Sadashiva Brahmendra
shri gurubhyo namahDuring His studies, Shivaramakrishna became an expert in all shastra-s and especially vedanta. By repeated deep study of vedanta, He developed a desire to attain the state of Advaita Jnana which is also called sacchidananda. So he wanted to surrender to a guru for that. At that time , the 57th Acharya of the Kanchi Kamakoti Pitham Shri Paramashivendra saraswati was widely known as a Jnani and yogishvara. So Shivaramakrishna came to Shri Paramashivendra sarasvati.
Because He was great expert in all the shastras before taking sannyasa, even after sannyasa Shri Sadashivendra used to repeatedly participate in shastra debates and he would defeat everyone. By this his Guru was sadened because the shisyas time was being wasted in debates. The real purpose of studying shastras is to get Brahma Jnana. For that one must do Atma Vichara. So to stop His shisyas interest in debates shri paramashivendra said, “sadashiva, you have learnt to shut other people's mouth by defeating them. But to get Atma Jnana you must learn to shut your own mouth”.
Shri Sadashiva took this as His Guru's order and upadesha, and took up a permanent Mauna Vrata till he lived in his body. Because of this Mauna Vrata, His wordly vyavaharas became less and less and his Atma Vichara became very deep and he attained Brahma Jnan a quikly. The scriptures all say that Mauna is the hallmark of Brahma Jnana. That is why even the First Guru Dakshinamurti Himself is always in Mauna. So by following that Mauna Vrata, Shri Sadashiva attained the Jnani siddhi by which he was all the time lost in the Advaita Jnana, Just like a salt doll thrown in the ocean. So he was not aware of even the duties of a sannyasi and did not even know when His clothes fell of his body.
Seeing this, Shri paramashivendra gave shri sadashiva freedom from the duties of the matha, and shri sadashiva came away taking only His Guru's paduka, since even in Advaita Jnana one cannot forget one's Guru Anugraha. Shri Sadashiva was roaming around here and there as His legs take Him. Some people thought He had become unmatta(crazy) and told this to Shri paramashivendra. But Shri Paramashivendra said “oh, why have I not become an unmatta like that!” Thus the Guru himself was proud of his shishya's Sidhi.
Shri Sadashiva would mostly roam near the banks of the Kaveri and surrounding places. During this period He performed many miracles but without givig them any special importance compared to His Jnana sidhi. Many people have also gotten upadesha from Him, includind many sannyasi-s and even kings like Pudukkotai king Vijaya Raghunatha Thondaiman. To Thondaiman, Shri Brahmendra gave Mandra Upadesha by writing in the sand, and the king took the sand in his upper cloth and preserved it. Even today that sand is preserved in a Dakshinamurti temple in pudukottai.
After a long period of silence and Atma Anubhava of almost 200 years, in the early 18th century Shri Sadashiva wanted to rest his body. So he called and told the pudukkotai King to make arrangements for his entering Jiva samadhi near nerur on the banks of the Kaveri near Karur. He told them to dig a pit at a particular place . He indicated that a few days later, a brahmachari will bring a Bana Linga from Kashi. This linga must be placed 12 feet to the east of the location of his samadhi and puja-s etc must be done to that. As indication of His own location, a Bilva tree will by itself sprout above his head. The same way , He entered the pit by Himself and sat in yoga samadhi and rested his body. After His body was closed, the bilva tree came up by itself and the Bana Linga was duly consecrated.
even till today many Jnani-s and yogi-s have come to nerur and got yhe subtle darshna of shri sadashiva Brahmendra and his anugraha. His Aradhana (Maha Samadhi day) is being observed on Vaishakha Shukla Dashami of the lunar calendar and the utsava is being conducted from shankara Jayanti on Vaishakha Shukla Panchami till the Aradhana Day. Devoted bhakta-s attain all welfare and goodness by Shri Brahmendras Anugraha.
Miraculous acts of shri sadashivendra
A Jnani like Shri Brahmendra does not perform miracles for His own enjoyment or to show off His powers. If at all it happens naturally as a result of His exalted state, or He does it to show ordinary people that there exists something beyond their ordinary mundane life, so that they can be slowly enlightened.
In the life of Shri Brahmendra perhaps the best known miracle is this: Shri Brahmendra was roaming about in Ananda Samadhi without any clothes. By chance once He entered the camp of a muslim king. That king thought that Shri Brahmendra was a madman to come before him without clothes. He got enraged and by his sword he cut off one of Shri Brahmendra's hands. But Shri Brahmendra did not notice this at all because He had gone beyond his body. So Shri Brahmendra went on walking as if nothing had happened. Seeing this the king got frightened because it was clear that Shri Brahmendra was not an ordinary man. So the king fell at Shri Brahmendra's feet and prayed to Him to forgive him. First Shri Brahmendra did not even see this king because of His samadhi. After a while He noticed the king and asked by gesture what happened. The king showed the cut-off hand and cried saying that he had done a terrible mistake. At that Shri Brahmendra merely told Him not to worr, re-attached His hand and walked off as before.
this miracle shows how much Shri Brahmendra had attained perfection in his Jnana so that even cutting off the body does not hurt Him. It also shows that He is an endless ocean of mercy who will give anugraha to even somebody who had cut His hand.
