Life of Sri Madhvacharya - Part 2

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At the age of sixteen, Vasudeva decided to become a monk to fulfil his life's mission of spreading bhakti to Lord Vishnu amongst the masses. He joined a monastery in the village of Karey near Udupi, which was headed by Achyutapreksa who was proficient in Advaita but later became an ardent worshipper of Anantesvara. Achyutapreksa would soon witness the greatness of his new disciple through astonishing scholarship and other miraculous feats. Vasudeva's parents got reconciled to the pain of losing their only son after another boy was born to them and also to prevent him from carrying out his threat of leaving Udupi if the parents stood in his way.

Achyutapreksa initiated him into Sannyasa under the new name of Purnaprajna. The young ascetic started learning Advaita Vedanta from his guru but very soon he started expressing his differences of opinion on many of the fundamental teachings of Vedanta, particularly with Adi Sankara's commentary on the Brahmasutras. It is said that his guru Achyutapreksa was amazed to see his thorough knowledge of the Bhagavata and other auxiliary texts, which he had not yet been taught! Purnaprajna could demonstrate that every Vedic Sukta had three meanings, the Mahabharata ten meanings and every name in the Vishnu Sahasranama (the thousand names of Vishnu) had hundreds of meanings. In recognition of his vast and inspired learning, Purnaprajna was adorned with the title of 'Anandatirtha'.

Anandatirtha defeated many reputed scholars of the Buddhist, Jain and Advaitic schools in debates and his name began to spread far and wide. Encouraged by the growing response to his teaching, he undertook his first tour to Kanyakumari. At Anantapuram (located in the South Arcot District of Tamilnadu), he is said to have had a bitter debate with the then Sankaracharya of Sringeri Math, Vidya Tirtha, who was so enraged with this young ascetic's scholarly arguments that he threatened to break his Danda (the ascetic's staff). Such encounters with the followers of Sankara and Ramanuja made him feel the need to write his own commentary on the Brahmasutras and found a new school of thought rooted in devotion to the Lord.

Having completed his tour of Rameswaram, Srirangam and other places in the South, he decided to go on a tour to North India culminating in his visit to Badarikasrama (popularly known as Badrinath today) where Lord Narayana is said to have performed penance. It is believed that Veda Vyasa, the composer of the Mahabharata continues to live in the upper reaches of the Himalayas at Badari invisible to ordinary humanity.

The Madhvavijaya mentions that Ananda Tirtha received a divine call to visit upper Badari and he could even see Veda Vyasa who taught him the true meaning of the Vedas, the Brahmasutras and the Mahabharata. Ananda Tirtha heard the divine command of Lord Narayana to complete the work begun by Veda Vyasa to establish the correct meanings of the sacred texts and popularise it amongst the masses. Purnaprajna therefore undertook and completed a commentary on the Brahmasutras and the Bhagavad Gita and dedicated them to the Lord.