Jagadguru Ramanandacharya Swami Rambhadracharya (born Giridhar Mishra on 14 January 1950) is an Indian Hindu spiritual leader, educator, Sanskrit scholar, polyglot, poet, author, textual commentator, philosopher, composer, singer, playwright and Katha artist based in Chitrakoot, India. He is one of four incumbent Jagadguru Ramanandacharyas,Leaders of the Ramananda monastic order. and has held this title since 1988.Agarwal 2010, pp. 1108–1110.Dinkar 2008, p. 32.
Rambhadracharya is the founder and head of Tulsi Peeth, a religious and social service institution in Chitrakoot named after Tulsidas.Nagar 2002, p. 91. He is the founder and lifelong chancellor of the Jagadguru Rambhadracharya Handicapped University in Chitrakoot, which offers graduate and postgraduate courses exclusively to four types of disabled students.Dwivedi 2008, p. x.Aneja 2005, p. 68. Rambhadracharya has been blind since the age of two months, had no formal education until the age of seventeen years, and has never used Braille or any other aid to learn or compose.Aneja 2005, p. 67.
Rambhadracharya can speak 22 languages and is a spontaneous poet and writer in Bhojpuri, Sanskrit, Hindi, and several other languages.Dinkar 2008, p. 39. He has authored more than 240 books and 50 papers, including four epic poems,Two each in Sanskrit and Hindi. Hindi commentaries on Tulsidas' Ramcharitmanas and Hanuman Chalisa, a Sanskrit commentary in verse on the Ashtadhyayi, and Sanskrit commentaries on the Prasthanatrayi scriptures.Prasad 1999, p. 849: श्रीहनुमानचालीसा की सर्वश्रेष्ठ व्याख्या के लिए देखें महावीरी व्याख्या, जिसके लेखक हैं प्रज्ञाचक्षु आचार्य श्रीरामभद्रदासजी। श्रीहनुमानचालीसा के प्रस्तुत भाष्य का आधार श्रीरामभद्रदासजी की ही वैदुष्यमंडित टीका है। इसके लिए मैं आचार्यप्रवर का ऋणी हूँ। [For the best explanation of Hanuman Chalisa, refer the Mahāvīrī commentary, whose author is the visually-disabled Acharya Rambhadradas. The base for the commentary being presented is the commentary by Rambhadradas, which is adorned with erudition. For this, I am grateful to the eminent Acharya.]Dinkar 2008, pp. 40–43. He is acknowledged for his knowledge in diverse fields including Sanskrit grammar, Nyaya and Vedanta. He is regarded as one of the greatest authorities on Tulsidas in India, and is the editor of a critical edition of the Ramcharitmanas.Rambhadracharya (ed) 2006. He is a Katha artist for the Ramayana and the Bhagavata. His Katha programmes are held regularly in different cities in India and other countries, and are telecast on television channels like Shubh TV, Sanskar TV and Sanatan TV. He is also a leader of the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP).
Birth and early life
Rambhadracharya was born to Rajdev Mishra and Shachidevi Mishra in a Saryupareen Brahmin family of the Vasishtha Gotra (lineage of the sage Vasishtha) in Shandikhurd village in the Jaunpur district, Uttar Pradesh, India. He was born on Makara Sankranti day, 14 January 1950.Nagar 2002, pp. 37–53.Aneja 2005, p. 66. He was named Giridhar by his great-aunt, a paternal cousin of his paternal grandfather, Suryabali Mishra. The great-aunt was a devotee of Mirabai, a female saint of the Bhakti era in medieval India, who used the name Giridhar to address the god Krishna in her compositions.Dinkar 2008, pp. 22–24.
Loss of eyesight Giridhar lost his eyesight at the age of two months. On 24 March 1950, his eyes were infected by trachoma. There were no advanced facilities for treatment in the village, so he was taken to an elderly woman in a nearby village who was known to cure trachoma boils to provide relief. The woman applied a paste of myrobalan to Giridhar's eyes to burst the lumps, but his eyes started bleeding, resulting in the loss of his eyesight. His family took him to the King George Hospital in Lucknow, where his eyes were treated for 21 days, but his sight could not be restored. Various Ayurvedic, Homeopathic, Allopathic, and other practitioners were approached in Sitapur, Lucknow, and Bombay, but to no avail. Rambhadracharya has been blind ever since. He cannot read or write, as he does not use Braille; he learns by listening and composes by dictating to scribes.
