Shri Vasudevanand Saraswati Tembe Swami Maharaj

A compact Biography.

Datta : Shri Gurudev Datta>The wooing>The Master and the Disciple>The Apostle>The Protector and Provider>The Conflicts>The Medium and the Mediator>Gurudev Datta Love>One and the Same

• Shri Gurudev Datta
  We shall now try to examine and if at all possible, try to understand the relationship between Shri Maharaj and his chosen form of the Godhead whom he dedicated his life as completely as humanly possible. At the beginning of the universe the Supreme Being Shri Vishnu created Brahma the creator and ordered Him in turn to create the world. Amongst his first creations were the Seven Great Seers (Saptarshi). The chief amongst these was Atri meaning bereft of (beyond the influence of) the three (basic principles or Gunas of Maya – the power of Brahman the Supreme Being). Atri is the Seer of 5th Mandal of Rigved and is credited with the first correct prediction of solar eclipse. He is also one of the earliest physicians in Indian tradition and the composer of Atreya Sanhita. He was married to Anasuya (the one without malice) renowned for devotion to her husband (Pativratya). Jealous of her fame as Pativrata the consorts of Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh persuaded the three Supreme Lords of the Universe to visit the Ashram (abode) of Atri and deflect Anasuya from her steadfast religious path. Disguised as hungry Brahmin guests (Atithti), they presented themselves at the door of Atri’s Ashram at noon soliciting food. A guest arriving at the middle of the day is considered God and Anasuya’s creed ordained her to serve them as such. Welcoming the three guests, she washed their feet and offered them seats. Apologizing for the Rishi’s absence that had yet not returned from his austerities, she asked how best she could serve them. The three Gods pleaded to be very hungry and argued that the Rishi may be indefinitely delayed because of his love for religious deliberations, demanded that they be served food urgently. Complying with wish, Anasuya served their plates and offered them with the usual sacraments. However the disguised Lords refused to consume the food unless she served it naked! Momentarily shocked by this strange and offensive request the great Pativrata argued to herself that these atithis could not possibly be ordinary ones. They had to be some very holy persons or possibly even Gods, testing her steadfastness on the religious path. Besides, she thought to herself, being the consort of the great seer Atri, Kaam or the God of sex, dare not disturb her! Thus determined to guard her religious purity, Anasuya remembered her holy husband and removed her clothes and holding some water in her hands she appeared before the guests and sprinkled the water over them. The power Anasuya’s Pativratya[1] transformed the three Gods into newborn babies. Anasuya’s inherent maternal instinct caused her breasts to overflow with milk as if she herself had just delivered the babies. Moved by their hunger she started feeding them in turn and singing lullabies to soothe them. Atri returning from his meditation, learnt about the miracle from Anasuya and recognizing the Trinity was rejoiced. He prayed the Supreme Lords and apprised Anasuya of her great fortune. The Three Gods appeared before the couple in their original form and commended them at this show of spiritual greatness and invited them to ask for a blessing. At Anasuya’s suggestion the Rishi wished the Gods to be their sons and stay with them. Granting the wish, the Gods departed to their abodes even as their baby forms stayed on in Atri’s Ashram. The learned Seer named the three sons. He named Shri Vishnu, who gave himself as Datta (the given one), Shri Brahma as Chandra and Shri Mahesh as Durvasa. Chandra (comforting one), the Moon-God went to his abode and Durvasa went to forest to practice austerities. They reassured their parents that Datta would stay with them and harbor their quintessence and thus come to embody the Supreme Trinity in One. Thus came into being the Adi (Primal) Guru, the eternal incarnation of the Supreme Brahman, forever working for the spiritual uplift of all sentient beings throughout the ages.

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• Lord Dattatreya, from his incarnation in the Satya Yuga (the Age of Truth), the first of the four Ages, has been bestowing the True Knowledge, which in essence is the direct cognition (Aparoksha Dnyan), as against didactic understanding (Paroksha Dnyan) of the Self that frees one from the bondage of Maya, the apparently never-ending cycle of birth, death and rebirth, which is the root cause of all misery. He not only guided and helped disciples like Kartavirya, Parashuram, Yadu, Aayu, Prahlad and Alarka, but also through such disciples as Vishnu Sharma, established traditions of spiritual knowledge to help all sincere seekers. The word tradition is used here to refer to the continuous chain of Masters, each initiated by his predecessor, thus comprising a perennial source of spiritual knowledge. The existence of several such live traditions is the unique asset that endows India with the potential to be the spiritual lighthouse of the world.Even in the more recent times, Lord Dattatreya has been the source and sustenance of the major spiritual traditions like the Mahanubhav, Nath and Varkari. 

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• The origin of the main Datta tradition, particularly prevalent in Andhra, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Gujarat, was established and propagated by the two incarnations of the Lord. The first one was Shripad Shrivallabh, born in Peethapur, a coastal town in Andhra Pradesh. The second one was Shri Narasinh Saraswati, born at Karanja in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra. Both incarnations were caused by the Lord’s boon to a virtuous woman to endow her with a revered and wise son like Him. Since there is no other like Him in the universe, He had to incarnate each time to fulfill the blessing. Another similarity in the two incarnations is that they both renounced worldly life at a tender age, without marriage and performed a pilgrimage of India, initiating Yogis and seekers, directing populace to the righteous path and establishing the edifice of Vedic religion, before settling down in a chosen place (Kurugaddi in case of Shripad Shrivallabh, and Ganagapur in the case of Shri Narasinh Saraswati) on the banks of Krishna or her tributary, to carry on their work. Both have “disappeared” from public view with no records or witnesses of their physical death. Their biographies are recorded by Shri Saraswati Gangadhar, the great-grandson of a major disciple of Shri Narasinh Saraswati, Sayandeo, in the Marathi book entitled Shri Gurucharitra, considered sacred by the followers of the Datta tradition. One of the major contributions of Shri Swami Maharaj was translation and interpretation of this gospel of the Datta tradition.We have recalled briefly the history of Shri Datta tradition to set the backdrop for an attempt to understand the relationship between Shri Swami Maharaj and his Lord and Master Shri Datta Prabhu. This task is indeed beyond human capacity and is undertaken here, not with any hope of success but because even a futile attempt may still purify the enquirer’s psyche and push him onwards on the path of Realization. 

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• [1]. Alas, English language does not have words to translate this and many words like these! Even these very concepts are alien to Western culture. Isn’t it a pity?

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Beginnings/Householder/Mangaon Temple/Renunciation/Loksangrah/Seekers of Truth/Realized souls/Divine Encounters/Shri Gurudev Datta/ passage to Eternity