The History of Sri Prasanna Venkata Dasaru
SRI PRASANNA VENKATA DASARU : CROWN PEARL OF BHAKTI MOVEMENT IN KARNATAKA
Bhakti or Haridasa concept originated by the relations ship of Yeesha (Sri Hari or God) and Dasa (Servant of God), which was demonstrated by Mukhyapranadevaru (Hanuman) as true servant of Lord Rama. Followers of Dwaita Philosophy strongly believe that Mukhyaparanadevaru took avatar of Sri Madhvacaharayaru in Kaliyuga. Hence strongly believe that Bhakti or haridasa movement in Karnataka, was inspired by Sri Madhvacharayara (founder of dwaita philosophy), Dwadadasha stotra, which contains ‘Ridam’ ‘Laya’ ‘Talla’and sangeet bhava .Subsequently, in the 13th century, Sri Naraharitirtharu, a direct disciple of Sri Madhvacharyaru bolstered the growth of bhakti movement by composing few devotional keertanas on lord Sri Hari in kannada. (However some school of thought believes that Bhakti or haridasa movement in Karnataka was initiated by Sri Achalananda of Bangalore district in the 9th Century (801 – 879) which is disputed by many scholars). While this did not progress for too long, bhakti movement began to lose its momentum in the 14th century. In 15th century, Sri Sripadaraja, a great madhva saint of Padamanabhatirthara peetha, resuscitated the bhakti movement again, by composing innumerable kirtanas, suladis, ugabhogas in Kannada. With his literary contributions, bhakti movement rose to its zenith during the period 1446 -1600.
Sri Vyasathirtha, a disciple of Sripadarajaru, established Dasakkota and Vyasakoota with the support of the then Vijayanagar emperor, Sri Krishnadevaraya. Vyasa teertha himself composed hundreds of keertans Great Haridasas like Sri Purandara Dasaru & Kanakdasaru became disciples of Vyasateertha. They were also core members of Dasakkota. They composed thousands of keertans in praise of Sri Hari which bestowed ethical and moral influence on the society. Sri Purandara dasa is also considered as father of Carnatic music. This was the golden year of Bhakti movement in Karnataka. Sri Vadirajaru, another great saint of Madhava lineage, further ameliorated this movement by composing hundreds of keertanas, suladis etc.
Thus far, was an overview of bhakti movement over the period 13 – 16 century (from Madhvacharayaru to Sri Vadirajaru). Following this period, in 17th century two great Haridasaru born in Bijapur district north Karnataka, one is Kakhandaki Mahipati Dasaru (1611-1681) and another one is Bagalkoteya Sri Prasannavaenkata Dasaru (1680 -1752). Sri Mahipati Dasaru also made very significant contributions to Haridas Sahitya. Subsequently, it was our “Kathanayaka”, Sri Prasanna Venkata Dasaru (1680 -1752) and his contemporary saints like Sri Vijayadasaru, Sri Gopaladasaru, Hellavan Katte Giriyamma,and Sri Jagannatha dasaru, who further nurtured bhakti movement and pushed to greater heights. The 17th - 18th century period marked another golden era for bhakti movement after Vyasarayara’s Dasakoota and Vyasa koota.
With this brief historical backdrop of bhakti movement in Karnataka, let us progress to the life history of our Kathanayaka, “Sri Prasanna Venkata dasaru”.
Sri Prasanna Venkata dasaru was born in 1680 at Bagalkot, now a district head quarters in Karnataka state, located on the banks of river ‘Ghataprabha’ – a tributary to‘Krishna’ river. His child hood name was Venkanna. His father, Sri Narasappayya Kakhandaki was a learned Madhva ( Dvaita sect) Brahmin, well versed in Vedic scriptures, Dvaita shastras and Pourohitya( priestly) rituals. Venkanna’s mother, Laxmibai, was a great sadhvi and a devotee of Tirupati Sri Venkateshwara. They originally belonged to Kakhandaki village near Bijapur ( Karnataka State), which housed one of the well known Brahmin Agraharas. Another famous Haridasa from Kakhandaki village was Sri Mahipatidasaru
During the 17th Century, Bijapur was invaded by Moghul ruler which caused Hindus (particularly Brahmins) to be harassed making it hard for them to live . Many Brahmin pandits migrated from Kakhandaki village to other places. Sri Nrasappayya’s family was also one among them, who came to Bagalkot, which was under the rule of a Hindu maratha Killedar at that time. Moreover, Bagalkot was another well known Agrhara of vedapandits of dvaita school of Philosophy. It housed many vedadhyayanan Gurkulas (vedic schools) for study of Dvaita philosophy and other vedic scriptures in addition to ritualistic mantras.
After migrating to Bagalkot, Nrasappayya lived with his first son Raghvendra and wife Laxmibai, in small house on a Killa street (also called 70th street), where over seventy learned Vedapandits lived. Sri Raghavendra began learning Sanskrit and Vedadhyayana in Dvaita gurukulam and soon became a vedic scholar. He then started supporting his father in discourses on puranas and in pourohitya ( priestly )works. Narasappayya, being a great scholar as well, taught dvaita Vedanta to many, through bhagvata purana ,Sudha patha, dvaita granthas etc. Narasappayya & his wife were staunch devotees of Lord Venkateshwar. He lived a happy and contented life with his family, accepting with great humility, whatever they received through ‘dana’ as the blessings of ‘Sri Hari’.
Many years later, our “kathanayaka” – Venkanna, was born to this couple at their old age. Narasappayya and his wife were worried as to how would they raise this son and make him a great Dvaita scholar like their first son Raghavendra. They were not sure if they would survive till he reaches age of going to guru kula (vedic school). They then consoled themselves thinking, “who are we to worry on this, when we accept whatever comes, as the Varaprasada(blessing) of Lord SriVenkateswara. When Sri Hari blessed us with this Santana (son) at old age, we accept him as Prasada of the lord. He must have blessed us with a son for a specific purpose, hence he will take care of him”
Mother Laxmibai imbibed this thought into Venkanna’s mind that Lord Venkteshwar is the real father and mother to all the people and the creatures in this world. There is nothing that happens without his will. He always protects, feeds and takes care of the people who pray and surrender to him with full devotion. Venkanna’s mother used to sing devotional kirtanas of Lord Sri Hari early in the morning, during pooja time in the afternoon and again in the evening. Venkanna always used to be by her side when she sang, being completely immersed in devotional kirtanas. When Venkanna was inquisitive about the meaning of the kirtans that his mother sang, she used to explain the profound divine meaning of the same to him. She used to tell him the divine stories of Bhakta Prahlada and Dhruva, explaining how as children, they surrendered to lord Sri Hari with full devotion and how the lord would always bless them, protect them and fulfill all their wishes As a child, Venkanna was greatly influenced by the teachings of intense bhakti from his mother. His mother was very affectionate and caring towards the cows they had at home. She used to tell Venkanna all of gods are present in Cows and by serving them, one will get punnya ( results of good actions) of serving all Gods. He used to assist his mother in taking care of these cows, by taking all the cows to the riverside for grazing. Particularly, cows named Gange & Gauri, and their calves were more attached to him. While he was on the river side, he used to sit below the big banyan tree on the bank of the river, recollecting the divine stories & bhajans told by his mother and being engrossed in praying and meditating on Lord Venkateshwar.
One day, Narasappayya and Laxmi bai decided to perform Upanayanam(thread ceremony) of the little boy Venkanna ,though of still a tender age of about eight years. They were getting older and their health was deteorating due to which, they felt they might not survive much longer. Hence, by performing his thread ceremony, he could start going to gurukula (vedic school) for Vedadhyayaana (learning Vedic scriptures). They picked an auspicious day in kartika masa and performed the thread ceremony of Venkanna, after which, Narasappayya did Gayatri Mantropadesh to his son.
After a few months, Laxmibai’s health began to deteorate further. She knew she would not live any longer. She told Venkanna that the god of death (Yama) is knocking at her doors. She consoled him saying, “don’t feel you are going to be an orphan after my death. Lord Venkateshwara is always with you, he is your father and mother. He will always protect you and take care of you. You must always pray to him”. After Venkanna’s mother passed away, Nrasappayya saw no vigour left in his life. Just a few months passed, when Nrasappayya was also on his death bed.
Both Raghavendra & Venkanna were orphaned. Their neighbors helped them with their daily necessities for a few days. They later advised Raghvendra to get married so that once his wife comes home, she can take care of the house and provide motherly care to the little boy Venkanna. Raghavendra acceded to their advice and his neighbors got him married to Kaveramma, daughter of a poor dvaita Brahmin from near by village.
After Raghavendra’s marriage, he shoulderd the responsibility of running his family. His job being pourohitya (religious ritual work), demanded of him to tour surrounding villages on most of the days. This fetched him sufficient money and food grains to support his family. He had no time to care for his brother’s needs, even to the extent that he did not bother to enroll him to gurukula for learning sanskrit and vedic scriptures. On the other hand, Kaveramma was also very cruel and selfish by nature. She engaged Venkanna in doing all the house hold works, like sweeping floor, cleaning utensils, washing her clothes in the river and sending him to graze all the cows instead of sending him to gurukula for learning. All the boys of his age in the locality were going to gurukula, except Venkanna, being denied of such an opportunity by his brother. Venkanna was not even fed properly by Kaveramma. She used to feed him stale jowar roti with Chilli powder chutney, while she and her husband would eat all the fresh and tasty food.
Raghavendra was blissfully unaware of Kaveramma’s inhuman treatment of Venkanna. His pourohitya work left him no time to careof Venkanna. In front of her husband, Kaveramma would pretend to be taking good care of Venkanna. She was so haughty and headstrong that Raghavendracharya himself was afraid of her.
Venkanna’s parents had taught him good samskaras. As a result, he was a person of placid disposition even though Kaveramma, who was supposed to shower motherly affection on Venkanna, behaved brutally harsh with him. At that tender age, he faced a lot of humiliation. The other boys who were studying at the Gurukula, used to mock at him since he would spend all his time either taking the cows for grazing or doing house hold chores, instead of studying vedic scriptures. Venkanna used to disregard their comments. The only close friends he had were the cows ‘gange’, ‘gowri’ and the birds. Fond memories and inspiring teachings of his mother accompanied him all the time. As a young boy, Venkanna was an ardent devotee of lord Sri Hari and strongly believed that everything that happens in life is by Sri Hari’s wish and will. He would simply accept whatever comes his way as god’s wish. He had learnt a few devotional songs in his early childhood, just by listening to his mother sing. Though , he would graze the cows & do the house hold chores as per the orders of his brother’s wife during the day, he would attend vedic & religious discourses at near by Hanuman temple at night.
Although Venkanna was calm and composed, diligently performing the tasks assigned to him, there was a limit to the humiliation he could stand. It was a sweltering summer day in Bagalkot, Venkanna was feeling very thirsty , hungry and exhausted. He asked Kaveramma for a glass of butter milk. Kaveramma refused to give him butter milk, instead, scolded him in foul language and ill-treated him. At that moment, Venkanna felt very dejected and lamented about what his life had become. He was not able to get even a glass of buttermilk. He tells his sister in law that he can not stay any more in the house. He leaves the house without informing his brother.
