Sri Guru Raghavendra Swamy

Sri Guru Raghavendra Swamy is one of the very famous Saints known across the world, he was a philosopher by nature who did teachings of Hindu religion, Sanskrit and Vedas, Raghavendra Swamy was also an extreme devotee of Sri Rama and Hanuman [Panchamukha mukhyaPranaDevaru – Five faced form of Hanuman]

RaghavendraSwamy was presumed to be born in either 1595 or 1601 [no solid sources] to Smt. Gopikamba and Thimmanna Bhatta, Raghavendra Swamy was the second son to the couple and was born in Chidambaram of Tamil Nadu State of India.

Raghavendra Swamy was named as Sri. Venkata Natha during his childhood and was continued until he took sanyasa

Raghavendra Swamy did half of his education in his hometown, however post the demise of his father he had to continue his education with his brother in law Sri Lakshminarasimhachary.

Raghavendra Swamy was a bright student since his child hood and had great interest in learning details of Sanskrit as a language and also learnt veena during his child hood.

Later Raghavendra Swamy was advised to join Sri Mutt in Kumbakonam, it was a mutt maintained by Sri Sudheendra Theertharu, the Spiritual Guru of Lord Raghavendra Swamy.

Marriage:

Raghavendra Swamy before moving to Sri Mutt in the year in 1614 got married to Smt. Sarasvati Bai and also had a son with the name  Lakshminarayanacharya, Post marriage raghavendra Swamy moved to sri mutt in kumbakonam where he studied  Vendanta.

Salvation as SANYASI:

Sri Sudheendra Theertharu, the spiritual guru of Sri Raghavendra Swamy wanted a successor to his mutt post him, and one fine day the guru had a dream which suggested Raghavendra Swamy was to be the best person to take over the mutt, and following it Sudheendra theertharu requested Raghavendra Swamy to take over the mutt by converting into sanyasi, Raghavendra Swamy initially was skeptical of this as he was worried about his wife and child however as the goddess Saraswati suggested in his dream, later Raghavendra Swamy decided to convert into a sanyasi and Later took over his name as RAGHAVEDRA SWAMY FROM VENKATA NATHA.

During the years starting from 1624 to 1636 Raghavendra swamy was the controller of the mutt after the demis of Sudheendra theertharu.

From 1636 raghavendra swamy travelled many places across the country to spread the word of Vedas

Post all his travelling across the world spreading the word of Vedas, Raghavendra swamy has ended his life in  Andhra Pradesh and was cremated in “Mantralayam”

Mantralayam is the now one of the famous pilgrimage locations for the followers of Guru Raghavendra swamy and it across visitor across the world

Mantralayam is located in Kurnool District of Andhra Pradesh. Approximately 100 kilometers from the town of Kurnool and approximately 250 kilomoters from  Hyderabad.