Sri Raghavendra swami’s childhood

The baby’s beautiful appearance had the power to attract and hold any onlooker’s sight and draw them close. The boy who was born by the blessings of sarvottama Lord Venkatesha was named Venkatanatha by his father. The wise ones were seen discussing among themselves that the boy must have been so named after Srinivasa so that he would also be as revered like Him
from the oceans to Himalayas and from Dwaraka to Manasarovara. What to say about the childplay of the divinely blessed Venkatanatha? Ever new amazing events used to happen almost every day. The crawling baby Venkatanatha, who was compared with the Dharmadevata Vrushabha, actually appeared like the Dharmadevata himself. The fast growing pet baby Venkatanatha was happily introduced to solid food by his father.
By the time Venkatanatha reached three years of age, Thimmannabhatta began to cover one by one, the sixteen samskara karmas required for Brahmins. First he was tonsured. Then, at an auspicious time, introducing him to the written letter, Venkatanatha was asked to write on a slate the first letter Omkara, which his father told was the form of SriHari who was responsible for the creation of this universe. Venkatanatha surprised everybody by questioning them on how such a small letter could explain the colossal form of SriHari. The fellow people who saw this sharp vision were surprised and convinced that he was the very incarnation of the divine. Venkatanatha had an amazing memory and could recount any subject perfectly after just hearing once. About this time, Thimmanna Bhatta got his elder sister Venkatamba married to a great pundit SriLaxminarasimhacharya of Kashyapa Gotra.
After Thimmanna Bhatta passed on into SriHari- dhyana, elder brother Gururajacharya performed the Munja of younger brother Venkatanatha. As desired by their fatherThimmanna.charya, Gururajacharya sent his younger brother to their brother-in-law SriLaxminarasimhacharya as his disciple to learn the Vedas and become a pundit. The sharp Venkatanatha used to double up while learning Veda-vedanta and on off-days would devote time to learning poetry, and quickly mastered the Vedas. Kavitilaka Sri Narayanacharya who was the son of SriRaghavendra’s elder sister has personally recorded his experience of Venkatanatha’s brightness in studies, in his composition 1 Raghavendravijaya’ in these words, ‘nighantunanalipilabdhnaipunyanr. That means, Sri Raghavendra Swami had not only mastered the Amara- kosha but had learnt several koshas in-depth.

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