Venkanna was about 10 -12 years of age, when he left home. Although he had no formal training in vedic scriptures & shastras, he had been bestowed with divine samskara from his mother during child hood. His mother’s last words were ringing in his ears … “ Venkanna, we are your father and mother just for a short duration in this visible world. Your real mother and father is Lord sri Venkateshwara, He is the eternal father and mother for the whole world, He is called “ Anatho Deva Rakshakah “. He takes care of every creature in this world, you are not an orphan, he is with you, trust him, pray to him and surrender to him with pure devotion, he is there to take care of you always”,
After Venkanna leaves the house, he sees a big crowd of people walking with ‘Palike(palanquin)’ of Sri Venkateshwara in the next street. They were all singing divine bhajans and dancing to the divine tunes with tamboori in front of the ‘Palike’. He joins the crowd and with full devotion, starts chanting bhajans along with them. One of the elderly persons in the crowd observed the deep devotional involvement of this boy in chanting lord’s bhajans. After some time, he asked him as to who he was and what is his name? Venkanna tells him his name and says he is an orphan. Venkanna, enquires as to where the bhajanamandali is heading to. The elderly person sympathizes with Venkanna saying… “Venkanna, you are not an orphan. Lord venkteshwara takes care of every body. How can you be orphaned? This bhajana mandali is going to Tirupati along with Venktesh devaru in the palike.” His words remind Venkanna of what his mother’s last words.
Venkanna had the desire to join the bhajana mandali. He asked the elderly person if he could join them. The elderly person said, “It is all god’s wish. Who I am to say no to your request”. Venkanna then joined the group, chanting and dancing to Hari sankirtanas. Enroute to Tirupati, they visited many holy places. He meditates on the lord’s name all the time, chanting and singing lord’s leelas, listens to discourses by pandits on the essence of Bhagavat purana etc. This constant satsang ( company of Devine people ) brings a divine transformation in him and the boy gets transformed into true devotee of Srihari.
The bhajana mandali reaches Tirupati after walking for a few months (pada yatra). They all take a holy dip in Kapil thirtha, at the foothill of Tirumala. They then proceed to have darshan (glimpse) of Lord Kapileshwara and Lord Narasimha.Before climbing up the hill to reach the Tirupati temple, they touch the earthen dust of the foot hill and offer their salutations to it as they consider it to be the dust of the feet of Sri Hari. The elderly person in the group narrates the incident of Sri Vadirajaru to Venkanna. He says, “When SriVadirajaru ( Madhva saint & well known tapasvi) came to Tirupati and began climbing up the Tirumala hills, he saw Lord Venkteshwar in the form Saligrama (holy stone) spread over the entire Tirumala hill. Seeing this, he could not put his foot on the hill, instead, he climbed up the hill on his knees. That was the “bhaktiya parakashte “(devotion par excellance) of Sri Vadirajaru. His devotion to lord showed the world that God is all pervading, he is everywhere”. Hearing to this story, Venkanna was overwhelmed with joy and gets into intense bhakti or trance meditation (Dhayna) stage.
Venkanna climbs up the hill along with other devotees in the group. The moment they reach the Galigopuram (ancient temple tower enroute), all devotees chant the lord’s name “Hare Srininvas, Hare Venkatesha, Govind ..Govind Hare ..Mukunda !!” with intense devotion. When they climb up further and see the main temple’s Maha gopuram, the whole group became vibrant with intense devotion and started to dance and chant “Hare Srininvasa... “ Hare srinivas “.
Venkanna, along with the other devotees in the group, came to Swami Puskarani Theertha ( Holy pond) , prayed to the lord, did sankalpa snana ( takeing divine bath in the pond), did his Sandhyvandane (morning prayers) and took the darhsan of Varaha Swamy on bank of swamipushkarani .He then proceeded to take the darshan (glimpse) of the lord in the Lord Venkteshwara temple. As usual, the temple was crowded with a lot of people waiting to have the lord’s darshan. So Venkanna decided to wait at the entrance of the temple until the rush reduced. After a while, he entered the inner sanctum (Garbha gudi). When Venkanna stood face to face before the deity Srinivasa , his joy knew no bounds. He raised his hands high up paying salutations to the lord. Completely surrendering himself to the lord, he cried out loud “Hare Srinivasa”!! His voice rolled in waves and touched the feet of Lord Srinivasa. He was totally engrossed in praying to the lord, not being aware of anything happening around him. He came to consciousness when the temple servant pushed him out. Then Venkanna came out from inner shrine and went around it on outer prakara (outside the shrine). He then joined some Haridasas singing glories of God outside the shrine. A few minutes later, the priest brought food, offered it to God as “naivaidya” and then distributed it to the devotees as prasadam.
The inspiring darshan of lord Venkteshwara, participation in the sankirtana congregation and the prasadam distributed by the priest every afternoon made Venkanna ecstatic, and motivated him to stay for longer in Tirumala. After having the first darshan(glimpse) of lord Srinivasa, he sat outside, on the temple steps and started recalling the magnificent image of the lord. - the smiling face with divine charm around him. Venkanna used to have the intense urge of seeing the lord in his real blissful form (Chaitanya murthy). He used to pray and cry with intense devotion saying “Hey Lord, I will never leave your feet, please accept my pure devotion and give me a glimpse of your real form “. After he had the glimpse of the deity for the first time, he was so overwhelmed that he had forgotten about himself. He used to sit on top of the Narayana hill and meditate on Srinivasa. At times, he would go to Papanasini river and meditate on its bank. He used to sleep on an old stone gazebo (Mantapa) at night. He used to feel the strong presence of lord in every place and in everything. Several months passed, Venkanna was still anxious for the glimpse of the lord Srinivasa in his real eternal form (Chaitanya swaroopa). One day, as he did everyday, he went to the temple to take lord Srinivasa’s darshan. His soul had this tremendous urge to have his nijaswaroopa darshan (glimpse of the lord in his real form) that day. He prostrated before the lord with intense devotion saying, he would give up his life at his feet if he does not get the darshan he had been craving for. .He cried before him praying, “hey Lord, why did you bring me on the this earth and why did you make me an orphan? Why did you make me illiterate and innocent? Prabho.!! (Hey Lord) Bless me with your divine grace and remove my ignorance ;otherwise, I will give up my life at your feet “. Saying this, Venkanna went into a state of trance and fell unconscious at the feet of lord Srinivasa.
After seeing his pure and intense devotion , Lord Venkateshwara appeared before him, pulled his tongue out and inscribed the sacred words (beejakshar) - “Prasanna venkata”,on his tongue. He then blessed him saying “Venkanna, you will become Haridasa with this name of Prasannavenkata. Your ignorance (lack of knowledge) is banished now, you are now a Jnani(enlightened) with all the divine knowledge”. Lord Srinivasa then showed Venkanna his divya swaroopa (divine and magnificent real form) for a few minutes. Venkanna got up with,tears rolling down his cheeks out of unfathomable ecstasy.
He said “Hey lord you have forgiven my all mistakes and blessed me ! Hey karunannidhe (kind hearted one), I am dasanu dasa (servant of your servant) of you.” He then starts singing his impromptu compositions of songs and hymns in Kannada -
“ Tappau Nodade Bandyeya ! Yennaya Tande /
Appa Tiruvenkateshane Nirdoshane .. …/ /"
This keerthana flowed spontaneously from his mouth and he started dancing with intense devotion, without being consicious of the external world. His fellow piligrims were wonder struck thinking, how could this illiterate waif compose such divine and profound keetanaThey acclaimed “Aha! What a wonder! At such an young age, this boy attained god-realization without doing intense tapasya. He became enlightened! What great Punnya (good deeds) he might have done, in order to have the real form darshan of the lord and being bestowed with the inscription of Prasannavenkata on his tongue!” People continued to praise him this way. But the young boy was in the highest level of god-realization, he was in Samadhi state, he was not aware of what is happening around him. After some time, he came out Samadhi state and looked around. There was a big crowd around him, with people praising him and paying their salutations(namskar) to him. He slowly came out of the inner shrine and did pradkshina of temple. At his juncture, Venkanna was not he himself , he seemed to have forgotten the world he came from. With joyful tears, he continued composing & singing one song after another, dancing to the tunes, using his hand as cymbals.
Following this incident, the very same day, the Pradhan Archaka ( Chief priest) of the temple got a dream, in which, lord Venkteshwara appeared and told him “ this boy who was dancing & chanting Kirtans in the inner shrine is a great devotee of mine. I have given him a glimpse of my real form (nija- swaroopa), blessed him by inscribing sacred words of ‘Prasanna Vankata’ on his tongue and given him dasa diksha (saintly initiation). Now on, he will be known as Prasanna venkata Dasa and he will spread the devotional movement amongst all the people across the country. . Tomorrow morning when you go to the temple , you will find a packet tied in saffron coloured cloth, in the inner shrine (garbhagudi).This packet will contain my idol along with Sridevi and Bhudevi, Tala and Gopala butti. Give him a Tamboori from the temple along with this packet and tell him that I have given him daasa diksha (saintly ordain), so from now on, he will be known to this world as Prasanna Venkata Dasaru”.
Next morning, Venkanna goes to the temple as usual, to have the darshan of lord Srinivasa. While praying to the lord, with his eyes closed in deep devotion, the chief priest calls him and tells “Venkannaavre!! You are such a great person! I was unaware that you had the real form darshan of the lord! Lord Srinivasa came in my dream and has ordered me to give you something. Please come to the Kalyanotsava mantapa during kalyanotsava”. Venkanna simply nodded his head saying “Everything is Sri Hari’s wish” and as requested by the priest, went to the kalyana mahotsava mantapa at the pooja time.
The priest asks him to sit in the front row and after pooja is done, he invited Venkanna to the stage. Venkanna went to the stage and the priest narrated his dream to the big cohort of devotees sitting there. He handed over the saffron coloured packet to him and asked him to open it. Venkanna opened the packet and saw the beautiful idol of Lord Venkteshawara with Sridevi and Bhudevi on either side! He also found the tala and gopal butti. The moment he saw the idols, he closed his eyes praying to the lord with intense devotion. Lord Venkateshwara then gave him his divya darshan and told him “I will be with you every moment. Whenever you call me, I will give you my real-form darshan through these idols. Now on, you are known to the world as Prasanna Venkata Dasaru. You have to go for sanchaar (traveling place to place) to spread the devotional movement across the country
When Venkanna opened his eyes, he found the priest still addressing the crowd that “he is not an ordinary boy, he is an enlightened who has been blessed with the real form darshan of lord Sri Hari. As per Sri Hari’s instructions, I would like to hand over the Tamboori (musical instrument) to him from our temple. From now on, he is no more an innocent boy Venkanna, he is Prasanna Venkata Dasaru” Upon hearing this, the other devotees wondered about the miracle and were overwhelmed by the leela of Sri Hari. They all bowed before Venkanna. Venkanna looked at them and in a gentle tone, told them not to bow before him, but to bow before the lord, as he is the one dwelling in the heart of every being. When Venkanna strung the chords of the tamboori, there was a divine echo. He slowly started to walk away from the crowd with the tamboori in his hand, singing his impromptu kirtans -
“ Salaho Venkataramanaa Dayambudhi Salaho Venkataramanna
Mastakdoloppuva Manikya Mukutada Kasturi Namada Chaluvaa ….”
