Many great souls who have realized the supreme truth have had one thing in common, their complete detachment from the outside world and their indifference to the verbal and physical insults heaped upon them by an ignorant society.
In India we have had such great beings like Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and Ramana Maharishi. One such divine being who lived in south India in the seventeenth century was Sadashiva Brahmendra.
Born as Shivaramakrishna to a vedic scholar Mokshainti Somasundara Avadhani in Madurai, he had his intial education from his father and later went to Tiruvishainallur for his advanced studies where he came into contact under masters like Sridhara Venkatesha Ayyaval,Bodhendra Saraswati and others. After completion of his studies he returned home where much against his wishes, he was forced into wedlock. Being detached and spiritual by temperament, he could not adjust himself to the demands of wordly affairs.
Thus, he came back to Tiruvishainallur and sought the tutelage of Paramashivendra Saraswati, a great saint and scholar. Once chided by his guru for being argumentative, he took a vow of "silence", but wrote a number of scholarly texts like Siddhanta Kalpavalli, Yogasudhakara and others.
His most famous work Atmavidya Vilasa deals with the qualities of a yogi who has realized the supreme truth, one who has attained "Brahma Gnana". This work is a direct exposition of his own life, where he wandered along the banks of the river Cauvery, lost in contemplation of the divine, oblivious to the outside world.
Such was the intensity of his meditationthat he was not even conscious of his bodily needs. The ground was his bed, the sky his roof and the air was his garment. People labelled him insane and when this news reached his guru, the guru exclaimed "O lord, when will this sort of madness grip me?".
Sadashiva Brahmendra has composed songs like "Sarvam Brahmamayam", Pibhare Ramarasam, Manasa Sanchara Re etc which are still popular today, especially inCarnatic music. He Samadhi at Nerur near Tiruchirapalli in Tamil Nadu is a place of iligrimage for all devotees. Not beholden to anybody, free from all worldly bondages he led life as he wished to, with nothing to fear. This Jeevanmukta who realized Brahman while still on this earth is a shining beacon of hope to all humanity caught in the web of materialism. The saints of Sringeri Sacchidananda Shivabhinava Nrisimha Bharati and Chandrashekara Bharati were greatly influenced by him, with the latter attaining similar "Avadhuta" characteristics.