Shri Brahmendra's beyond-the-body state is shown by another well-known miracle. Once He was sitting on a big rock in the middle of the Kaveri near Kodumudi (near Karur). In His Yogic trance, He would sit like this for days and even months. One day a sudden flood came in the kaveri river and dragged away His body. His body was buried in the sand bed of the river. Later the water subsided but his body remained buried. A long period, many months or may be years later, when the sand bed of the river was exposed, somebody came to dig and take sand for construction. When that manwas digging the sand, suddenly his shovel struck something and blood came out. The man got frightened and brought the nearby villagers to the place. Together, everybody slowly brought out Shri Brahmendra's body from the sand. At that, Shri Brahmendra stood up and walked away casually!
Another time, Shri Brahmendra walked into a field where men were stacking hay. He walked into a bale of hay and tripped and fell on top of it. Without seeing this, the workers loaded more and more stacks of hay on top of Him. Shri Brahmendra simply lay in His place without any difficulty or effort to come out. Many weeks later when the men unloaded the stacks one by one, Shri Brahmendra simply walked off as before.
One other time, Shri Sadashiva came upon a man boiling sugarcane juice in order to extract. He asked the man to give him a bowl of that boiling juice to drink. The man could see that this was some great person from the Tejas in his face and he said, “please take this other juice which is cool. If you drink the boiling juiceand drank it and went His way. This was His way of giving darshana and anugraha to that man.
On another occasion, in an evening time, Shri Brahmendra walked to a place where newlyharvested grain had beeen dumped in large quantities. To prevent thiefs from stealing it, there were guards standing arround the area. Seeing Shri Sadashiva come in without fear, the guards thought He was a thief and got angryy and raised their sticks to beat him. But their hands and bodies were immediately frozen in place. They could not move. Shri Brahmendra also stood without moving. Next morning, the owner of the grain came there. Seeing the situation he understood that Shri Sadashiva was some great soul and beggedforgiveness. Immediately the guards were released and Shri Sadashiva was also on His way.
Similarly, once some men who wanted to transport a load of firewood came upon Shri Sadashiva. Seeing that He had a well-built body, they made Himcarry the large bundle of firewood. Afterreaching their destination, they unloaded the wood from His head. At that, the bundle caught fire and turned to ashes. Seeing this, their leader thought that this must be a Mahatma and asked forgiveness. At that, Shri Sadashiva immediately restored the firewood and doubled its quantity and went along His way.
These two incidents show how it is wrong to even try to trouble or harm a mahatma, even without knowing that He is a great soul. They also show how a Guru will wait patiently for a shishya to correct himself and not get angry or impatient.
There are many other stories attributed to Shri Brahmendra. All of them shown His greatness. However, He was also concerned about the ordinary people. For them, He showed that bhakti is the way to god. For bhakti, He wrote many melodious songs like “Bruhi Mukundeti” and “Manasa Sanchara Re” which are well known in carnatic music. Similarly, He has consecrated many temple deities like Punnaivanam Mariyamman near Thanjavur, thanthondrimalai perumal near karur, etc. Thus he had guided people in bhakti and also told them to follow dharma for their own good and whole world's good.
Works composed by shri Sadashivendra
As mentioned above, Shri Sadashiva has written many kirtanas. These works are mostly about rama and krishna and in fact show these two Avatara-s as forms of the Formless Infinite Brahman. There are also many kirtana-s speaking about viveka and vairagya and even expressing the experience of Brahma Jnana. He has also written stotra-s about Dakshinamurti and the Guru parampara. Apart from that, He has written many works about vedanta, yoga etc. Here is a brief account of those works.
Guru Stotra-s
Jagadguru Ratna Mala: Shri Paramashivendra suggested to shri Sadashiva that He can be free from the duties of the matha. Before Shri sadashiva left the matha, He was asked by His co- disciple Shri Atma Bodhendra Sarasvati to write a stotra praising the Acharya-s who came in His Guru parampara. This is called Jagadguru Ratna Mala.
Nava Mani Mala: Shri Brahmendra composed this in devotion of His Guru shri paramashivendra. It suggests that even Adi Guru Dakshinamurti had lost to shri paramashivendra in Jnana and describes His sublime qualities.