Prasanna Venkata Dasaru continued to stay in Tirumala , doing intense meditation of Sri Hari .Every morning, he would stand before the deity, keeping his sight stuck to the Nayanmanohar (captivating charmer) Lord, going in to trance mediation mode, forgetting the world and enjoying the eternal bliss of the Lord. He felt disheartened when he knew he had to go away from Tirumala for the job that the lord had ordered him to do. He was going to miss the divine joy of seeing his lord everyday. He spontaneously began composing hundreds of Kritanas in praise of Sri Hari. With intense devotion and attachment to the lord, he sang the following Kirtana expressing that he cannot leave his feet and Tirumala, his divine abode.
“ Bidalare Bidalare Ninna Adidavareya
Kodukondu Abhaya Vididemmeaya Tande
Kooguve Manadanniye Krapasagarnendelli
Koogidarodagida Naganna Kelli Tande …..”
Prasanna Venkata Dasaru was not prepared to leave the abode of Srinivasa (i.e. Tirumala), but, one day, lord Srinivasa appeared in his dream and told him “ my dear son, you have been blessed with Dasatava not to stay here, but to go back to your place for spreading this devotional movement which can provide a path towards sadhana (spiritual attainment) for a common householder”.
The next day, Dasaru left Tirumala and began his spiritual travel towards Bagalkot. Enroute to Bagalkot, he visited several holy places like Mulabagilu, Hampi,Mantralayam etc. Mantralayam is the divine abode of a great Madhava saint, Sri Raghvendra swamijee.. When he reached Mantralayam early morning, he took bath in the holy Tungabhadra river. He first had darshana (glimpse) of Goddess Manchalamma , the goddess of Mantralaya. He then went to have darshan of Lord Anjeneya and Rudradevarau idols installed by Sri Raghavendraru. Finally, he took the darshan of Sri Raghavendra Brandavana.
It was Brahmi muruhat (auspicious time of the morning) early in the morning. Prasanna Venkata Dasaru was standing in front of the Moolabrindavana. Knowing that Sri Raghvendra Guruji was in the state of Yoga nidra (yogic sleep), Prasanna Venkata Dasaru began composing & singing a keertana on him in Udayaraga (morning raga):-
“ Yelu Sri Gururaya Bellagaitindu
Dhooli Darshan Kodiri Yi Velle Shishyarige // P//
Yellu Guru RaghavendraYellu Daya Guna Saandra
Yellu Kumuduke Chandra Sri Raghavendra ….. “
“Ashegollagadeno Heshi Manujanu Nanu
Klesha Bhavasagaradollisutiheno
Yeshu Janmadi Yenna Gashi madidi Munna
Dsanaguve Toro Prasanna vnkata “
Prasanna Venkata Dasaru was singing with his eyes closed, completely immersed in devotion, tears rolling from his eyes. He prayed saying “He Mahanu bahvare (great saint), please show mercy on this devotee of yours and guide me in the path of dasatva (slavery of the lord)” Dasaru then felt like somebody was calling him by name “ O my Son, Prasanna Venkata” Dasaru then saw Sri Raghvendra swamijee sitting inside the Brandavana with intense aura surrounding him. Rayaru told him - “ You have come with direct blessings of Lord Shri Hari. Dharma and teachings of Madhva philosophies will be preached all over, through the kirtanas composed by you. You will awaken the Bhakti movement once again along with Vijayadasaru, GopalDasaru and Jagannath dasaru. Go ahead and do desha sancahar (preach throughout the country) and start spreading this divine message. Sri Raghvendraru gave darshan to dasaru and blessed him with this message and disappeared from his sight. Dasaru expressed his salutations to the guru and continued his travel towards his native place, Bagalkot.
One morning, at the time of sun rise, during the month of Magha masa, Prasanna Venkata dasaru reached Bagalkot. He first went to the Killa’s (fort area) Hanuman temple. The temple priest was performing the abhisheka to the lord, while chanting Vayu stuti. Dasaru stood before the Hanuman idol, closed his eyes and had a glimpse of lord Anjeneya (hanuman) using his divine sight (divya drishti). He instantaneously began composing the following kirtana, dancing in front of the lord with Tamboori and Tala
“Anjaneesuta Namoo Swami Neeta Kunjanja Cheriyada Mahapoojashrami /
Patita Paavana nama Dheya Hanum .. Ateetanagatajanda Jneya
Mratasanjivanadi Chaturaushada Tande Kshataghata Kapigala Vrata Rakshiside // 1//"
“ Varavashita Prasanna Venkata Dhishtana Priya Muni Shishyarodayane..”
As soon as the temple priest saw this young dasaru singing this composition, he muttered to himself that “I have heard of Gopal dasaru, Vijaya dasaru and other haridasas. But I have not heard of any composition with Prasanna Venkat ankita. who is this Prasanna venkata dasaru?” The priest asked him, “Dasare, which place are you from ? Dasaru closed his eyes & put the same question to his inner self. ”Where have I come from?” From vedic point of view the origin of the atma is a very thought provoking question.
Dasaru opened eyes and said “Acharyare, I don’t know where have I come, from”. The priest laughed and said “Dasare I have asked Loukika (materialistic ) question and not the adhyatmic (spiritual) question. I don’t remember seeing you earlier in this town. So far, no haridasas visited this place, you look like a god-realized soul” Dasaru laughed and told the priest ”I have come back to the same place that I had left earlier “.Smiling gently at the priest, dasaru says “Rammanna tata( Priest’s name known to Venkanna when he was a boy), could you not recognize me? How would you, I left this place when I was an illiterate waif and now, I have come back to this place in this form”. Saying this, dasaru closed his eyes in devotion and began to compose another kirtana on lord Hanuman: “Galeso Bhavava Guru Hanumanta Khalla jaladi Vadavanalla Blavanta …”
The other devotees who were present at the temple were wonderstruck by this dasaru. The news about his arrival at Bagalkot spread across the entire town like a wild fire. Scores of people gathered at the temple to have a glimpse of this god-realized soul. They were talking amongst themselves that he has had the real form darshan of lord Sri Hari himself!
As soon as this news hit the ears of Raghavendrachar and Kaveramma (Venkanna’s brother and sister in law), they ran towards the temple to have a glimpse of this great haridasa, not realizing that this great soul it is none but his brother. Co-incidentally, at the same time, an elderly person came there, with whom Venkanna had gone to Tirupati from Baglkot. He immediately recognized Dasaru as the boy Venkanna, son of Kakhandaki Narsappayya. He announced to the gathering that dasaru was none other than Venkanna. He was no stranger to the village and that he had got the Sakshathkara (real-form darshan) of lord Venkateshwara, and the lord himself inscribed the Prasanna Venkata ankita on Venkanna’s tongue, giving him Dasattva deeksha.
Every body gathered at the temple offered their salutations to Prasanna Venkata Dasaru. His brother Raghavendrachar and sister in law, Kaveramma repented for their mistakes and they requested Dasaru to pardon them. They requested him to come stay with them at their house, the house where Dasaru was born. Dasaru submitted his salutations to his brother and especially his sister in law Kaveramma. He gives her the credit for being the real cause behind his transformation. He told her that “if you hadn’t ill-treated me, I wouldn’t have left home to go to the abode of lord Srinivasa at Tirupati. Everything happened for the good and happened as per the wishes of SriHari”.
Prasanna Venkata Dasaru then went to his ancestral house along with brother and sister in law and continued his devotional work and meditation of his aradhaya devaru Sri Venkatesh Devaru. He used to spend most of his time in pooja and meditation, Every day, when he would do pooja to his lord, Vemkateshwara along with bhudevi and sridevi idols, the lord would be pleased to give him glimpse of his real form.
Although he was based in Bagalkot, he used to be on spiritual tour (sanchar) for most part of the time, to edify the common people and enlighten them spiritually.
He composed innumerable kirtanas in praise of lord Sri Hari. His popularity soon spread surrounding region .Lots of devotees started visiting him to seek his blessings. Dasaru used to often go to Tulasigeri, which houses a famous Anjneya temple. He worshiped mukhya parana with intense devotion. Mukhyaprana devaru gave nijaroopa darshana (real form glimpse) to him and blessed him. He also used to often visit Vatapi (present Badami), which was known as Dakshin kashi. He used to meditate on the bank of Agastya tirtha and composed several kirtanas there.
One day, Dasaru decided to seek a guru, to learn ancient Sanskrit scriptures and dvaita Sidhanta granthas.He remembered Purandara dasara composition - “ Guruvina gulam ngauvatanaka Doreydanna mukuti”. At that time, Sri Mudglacharya of Galgali was a great Dvaita philosophy scholar. He decided to go to him and become his disciple. For several years, he learnt dvaita granthas from Sri Mudglacharya, including all 37 sarvamoola granthas of Sri Madhvacharya and sri mannyaya sudha of sri Jayatirtha and thus became Sudha pandita. He then came back to Bagalkot to do his sadhana in Haridasa bhakti movement. Dasaru brought out the essence of Madhvasiddanta (Madhwa philosophy) in his keertanas, which can be understand easily even by a layman. His teachings convey that one who surrenders completely to the lord, the lord will take care of him at every stage in life. One should accept everything in life as the prasadam (blessings) of Sri Hari - “parasadam“. Hariye Sarrvottama & Vayu Jivottama”.
One day, while doing pooja of nartan gopal benne Krishna (Dancing Gopal Krishna holding butter in both hands), he gets the vision of visting Mathura & Brandavan where lord Krishna did his balaleelas ( child hood plays) as described in Bhagavata purana. He starts his journey to Mathura, Brandavan and travels around the places where lord Krishna spent his child hood, played with Gopikas in Yamuna river etc. He gets the real form darshan of lord Krishna there During this period dasaru wrote “Dashamaskandha Bhagavata” which became master composition of dasaru.
Lord Sri hari performs many miracles through dasaru. A few of them have been illustrated here for the benefit of the readers:
One day, when dasaru visted the Tulasigeri village, a farmer, who was tilling the land belonging to dasaru ( land was donated by Yendigeri Desai to dasaaru) meets Dasaru and told him that “this year, since there were no rains, there were no crops”. In reality, the crops were good that year. In order to avoid giving some grains to Dasaru, the farmer lied to him that there were no crops that year. Dasaru, being omniscient, understood what the truth was. So he blessed the farmer saying “as you said, can happen” and he walks away. To the farmer’s fate, the next couple of years, the farmer doesn’t get any crops though his neighboring farms get good returns. The farmer realized his mistake and prostrated before dasaru to forgive his mistake and bless him with good crops. Dasaru closed his eyes, prayed to lord Venkateshwara and told the farmer “alright, your wish will materialize”. The following year, the farmer got surplus crops. From that day on, the villager started calling Dasaru as Kari bai Achar ( a person whose words always come true). Even today, dasahara Vanshastaru(following generations of dasaru) living in the village are called Acharppanvru ( i.e. symbolic of Kari bai achar).
