Sri Raghavendra Swamy Life History

Shanku Karna was cursed to be born, into the world as Prahlad son of demon king Hiranyakashyapu. Prahlad had extreme devotion to Sri Vishnu, who took the form of the Narasimha Avatar to Kill Hiranyakashipu. In his Next birth he was Vyasaraja, following the philosophy of Sri Madhwacharya . He was born again as Venkatanatha or Veene Vekanna Bhataru (as he was profecient and best in playing the Veena), who was named Guru Raghavendra, one of the greatest madhwa saints.
Sri Thimmanna Bhatta was the grandson of Krishnabhatta, a Veena Scholar,who had taught the Veena to KingKrishnadevaraya. Initially, this couple had two children named Gururaja and Venkatamba.By the grace of Lord Venkateswara, a third child was born in 1601 A.D.at Bhuvanagiriin Tamil Nadu to Sri Thimanna Bhatta and Smt. Gopikamba.They named Him Venkatanatha(Some also say he was called as Venkanna bhatta and Venkatacharya).
Venkatanatha proved to be a very brilliant scholar.Venkatanatha's brother Sri Gururaja Bhatta took care of His upbringing after their father's demise. The initial portion of His education was completed under His brother-in-law Lakshminarasimhacharya's guidance in Madurai.After His return from Madurai,Venkatanatha married Smt.Saraswathi.After His marriage,Venkatanatha went to Kumbakonam.There he studied the Dwaita vedantha and other grammar and literary works under His guru, Sri Sudheendra Theertha.He was very well versed in bhashyas and debated with various scholars and defeated them.He was also a skilled musician,and played the veena beautifully, which He had learnt from His father in His childhood.But He never demanded any money for His services and He had to endure a life of poverty. Many a times, He, His wife and child had to forego food many times in a week. But this never dettered the Faith He had in the Lord.
Venkatanatha was in the habit of chanting stotras and mantras always in His mind. Once while He was touring Kumbakonam, Venkatanatha was invited to attend a function, with His wife and son. The hosts did not treat Him well and wanted Him to earn His food by working.So they asked Him to make some sandalwood paste, using a grinding slab.The paste was given to all the guests, who smeared it on their bodies.Immediately,the guests complained of a burning sensation all over the body where they had rubbed the paste.Surprised by this,the hosts questioned Venkatanatha,who replied that He was chanting the Agni Suktam while grinding the sandalwood, which had resulted in the cool sandalwood create a burning sensation.Such was the power of the mantra when chanted by Venkatanatha!To relieve the guests of their agony, Venkatanatha then recited the Varuna Mantra.
His guru, Sri Sudheendra Theertha was looking for a successor to his math. Sri Sudheendra Theertha had a dream where he saw the Lord indicate that Venkatanatha was the right person to succeed him as the pontiff of the math. So Sri Sudheendra Theertha communicated his desire to Venkatanatha.Venkatanatha,was devastated by the request of the guru as he could not take up this responsibility for He had a young wife and a son to care for.
But by divine intervention and after being blessed by the Goddess of Learning herself,Venkatanatha changed His mind.The sanyasa ordination was to take place on the second day of the bright half of Phalguna Masa in 1621 at Tanjore. On the day Venkatanatha was to ascend the peetha, Saraswathi was required to stay home. However, at the last minute she was seized by a desire to see her husband's face for the last time.She ran towards the matha throwing caution to the winds.Unfortunately in the desire to see her husband, she did not see an old and unused well on the way, and fell into it. She died immediately.Since her death was an untimely one, she became a ghost. Even as a ghost, her only desire was to see her husband and so she went to the matha. By the time she arrived, the function was over Venkatanatha had become a Sanyasi under the Name of Sri Raghavendra Theertha .Sri Raghavendra sensed his wife's presence immediately.He sprinkled some holy water from His Kamandalu on her, granting her moksha or liberation from the cycle of births and deaths. This was her reward for a lifetime of dedicated and selfless service to Sri Raghavendra
Before entering Brundavana in 1671, Raghavendra Swami gave a soul-stirring speech [5] to hundreds of devotees gathered to watch the event. Some quotes from that speech are below-
"Without right living, right thinking will never come. Right living is performing one's ordained duties according to one's station in life without hankering after the fruits of the actions and on the other hand offering all one's activities to the Lord. This is real sadachara (right living). This is real karma yoga"
"Social work done for the good of worthy people should also be considered as the Lord's worship. In short, our life itself is a worship.Every action is a puja. This life is precious. Every second of our life is precious. Not even a second that has gone will come back. Listening to the right shastras and always remembering Him is the highest duty"
"Always keep away from people who merely perform miracles without following the shastras and yet call themselves God or guru. I have performed miracles, and so have great persons like Srimadacharya. These are based on yoga siddhi and the shastras. There is no fraud or trickery at all. These miracles were performed only to show the greatness of God and the wonderful powers that one can attain with His grace. Right knowledge (jnana) is greater than any miracle. Without this no real miracle can take place. Any miracle performed without this right knowledge is only witchcraft. No good will come to those who perform such miracles and also those who believe in them"
"Have devotion to the Lord. This devotion should never be blind faith. Accepting the Lord's supremacy wholeheartedly is true devotion. Blind faith is not devotion. It is only stupidity. We should have devotion, not only for the Lord, but also for all other deities and preceptors in keeping with their status"
After this Sri Raghavendra began reciting the pranava mantra and slipped into deep samadhi.At one stage the japamala in His hand became still. His disciples who understood this sign started arranging the slabs around Him. They arranged the slabs up to His head and then, as per His earlier instructions, they placed a copper box containing 1200 Lakshminarayana saligramas that had been specially brought from Gandaki river. Then they placed the covering slab over it and filled it with earth. They poured twelve thousand varahas (abhisheka) over the brindavan that they had built.