गुरोः पदयुगाम्बुजं भजति यत्र योगे जयम् |
भजामि परमं गुरुं नयनपद्ममध्यस्थितं
भवाब्धिभयनाशनं शमनरोगकालक्षयम् ||
शङ्करार्चित शारदाकृपयाप्तचित्सुखसंपदं
हृत्सरोरुहमध्यविस्फुरदात्मतत्त्वविदग्रगम् |
शान्तमात्मनि लीनमाहितमानसं प्रणमाम्यहं
विद्ययायुत पूर्वनूतन वालुकेश्वरभारतीम् ||
Mahāmahōpādhyāya Srī Hanagal Virupaksha Shastri blessed the sārasvata sāmrājya with his birth in the house of pious couple Smt. Bhageerati Bai and Sri Krishna Dikshita in the year 1873 (śālivāhana śaka 1795) śrīmukha samvatsara, puṣya kr̥ṣṇa saptamī on an auspicious Friday. At the age of seven, he was adopted by his relative, Sri Shiva Dikshita. He underwent Upanayana at the age of eight and studied Kr̥ṣṇa Yajurveda, Nāṭakānta sāhitya, Vyakaraṇa and Tarka from the best of scholars. He had his initial training from Vidvān Brahmaśrī Tirumalacharya. He then became the chief disciple of Brahmaśrī Svamirayacharya (1823-1903), who was a great scholar and a saint. The kings of Kashi and Gwalior held Sri Svamirayacharya in very high regard and accepted him as Guru. Sri Shastri learned nyāya and mīmāmsā from this great scholar. Even during his student days, Sri Shastri greatly impressed Divan Sri Seshadri Iyer with his brilliance and dedication. He became a close disciple of H H Sri Saccidānanda Shivābhinava Nr̥simha Bhāratī, the Jagadguru Shaṅkarācārya of Dakṣiṇāmnāya Sringeri Sharada Peetham, revered as the very incarnation of Adi Shankarācārya.
He also received śrīvidyā Mahāmantra upadēśa and pādukānta dīkṣā from H H Sri Saccidānanda Shivābhinava Nr̥simha Bhāratī, a fortune obtained by very few people. He was greatly influenced by H H and was personally trained by him in Vēdānta. śrīvidyā and Mantra śāstra. He also studied the works of the great saint Sri Sadashiva Brahmendra under the able guidance of his Guru. The masterpiece ātmavidyāvilāsa was his personal favorite. He received the title of Mahāmahōpādhyāya from the Indian government, Tarka Pañcānana from the Maharaja of Kashi and Varanasi Vidya Peetha, Vidyānidhi from the Maharaja of Mysore, and many others. He taught Tarka śāstra and Advaita Vēdānta to hundreds of students at Sri Shankaracharya Samskrita Pathashala in Dharwad and Sri Shankara Mutt in Bangalore.
Sri Shastri was widely respected by scholars, ordinary people, sannyasins, and householders alike. Vēdānta, for him, was not a means of livelihood. It was his life and breath. After the Siddhi of his Guru, H H Sri Chandraśēkhara Bhāratī ascended the Jagadguru Peetha at Sringeri. Sri Shastri began to train the young ācārya in Vēdānta, Prasthānatraya bhāṣya, Tarka and Mīmāmsā. H H had learned from Sri Shastri even in his pūrvāśrama and greatly admired his scholarship and vairāgya. It is recorded that Sri Shastri had advised Sri Narasimha Shastry (H H in his pūrvāśrama) to recite Mūka Pañcaśatī in praise of Goddess Kāmākṣī, which blessed the young boy with his first experience of samādhi. Though H H was in turīyāśrama, he showed great respect for this householder. He himself has stated that the greatest influence on his life has been that of Sri Shastri. Every day, as soon as Sri Shastri entered the room to begin the day’s lesson, he prostrated before the young ācārya as per the tradition. H H would immediately stand up and bow down in his mind to this great person, who he respected beyond measure while looking at his own omnipresent Guru’s pādukā. The same episode would repeat when Sri Shastri would take leave. Though Nanjangud Srikantha Shastri was the śrīvidyā Guru of H H, he was guided and trained in Navāvaraṇa pūjā and other subtle aspects of śrīvidyā upāsanā by Sri Shastri. His illustrious line of disciples included Saccidānandēndra Sarasvatī of Holenarsipur, the literary giant D V Gundappa, Bhasyam Swamiji, and maṭhādhipatis of various maṭhas. He also chaired the Advaita Sammelana at Kashi and was honored with the title ‘Tarka Sāmrāṭ by the Maharaja of Kashi.
