INTRODUCTION
Vyasatirtha (From 1460 to 1539), also called Vyasaraja, was a great eminent and an able Madhva scholar and poet belonging to the Dvaita tradition. He was the patron saint of the Great Vijayanagara Empire. During his period, great religious developments were took place under the assistance of his divine disciples Purandara Dasa and Kanaka Dasa.
BIRTH AND EDUCATION
He was born into a Brahmin family and named as Yatiraja. Sree Bramhanya Tirtha, the pontiff of the matha at Abbur, taught him the vedic education and philosophy of Madhwa. He studied at kancipuram and again was taught the philosophy of Dvaita under Sripadaraja at Mulbagal.GURU
He served as a Guru to Saluva Narasimha Deva Raya at Chandragiri and also had the association with the Great King Krishna Deva Raya. With the patronage of Krishna Deva Raya, Vyasatirtha expanded dvaita into a massive scale. In this regard, he has written several poems and also songs on Lord Krishna. He has helped in the development of villages during the reign of Krishna Deva Raya.GREAT SAINTS
He along with Madhva and Jayatirtha, are considered to be the three great saints of Dvaita. All the three are considered as the great saints of south india. They have helped the people and the ruler of the kingdom. All these three saints are considered as UNIVERSAL SAINTS and not left to a particular community alone.CONSTRUCTION OF HANUMAN TEMPLES
Vyasaraja during his period, has constructed several hanuman temples all over india. He has helped in the construction of more than 700 hanuman temples. Hanuman is considered as an incarnation of Vayu and similar to that Guru Madhwacharya is also an incarnation of Vayu. With the command given by Lord Hanuman, he has developed those temples.PREVIOUS BIRTHS
Vyasaraja is an incarnation of Bhakt Prahalada. In his next birth, he took the avatar of Guru Raghavendra, who is in Jeeva Samadhi at Mantralayam. Actually his birth cycle was :- Sangukarna was a deva who served in Sathyalok under the control of Lord Brahma. He was given the task of plucking the flowers for Narayana Pooja at Sathya Lok from earth. Daily he had visited earth for plucking flowers. One day he got delayed in bringing back the flowers plucked by him to Sathyalok. This made Lord Brahma angry and he cursed him to take the avatar of Demon. That demon was the humble and the great Narayana Devotee :- Bhakt Prahalad. All this was happened during Krita Yuga. In his next birth, Prahalada took birth as Pahligaraja who was the brother of Santhanu Maharaja and fought for Kouravas and got killed by Bheema who was also an avatar of Vayu. In his next birth he took the avatar of Vyasaraja.DIVINE DISCIPLES
Saint Vyasaraja was surrounded by divine disciples like Purandara dasa ( who was an incarnation of Deva rishi Narada), Kanaka dasa ( who was an amsa of Lord Yama Dharma), Sripadaraya ( An incarnation of Bhakta Dhuruva) .MIRACLES
He was a great scholar and humble saint. He argued about dvaita philosophy among great scholars and finally he defeated them. He was a great devotee of Lord Krishna who will do Krishna Pooja daily during his period. Once he was poisoned by one wealthy man’s cook due to jealousy against him. Even after knowing this from his Gnana Drishti(Deerka Darisanam), he accepted the poisonous food and got relieved from that poison. This was happened due to his sincere devotion to god. He has done lot of miracles to his devotees and cured their diseases, Blessed people for child and also gave them peace of mind.GUHA PEETA
Once King Krishnadevaraya was known from his astrologer, that he was going to suffer from Kuha Peeta, which means he is going to die. By knowing this, his guru Vyasatheertha for one day, has accepted his throne and became Vyasaraja. After accepting the throne, a great spark appeared which was the Guha Peeta, and immediately Vyasaraja has thrown one of his clothes on to that GUHA PEETA SPARK and immediately that cloth was burnt into ashes. Due to his clever task, king Krishnadevaraja was escaped from Guha Peeta. And the next day, King Krishnadevaya was again accepted the throne from sage Vyasaraja.IMPORTANCE
Vyasaraja has visited several temples during the time of his pilgrimage. Vyasatirtha was influenced by his predecessors such as Jayatirtha and Madhva. He has choosed his disciples in the Dvaita movement without seeing their caste or creed. This is the proof in his initiation of Kanaka Dasa , who was not a Brahmin and Purandara Dasa who was also a merchant. He maintained a cordial relationship with Smartha and the Sri Vaishnava brahmins in the court of Sri Krishnadeva raja and encouraged them for their divine works. He interacted with a variety of people including tribal leaders, foreign dignitaries and emissaries from the North India.He has established several mathas and shrines across the subcontinent and patronized large scale irrigation projects at various locations.CONCLUSION
Recently we heard about the sad news, that the Nava Brindavan(Sri Vyasaraja Brindavan) which was situated at Anegundi near Hampi,Karnataka was vandalised by miscreants and it was later reconstructed. Due to the blessings of Hari,Vayu and Hanuman, the brindavan was immediately reconstructed. Let us pray to god that such kind of activities will not happen again in future and chant the nama of Vyasaraja:- OM SREE VYASARAJAVE NAMAHA.SENT BY
R.HARISHANKAR