On another note, when Dasaru used to travel along with his disciples for his sanchar (spiritual preaching), through the forests, several times, they used to encounter a Tiger. All his disciples would run away out of fear. But dasaru used to apply tulsigeri anjeneya (lord hanuman) angara (sacred ash) on the tiger’s forehead. On doing this, the tiger would behave like a cat. Dasaru would keep the sacred box (containing lord’s idols) on the tiger’s back and would walk along with the tiger. On reaching the following village, dasaru would take the sacred box and would tell the tiger not to harm any cattle or human in the village and would request the tiger to get into the forest. The tiger would nod its head and go back quietly into the forest. Following this incident, dasaru was also called d Angarada dasaru, since he used to apply Hanuman’s angar (sacred ash) on the forehead of tiger to tame it.
To note another miracle, One day, when Dasaru was sitting in the cortyard of his house, deeply engrossed in reading a bhagavat purana one Brahmin came and tells him “Dasare, tomorrow we have organized a special religious function at our home and I request you to come for lunch”. Dasaru nodded his head in approval. After some time, another Brahmin came and invited him for lunch the same day as the other Brahmin did. Dasaru looked at him and nodded his head. Next day, the first Brahmin came to Dasaru in the afternoon and told him that the food is ready, he may please come for lunch. After half an hour, the other brahmin came to dasaru and told him to come for lunch. Dasaru said “alright, I will be there, you may please go back”. Every evening, all the Brahmins in the locality used to sit on a Katte ( rock platform) near the Hanuman temple and would share the news / events of the day. One Brahmin said “today, we were so fortunate that Dasaru had come to our house for tirtha Prasad (lunch)”. Immediately, another person said, “how can it be?, Dasaru had come to our house for Tirthprasada”. All the Brahmins sitting there were wonderstruck as to how could dasaru could be at both places at the same time. Then they come to the house of prasanna venkata dasaru, and asked him if he went to both the houses for thirtha prasad. He said yes. Then they asked him, “How is it possible that you were at both the houses at the same time taking thirtha Prasad?”. For a moment, Sri Prasanna venkata Dasaru closed the eyes, went into deep meditation state of Sri Hari. Lord venkteshwara gave him his vision, smiled at him and told him that “you are Rudranshaaru. You have come to this earth for a specific purpose and that is to spread the bhakti movement.” Dasaru thankfully said to Sri Hari that “your leelas are seamless, why are you playing all these games through me?”. Then dasaru opened eyes and told the Brahmins that “this is the leela (miracle) of lord Venkateshwara. I am just the instrument through which he plays his miracles”. The Brahmins declared it as the miracles of dasaru. They acknowledged his omniscience and prostrated before him.
After these incidents, the news about miracles of dasaru spread like wild fire to many places. People from neighboring places rushed to Dasaru’s house to seek his blessings and get solutions to their worldly problems.. After several years passed, one day, Dasaru decided to spend the rest of his life in Vatapi (Badami).. Prasanna venkata dasaru left Bagalkot and proceeded towards Badami.
Dasaru spends most of his time in meditation sitting on a rock, on the bank of Agastya tirth ( big pond). He did Pranapratishtapana of Hanuman on the bank of the pond and worshipped him daily. The Maratha Peshwa ruler of that time had come to Badami. He got to know about Sri Prasanna Venkata Dasaru there and sent his stenographer (Karnika) to invite him to his darbar. The stenographer comes to Sri Prasanna venkata dasaru and invited him for the same. He had one golden pen on his ear. Dasaru asked him “What is that? is it an ear ornament?”. The karnika replied saying “It is a present given by Peshwa for being the fastest stenographer (Parama Sheeghra Lipikar).” Dasaru remarked – “That means to say you are the modern Ganapathi when it comes to writing skills. So now, I will tell you a padhya (composition) and you should write it as I tell. If you are able to complete that, I will consider you worthy of the reward”. Dasaru then sang his kriti “Eantha Shreemanthaananthaanu”. The stenographer could not keep up with even the first few lines (pallavi and anupallavi) of the song.
After a few years of his stay in Badami, Dasaru decided to leave this body. On Bhadrapada masa shudha ekadasi night, when he was in deep meditation, he is blessed with the real form darshan of lord Krishna and that was his last darshan of Lord Sri Hari in this Avtar. It is evident from his last kirtana Composition which starts like this:
"Daro Nee Chinna Daro /
Garo RatriyollommeGrakke Bandeevamma
Ikkida Kadagalikkavo Nidre Ukkeri Kannu Mucchavo
Namma Takkisuvante Nee Kalla
Chikka Makkallatvidallo Chaluva // 1//
Aga Gopalnatiddi /Nee Byaga Chatularoopanadi/
Iga NammellarMaattidi Koti Poogennara/ kelli bapparinnaro kanneHolutaideni Ahude/2//
Sappallidae Kudo Kanno/
Prankappava NingitteVinnu/
Kanno SuprasannaVenkat Janno Praveena //3//"
This composition says that all the doors and windows have been closed , eyelids are also closing due to sleep, how did you enter this place? Then he praises him as balagopal (Lord Krishna as a child) and tells lord Krishna “Please sit here, without making any sound, I am submitting my Prana kappa ( life force prana) to you.”
After dasaru sang this song, lord Krishna smiles at him and takes him to his abode (vaikunta). Dasaru’s body was still in a sitting posture with his hands on the strings of the tamburi but his Jivtama (life soul) had left this body and reached the feet of Lord.
Dasara Tala , tamboori, gopal Butti and the idols that dasaru prayed to, are still kept safely at Bagalkot in the house of his lineage. Every year, Dasara Aradahana is celebrated on a grand scale at Bagalkot, as per the Hindu calendar, on Bhadrapada masa Shuddha Dsahami as PoorvaRadahana , Ekadasi as Mdhyardhana and Dwadasi as Uttara aradhana. Hundreds of devotees across the state attend this annual aradhana function.
Dsara Kratigalu:
Although Prasanna venkata dasaru composed thousands of kirtanas, suladi and ugabhogagalu, only about 604 compositions have been located so for. Sri Prasannaveankata C & C Trust ( R ) started research program in association with other like minded researchers and organizations such as Sri Laxmikant Patil of Bijapur, Sri Varadeandra Haridasa Sahitya Manadali founded by late Sri Gorabal Hanumanatarayaru of Lingasur, Manaya Sri K . Appannacahar ex -TTD dasasahitya project officer Koutalam and host of Bhajana mandalis in various parts of Karnataka, to search the new kritis of dasaru. In this search abhiyan the research team has found 150 new aprakatita kritis ( 104 from Gorbal Hanumatarao’s collections + 40 orginal manuscript of aprakatita Kritis found by Sri Laxmikant Patil and 6 kritis found from various bhajana mandalis). Out of these 150 kritis 124 are published in the book form in the year 2012 with initiative of this trust.( 26 kritis published as book with photos of Dasara Talegari hasataprati by this trust + 98 kritis are published as Prasannavaeankatadasara Aprakatita Kritgalu by Varadeandra HaridasaSahitya Mandali Lingasaur ).The search to locate the other compositions is still on, to see if they are available in any of the traditional houses in the interiors of Karnataka. Many of his compositions have been sung by famous dasa sahitya singers like Pandit Bhimsen Joshi, Puttur Narasimha Nayak, Sri Anant Kulkarni (from bagalkot and devotee of dasaru), Raichur Seshgiri dasaru, Madhava gudi, Sangeeta Katti, Prasanna Korti and many more.
List of Krutigalu :
Sri Prasannavenkatadasara kritis are classified broadly in to fallowing subdivisions:-
1. Sakhayabahava (Parying God as friend)
2.Madhur Bhava
3.Vatsalya Bhava
4. Shantabhava
6.Sri LaxmiDevi Stutis
7. Sri.Vayudeavar Stutis
8.Sri Rudradevar Stutis
9.Sri Tulasidevi Stuti
10.Sri Subramanya Stuti
11. Sri Ganapati Stuti
12. Sri Ganaga Stuti
13. Sri Krishnaveni Stuti
14.Sri Guru Stuti
15.Dasa Stuti
16.Atmanivedane
17.Lokaneeti Kritis
18.Tatava Vivechane Kritis
19 Bhedamuktavali ( Kritis on Panacahbhedas of madahvaSidhanta)
20. Samaparadayada hadaugalu
21.Itara ( other) Hadaugalu
22. Suladigalu
23. Ugabhogagalu
24. Dasar Vishesh ( Dheergha) Kritis: ( Totally 15 Vishesh Kritis have been found in the recent research, they are as fallows:
1.Dasahamasakanda Bhagavata Puravardha - contains 67 kirtans
2.Samasatanama Shat Charan Padayamala in Bhamini Sahatapadi - First kannada Vishnusahsaranam
3.Satayabhama Vilasa
4.Narayan Panajara
4.Naradarau Koravanji Vesha talada caharitre
5. Bheda Muktavali - Kolina Hadu
6. Kalajnana ( in this kritis, Dasaru predicted in 17th century itself what is going to happen in 20th Century and beyond).
7.Bhramargeete (* this is also available in the Ankita of Sri Padaraja it needs further research to locate the original hasataparati of either Sripadaraja or Sri Prasannaveankata Dsarau).
8. Srashti Parakarana - dasaru composed in 3 Sandhis namely 1. Sukshma Srashti Sandhi in 27 nudis, 2. Gunabindu Vaishamya Avatarike Sandhi in 33 nudis, 3. Vairaj Sarashti Sandhi in 45 nudis.
9. Shobhana Suvvi Pada in 49 nudis.
10. Utaani Pada in 74 nudis
11.Ganga Vranane
12 Krishna Caharitrya
13. Vratta Prabahandha
14. Taratamya Mettike ( Taratamaya Vivarane)
15. Annihika Vichar
ShriPrasanna Venkata Dasaru has enriched dasa sahitya (devotional compositions) in a different way by bringing together Kannada, Marati and urdu languages in his compositions. His Bhagavatha compositon in kannada is a famous one.
Some of the popular Compositions of Dasaru are:-
Hanuma Namma Tayi Tande
Karta Krishnaih Nee Barayya
Entha Shreemantanantano
Jo Jo Nandana Kanda,
Ranga koLanoodalAgi
Rangaiah koLanoodalu,
Aane Bantaane Bantaane Banthammaaa
Paliso Madhava
Tappu Galanella Pariharisuva Nammappanallave Neenu
Nee Karuniso Vitthala
Tappu Nodade Bandya ( Composed on having the real form darshan of lord Srinivasa),
Bideno Ninnanghri Shreenivasa
Even Today, Mettilotsava Function at various Places in India &abroad ends with his composition, Bideno Ninnanghri Shreenivasa Kruti.
