Bharathi Tirtha Mahaswamiji (alternative spellings: Bharati, Teertha), real name Seetharama Anjaneyalu (born 11 April 1951), is an Indian religious leader who is the current and 36th

Shankaracharya Shankaracharya ( sa, शङ्कराचार्य, , " Shankara-''acharya''") is a religious title used by the heads of amnaya monasteries called mathas in the Advaita Vedanta tradition of Hinduism. The title derives from Adi Shankara; te ...

of Sringeri Sharada Peetham, an important

Hindu Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...

monastery in the tradition of

Advaita Vedanta ''Advaita Vedanta'' (; sa, अद्वैत वेदान्त, ) is a Hindu sādhanā, a path of spiritual discipline and experience, and the oldest extant tradition of the orthodox Hindu school Vedānta. The term ''Advaita'' ...

established by Sri

Adi Shankara Adi Shankara ("first Shankara," to distinguish him from other Shankaras)(8th cent. CE), also called Adi Shankaracharya ( sa, आदि शङ्कर, आदि शङ्कराचार्य, Ādi Śaṅkarācāryaḥ, lit=First Shanka ...

Early life and career

Bharathi Tirtha was born 11 April 1951 to a

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India *Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language ** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode ...

Smarta family from Machilipatnam. His family later moved to Narasaraopet,

Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (, abbr. AP) is a state in the south-eastern coastal region of India. It is the seventh-largest state by area covering an area of and tenth-most populous state with 49,386,799 inhabitants. It is bordered by Telangana to the ...

. He was a religiously-minded child. His ''

upanayana ''Upanayana'' ( sa, उपनयनम्, lit=initiation, translit=Upanāyanam) is a Hindu educational sacrament, one of the traditional saṃskāras or rites of passage that marked the acceptance of a student by a preceptor, such as a ''guru'' ...

'' ceremony was performed when he was seven years of age. In addition to schooling, he spent his time studying

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural diffusion ...

and took lessons in the

Vedas upright=1.2, The Vedas are ancient Sanskrit texts of Hinduism. Above: A page from the '' Atharvaveda''. The Vedas (, , ) are a large body of religious texts originating in ancient India. Composed in Vedic Sanskrit, the texts constitute th ...

from his father who himself was a

Vedic upright=1.2, The Vedas are ancient Sanskrit texts of Hinduism. Above: A page from the '' Atharvaveda''. The Vedas (, , ) are a large body of religious texts originating in ancient India. Composed in Vedic Sanskrit, the texts constitute th ...

scholar. In the year 1966, at the age of 15, Anjaneyalu approached the 35th Jagadguru of the Sringeri Sharada Peetham,

Abhinava Vidyatirtha Jagadguru Abhinava Vidyatirtha Mahaswami (born as Srinivasa Sastri) (13 November 1917 - 21 September 1989) was the 35th Jagadguru of the Sringeri Sharada Peetham, which has been occupied by an unbroken lineage of gurus stretching back to the ...

, seeking religious guidance from him. Vidyatirtha accepted Anjaneyalu as the disciple. Abhinava Vidyatirtha appointed Seetharama Anjaneyalu as the successor-designate on the 11 November 1974, when Anjaneyalu received saffron robes, a staff, and a

kamandalu Kamandalu (Sanskrit: कमण्डलु, ) or kamandal or kamandalam is an oblong water pot, originating from the Indian subcontinent, made of a dry gourd (pumpkin) or coconut shell, metal, wood of the Kamandalataru tree, or from clay, usually ...

(water pot). The newly initiated

sannyasi ''Sannyasa'' (Sanskrit: संन्यास; IAST: ), sometimes spelled Sanyasa (सन्न्यास) or Sanyasi (for the person), is life of renunciation and the fourth stage within the Hindu system of four life stages known as '' As ...

was given the title of Yogapatta Bharathi Tirtha in line with the Dashanami Sampradaya of

charya. As part of the tradition, Bharati Tirtha undertakes tours to different places in order to offer guidance to the devotees. The most recent tour took place in 2017 and spanned

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a state in southern India. It is the tenth largest Indian state by area and the sixth largest by population. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu is the home of the Tamil people, whose Tamil language ...

Kerala Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South Ca ...

and

Karnataka Karnataka (; ISO 15919, ISO: , , also known as Karunāḍu) is a States and union territories of India, state in the southwestern region of India. It was Unification of Karnataka, formed on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reor ...

References

External links

Sringeri Sharada PeethamAbout Shri Adi Sankarcharya and His Parampara
{{Hindudharma Advaita Vedanta Sringeri Sharada Peetham 1951 births Living people Indian Hindu monks Shankaracharyas Telugu people People from Guntur district People from Andhra Pradesh