasimha Saraswati had several disciples who are described in
Shri GuruCharitra already. The first and most favourite one was Shri
Madhav Saraswati from Prayag. At that time he also had Bal-Saraswati,
Krishna Saraswati, Upendra Saraswati, Sadananda Saraswati,
Dnyanajyoti Saraswati and Siddha Saraswati as his six other
disciples. This Siddha Saraswati stayed with Shri Narasimha
Saraswati all the time and is possibly the original writer of
Sanskrit GuruCharitra which must have been later translated to
Marathi by Shri Saraswati Gangadhar. Among the last 4 disciples who
were present when Shri Narasimha Saraswati took nijanandagaman (a
type of samadhi), Siddha Saraswati was the only Sanyasi disciple of
Shri Narasimha Saraswati and the other 3 were family men. It appears
that this Madhava Saraswati's tradition is more popular in
Maharashtra. The final disciple tradition is: Shri Narasimha
Saraswati - Madhavendra Saraswati - Amritendra Saraswati (Amritananda)
- Gaganendra Saraswati - Madhavendra Saraswati (Madhav Saraswati).
After Madhav Saraswati the tradition splits in to two branches:
Eknath - Shrikrishna - Bramhadas.
Vitthal Saraswati - Ambika Saraswati - Amrit.
Chronology of Life Events
Shri Narasimha Saraswati lived from Shaka 1300 to Shaka 1380 as per
most of the scholars. The main events of his life are given below
with the possible years and dates are fixed as per the description
of the lunar and stellar events calendar mentioned in Shri
GuruCharitra.
Sha.1300 (1378 CE) : Birth
Sha.1307 (1385 CE) : Upanayan
Sha.1308 (1386 CE) : Left his home
Sha.1310 (1388 CE) : Took Sanyas
Sha.1338 (1416 CE) : Arrival back home at Lad-Karanja
Sha.1340 (1418 CE) : Gautami-Tatak-Yatra गौतमी तटाक यात्रा (travel
along the banks of river Gautami)
Sha.1342 (1420 CE) : Stay at Parali-Vaijanath परळी-वैजनाथ
Sha.1343 (1421 CE) : Stay at Audumbar औदुंबर (near Bhilavadi)
Sha.1344-1356 (1422 CE-1434 CE) : Stay at Narasoba Wadi alias
Narasimhapur
Sha.1357-1380 (1435 CE-1458 CE) : Stay at Ganagapur गाणगापूर
Sha.1380 (14 January 1459 CE) : Nijanandagaman निजानंदगमन at
ShriShaila श्रीशैल Mountain
Life and Work
In Shri GuruCharitra Chapter 11 onwards is the description of life
story of Shri Narasimha Saraswati. After he was born the first words
he said were OM which are considered very holy. However, until he
was 7 he did not utter any other word other than OM, so his parents
were worried about his speech ability. However, he showed by hand
gestures that after his Upanayana (Munja) he will be able to speak.
In fact after his munja was performed he was able to speak all the
vedas and even started delivering lectures on it. This was
remarkable for a 7 year old kid and many senior learned Brahmins in
the village started coming to him for learning!
He left home and went for Kashi-pilgrimage and took Sannyasa at
Kashi from Shri Krishna Saraswati. The second part of his name comes
from this guru, who eventually named him Shri Narasimha Saraswati.
This is a Sanskrit name. Now he became the Guru. After visiting
several holy places he returned back to Karanja, met his parents. He
was possibly of age 30years that time. After that he further visited
various places and finally settled in Ganagapur (now in State
Karnataka) for the last few decades of his life. All of this is
reported in Shri GuruCharitra.
One of the most important event in his life (towards the end) was
the meeting with the Muslim king (Sultan) of Bedar who is possibly
Allauddin-II of the Bahamani Sultanate who was ruling that area that
time. These rulers were different from the Delhi Mughals and there
were four such states which were existing that time. Many times "chahu
rashtra" term occurring in Shri GuruCharitra possibly points to
this. The king visited Shri Guru because he was suffering from a
blister which was not curing. No one was able to cure, so he was
advised to visit Shri Guru, and after visiting him he was cured.
Among the Bahamani kings, only Allauddin-II is supposed to have died
due to the blister as per the records of his court historians. This
king was very moderate and did not destroy temples or old monuments.
He also was supposed to be quite friendly towards the Hindu
communities.
The work of Shri Guru has to be seen in the context of the time he
was born and social turmoil the society was facing that time. The
Muslim attack was imminent and the famous Vijayanagar empire was
destroyed. The brahmins of this time had started working for the new
rulers and were losing all the past traditions. The revival of the
Sanatan Dharma (the old Hindu Religion, as revived by Jagatguru Shri
Adi Shankaracharya) was to be revived again. The main teaching of
Shri Guru has been that the life of Brahmins is fully covered by the
rules given in the old scriptures and they are to be strictly
followed by them in their daily lives to achieve happiness and
ultimately moksha (the final attainment of soul where the soul is
liberated from the cycle of rebirths). He insisted on his disciples
to follow these routines. This improved their confidence and self
esteem which was very essential at the time the attack of a foreign
culture was going on. This feeling penetrating through the
generations, gave a special sense of self esteem and pride which
eventually resulted in the coming up of the fighters like King
Shivaji and Peshwas in later years in Maharashtra. Shri Guru helped
all the people from all the communities and can be seen in his life
stories.
After the meeting with the Muslim king, he thought that his fame has
gone to such an extent that now all types of people will start
coming in, and will start troubling him and his disciples. Thus he
decided to take samadhi. He left for the jungle of Kardali (a type
of tree). Shri Swami Samarth of Akkalkot, who is considered as his
avatar, is supposed to have come from Kardali-van (Jungle of Kardali).
Although the time difference between them is a few centuries. The
Datta-sampradaya people believe that Shri Guru re-incarnated as Shri
Swami Samartha of Akkalkot .
Datta-Sampradaya, many Muslim fakirs or Pirs are also accepted as
devotees of Lord Dattatreya. However it is not clear how Muslims
(other than sufis and to some extend shias) viewed it. Some of them
were declared as apostate by wahabi/salafi/sunni Muslims.