www.sumadhwaseva.com Page 1 P a g e 1 Sri Jitamitra Tirtharusaptha rAt h ram kRushNavENyoum ushit hvA p unarutthitham | ji tAmitra gurum vandE vibhudEndra karOdhbhavam || ¸À¥ÀÛ gÁv ÀæªÀiï PÀȵÀÚªÉÃuËåA G²vÁé ¥ÀÅ£ÀgÀÄw ÜxÀA | fvÁ«ÄvÀæUÀÄgÀÄA ªÀAzÉà «¨sÀÄzÉÃAzÀæ PÀgÉÆÃzsÀãªÀA || xÉmiÉ UɧÉqÉç M×üwhÉuÉåhrÉÉæÇ EÍzÉiuÉÉ mÉÑlÉÂÎijÉjÉÇ | ÎeÉiÉÉÍqɧÉaÉÑÂÇ uÉÇSå ÌuÉpÉÑSåÇSì MüUÉåkpÉuÉÇ || Meaning –Once when he was do ing Paa t a to his students, unde r a Gum Tree near Krishnaveni floods of Krishna River came and all the shishyaas r an away leaving the G uru galu Sri Jitamitraru. Sri Jitamitraru was fu lly imme r sed in the water. The floo d was the r e for s ev en days. The students thoug ht that the Gurugalu a lso gone missing i n t he f loods. But ev en after seve n days, when the floo ds stopped, they were surprised to see Jitamitraru at the same place, without being even wet. Swamiji h ad sat totally ab sorbed in meditation. There was n o si g n of wate r to uching hi s body at all. The students we r e amazed at this. That is wh y the Cha r amashloka included the same story which tells that he was sitting in Kri shnaveni fo r seven days.
He is the second after Srimadacharyaru to disappear. Those
who have disappeared and for whom no Vrundavana is
available are :
1. Sri Madhwacharyaru
2. Sri Vishnu Tirtharu 3. Sri Jitamitraru
4. Sri Purushottama Tirtharu
Vrundavana –
There is no vrundavana for him. But there is one Jitamitra
Gadde, in a Gonada Tree (Gum tree) 30-32 kms from
Raichur Krishna-Bheema River basin, Shivapura, ShahapurTaluk in Gulbarga District. It is the place where he was lastseen and disappeared. It is believed that he is still there in
Jnaana Roopa in the tree. That is why this place has been
Ananthappa lost his father at a very early age. He had a elder sister, who
also had lost her husband at her young age itself. Even though she wasyoung lady, she was expert in land management. She herself carried the
entire responsibility of the family. At his age of 8, he got upanayana.
Assisting his sister in the fields -
Anantappa after getting upanayana, used to do sandhya vandana, and allother related pooja. Then he used to go to the fields alongwith his sister, was
assisting his sister in all her land related works, plouging the fields, grazingthe animals, etc. He used to wear Yagnopaveetha only during
Sandhyavandhane and during Bhojana. During other occasins, he used to
hang to a shelf in his house.
Meeting with Vibudendra Tirtharu -
At the same time, Sri Vibudendra Tirtharu, was searching for his shishya
whom he can give sanyasashrama. Once when he was passing, he sawAnantappa. He was attracted by the boy. Sri Vibudendra Tirtharu seeing the
boy ploughing in the fields, asked him where is his Yagnopaveetha?. The Boytold that he has hanged it in his house. Then Vibudendra Tirtharu appraised
him the importance of Yagnopaveetha, and taught him as to how to do
proper sandhyavandane, pooja, etc. He visited his house at Agnihaalu, spentsome days in his house, did the Ramachandra Devara pooja at his house itself for several days. Daily he used to give discourses on various paramathma
and vayu devara tattva to Ananthappa.
Narasimha saligrama given to Anantappa –
After staying in his house, for several days, Sri Vibudendra Tirtharu, wasvery pleased with Ananthappa, and gave him narasimha Saligrama which he
was daily worshipping and instructed him ” Do daily snaana, ahnika, do the
abhisheka to this Saligrama unfailingly, offer Gandha-akshate, and do thenaivedya”. Vibudendra Tirtharu knew that this Anantappa is none otherthan Rudramsha sambootha and Narasimha devaru is the upasya moorthy
for Rudradevaru. That is why he gave that saligrama to Anantappa.
