Journey to Pandharpur

SriSwami’s greatness knows no limits. He ventured towards Pandharpur. On the way. the pregnant wife of one of the assistants went into labour pain. There was neither water nor a single tree where they could use the shade. So SriSwami through his mantra powers spread his own shati for shade and turned his kamandalu water into an unlimited flowing source enabling the safe delivery of the baby. They celebrated the birth of a baby boy. Oh SriSwami’s benevolence!
Further, an arrogant pundit by name Shesha came in for a dialogue but Guru very easily defeated him on the basis of the treatise ‘Vagavaikharr. Yet, SriRaghavendra- Swami was partial towards pundits and he did not let pundit Shesha leave without being honoured. Is this not partiality towards learning?
He then reached Pandharpur where he took the darshana of Panduranga and went on to Kolhapur where he took Mahalakshmidevrs darshana. He travelled further to Nasik and took a dip in the river Godavari with sankalpa. On the way, when one of the assistants was close to death due to a breathing illness, SriSwami saved him compassionately with his mantras.
He returned southwards to Bijapur. The Muslim king Ibrahim Adilshah, the second, there had heard of the miraculous revival of Savanur Nawab’s son. He used to profess harmony among all faiths. He specially honoured SriSwami with the title Jagadguru and presented him with a white umbrella etc. while felicitating him royally.
SriSwami further went and stayed at Allur on the banks of Krishna. While there he wrote the invaluable commentary Bhavadeepa for Tattvaprakashika. He also elaborated the commentary Tattvamanjari for Anubhashya.
He later travelled to Manvi near Raichur and decided to stay there for the chaturmas vrata. A dalit enquired about SriSwami’s good health. Being able to read his past through divine powers, SriSwami asked him to fetch something for offering to SriMoolarama. The poor dalit could bring only some mustard seeds. In spite of having decided not to use mustard seeds during that chaturmas, SriSwami with an intention of gracing that dalit, ordered that the seeds be used in food preparation. He also offered it to SriMoolarama. The dalit received the remaining preparation, ate it and died. While Sri Swami was in the form of SriVyasaraya in the earlier birth, the dalit was in the form of Kanakadasa born out of the particle of Yama himself. In his honour, SriSwami established the custom of using mustard seeds during chaturmasa at the SriMatha.
During the chaturmasa, a pundit by name Bidarahalli Srinivasacharya came to see SriSwami. It was a custom to feed prasad to all visitors to SriMatha; but seeing that mustard seeds were being used in the preparations, the pundit refused to take prasada and merely accepted mantra-rice from SriSwami and started back to his village. By the time he reached back his face had lost all its sheen. His elder brother Yadavarya asked to see the Mantra-rice given by SriSwami. It had turned black. Yadavarya told his brother that his face had picked up the deathly pallor as he had dishonoured the prasad of SriMoolarama and thus disrespected SriSwami. He advised Srinivasacharya to go back to Guru and seek pardon. When Srinivasacharya rushed back to SriSwami, the ever forgiving SriSwami asked him to accept Sri Moo Drama’s prasad and gracefully assured him that everything would be alright. Later SriSwami honoured the pundit before despatching him. Yadavarya was satisfied that his younger brother had accepted the Guru’s grace and returned home looking bright as before. He advised the younger brother, ‘when we go visiting great men, we do not try to show off our smartness. We have to live by their rules.’

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