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Bhakti or Haridasa concept originated by the relations ship of Yeesha (Sri Hari or God) and Dasa (Servant of God), which was demonstrated by Mukhyapranadevaru (Hanuman) as true servant of Lord Rama. Followers of Dwaita Philosophy strongly believe that Mukhyaparanadevaru took avatar of Sri Madhvacaharayaru in Kaliyuga. Hence strongly believe that Bhakti or haridasa movement in Karnataka, was inspired by Sri Madhvacharayara (founder of dwaita philosophy), Dwadadasha stotra, which contains ‘Ridam’ ‘Laya’ ‘Talla’and sangeet bhava .Subsequently, in the 13th century, Sri Naraharitirtharu, a direct disciple of Sri Madhvacharyaru bolstered the growth of bhakti movement by composing few devotional keertanas on lord Sri Hari in kannada. (However some school of thought believes that Bhakti or haridasa movement in Karnataka was initiated by Sri Achalananda of Bangalore district in the 9th Century (801 – 879) which is disputed by many scholars). While this did not progress for too long, bhakti movement began to lose its momentum in the 14th century. In 15th century, Sri Sripadaraja, a great madhva saint of Padamanabhatirthara peetha, resuscitated the bhakti movement again, by composing innumerable kirtanas, suladis, ugabhogas in Kannada. With his literary contributions, bhakti movement rose to its zenith during the period 1446 -1600.
Sri Vyasathirtha, a disciple of Sripadarajaru, established Dasakkota and Vyasakoota with the support of the then Vijayanagar emperor, Sri Krishnadevaraya. Vyasa teertha himself composed hundreds of keertans Great Haridasas like Sri Purandara Dasaru & Kanakdasaru became disciples of Vyasateertha. They were also core members of Dasakkota. They composed thousands of keertans in praise of Sri Hari which bestowed ethical and moral influence on the society. Sri Purandara dasa is also considered as father of Carnatic music. This was the golden year of Bhakti movement in Karnataka. Sri Vadirajaru, another great saint of Madhava lineage, further ameliorated this movement by composing hundreds of keertanas, suladis etc.
Thus far, was an overview of bhakti movement over the period 13 – 16 century (from Madhvacharayaru to Sri Vadirajaru). Following this period, in 17th century two great Haridasaru born in Bijapur district north Karnataka, one is Kakhandaki Mahipati Dasaru (1611-1681) and another one is Bagalkoteya Sri Prasannavaenkata Dasaru (1680 -1752). Sri Mahipati Dasaru also made very significant contributions to Haridas Sahitya. Subsequently, it was our “Kathanayaka”, Sri Prasanna Venkata Dasaru (1680 -1752) and his contemporary saints like Sri Vijayadasaru, Sri Gopaladasaru, Hellavan Katte Giriyamma,and Sri Jagannatha dasaru, who further nurtured bhakti movement and pushed to greater heights. The 17th - 18th century period marked another golden era for bhakti movement after Vyasarayara’s Dasakoota and Vyasa koota.
With this brief historical backdrop of bhakti movement in Karnataka, let us progress to the life history of our Kathanayaka, “Sri Prasanna Venkata dasaru”.
Sri Prasanna Venkata dasaru was born in 1680 at Bagalkot, now a district head quarters in Karnataka state, located on the banks of river ‘Ghataprabha’ – a tributary to‘Krishna’ river. His child hood name was Venkanna. His father, Sri Narasappayya Kakhandaki was a learned Madhva ( Dvaita sect) Brahmin, well versed in Vedic scriptures, Dvaita shastras and Pourohitya( priestly) rituals. Venkanna’s mother, Laxmibai, was a great sadhvi and a devotee of Tirupati Sri Venkateshwara. They originally belonged to Kakhandaki village near Bijapur ( Karnataka State), which housed one of the well known Brahmin Agraharas. Another famous Haridasa from Kakhandaki village was Sri Mahipatidasaru
During the 17th Century, Bijapur was invaded by Moghul ruler which caused Hindus (particularly Brahmins) to be harassed making it hard for them to live . Many Brahmin pandits migrated from Kakhandaki village to other places. Sri Nrasappayya’s family was also one among them, who came to Bagalkot, which was under the rule of a Hindu maratha Killedar at that time. Moreover, Bagalkot was another well known Agrhara of vedapandits of dvaita school of Philosophy. It housed many vedadhyayanan Gurkulas (vedic schools) for study of Dvaita philosophy and other vedic scriptures in addition to ritualistic mantras.
After migrating to Bagalkot, Nrasappayya lived with his first son Raghvendra and wife Laxmibai, in small house on a Killa street (also called 70th street), where over seventy learned Vedapandits lived. Sri Raghavendra began learning Sanskrit and Vedadhyayana in Dvaita gurukulam and soon became a vedic scholar. He then started supporting his father in discourses on puranas and in pourohitya ( priestly )works. Narasappayya, being a great scholar as well, taught dvaita Vedanta to many, through bhagvata purana ,Sudha patha, dvaita granthas etc. Narasappayya & his wife were staunch devotees of Lord Venkateshwar. He lived a happy and contented life with his family, accepting with great humility, whatever they received through ‘dana’ as the blessings of ‘Sri Hari’.
Many years later, our “kathanayaka” – Venkanna, was born to this couple at their old age. Narasappayya and his wife were worried as to how would they raise this son and make him a great Dvaita scholar like their first son Raghavendra. They were not sure if they would survive till he reaches age of going to guru kula (vedic school). They then consoled themselves thinking, “who are we to worry on this, when we accept whatever comes, as the Varaprasada(blessing) of Lord SriVenkateswara. When Sri Hari blessed us with this Santana (son) at old age, we accept him as Prasada of the lord. He must have blessed us with a son for a specific purpose, hence he will take care of him”
Mother Laxmibai imbibed this thought into Venkanna’s mind that Lord Venkteshwar is the real father and mother to all the people and the creatures in this world. There is nothing that happens without his will. He always protects, feeds and takes care of the people who pray and surrender to him with full devotion. Venkanna’s mother used to sing devotional kirtanas of Lord Sri Hari early in the morning, during pooja time in the afternoon and again in the evening. Venkanna always used to be by her side when she sang, being completely immersed in devotional kirtanas. When Venkanna was inquisitive about the meaning of the kirtans that his mother sang, she used to explain the profound divine meaning of the same to him. She used to tell him the divine stories of Bhakta Prahlada and Dhruva, explaining how as children, they surrendered to lord Sri Hari with full devotion and how the lord would always bless them, protect them and fulfill all their wishes As a child, Venkanna was greatly influenced by the teachings of intense bhakti from his mother. His mother was very affectionate and caring towards the cows they had at home. She used to tell Venkanna all of gods are present in Cows and by serving them, one will get punnya ( results of good actions) of serving all Gods. He used to assist his mother in taking care of these cows, by taking all the cows to the riverside for grazing. Particularly, cows named Gange & Gauri, and their calves were more attached to him. While he was on the river side, he used to sit below the big banyan tree on the bank of the river, recollecting the divine stories & bhajans told by his mother and being engrossed in praying and meditating on Lord Venkateshwar.
One day, Narasappayya and Laxmi bai decided to perform Upanayanam(thread ceremony) of the little boy Venkanna ,though of still a tender age of about eight years. They were getting older and their health was deteorating due to which, they felt they might not survive much longer. Hence, by performing his thread ceremony, he could start going to gurukula (vedic school) for Vedadhyayaana (learning Vedic scriptures). They picked an auspicious day in kartika masa and performed the thread ceremony of Venkanna, after which, Narasappayya did Gayatri Mantropadesh to his son.
After a few months, Laxmibai’s health began to deteorate further. She knew she would not live any longer. She told Venkanna that the god of death (Yama) is knocking at her doors. She consoled him saying, “don’t feel you are going to be an orphan after my death. Lord Venkateshwara is always with you, he is your father and mother. He will always protect you and take care of you. You must always pray to him”. After Venkanna’s mother passed away, Nrasappayya saw no vigour left in his life. Just a few months passed, when Nrasappayya was also on his death bed.
Both Raghavendra & Venkanna were orphaned. Their neighbors helped them with their daily necessities for a few days. They later advised Raghvendra to get married so that once his wife comes home, she can take care of the house and provide motherly care to the little boy Venkanna. Raghavendra acceded to their advice and his neighbors got him married to Kaveramma, daughter of a poor dvaita Brahmin from near by village.
After Raghavendra’s marriage, he shoulderd the responsibility of running his family. His job being pourohitya (religious ritual work), demanded of him to tour surrounding villages on most of the days. This fetched him sufficient money and food grains to support his family. He had no time to care for his brother’s needs, even to the extent that he did not bother to enroll him to gurukula for learning sanskrit and vedic scriptures. On the other hand, Kaveramma was also very cruel and selfish by nature. She engaged Venkanna in doing all the house hold works, like sweeping floor, cleaning utensils, washing her clothes in the river and sending him to graze all the cows instead of sending him to gurukula for learning. All the boys of his age in the locality were going to gurukula, except Venkanna, being denied of such an opportunity by his brother. Venkanna was not even fed properly by Kaveramma. She used to feed him stale jowar roti with Chilli powder chutney, while she and her husband would eat all the fresh and tasty food.
Raghavendra was blissfully unaware of Kaveramma’s inhuman treatment of Venkanna. His pourohitya work left him no time to careof Venkanna. In front of her husband, Kaveramma would pretend to be taking good care of Venkanna. She was so haughty and headstrong that Raghavendracharya himself was afraid of her.
Venkanna’s parents had taught him good samskaras. As a result, he was a person of placid disposition even though Kaveramma, who was supposed to shower motherly affection on Venkanna, behaved brutally harsh with him. At that tender age, he faced a lot of humiliation. The other boys who were studying at the Gurukula, used to mock at him since he would spend all his time either taking the cows for grazing or doing house hold chores, instead of studying vedic scriptures. Venkanna used to disregard their comments. The only close friends he had were the cows ‘gange’, ‘gowri’ and the birds. Fond memories and inspiring teachings of his mother accompanied him all the time. As a young boy, Venkanna was an ardent devotee of lord Sri Hari and strongly believed that everything that happens in life is by Sri Hari’s wish and will. He would simply accept whatever comes his way as god’s wish. He had learnt a few devotional songs in his early childhood, just by listening to his mother sing. Though , he would graze the cows & do the house hold chores as per the orders of his brother’s wife during the day, he would attend vedic & religious discourses at near by Hanuman temple at night.
Although Venkanna was calm and composed, diligently performing the tasks assigned to him, there was a limit to the humiliation he could stand. It was a sweltering summer day in Bagalkot, Venkanna was feeling very thirsty , hungry and exhausted. He asked Kaveramma for a glass of butter milk. Kaveramma refused to give him butter milk, instead, scolded him in foul language and ill-treated him. At that moment, Venkanna felt very dejected and lamented about what his life had become. He was not able to get even a glass of buttermilk. He tells his sister in law that he can not stay any more in the house. He leaves the house without informing his brother.
