Life of Sri Madhvacharya - Part 3

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Madhvavijaya, the biographical text on which this short sketch of Madhvacharya's life is based, highlights many miracles and superhuman feats performed by Madhvacharya. Reader Keerthivasan from Madras raised an objection to the earlier reference to the divine origin of Madhva's birth. He feels that such miracles are often products of the fertile imagination of the devotees or followers who seek to put their own sect or leader on a pedestal. While this may be true, we cannot entirely dismiss off such phenomena as spurious. Almost all great spiritual figures in Indian tradition have exhibited such psychic powers, which were consciously or unconsciously used for the benefit of humanity. In fact, Patanjali tries to provide empirical proof for such psychic powers in his yoga sutras.

Spiritual teachers like Madhvacharya displayed such powers, possibly with the intention of reassuring the spiritual aspirants of the efficacy of divine grace and the need for the practice of austerities and spiritual disciplines. The Madhvavijaya also tries to demonstrate that the Acharya was not just a one-sided scholar or intellectual but a many-sided personality and a giant even in sheer physical strength.

One of the most interesting incidents in the Acharya's life is his encounter with a Muslim king on the banks of the Ganga. The king had put his guards on watch to prevent any enemies from crossing the river during a state of war. Madhva put a spell over the guards and approached the King and spoke to him in the Turkish language, which he was not known to be familiar with. The Muslim king offered a part of his kingdom to the Acharya if he agreed to stay with him, so pleased was he with Madhva's intelligence, charming personality and divine appearance! This incident is similar to a popular story described in the life of Raghavendra Swami of Mantralaya who appeared in the 16th century in the Madhva tradition and shone with spiritual brilliance. The swami is said to have emerged from his Samadhi (tomb) at Mantralayam in the 19th century when a British official came to survey the temple with the intention of taking it over. Impressed with the saint's arguments in English, his intelligence and personality, the British official is said to have become his ardent devotee!

During his visit to Kurukshetra, Madhva described the exploits of Bhimasena to his disciples who became very curious to see the mighty mace, which Bhimasena is said to have used in his fight against Duryodhana. Madhva pointed to a spot and asked his disciples to dig there, where the disciples found the hidden mace to their utter astonishment!

At Goa, he is said to have consumed 4,000 bananas and thirty pots of milk to demonstrate his powers as Hanuman. Such stories of superhuman capacity for digestion also occur in the lives of modern saints like Ramakrishna Paramahamsa of Dakshineswar and Trailanga Swami of Varanasi. At Gomati, he demonstrated the efficacy of Vedic mantras to a sceptical King by making green gram seeds sprout instantaneously and bear fruit by uttering the Vedic sukta 'Ya oshadhih purvajata.' One night when a rough wind blew out all the lamps, he enabled his disciples to continue their studies with the light emanating from his body!

The Acharya's voice was so loud and sonorous that it could drown the noise of even a turbulent sea, as he demonstrated on a solar eclipse day by expounding the Aitareya suktas on the shores of the sea to his disciples who had gathered there for a ritual bath. A mere side-glance from the Acharya turned the turbulent sea into a still lake, enabling them to complete their ablutions during the auspicious time. At a village called Paranti, he is said to have brought rain to fill up the dried up village tank. Even today, many disciples of the famous Swami Chinmayananda will attest to his power of dispelling clouds if they threatened to disturb the gathering at His Gita Jnana Yajnas.

The Acharya laid great emphasis on physical fitness and he was himself known to be a great wrestler; he could defeat fifteen of his strongest disciples simultaneously. The disciples compared the hold of his hands and fingers with the weight of a mountain. A wrestler named Gandavata and his brother made an unsuccessful attempt to strangle the Acharya by his neck. The wrestlers collapsed in exhaustion because the acharya's neck was as unyielding as an iron pipe.

All spiritual teachers advise their disciples against the temptation of acquiring miraculous powers or falling prey to hidden greed behind such a desire for psychic powers. At the same time, many of them also demonstrated such powers or used them consciously. Hence, such miraculous stories have their own place and should be received with an open mind. Neither the cynical scepticism of the arrogant scientist nor the miracle mongering of the sectarian followers is beneficial for spiritual aspirants.