Shiva Stotra-s
Shiva Manasa Puja: Once Shri Brahmendra was told by His guru to do the matha's shiva puja. But due to His Advaita samadhi He was not able to do it. So He wrote the two stotra-s called shiva manasa puja and saparya paryyaya stava (see below) instead of the puja. shiva Manasa Puja describes Ishvara's Nirguna qualities and also saguna qualities.
Saparya Paryaya Stava:As above, this was written by Shri Brahmendra when he was not able to do the regular puja. It is composed of words taken from Upanishad-s and mostly speaks about God's ni rguna (beyond the world) nature.
Nava Varna Ratna Mala:This stotra praises Shri Dakshinamurti as the one and only cause of the entire world. He is shown as saguna but infact nirguna.
Dakshinamurti Dhyanam: This stotra contains a very beautiful description of shri Dakshinamurti from his head to His feet and His mercy and other sublime qualities.
Brahma Tattva PrakashiklaL: This is lucid commentary on the Brahma sutra of Badarayana Vyasa.
Siddhanta Kalpa Valli: This is a composition in poetry form describing the various ways in which the great acharya-s of the Advaita parampara have interpreted and explained the Advaita Siddhanta shown by Shankara Bhagavatpada.
Kesaravali: This is a commentary written by Shri Brahmendra Himself on the above work.
Vedanta minor works
Atma Vidya Vilasa:This is a vedanta work which is like a summary of shankara Bhagavatpada's viveka chudamani showing the upadesha done by a Guru to a shishya.
Advaita Rasa Manjarai: Here the Advaita philosophy is explained in a very easy way by means of colourful illustrations and examples.
Advaita Taravali: This work contains 27 verse shining like the 27 Nakshhatra-s and throwing light on various aspects of Advaita philosophy.
Mano Niyamanam:This is an advice to the mind which is always wandering into unwanted matters to instead devote itself to God and develop Viveka and Vairagya.
Descriptions of the Jivan Mukta Svarupa
Atma Vidya Vilasa:This is said to be based on shri sadashiva's perception of the jivan Mukta state by seeing His Guru Shri paramashivendra saraswati. It describes the nature of a Jivan Mukta by very beautiful similies, metaphors and word pictures.
Svapnoditam:This contains a descriptionof the Jivan Mukta state as something very wonderful like the wonderful but apparently contradictory sights We see in dreams
Svanubhuti Prakashika:In this work shri sadashiva expresses His own Jivan Mukta experience in his own words.
Atmanusandhanam:Shri Paramashivendra Saraswati has written a most excellent Vedanta work called Vedanta Nama Ratna Sahasram in which He has collected from the Upanishad-s a thousand names of the para Brahman. Normally only deities like shiva, Vishnu with name and form have sahasranama-s, but here shri paramashivendra has collected the same for Para brahman Itself! From that, Shri Brahmendra has collected above two hundred names and identified Himself with that Brahman in His work called Atmanusandhanam.
Other Works
Yoga Sudhakara: This is a commentary on the yoga sutra-s of patanjali explaining the path of Ashtanga yoga. It is very special in that it reflects Shri Brahmendra's own yoga sidhi.
Paramahamsa charya: In this work Shri Brahmendra has described the qualities and conduct of the highest order of sannyasi-s who are called paramahamsa-s.
Shri Brahmendra is also said to have composed commentaries on the Kaivalya Upanishad and Amrita Bindu Upanishad, and two summaries of ancient works called suta samhita saram and Bhagavata saram. It is possible that further works may be discovered in due course of time in the form of as-yet unidentified manuscripts.
Conclusion
Shri Sadashivendra saraswati is a shining example of what Brahma Jnana means, and what the great final goal of our sanatana sampradaya is. He showed in human form what it nmeans to be always immersed in Eternal Bliss and not be affected by the sukha-s and duhkha-s of this samsara. His date of Maha Samadhi is only about 300 years ago and many such Mahatma-s like the Kanchi Mahaswami and Ramana Maharshi have come even after Him. So it is clear that even today it is possible to attain such a state of Everlassting Bliss.
Even though Shri Brahmendra wrote many authoritative works about vedenta-s and other shastra-s, He Himself had left all His old shastric debates and took His Guru's Upadesha as most important. By this he shows that all bookwise knowledge can help us only to someextent and Guru's Upadesha is the only true path to Moksha and to even understood the bookwise knowledge correctly.
For us, Shri Sadashivendra Sarasvati Himself is the Guru, so let us follow the bhakti and vairagya principles He has shown. Klet us leave all our meaningless loves and hates related to this world and undrstand that we are all children of our Guru. If we do this, then we will be happy even in this world and latter attain the parama purusharha called Moksha.
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