Venkanna was about 10 -12 years of age, when he left home. Although he had no formal training in vedic scriptures & shastras, he had been bestowed with divine samskara from his mother during child hood. His mother’s last words were ringing in his ears … “ Venkanna, we are your father and mother just for a short duration in this visible world. Your real mother and father is Lord sri Venkateshwara, He is the eternal father and mother for the whole world, He is called “ Anatho Deva Rakshakah “. He takes care of every creature in this world, you are not an orphan, he is with you, trust him, pray to him and surrender to him with pure devotion, he is there to take care of you always”,
After Venkanna leaves the house, he sees a big crowd of people walking with ‘Palike(palanquin)’ of Sri Venkateshwara in the next street. They were all singing divine bhajans and dancing to the divine tunes with tamboori in front of the ‘Palike’. He joins the crowd and with full devotion, starts chanting bhajans along with them. One of the elderly persons in the crowd observed the deep devotional involvement of this boy in chanting lord’s bhajans. After some time, he asked him as to who he was and what is his name? Venkanna tells him his name and says he is an orphan. Venkanna, enquires as to where the bhajanamandali is heading to. The elderly person sympathizes with Venkanna saying… “Venkanna, you are not an orphan. Lord venkteshwara takes care of every body. How can you be orphaned? This bhajana mandali is going to Tirupati along with Venktesh devaru in the palike.” His words remind Venkanna of what his mother’s last words.
Venkanna had the desire to join the bhajana mandali. He asked the elderly person if he could join them. The elderly person said, “It is all god’s wish. Who I am to say no to your request”. Venkanna then joined the group, chanting and dancing to Hari sankirtanas. Enroute to Tirupati, they visited many holy places. He meditates on the lord’s name all the time, chanting and singing lord’s leelas, listens to discourses by pandits on the essence of Bhagavat purana etc. This constant satsang ( company of Devine people ) brings a divine transformation in him and the boy gets transformed into true devotee of Srihari.
The bhajana mandali reaches Tirupati after walking for a few months (pada yatra). They all take a holy dip in Kapil thirtha, at the foothill of Tirumala. They then proceed to have darshan (glimpse) of Lord Kapileshwara and Lord Narasimha.Before climbing up the hill to reach the Tirupati temple, they touch the earthen dust of the foot hill and offer their salutations to it as they consider it to be the dust of the feet of Sri Hari. The elderly person in the group narrates the incident of Sri Vadirajaru to Venkanna. He says, “When SriVadirajaru ( Madhva saint & well known tapasvi) came to Tirupati and began climbing up the Tirumala hills, he saw Lord Venkteshwar in the form Saligrama (holy stone) spread over the entire Tirumala hill. Seeing this, he could not put his foot on the hill, instead, he climbed up the hill on his knees. That was the “bhaktiya parakashte “(devotion par excellance) of Sri Vadirajaru. His devotion to lord showed the world that God is all pervading, he is everywhere”. Hearing to this story, Venkanna was overwhelmed with joy and gets into intense bhakti or trance meditation (Dhayna) stage.
Venkanna climbs up the hill along with other devotees in the group. The moment they reach the Galigopuram (ancient temple tower enroute), all devotees chant the lord’s name “Hare Srininvas, Hare Venkatesha, Govind ..Govind Hare ..Mukunda !!” with intense devotion. When they climb up further and see the main temple’s Maha gopuram, the whole group became vibrant with intense devotion and started to dance and chant “Hare Srininvasa... “ Hare srinivas “.
Venkanna, along with the other devotees in the group, came to Swami Puskarani Theertha ( Holy pond) , prayed to the lord, did sankalpa snana ( takeing divine bath in the pond), did his Sandhyvandane (morning prayers) and took the darhsan of Varaha Swamy on bank of swamipushkarani .He then proceeded to take the darshan (glimpse) of the lord in the Lord Venkteshwara temple. As usual, the temple was crowded with a lot of people waiting to have the lord’s darshan. So Venkanna decided to wait at the entrance of the temple until the rush reduced. After a while, he entered the inner sanctum (Garbha gudi). When Venkanna stood face to face before the deity Srinivasa , his joy knew no bounds. He raised his hands high up paying salutations to the lord. Completely surrendering himself to the lord, he cried out loud “Hare Srinivasa”!! His voice rolled in waves and touched the feet of Lord Srinivasa. He was totally engrossed in praying to the lord, not being aware of anything happening around him. He came to consciousness when the temple servant pushed him out. Then Venkanna came out from inner shrine and went around it on outer prakara (outside the shrine). He then joined some Haridasas singing glories of God outside the shrine. A few minutes later, the priest brought food, offered it to God as “naivaidya” and then distributed it to the devotees as prasadam.
The inspiring darshan of lord Venkteshwara, participation in the sankirtana congregation and the prasadam distributed by the priest every afternoon made Venkanna ecstatic, and motivated him to stay for longer in Tirumala. After having the first darshan(glimpse) of lord Srinivasa, he sat outside, on the temple steps and started recalling the magnificent image of the lord. - the smiling face with divine charm around him. Venkanna used to have the intense urge of seeing the lord in his real blissful form (Chaitanya murthy). He used to pray and cry with intense devotion saying “Hey Lord, I will never leave your feet, please accept my pure devotion and give me a glimpse of your real form “. After he had the glimpse of the deity for the first time, he was so overwhelmed that he had forgotten about himself. He used to sit on top of the Narayana hill and meditate on Srinivasa. At times, he would go to Papanasini river and meditate on its bank. He used to sleep on an old stone gazebo (Mantapa) at night. He used to feel the strong presence of lord in every place and in everything. Several months passed, Venkanna was still anxious for the glimpse of the lord Srinivasa in his real eternal form (Chaitanya swaroopa). One day, as he did everyday, he went to the temple to take lord Srinivasa’s darshan. His soul had this tremendous urge to have his nijaswaroopa darshan (glimpse of the lord in his real form) that day. He prostrated before the lord with intense devotion saying, he would give up his life at his feet if he does not get the darshan he had been craving for. .He cried before him praying, “hey Lord, why did you bring me on the this earth and why did you make me an orphan? Why did you make me illiterate and innocent? Prabho.!! (Hey Lord) Bless me with your divine grace and remove my ignorance ;otherwise, I will give up my life at your feet “. Saying this, Venkanna went into a state of trance and fell unconscious at the feet of lord Srinivasa.
After seeing his pure and intense devotion , Lord Venkateshwara appeared before him, pulled his tongue out and inscribed the sacred words (beejakshar) - “Prasanna venkata”,on his tongue. He then blessed him saying “Venkanna, you will become Haridasa with this name of Prasannavenkata. Your ignorance (lack of knowledge) is banished now, you are now a Jnani(enlightened) with all the divine knowledge”. Lord Srinivasa then showed Venkanna his divya swaroopa (divine and magnificent real form) for a few minutes. Venkanna got up with,tears rolling down his cheeks out of unfathomable ecstasy.
He said “Hey lord you have forgiven my all mistakes and blessed me ! Hey karunannidhe (kind hearted one), I am dasanu dasa (servant of your servant) of you.” He then starts singing his impromptu compositions of songs and hymns in Kannada -
“ Tappau Nodade Bandyeya ! Yennaya Tande /
Appa Tiruvenkateshane Nirdoshane .. …/ /"
This keerthana flowed spontaneously from his mouth and he started dancing with intense devotion, without being consicious of the external world. His fellow piligrims were wonder struck thinking, how could this illiterate waif compose such divine and profound keetanaThey acclaimed “Aha! What a wonder! At such an young age, this boy attained god-realization without doing intense tapasya. He became enlightened! What great Punnya (good deeds) he might have done, in order to have the real form darshan of the lord and being bestowed with the inscription of Prasannavenkata on his tongue!” People continued to praise him this way. But the young boy was in the highest level of god-realization, he was in Samadhi state, he was not aware of what is happening around him. After some time, he came out Samadhi state and looked around. There was a big crowd around him, with people praising him and paying their salutations(namskar) to him. He slowly came out of the inner shrine and did pradkshina of temple. At his juncture, Venkanna was not he himself , he seemed to have forgotten the world he came from. With joyful tears, he continued composing & singing one song after another, dancing to the tunes, using his hand as cymbals.
Following this incident, the very same day, the Pradhan Archaka ( Chief priest) of the temple got a dream, in which, lord Venkteshwara appeared and told him “ this boy who was dancing & chanting Kirtans in the inner shrine is a great devotee of mine. I have given him a glimpse of my real form (nija- swaroopa), blessed him by inscribing sacred words of ‘Prasanna Vankata’ on his tongue and given him dasa diksha (saintly initiation). Now on, he will be known as Prasanna venkata Dasa and he will spread the devotional movement amongst all the people across the country. . Tomorrow morning when you go to the temple , you will find a packet tied in saffron coloured cloth, in the inner shrine (garbhagudi).This packet will contain my idol along with Sridevi and Bhudevi, Tala and Gopala butti. Give him a Tamboori from the temple along with this packet and tell him that I have given him daasa diksha (saintly ordain), so from now on, he will be known to this world as Prasanna Venkata Dasaru”.
Next morning, Venkanna goes to the temple as usual, to have the darshan of lord Srinivasa. While praying to the lord, with his eyes closed in deep devotion, the chief priest calls him and tells “Venkannaavre!! You are such a great person! I was unaware that you had the real form darshan of the lord! Lord Srinivasa came in my dream and has ordered me to give you something. Please come to the Kalyanotsava mantapa during kalyanotsava”. Venkanna simply nodded his head saying “Everything is Sri Hari’s wish” and as requested by the priest, went to the kalyana mahotsava mantapa at the pooja time.
The priest asks him to sit in the front row and after pooja is done, he invited Venkanna to the stage. Venkanna went to the stage and the priest narrated his dream to the big cohort of devotees sitting there. He handed over the saffron coloured packet to him and asked him to open it. Venkanna opened the packet and saw the beautiful idol of Lord Venkteshawara with Sridevi and Bhudevi on either side! He also found the tala and gopal butti. The moment he saw the idols, he closed his eyes praying to the lord with intense devotion. Lord Venkateshwara then gave him his divya darshan and told him “I will be with you every moment. Whenever you call me, I will give you my real-form darshan through these idols. Now on, you are known to the world as Prasanna Venkata Dasaru. You have to go for sanchaar (traveling place to place) to spread the devotional movement across the country
When Venkanna opened his eyes, he found the priest still addressing the crowd that “he is not an ordinary boy, he is an enlightened who has been blessed with the real form darshan of lord Sri Hari. As per Sri Hari’s instructions, I would like to hand over the Tamboori (musical instrument) to him from our temple. From now on, he is no more an innocent boy Venkanna, he is Prasanna Venkata Dasaru” Upon hearing this, the other devotees wondered about the miracle and were overwhelmed by the leela of Sri Hari. They all bowed before Venkanna. Venkanna looked at them and in a gentle tone, told them not to bow before him, but to bow before the lord, as he is the one dwelling in the heart of every being. When Venkanna strung the chords of the tamboori, there was a divine echo. He slowly started to walk away from the crowd with the tamboori in his hand, singing his impromptu kirtans -
“ Salaho Venkataramanaa Dayambudhi Salaho Venkataramanna
Mastakdoloppuva Manikya Mukutada Kasturi Namada Chaluvaa ….”
