RRDS

 

Bio Data – Satguru Sant Keshavadas

 

Born on 22nd July 1934, Ashada Shuddhu Ekadasi, a holy day of Lord Panduranga, Satguru Sant Keshavadasji is a servant of God and acclaimed as a Prophet of Divine Love and World Peace. At the age of 11, he had a mystical and illuminating vision of Lord Vittala at the dilapidated Vittala temple in his native place Bhadragiri near Udupi. Since then he has tirelessly spread the Loving Word of God through India and abroad. He performed Han Keerthana of Raja Chandra Sena at the age of 7. This illustrates that Satguru Sant Keshavadasji was a precious singer of devotional music. He married Smt. Nirmala (Rama Mata) in 1951 at the age of seventeen.

 

His first official Han Keerthana was performed at Rama Mandira, Malleswaram, and Bangalore in 1957. He found in the air of Bangalore, a serene and peaceful dictum of God and he settled in Bangalore along with his family in 1959.

 

Then he started Dasa Keerthana Mandali and in 1961, he started Dasa Keerthana College at Guttali. From then on the name of Satguru Sant Keshavadasji became a household name in Karnataka for Hari Keerthana and devotional music. In 1966 he began his first global tour Apart from enacting the drama “Santa Tukaram” at London for the first time he also met Pope Paul VI at Vatican City. During this tour he also installed a murti of Vittala Rakumai at London. He is the first Indian to take the teachings of Purandaradas to America as he enacted a drama on the life of the saint in 1967. The succeeding year he undertook another global tour and accomplished the task of building a support group of Hari Keerthana.

 

He has gone around India 57 times and 40 times around the globe preaching Eternal Truth or Sanatana Dharma in general and Bhakti Yoga or Yoga of Divine Love in particular.

 

Apart from his contacts world over he has established several Shrines, temples of music and schools for devotional studies and Ashrams in various parts of India. Among them, Dasashram International Centre, Dattatreya Vanaprastashrama, and Vishwa Shanti Ashram at Bangalore are known worldwide for their activities. He has also established Keshava Ashrama on the bank of holy Ganga at Uttar Kashi.

 

He has composed more than 8,000 soul-stirring holy songs in different Indian languages and more than 100 songs in English and has written 25 books in Kannada and 21 in English. In his thirties he had played the roles of Sri Krishna, Shiva, Sri Purandaradas, Kanakadas, Sant Tukaram and Sant Narasidas. He has conducted two important Kirtanksar’ Conferences in which the then Maharaja of Mysore, His Highness Sri Jayachamarajendra Wodeyar participated. He inspired the entire Katha-Kirtan movement in modem times to spread the faith of love effectively. He has been awarded the Rajyotsava Award by the Karnataka Government in 1986.

 

Satguru Sant Keshavadasji has his world headquarters at Bangalore, India known as “Vishwa Shanti Ashrama or World Peace Monastery”. With donations from East and West he constructed an extraordinary beautiful temple there known as “Bhagavadgita Darshan Mandir” in which the entire Bhagavadgita -- all the 700 Sanskrit verses and nine mediational verses with their translations in English, Hindi and Kannada are carved on black granite against the wall of the main hall. This he calls “Scripture in Sculpture”.

 

Inspired by the life of Mahatma Paramahamsa, Sri Ramakrishna and the East and the West by opening the Gandhi, Tagore, Arabindo, Vivekananda, he tried to unite hearts of the people.

 

In 1997 on his 27th visit to Trinidad, he consecrated a special gift to the nation, a 16 ft. murti of Lord Panduranga.

 

On 4th December 1997, in India he departed from the physical plain. However he continues to live in the hearts of millions of Devotees around the world.

 

 

Gurur Bramha, Gurur Vishnu

Gururdevo Maheswarah

Guruh Sakshat Param Bramha

Tasmai Sri Guruve Namah

 

Guru is Bramha (Lord Creator).

Guru is Vishnu (Lord Preserver).

Guru is Maheswar (Lord of Destruction).

Guru is the incarnation of Parabrahman (the Absolute).

I salute such of my Guru.

 

Sri Datta Sadguru is the personification of the Trinity who had brought the holy tradition of the Guru to the human world. Thus, He is the true Guru to any man.

Lord Dattatreya is the primordial Guru in the Hindu pantheon.

 

There are four classifications of Gum — Gum, Sadgum, Parama Guru and Parampara Guru.

One who teaches knowledge useful for earning livelihood is a Guru.

One who teaches about the knowledge of the Self is a Sadguru.

The Guru of the Sadguru is Parama Guru.

All Gurus in the lineage of Parama Guru are Parampara Gurus.

Vyasa is the most prominent among the Parampara Gurus. In fact Vyasa Maharshi has elucidated the principle of Guru, originating with Adi Datta Guru.

The main method of pleasing Guru is by total faith and surrender.

 

Gurum vina no mukti

Without Guru there can be no knowledge

 

The knowledge of Dharma is awakened through the service of the Guru. The seeker after knowledge should find God in Guru. The Grace of Guru gets you the Grace of God. The Grace of God dissolves all past karmas. Just as a Guru is sacred to the devotee, a true devotee is equally so to the Guru.

 

It is very difficult to obtain divine grace. To become worthy of divine grace, discrimination and knowledge are necessary. To acquire knowledge, guidance of a Guru is essential. Knowledge gained without a Guru is similar to self-medication, which could be more harmful than useful. Whatever is touched by the Guru at once becomes holy and sacred. Guru is the object of meditation. All mantras originate from him. He is the one to be worshipped. He alone is the bestower of liberation (moksha). Happiness here and hereafter is solely dependent on Guru’s grace.

 

A true Guru loves his disciples as parents love their children. He possesses an exemplary character. He is an embodiment of what he teaches. He is all compassion to the devotees. Nothing can hurt those devotees who are under the protection of the Guru.

 

The real Guru is he who recognises the devotees merged in ignorance, who preaches to them the knowledge to win this and the next world, and who helps them to experience the eternal Bliss by attaining liberation.

 

In this unfathomable and boundless ocean of life, the Guru is the helmsman; his grace is the favourable wind.

 

Jaya Guru Shiva Guru Hari Guru Ram

Jagad Guru Param Guru Sat Guru Shyam

 

It is through the medium of the preceptor that the individual can raise himself to cosmic consciousness. It is through that medium that the imperfect can become perfect, the finite can become infinite and the mortal can pass into eternal life of blessedness. The Gum is verily a link between the individual and the Immortal. He is a being who has raised himself from this to That and thus has a free and unhampered access to both realms. He stands, as it were, upon the threshold of immortality, and bending down, he raises the struggling individuals with his one hand, and with the other, lifts them up to the kingdom of everlasting joy and infinite Truth-consciousness.

 

He who attains victory over the mind and the ego is the truly free man. It is to attain this victory that a man submits to the higher spiritualised personality of the Guru. By this submission he vanquishes his lower ego and realises the bliss and freedom of the infinite Consciousness.

 

To adore and worship the Guru is indeed to adore and worship the Supreme.

 

The Guru’s form should be meditated upon; his feet should be worshipped; his words are to be treated as a sacred Mantra; his Grace ensures final liberation.

 

Jai Guru Datta

 

Complied by Antony R. Ramnarine

from the teaching of Paramapujya,

Sri Ganapathi Sachidananda Swamiji.