Childhood accident In June 1953, at a juggler's monkey dance show in the village, the children—including Giridhar—suddenly ran away when the monkey began to touch them. Giridhar fell into a small dry well and was trapped for some time, until a teenage girl rescued him. His grandfather told him that his life was saved because he had learned, that very morning itself, the following line of a verse in the Ramcharitmanas (1.192.4), from the episode of the manifestation of the god Rama:Prasad 1999, p. 133.
यह चरित जे गावहिं हरिपद पावहिं ते न परहिं भवकूपा ॥ yaha carita je gāvahı̐ haripada pāvahı̐ te na parahı̐ bhavakūpā ॥
Even after he fell into the well, Giridhar was confident that Rama will somehow rescue him from this "kupa" (well). Thereafter, Giridhar's grandfather asked him to recite the verse always, and from then on, Giridhar has followed the practice of reciting it every time he takes water or food.
First composition Giridhar's initial education came from his paternal grandfather, as his father worked in Bombay. In the afternoons, his grandfather would narrate to him various episodes of the Hindu epics Ramayana and Mahabharata, and devotional works like Vishramsagar, Sukhsagar, Premsagar and Brajvilas. At the age of three, Giridhar composed his first piece of poetry—in Awadhi—and recited it to his grandfather. In this verse, Krishna's foster mother Yashoda is fighting with a Gopi (milkmaid) for hurting Krishna. Devanagari मेरे गिरिधारी जी से काहे लरी। तुम तरुणी मेरो गिरिधर बालक काहे भुजा पकरी॥ सुसुकि सुसुकि मेरो गिरिधर रोवत तू मुसुकात खरी॥ तू अहिरिन अतिसय झगराऊ बरबस आय खरी॥ गिरिधर कर गहि कहत जसोदा आँचर ओट करी॥ IAST mere giridhārī jī se kāhe larī। tuma taruṇī mero giridhara bālaka kāhe bhujā pakarī॥ susuki susuki mero giridhara rovata tū musukāta kharī॥ tū ahirina atisaya jhagarāū barabasa āya kharī॥ giridhara kara gahi kahata jasodā ā̐cara oṭa karī॥
Mastering Gita and Ramcharitmanas At the age of five, Giridhar memorised the entire Bhagavad Gita, 700 verses with chapter and verse numbers, in 15 days, with the help of his neighbour, Murlidhar Mishra. On Janmashtami day in 1955, he recited the entire Bhagavad Gita. He released the first Braille version of the scripture, with the original Sanskrit text and a Hindi commentary, at New Delhi on 30 November 2007, 52 years after memorising the Gita. At the age of seven Giridhar, he memorised the entire Ramcharitmanas of Tulsidas, consisting of around 10,900 verses with chapter and verse numbers, in 60 days, assisted by his grandfather. On Rama Navami day in 1957, he recited the entire epic while fasting. Later, Giridhar went on to memorise the Vedas, the Upanishads, works of Sanskrit grammar, the Bhagavata Purana, all the works of Tulsidas, and many other works in Sanskrit and Indian literature.
Upanayana and discourses Giridhar's Upanayana (sacred thread ceremony) was performed on Nirjala Ekadashi (the Ekadashi falling in the bright half of the lunar month of Jyeshtha) of 24 June 1968. On this day, besides being given the Gayatri Mantra, he was initiated (given Diksha) into the mantra of Rama by Pandit Ishvardas Maharaj of Ayodhya. Having mastered the Bhagavad Gita and Ramcharitmanas at a very young age, Giridhar started visiting the Katha programmes held near his village once every three years in the intercalary month of Purushottama. The third time he attended, he presented a Katha on Ramcharitmanas, which was acclaimed by several famous exponents of the Katha art.