Prasanna Venkata Dasaru continued to stay in Tirumala , doing intense meditation of Sri Hari .Every morning, he would stand before the deity, keeping his sight stuck to the Nayanmanohar (captivating charmer) Lord, going in to trance mediation mode, forgetting the world and enjoying the eternal bliss of the Lord. He felt disheartened when he knew he had to go away from Tirumala for the job that the lord had ordered him to do. He was going to miss the divine joy of seeing his lord everyday. He spontaneously began composing hundreds of Kritanas in praise of Sri Hari. With intense devotion and attachment to the lord, he sang the following Kirtana expressing that he cannot leave his feet and Tirumala, his divine abode.
“ Bidalare Bidalare Ninna Adidavareya
Kodukondu Abhaya Vididemmeaya Tande
Kooguve Manadanniye Krapasagarnendelli
Koogidarodagida Naganna Kelli Tande …..”
Prasanna Venkata Dasaru was not prepared to leave the abode of Srinivasa (i.e. Tirumala), but, one day, lord Srinivasa appeared in his dream and told him “ my dear son, you have been blessed with Dasatava not to stay here, but to go back to your place for spreading this devotional movement which can provide a path towards sadhana (spiritual attainment) for a common householder”.
The next day, Dasaru left Tirumala and began his spiritual travel towards Bagalkot. Enroute to Bagalkot, he visited several holy places like Mulabagilu, Hampi,Mantralayam etc. Mantralayam is the divine abode of a great Madhava saint, Sri Raghvendra swamijee.. When he reached Mantralayam early morning, he took bath in the holy Tungabhadra river. He first had darshana (glimpse) of Goddess Manchalamma , the goddess of Mantralaya. He then went to have darshan of Lord Anjeneya and Rudradevarau idols installed by Sri Raghavendraru. Finally, he took the darshan of Sri Raghavendra Brandavana.
It was Brahmi muruhat (auspicious time of the morning) early in the morning. Prasanna Venkata Dasaru was standing in front of the Moolabrindavana. Knowing that Sri Raghvendra Guruji was in the state of Yoga nidra (yogic sleep), Prasanna Venkata Dasaru began composing & singing a keertana on him in Udayaraga (morning raga):-
“ Yelu Sri Gururaya Bellagaitindu
Dhooli Darshan Kodiri Yi Velle Shishyarige // P//
Yellu Guru RaghavendraYellu Daya Guna Saandra
Yellu Kumuduke Chandra Sri Raghavendra ….. “
“Ashegollagadeno Heshi Manujanu Nanu
Klesha Bhavasagaradollisutiheno
Yeshu Janmadi Yenna Gashi madidi Munna
Dsanaguve Toro Prasanna vnkata “
Prasanna Venkata Dasaru was singing with his eyes closed, completely immersed in devotion, tears rolling from his eyes. He prayed saying “He Mahanu bahvare (great saint), please show mercy on this devotee of yours and guide me in the path of dasatva (slavery of the lord)” Dasaru then felt like somebody was calling him by name “ O my Son, Prasanna Venkata” Dasaru then saw Sri Raghvendra swamijee sitting inside the Brandavana with intense aura surrounding him. Rayaru told him - “ You have come with direct blessings of Lord Shri Hari. Dharma and teachings of Madhva philosophies will be preached all over, through the kirtanas composed by you. You will awaken the Bhakti movement once again along with Vijayadasaru, GopalDasaru and Jagannath dasaru. Go ahead and do desha sancahar (preach throughout the country) and start spreading this divine message. Sri Raghvendraru gave darshan to dasaru and blessed him with this message and disappeared from his sight. Dasaru expressed his salutations to the guru and continued his travel towards his native place, Bagalkot.
One morning, at the time of sun rise, during the month of Magha masa, Prasanna Venkata dasaru reached Bagalkot. He first went to the Killa’s (fort area) Hanuman temple. The temple priest was performing the abhisheka to the lord, while chanting Vayu stuti. Dasaru stood before the Hanuman idol, closed his eyes and had a glimpse of lord Anjeneya (hanuman) using his divine sight (divya drishti). He instantaneously began composing the following kirtana, dancing in front of the lord with Tamboori and Tala
“Anjaneesuta Namoo Swami Neeta Kunjanja Cheriyada Mahapoojashrami /
Patita Paavana nama Dheya Hanum .. Ateetanagatajanda Jneya
Mratasanjivanadi Chaturaushada Tande Kshataghata Kapigala Vrata Rakshiside // 1//"
“ Varavashita Prasanna Venkata Dhishtana Priya Muni Shishyarodayane..”
As soon as the temple priest saw this young dasaru singing this composition, he muttered to himself that “I have heard of Gopal dasaru, Vijaya dasaru and other haridasas. But I have not heard of any composition with Prasanna Venkat ankita. who is this Prasanna venkata dasaru?” The priest asked him, “Dasare, which place are you from ? Dasaru closed his eyes & put the same question to his inner self. ”Where have I come from?” From vedic point of view the origin of the atma is a very thought provoking question.
Dasaru opened eyes and said “Acharyare, I don’t know where have I come, from”. The priest laughed and said “Dasare I have asked Loukika (materialistic ) question and not the adhyatmic (spiritual) question. I don’t remember seeing you earlier in this town. So far, no haridasas visited this place, you look like a god-realized soul” Dasaru laughed and told the priest ”I have come back to the same place that I had left earlier “.Smiling gently at the priest, dasaru says “Rammanna tata( Priest’s name known to Venkanna when he was a boy), could you not recognize me? How would you, I left this place when I was an illiterate waif and now, I have come back to this place in this form”. Saying this, dasaru closed his eyes in devotion and began to compose another kirtana on lord Hanuman: “Galeso Bhavava Guru Hanumanta Khalla jaladi Vadavanalla Blavanta …”
The other devotees who were present at the temple were wonderstruck by this dasaru. The news about his arrival at Bagalkot spread across the entire town like a wild fire. Scores of people gathered at the temple to have a glimpse of this god-realized soul. They were talking amongst themselves that he has had the real form darshan of lord Sri Hari himself!
As soon as this news hit the ears of Raghavendrachar and Kaveramma (Venkanna’s brother and sister in law), they ran towards the temple to have a glimpse of this great haridasa, not realizing that this great soul it is none but his brother. Co-incidentally, at the same time, an elderly person came there, with whom Venkanna had gone to Tirupati from Baglkot. He immediately recognized Dasaru as the boy Venkanna, son of Kakhandaki Narsappayya. He announced to the gathering that dasaru was none other than Venkanna. He was no stranger to the village and that he had got the Sakshathkara (real-form darshan) of lord Venkateshwara, and the lord himself inscribed the Prasanna Venkata ankita on Venkanna’s tongue, giving him Dasattva deeksha.
Every body gathered at the temple offered their salutations to Prasanna Venkata Dasaru. His brother Raghavendrachar and sister in law, Kaveramma repented for their mistakes and they requested Dasaru to pardon them. They requested him to come stay with them at their house, the house where Dasaru was born. Dasaru submitted his salutations to his brother and especially his sister in law Kaveramma. He gives her the credit for being the real cause behind his transformation. He told her that “if you hadn’t ill-treated me, I wouldn’t have left home to go to the abode of lord Srinivasa at Tirupati. Everything happened for the good and happened as per the wishes of SriHari”.
Prasanna Venkata Dasaru then went to his ancestral house along with brother and sister in law and continued his devotional work and meditation of his aradhaya devaru Sri Venkatesh Devaru. He used to spend most of his time in pooja and meditation, Every day, when he would do pooja to his lord, Vemkateshwara along with bhudevi and sridevi idols, the lord would be pleased to give him glimpse of his real form.
Although he was based in Bagalkot, he used to be on spiritual tour (sanchar) for most part of the time, to edify the common people and enlighten them spiritually.
He composed innumerable kirtanas in praise of lord Sri Hari. His popularity soon spread surrounding region .Lots of devotees started visiting him to seek his blessings. Dasaru used to often go to Tulasigeri, which houses a famous Anjneya temple. He worshiped mukhya parana with intense devotion. Mukhyaprana devaru gave nijaroopa darshana (real form glimpse) to him and blessed him. He also used to often visit Vatapi (present Badami), which was known as Dakshin kashi. He used to meditate on the bank of Agastya tirtha and composed several kirtanas there.
One day, Dasaru decided to seek a guru, to learn ancient Sanskrit scriptures and dvaita Sidhanta granthas.He remembered Purandara dasara composition - “ Guruvina gulam ngauvatanaka Doreydanna mukuti”. At that time, Sri Mudglacharya of Galgali was a great Dvaita philosophy scholar. He decided to go to him and become his disciple. For several years, he learnt dvaita granthas from Sri Mudglacharya, including all 37 sarvamoola granthas of Sri Madhvacharya and sri mannyaya sudha of sri Jayatirtha and thus became Sudha pandita. He then came back to Bagalkot to do his sadhana in Haridasa bhakti movement. Dasaru brought out the essence of Madhvasiddanta (Madhwa philosophy) in his keertanas, which can be understand easily even by a layman. His teachings convey that one who surrenders completely to the lord, the lord will take care of him at every stage in life. One should accept everything in life as the prasadam (blessings) of Sri Hari - “parasadam“. Hariye Sarrvottama & Vayu Jivottama”.
One day, while doing pooja of nartan gopal benne Krishna (Dancing Gopal Krishna holding butter in both hands), he gets the vision of visting Mathura & Brandavan where lord Krishna did his balaleelas ( child hood plays) as described in Bhagavata purana. He starts his journey to Mathura, Brandavan and travels around the places where lord Krishna spent his child hood, played with Gopikas in Yamuna river etc. He gets the real form darshan of lord Krishna there During this period dasaru wrote “Dashamaskandha Bhagavata” which became master composition of dasaru.
Lord Sri hari performs many miracles through dasaru. A few of them have been illustrated here for the benefit of the readers:
One day, when dasaru visted the Tulasigeri village, a farmer, who was tilling the land belonging to dasaru ( land was donated by Yendigeri Desai to dasaaru) meets Dasaru and told him that “this year, since there were no rains, there were no crops”. In reality, the crops were good that year. In order to avoid giving some grains to Dasaru, the farmer lied to him that there were no crops that year. Dasaru, being omniscient, understood what the truth was. So he blessed the farmer saying “as you said, can happen” and he walks away. To the farmer’s fate, the next couple of years, the farmer doesn’t get any crops though his neighboring farms get good returns. The farmer realized his mistake and prostrated before dasaru to forgive his mistake and bless him with good crops. Dasaru closed his eyes, prayed to lord Venkateshwara and told the farmer “alright, your wish will materialize”. The following year, the farmer got surplus crops. From that day on, the villager started calling Dasaru as Kari bai Achar ( a person whose words always come true). Even today, dasahara Vanshastaru(following generations of dasaru) living in the village are called Acharppanvru ( i.e. symbolic of Kari bai achar).
