Sri Adi Shankaracharya, who lived between 788 and 820 AD and expounded Advaita philosophy until he attained mahasamadhi at the young age of 32, set up the Dakshinamnaya Sri Sringeri Sharada Peetham in the verdant and charming town of Sringeri on the banks of the Tunga in Karnataka.
This math is the first of the four that he set up and, therefore, has a significance and spiritual sanctity all of its own. It has the unique unbroken tradition of a spiritual lineage of Acharyas right from the time of Shankara. No institution has survived 12 centuries and yet maintained its traditions and values in their pristine beauty and purity. The present acharya, Jagadguru Bharathi Tirtha Mahaswamji, is the 36th guru of this venerated peetham in the plateau of the Western Ghats in Malnad.
Every religious and spiritual organisation needs to keep up with the times and contribute to the changing needs of society without losing its traditional values and sanctity. The Sringeri math is perhaps one such peetham where modernisation has set in thanks to an efficient administration and management, and a well-informed pontiff with a fabulous memory.
The present jagadguru is venerated for his austere life, deep devotion, vast knowledge of scriptures and above all compassion and humanism. He is open to new and often revolutionary or radical changes in the running of his establishment. No wonder, the Sringeri math has often been a pioneer of change and a beacon of hope for its millions of devotees worldwide. The jagadguru’s successor, 24-year-old Vidhushekhara Bharathi swamiji, has been carefully selected and is being groomed to head the institution.
Any well-oiled institution needs a good manager. A religious one needs a spiritually inclined administrator, too. Vellur Ramachandra Gowrishankar, a postgraduate in engineering from the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, was all of 31 when he was appointed administrator. “I was new, young and excited about the challenges that lay before me, and I knew I had to prove myself,” he says.
No mention of Sringeri can be complete without looking into the life and work of its administrator and CEO, V R Gowrishankar, who received the Padma Sri in 2008 for his invaluable contribution to social work. His grandfather, Mahaupadhaya Vellur Subramanya Sastry, came to Sringeri from Tamil Nadu in 1893 to pursue higher studies in Vedanta and other ancient Indian esoteric and spiritual subjects. His son Mahaupadhaya Vellur Ramachandra Sastry stayed back in Karnataka and made Bangalore his home. “I grew up on the campus of the Shankar Math in Bangalore and interacted with the previous pontiff, H H Abhinava Vidya Tirtha, as a child and throughout my growing years. I was born on Ganesha Chathurti and perhaps that is why Mahaganapathy is my ishta devta and continues to give me inner strength even during trying times,” he says.
One of the radical changes made in 1987 was to hand over the daily collections of the hundi to bank officials who would count every paisa in the presence of witnesses and deposit it into the math’s bank account directly. Streamlining administrative procedures and policies soon followed and everything was done with the benign blessings of His Holiness. The guru has always been pragmatic, as have been his confidants. Gowrishankar could foresee the implementation of the Direct Taxes Act and the math was well prepared to file income tax returns.
All the land acres and properties lost by the institution have been slowly recovered since 1993 through the legal route, and it hasn’t sold a square inch to anyone ever since. Hospitals like Rangadore in Bengaluru which provides quality health care at affordable prices, schools, is one of its many philanthropic contributions. A Rajagopuram in Rameswaram was built in a record six years and a beautifully crafted gopuram in Sringeri math stands tall today. Three thousand people can be fed at a time in the dining hall of the math, said to be Asia’s largest single public dining area. The birthplace of Adi Shankara, Kaladi, got prominence and became a seat of Vedic learning largely due to the promotional activities of the math. Kaladi has become a centre for traditional knowledge along with modern education.
In 1994, the pontiff undertook a Vijaya Yatra from Kanyakumari to Kashmir and interacted with citizens, religious leaders and politicians to talk of peace and harmony in the wake of the demolition of the Babri Masjid and the Mumbai riots. In 1995, branches of the Sringeri math were established in the US, starting a new chapter.
The ruling deity is Goddess Sharada or Saraswati, who represents knowledge. Hence, the institution also supports traditional Indian fine arts and performing arts. Devotees of Adi Shankara and followers of Sanatana dharma will be happy to know that a 32ft statue of the Acharya would be installed on a hillock near the math.