Parama Guru: Śrī Svaprākāśānanda Tīrtha Haṁsa Avadhūta [Guru Garu]

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Parama Guru
Śrī Svaprākāśānanda Tīrtha Haṁsa Avadhūta
Datta Pīṭham, Anakapalli
July 31, 1915 - July 23, 2002

At the center, Śrī Svaprākāśānanda Tīrtha Haṁsa Avadhūta (Guru Garu), on his right, his disciple - Śrī Amṛtānandanātha (Guruji) and to his other side is Śrī Caitanyānandanātha (Haran Aiya), a disciple of Śrī Amṛtānandanātha.

Formally titled Swami Swaprakasananda Tirtha Hamsa Avadhuta, Anakapalle Gurugaru was born Narasimha Kodukula (Narasimha enters Guruji’s life yet again) on July 31, 1915, to Mahalakshmi and Suribabu Kodukula, members of a “pious family known for its religiosity” in the village of Veduruparthi, Andhra Pradesh.

“Even as a child, he made his presence felt by all alike,” A. Ramalinga Sastry, a longtime acquaintance, recalled years later. “Not because of his total disinterest in formal education, which he discontinued at the elementary level, or his obstinate mischief, but because of his habit of being in a deeply contemplative mood in opted solitude, going routinely into deep meditation most of the time, without any concern for the mundane.”

Over the years, Gurugaru encountered many of the greatest spiritual teachers of his time and took initiation into any number of spiritual lineages. A hagiography circulated for years among his devotees recounts the rather jaw-dropping details:

During his 20th year, Sri Gurugaru received initiation from Sri Poornananda Yogi, a disciple of the Tibetan guru Maru Maharishi. He was introduced to Śrī Vidyā upasana by Sri Kesari Kameswara Rao of the Madhvacharya lineage. “In his 32nd year, he received initiation into [the goddess forms known as] the 10 Mahavidyas, Sri Rajarajeswari and Vanadurga, and [into the] Saptasathi Chandi. He attained purna diksha [the highest initiation in Śrī Vidyā] from Sri Gnanananda Saraswathi of Anakapalle.

Traveling the length and breadth of India to enhance his spiritual knowledge, Sri Gurugaru mastered the 64 Tantras by the time he was 40 years old. By 43, he had learned 70 million mantras from the teachings of the 18 pīṭhams and many gurus. He spent a few years in Kashi [Varanasi] contemplating and analyzing the source of the mantras he had learned, greatly aided by Sri Dakshinamurthi Paramahamsa (1872–1954) of the Lalithanagar [section of] Visakhapatnam.

At the age of 58, he became a Vedic scholar with the grace of [the deity] Chintamani Mahavidyeswari. By 1980, in his 65th year, Sri Gurugaru felt the urge to renounce the material world and take up sannyasa. To this end, he traveled to the Sri Bhadrakali Mahapeetam at Haridwar’s Saptarishi Sarovar. Sanyasa Diksha was showered on him by [Gurugaru’s final guru] Srilasri Kalyanananda Bharati Tirtha Maharaj. Years later, with his Guru’s blessings, Sri Gurugaru took up the Avadhuta ashram.

Source: Michael M. Bowden. “Goddess and the Guru: A Spiritual Biography of Śrī Amṛtānandanātha Sarasvatī.”

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Guru Garu performing Puja

Video courtesy of William Thomas.

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Darshan of Guru Garu:

Video courtesy of William Thomas.

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Darshan of Guru Garu:

Video courtesy of William Thomas.

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Photo courtesy of William Thomas.

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Account of the passing of Gurugaru from M.Bowden's biography "Goddess and the Guru"

Swami Svaprākāśānanda—Guruji’s beloved Anakapalle Gurugaru—passed away at 6 p.m. on Guru Purnima Day, Tuesday, July 23, 2002. He was just a week shy of 87 years old.

That same morning, Amma—sensing the coming transition—had insisted that they visit Gurugaru, who was hospitalized in Vizag. “Somehow I had been feeling this urge inside to see him since the day before,” she said. “I had never felt like that before. In fact, I had rarely gone to see him even on Guru Purnima days. But this time I kept telling Guruji, ‘I want to go see Anakapalle Gurugaru!’ I wanted to go that very moment.”

Of course, breaking away from Devipuram wasn’t so easy—Guruji was tied up with the steady stream of disciples and visitors who had traveled to pay their Guru Purnima respects to him. So finally Amma said, “Look, if you can’t go I will just take the car and driver and go to see him myself.” Her show of determination sufficed to convince Guruji and the pair headed into the city together. They found Gurugaru in his hospital bed, surrounded by family and a few close disciples.

“A lot of his dear ones were with him due to it being Guru Purnima,” Guruji said. “He had been refusing to eat, but when we arrived he took some food and had some coffee. He was giving me a lot of love and seemed very happy to see me.” But he was clearly unwell. “He was quite weak, but he was still able to recognize us, no problem,” Amma noted.

“His body was taken to the smashana in a sitting position and then buried amidst the sounds of music and celebration,” Guruji said. “Gurugaru’s son broke a coconut over his father’s head before the burial was performed. This is normal practice for sannyasis who don’t die through kapala bhedanam, voluntary death ensuing from samadhi.”

Amma was struck by Gurugaru’s ecstatic, almost childlike expression of joy. “His eyes were wide open,” she said. “There was still so much power in his facial expression.” There would be no further births for him, she concluded. “He is gone,” Amma said, categorically. “You should have seen his eyes.”

Raghava

Jaya Guru Datta