A foreigner once asked Shri Sacchidananda Shivabhinava Nrisimha Bharati, the 33rd head of the Sringeri Sharada Peetam, as to how he could prefix the term Jagadguru to his name, when there were so many religions in the world, each with its own unique history, culture and leader. The Guru's reply epitomizes the essence of Sanatana Dharma, the eternal, universal truth. “The term  Jagadguru should not be read in its literal sense as Guru (Preceptor) of this Jagat (world). It only means that when any being in any corner of this world seeks my help and advice, I am bound to give it to him to the best of my capacity. In this world of diverse faiths, how can I claim to be the spiritual head of all people?" Pearls of wisdom indeed.
 Born into a family of Vedic scholars, the child Shivaswamy's behaviour was characteristically different from other children of his age. With a marked inclination for matters spiritual, he was inducted into the monastic order at the tender age of eight by the then reigning Acharya of the Sharada Peetam, Shri Narasimha Bharati.
Leading the rigorous life of an ascetic, he quickly mastered the Vedas, Shastras and other branches of learning and took over the reins after his gurus demise under the name of Sacchidananda Shivabhinava Nrisimha Bharati.
Such was the intensity of his spiritual accomplishments that thousands flocked to him, some for guidance in matters both spiritual and worldly and some to just soak themselves in the divine aura of his physical presence.
Noticing the decline in interest in India's spiritual heritage, he established schools of learning both at Sringeri and at Bangalore, which are functional even today. Collecting the works of Adi Shankaracharya which were scattered far and wide and compiling them in one volume , determining the birthplace of Adi Shankaracharya as Kalady in Kerala on the basis of factual evidence, instituting the tradition of observing Shankara Jayanti, travelling all over South India spreading the message of Shankara's philosophy, weeding out superstitious practices like animal sacrifice and teaching the Satvik mode of worship   are but a few of his glorious contributions to Indian spiritual thought.
Perhaps what may be deemed as the crowning glory of his multifarious accomplishments is his selection of his young disciple Narasimha Shastry as his successor, who later shone as the great Chandrashekara Bharati.
The Samadhi of this great spiritual luminary at Sringeri in his beloved retreat Narasimhavana is a place of piligrimage for all devotees, who can even now experience his powerful presence whilst reciting his favourite passages from the "Atma Vidya Vilasa", the famous work of the saint Sadashiva Brahmendra.