After Sri Vibudendra Tirtharu gave him the Narasimha saligrama,Anantappa was thrilled. He used to do as per the instructions of Vibudendra
Tirtharu, by taking bath early in the morning, he was doing pooja, alankara,etc. He had prepared naivedya for Narasimha Devaru. One day he wanted
to do the samarpana of naivedya directly to the mouth of NarasimhaSaligrama. He had thought the saligrama will take the naivedya directly, so
he offered naivedya to the saligrama, in vain. Then he told Narasimhadevaru, that if he is not opening his mouth and accepting the naivedya, he will
hit himself with the saligrama. He started hitting his head with the saligrama,then Saligrama‟s mouth opened. Ananthappa fed the food which he had kept
for naivedya and Narasimha devaru ate it. Like this daily, he used to offerfood for Narasimha Devaru, which used to accept the naivedya. And only
after Srihari in his Narasimha roopa accept the food, Anantappa and hissister used to eat the food. Years went on like this.
Vibudendra Tirtha‟s return –
Sri Vibudendra Tirtharu who had gone to North India visit to defeat some
advaitha vidwaans there, returned to Shivapura. Anantappa who came toknow about this went immediately to see Vibudendra Tirtharu and appraised
him of the entire episode wherein, he was daily offering Naivedya of Rice tothe narasimha saligrama‟s mouth and the same is being accepted by the
Srihari. Sri Vibudendra Tirtharu was very happy at this and was surprised.
Sri Vibudendra Tirtharu wanted to see Sri Narasimha devaru eating the fooddirectly. Anantappa tried to feed the saligrama, but it was not opening its
mouth at all on this day. Ananthappa thought that he has told a lie to hisGurugalu Sri Vibudendra Tirtharu as the Saligrama was not opening its
mouth, so he wanted to end his life, by hitting his head with a sharp stone.Immediately the saligrama‟s mouth opened and accepted his food in front of
Sri Vibudendra Tirtharu himself.
Sanyasa to Anantappa -
On seeing the Narasimha Devaru eating directly from the hands of Anantappa, Sri Vibudendra Tirtharu was very happy that he got a great
shishya, and he thought of giving ashrama to him only. Anantappa whoreadily accepted his invitation, was very happy. Sri Vibudendra Tirtharu
gave the sanyasashrama and the entire samstana box to Anantappa andnamed him as “Jitamitra Tirtha”. He entered Vrundavana at Tirunelveli.
In this way, Jitamitra Tirtharu became the pontiff of Sri Vibudendra TirthaMutt.
Some of the miracles by Jitamitra Tirtharu :
1. Gujjala Village - It is about 1 km from Krishna Railway station - SriJitamitraru had done „nagabandhana‟ with his yogic and mantric
power had built a structure on the upper part of the gate to thevillage. If a cow is affected by a disease called „kundu‟, is made to
encircle that katte (structure built by Jitamitraru), the cow‟s diseasewill be disappearing very quickly even without use of any medicines.
Even today many villagers are taking their cows to that place andgetting their cow cured from its disease. The Village was named asGurujaala (Guru means – Jitamitraru and Jaala means mantrik shakti
of gurugalu). The same place is now called as Gurjaala or Gujjala. 2. Gonada Tree - Many people are getting relieved of their diseases by
just by doing seva to the Gonada Tree (Gum Tree) at Jitamitasannidhana.
3. Jangama darshana – Every day, a jangama used to come to listen to thepaata by Jitamitraru. Sri Jitamitraru used to wait till that Jangama
came and sit in front of him before he could start his paata to hisdisciples. It is believed that the jangama (Rudradevaru) was coming
just to hear the pravachana of Srimadacharya (In Jitamitraru, whiledoing paata, Srimadacharya‟s sannidhana was there).
4. Rudramsha of Jitamitraru - Once Sri Susheelendra Tirtharu hadvisited Jitamitra Gadde. Sri Susheelendra Tirtharu did the moolaramadevara pooja just opposite to the Gondal Tree, where there is the
sannidhana of Jitamitraru is there. During the pooja, he saw a jangama wearing Vibuthi and rudrakshi sara. The same evening
Susheelendraru visited Sangameshwara temple in the village, where thesame Jangama, whom he had seen in themorning came and entered the
Garbhagudi and disappeared. Then he came back to near GondalTree, there he saw the same Jangama who came near the Gondal Tree
and disappeared. After witnessing all this, he declared that Jitamitraruis none other than Rudramsha sambhootha.
5. Darshana to Suyamindraru - In 1945 Sri Suyameendra Tirtharuvisited the Gondal Tree, who did the pooja of moolarama and gave the
hastodaka to Jitamitra Tirtharu and did sastanga namaskara. Beforehe could get up, a big garland fell on his neck. When he saw the tree, he
