Preface

His Holiness Jagadguru Śrī Abhinava Vidyātīrtha Mahāsvāmin, an exceptional sage who had renounced the world by the age of thirteen and attained jīvanmukti (liberation while living) at the tender age of eighteen, a yogin nonpareil, a scholar par excellence in the Śāstras, an intellectual genius, One with a thorough grasp of science as well as the minds of people, a brilliant visionary and administrator, the epitome of devotion to God and the Guru, the embodiment of simplicity and the personification of compassion, was the 35^th Jagadguru Shankaracharya of the Sringeri Sri Sharada Peetham between 1954 and 1989. Coming in the sacred line of preceptors starting with Śrī Ādi-śaṅkara-bhagavatpāda, He exemplified all that Bhagavatpāda, the incarnation of Lord Śiva, stood for. In His lifetime, His Holiness touched and transformed, in multifarious ways, the lives of thousands of people from the most diverse of backgrounds. He continues to do so to this day.

His Holiness’s foremost disciple and successor to the Peetham, Jagadguru Śrī Bhāratī Tīrtha Mahāsvāmin, composed the aṣṭottara-śata-nāmāvali (series of 108 nāmas) on His Holiness, after the latter’s Mahāsamādhi in 1989. The Centre for Brahmavidya had published, in January 2020, an explanation of these nāmas in a book in Tamil, ‘Arulmigu Guruvin Porulmigu Naamangal’, and is now publishing this exposition in English. This has been written with an acute awareness of the inadequacy of any exposition on His Holiness’s glories. Also, the scholarliness of Jagadguru Śrī Bhāratī Tīrtha Mahāsvāmin, who has composed these nāmas, is legendary. Yet an attempt is made to interpret the nāmas, only with the intent of having a glimpse of His Holiness’s magnificence.

The aspects of His Holiness brought out in this book as relevant to each nāma, are in the form of episodes from His life as reminisced by devotees or by Him, accounts of His spiritual practices, His writings and His teachings in the form of expositions or public discourses. These have been extensively taken from books on His Holiness published earlier, namely ‘The Multifaceted Jīvanmukta’, ‘Yoga, Enlightenment and Perfection’, ‘Didactic Treatises’ and our recent publication, ‘From Sorrows to Bliss’.

It is out of deep devotion for His Holiness that Sri Suresh Krishnamoorthy has come forward to sponsor this publication. Our sincere gratitude to him. Our thanks to Sri K. Parthasarathy for preparing the cover page. Our heartfelt thanks to Sri N. Subramanian of Sudarshan Graphics for the high-quality printing.

It is our sincere belief that this book will make interesting and useful reading, not only since it contains possible explanations of the nāmas that describe His Holiness, but also because it has His ambrosial teachings and gripping anecdotes from His life, which are sure to appeal to both the intellect and the heart.

Vidyashankar Krishnan K. Suresh Chandar Dr. H. N. Shankar Dr. Meenakshi Lakshmanan Trustees, Centre for Brahmavidya