Discrimination by family When Giridhar was eleven, he was stopped from joining his family in a wedding procession. His family thought that his presence would be a bad omen for the marriage. This incident left a strong impression on Giridhar; he says at the beginning of his autobiography:Nagar 2002, p. 37.
Formal education Schooling
Although Giridhar did not have any formal schooling until the age of seventeen years, he had learned many literary works as a child by listening to them. His family wished him to become a Kathavachak (Narrator of Hindu literature, Epics and stories) but Giridhar wanted to pursue his studies. His father explored possibilities for his education in Varanasi and thought of sending him to a special school for blind students. Giridhar's mother refused to send him there, saying that blind children were not treated well at the school. On 7 July 1967 Giridhar joined the Adarsh Gaurishankar Sanskrit College in the nearby Sujanganj village of Jaunpur to study Sanskrit Vyakarana (grammar), Hindi, English, Maths, History, and Geography.Dinkar 2008, pp. 25–27. In his autobiography he recalls this day as the day when the "Golden Journey" of his life began.Nagar 2002, p. 55. With an ability to memorise material by listening to it just once, Giridhar has not used Braille or other aids to study. In three months, he had memorised and mastered the entire Laghusiddhāntakaumudī of Varadaraja. He was top of his class for four years, and passed the Uttara Madhyama (higher secondary) examination in Sanskrit with first class and distinction.
First Sanskrit composition
At the Adarsh Gaurishankar Sanskrit College, Giridhar learnt the eight Ganas of Sanskrit prosody while studying Chandaprabhā, a work on Sanskrit prosody. The next day, he composed his first Sanskrit verse, in the Bhujaṅgaprayāta metre. Devanagari महाघोरशोकाग्निनाऽऽतप्यमानं पतन्तं निरासारसंसारसिन्धौ । अनाथं जडं मोहपाशेन बद्धं प्रभो पाहि मां सेवकक्लेशहर्त्तः ॥IAST mahāghoraśokāgninā'tapyamānaṃ patantaṃ nirāsārasaṃsārasindhau । nāthaṃ jaḍaṃ mohapāśena baddhaṃ prabho pāhi māṃ sevakakleśaharttaḥ ॥
Graduation and masters In 1971 Giridhar enrolled at the Sampurnanand Sanskrit University in Varanasi for higher studies in Vyakarana. He topped the final examination for the Shastri (Bachelor of Arts)Gupta and Kumar 2006, p. 745. degree in 1974, and then enrolled for the Acharya (Master of Arts) degree at the same institute. While pursuing his master's degree, he visited New Delhi to participate in various national competitions at the All-India Sanskrit Conference, where he won five out of the eight gold medals—in Vyakarana, Samkhya, Nyaya, Vedanta, and Sanskrit Antakshari. Indira Gandhi, then Prime Minister of India, presented the five gold medals, along with the Chalvaijayanti trophy for Uttar Pradesh, to Giridhar. Impressed by his abilities, Gandhi offered to send him at her own expense to the United States for treatment for his eyes, but Giridhar turned down this offer, replying with an extemporaneous Sanskrit verse.Nagar 2002, p. 72. Devanagari किं दृष्टव्यं पतितजगति व्याप्तदोषेऽप्यसत्ये मायाचाराव्रततनुभृतां पापराजद्विचारे । दृष्टव्योऽसौ चिकुरनिकुरैः पूर्णवक्त्रारविन्दः पूर्णानन्दो धृतशिशुतनुः रामचन्द्रो मुकुन्दः ॥IAST kiṃ dṛṣṭavyaṃ patitajagati vyāptadoṣe'pyasatye māyācārāvratatanubhṛtāṃ pāparājadvicāre । dṛṣṭavyo'sau cikuranikuraiḥ pūrṇavaktrāravindaḥ pūrṇānando dhṛtaśiśutanuḥ rāmacandro mukundaḥ ॥
In 1976 Giridhar topped the final Acharya examinations in Vyakarana, winning seven gold medals and the Chancellor's gold medal. In a rare achievement, although he had only enrolled for a master's degree in Vyakarana, he was declared Acharya of all subjects taught at the university on 30 April 1976.
Doctorate and post-doctorate