On another note, when Dasaru used to travel along with his disciples for his sanchar (spiritual preaching), through the forests, several times, they used to encounter a Tiger. All his disciples would run away out of fear. But dasaru used to apply tulsigeri anjeneya (lord hanuman) angara (sacred ash) on the tiger’s forehead. On doing this, the tiger would behave like a cat. Dasaru would keep the sacred box (containing lord’s idols) on the tiger’s back and would walk along with the tiger. On reaching the following village, dasaru would take the sacred box and would tell the tiger not to harm any cattle or human in the village and would request the tiger to get into the forest. The tiger would nod its head and go back quietly into the forest. Following this incident, dasaru was also called d Angarada dasaru, since he used to apply Hanuman’s angar (sacred ash) on the forehead of tiger to tame it.
To note another miracle, One day, when Dasaru was sitting in the cortyard of his house, deeply engrossed in reading a bhagavat purana one Brahmin came and tells him “Dasare, tomorrow we have organized a special religious function at our home and I request you to come for lunch”. Dasaru nodded his head in approval. After some time, another Brahmin came and invited him for lunch the same day as the other Brahmin did. Dasaru looked at him and nodded his head. Next day, the first Brahmin came to Dasaru in the afternoon and told him that the food is ready, he may please come for lunch. After half an hour, the other brahmin came to dasaru and told him to come for lunch. Dasaru said “alright, I will be there, you may please go back”. Every evening, all the Brahmins in the locality used to sit on a Katte ( rock platform) near the Hanuman temple and would share the news / events of the day. One Brahmin said “today, we were so fortunate that Dasaru had come to our house for tirtha Prasad (lunch)”. Immediately, another person said, “how can it be?, Dasaru had come to our house for Tirthprasada”. All the Brahmins sitting there were wonderstruck as to how could dasaru could be at both places at the same time. Then they come to the house of prasanna venkata dasaru, and asked him if he went to both the houses for thirtha prasad. He said yes. Then they asked him, “How is it possible that you were at both the houses at the same time taking thirtha Prasad?”. For a moment, Sri Prasanna venkata Dasaru closed the eyes, went into deep meditation state of Sri Hari. Lord venkteshwara gave him his vision, smiled at him and told him that “you are Rudranshaaru. You have come to this earth for a specific purpose and that is to spread the bhakti movement.” Dasaru thankfully said to Sri Hari that “your leelas are seamless, why are you playing all these games through me?”. Then dasaru opened eyes and told the Brahmins that “this is the leela (miracle) of lord Venkateshwara. I am just the instrument through which he plays his miracles”. The Brahmins declared it as the miracles of dasaru. They acknowledged his omniscience and prostrated before him.
After these incidents, the news about miracles of dasaru spread like wild fire to many places. People from neighboring places rushed to Dasaru’s house to seek his blessings and get solutions to their worldly problems.. After several years passed, one day, Dasaru decided to spend the rest of his life in Vatapi (Badami).. Prasanna venkata dasaru left Bagalkot and proceeded towards Badami.
Dasaru spends most of his time in meditation sitting on a rock, on the bank of Agastya tirth ( big pond). He did Pranapratishtapana of Hanuman on the bank of the pond and worshipped him daily. The Maratha Peshwa ruler of that time had come to Badami. He got to know about Sri Prasanna Venkata Dasaru there and sent his stenographer (Karnika) to invite him to his darbar. The stenographer comes to Sri Prasanna venkata dasaru and invited him for the same. He had one golden pen on his ear. Dasaru asked him “What is that? is it an ear ornament?”. The karnika replied saying “It is a present given by Peshwa for being the fastest stenographer (Parama Sheeghra Lipikar).” Dasaru remarked – “That means to say you are the modern Ganapathi when it comes to writing skills. So now, I will tell you a padhya (composition) and you should write it as I tell. If you are able to complete that, I will consider you worthy of the reward”. Dasaru then sang his kriti “Eantha Shreemanthaananthaanu”. The stenographer could not keep up with even the first few lines (pallavi and anupallavi) of the song.
After a few years of his stay in Badami, Dasaru decided to leave this body. On Bhadrapada masa shudha ekadasi night, when he was in deep meditation, he is blessed with the real form darshan of lord Krishna and that was his last darshan of Lord Sri Hari in this Avtar. It is evident from his last kirtana Composition which starts like this:
"Daro Nee Chinna Daro /
Garo RatriyollommeGrakke Bandeevamma
Ikkida Kadagalikkavo Nidre Ukkeri Kannu Mucchavo
Namma Takkisuvante Nee Kalla
Chikka Makkallatvidallo Chaluva // 1//
Aga Gopalnatiddi /Nee Byaga Chatularoopanadi/
Iga NammellarMaattidi Koti Poogennara/ kelli bapparinnaro kanneHolutaideni Ahude/2//
Sappallidae Kudo Kanno/
Prankappava NingitteVinnu/
Kanno SuprasannaVenkat Janno Praveena //3//"
This composition says that all the doors and windows have been closed , eyelids are also closing due to sleep, how did you enter this place? Then he praises him as balagopal (Lord Krishna as a child) and tells lord Krishna “Please sit here, without making any sound, I am submitting my Prana kappa ( life force prana) to you.”
After dasaru sang this song, lord Krishna smiles at him and takes him to his abode (vaikunta). Dasaru’s body was still in a sitting posture with his hands on the strings of the tamburi but his Jivtama (life soul) had left this body and reached the feet of Lord.
Dasara Tala , tamboori, gopal Butti and the idols that dasaru prayed to, are still kept safely at Bagalkot in the house of his lineage. Every year, Dasara Aradahana is celebrated on a grand scale at Bagalkot, as per the Hindu calendar, on Bhadrapada masa Shuddha Dsahami as PoorvaRadahana , Ekadasi as Mdhyardhana and Dwadasi as Uttara aradhana. Hundreds of devotees across the state attend this annual aradhana function.
Dsara Kratigalu:
Although Prasanna venkata dasaru composed thousands of kirtanas, suladi and ugabhogagalu, only about 604 compositions have been located so for. Sri Prasannaveankata C & C Trust ( R ) started research program in association with other like minded researchers and organizations such as Sri Laxmikant Patil of Bijapur, Sri Varadeandra Haridasa Sahitya Manadali founded by late Sri Gorabal Hanumanatarayaru of Lingasur, Manaya Sri K . Appannacahar ex -TTD dasasahitya project officer Koutalam and host of Bhajana mandalis in various parts of Karnataka, to search the new kritis of dasaru. In this search abhiyan the research team has found 150 new aprakatita kritis ( 104 from Gorbal Hanumatarao’s collections + 40 orginal manuscript of aprakatita Kritis found by Sri Laxmikant Patil and 6 kritis found from various bhajana mandalis). Out of these 150 kritis 124 are published in the book form in the year 2012 with initiative of this trust.( 26 kritis published as book with photos of Dasara Talegari hasataprati by this trust + 98 kritis are published as Prasannavaeankatadasara Aprakatita Kritgalu by Varadeandra HaridasaSahitya Mandali Lingasaur ).The search to locate the other compositions is still on, to see if they are available in any of the traditional houses in the interiors of Karnataka. Many of his compositions have been sung by famous dasa sahitya singers like Pandit Bhimsen Joshi, Puttur Narasimha Nayak, Sri Anant Kulkarni (from bagalkot and devotee of dasaru), Raichur Seshgiri dasaru, Madhava gudi, Sangeeta Katti, Prasanna Korti and many more.
List of Krutigalu :
Sri Prasannavenkatadasara kritis are classified broadly in to fallowing subdivisions:-
1. Sakhayabahava (Parying God as friend)
2.Madhur Bhava
3.Vatsalya Bhava
4. Shantabhava
6.Sri LaxmiDevi Stutis
7. Sri.Vayudeavar Stutis
8.Sri Rudradevar Stutis
9.Sri Tulasidevi Stuti
10.Sri Subramanya Stuti
11. Sri Ganapati Stuti
12. Sri Ganaga Stuti
13. Sri Krishnaveni Stuti
14.Sri Guru Stuti
15.Dasa Stuti
16.Atmanivedane
17.Lokaneeti Kritis
18.Tatava Vivechane Kritis
19 Bhedamuktavali ( Kritis on Panacahbhedas of madahvaSidhanta)
20. Samaparadayada hadaugalu
21.Itara ( other) Hadaugalu
22. Suladigalu
23. Ugabhogagalu
24. Dasar Vishesh ( Dheergha) Kritis: ( Totally 15 Vishesh Kritis have been found in the recent research, they are as fallows:
1.Dasahamasakanda Bhagavata Puravardha - contains 67 kirtans
2.Samasatanama Shat Charan Padayamala in Bhamini Sahatapadi - First kannada Vishnusahsaranam
3.Satayabhama Vilasa
4.Narayan Panajara
4.Naradarau Koravanji Vesha talada caharitre
5. Bheda Muktavali - Kolina Hadu
6. Kalajnana ( in this kritis, Dasaru predicted in 17th century itself what is going to happen in 20th Century and beyond).
7.Bhramargeete (* this is also available in the Ankita of Sri Padaraja it needs further research to locate the original hasataparati of either Sripadaraja or Sri Prasannaveankata Dsarau).
8. Srashti Parakarana - dasaru composed in 3 Sandhis namely 1. Sukshma Srashti Sandhi in 27 nudis, 2. Gunabindu Vaishamya Avatarike Sandhi in 33 nudis, 3. Vairaj Sarashti Sandhi in 45 nudis.
9. Shobhana Suvvi Pada in 49 nudis.
10. Utaani Pada in 74 nudis
11.Ganga Vranane
12 Krishna Caharitrya
13. Vratta Prabahandha
14. Taratamya Mettike ( Taratamaya Vivarane)
15. Annihika Vichar
ShriPrasanna Venkata Dasaru has enriched dasa sahitya (devotional compositions) in a different way by bringing together Kannada, Marati and urdu languages in his compositions. His Bhagavatha compositon in kannada is a famous one.
Some of the popular Compositions of Dasaru are:-
Hanuma Namma Tayi Tande
Karta Krishnaih Nee Barayya
Entha Shreemantanantano
Jo Jo Nandana Kanda,
Ranga koLanoodalAgi
Rangaiah koLanoodalu,
Aane Bantaane Bantaane Banthammaaa
Paliso Madhava
Tappu Galanella Pariharisuva Nammappanallave Neenu
Nee Karuniso Vitthala
Tappu Nodade Bandya ( Composed on having the real form darshan of lord Srinivasa),
Bideno Ninnanghri Shreenivasa
Even Today, Mettilotsava Function at various Places in India &abroad ends with his composition, Bideno Ninnanghri Shreenivasa Kruti.
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