Jagadguru Shankaracharya Samskrita Pathashala was established in Dharwad by H H Sri Saccidānanda Shivābhinava Nr̥simha Bhāratī. Sri Shastri personally taught Gītā bhāṣya here for several months, and this event has been described as śāṅkara gītāmr̥tadhārā by scholars of repute. In 1905, Sri Shastri, according to the instructions of his Guru, started the first-ever Shankara Bhāṣya Pravachana Saptāha. H H, greatly impressed with his disciple, remarked, ‘If anyone is completely blessed by śāradāmbā, it is you’.
The following incident was narrated by H H Sri Chandraśēkhara Bhāratī to an elderly relative while quoting the example of Sri Shastri as a ‘Mahatapasvi’ – “Once while Sri Shastri enthralled listeners with his Bhashya Pravachana, a certain naive villager came rushing to him and reported that his cow was in labor but was nearly dead due to excessive bleeding. Sri Shastri, without pausing for a moment, waved at him to sit down, closed his eyes, and continued to speak. It was later known that the cow had delivered her child miraculously. Maṇi, Mantra and āuśadhi have always been used thus by great men to alleviate the suffering of other beings”.
A certain boy, who went on to become the head of another Shankara Mutt was dumb by nature, and his father, a great scholar took the boy to the Maharaja of Mysore. Maharaja, who knew well the scholarship and Mantra-siddhi of Sri Shastri, advised him to take the boy to there. Needless to say, the boy became a scholar of repute and a well-known mathādhipati later, quoting Shastri’s siddhi of Mēdhā Dakṣiṇāmūrti mantra as the reason for his awakening. Sri Shastri, by the age of 27, had completed three complete puraścaraṇas of ṣōḍaśī and Pañcākṣarī. After the reign of H H Sri Saccidānanda Shivābhinava Nr̥simha Bhāratī, though Mahāṣōḍaśī and Tantrokta Pādukāntā dīkṣā was not passed down the line of successive ācāryas (who practice mostly Pañcadaśī), the glorious lineage continued through Sri Shastri and his gr̥hastha disciples such as our own ācārya, Sri K P Shankara Shastri.
Sri Shastri performed Sōmayāga in Trikūṭēśvara temple in Gadag and established the idol of Adi Shankaracharya there. He also performed Sahasra Chandika Mahayaga remembered till today by elders in Northern Karnataka. He served as the dharmādhikārī for the entire state of Mysore (now known as Karnataka) as per the request of the Maharaja of Mysore. Sri Shastri was vairāgyanidhi and embraced turīyāśrama with the title Sri Vidyābhinava Vālukēśvara Bhāratī on July 14, 1932, from Sri Vālukēśvara Bhāratī, the pontiff of Sri Kudali Sringeri Sharada Peetha, a śākha matha of Sringeri Sharada Peetham, as per the request of Sri Chandraśēkhara Bhāratī. Sri Vālukēśvara Bhāratī was a great Tapasvi and had completely given up food and water, living solely on the basis of his mantra-siddhi and ātmajñāna.
When Sri Shastri ascended the Kudali Sringeri Peetha, the maṭha was in a serious financial crisis. Sri Shastri, after assuming sannyasa in Uddagatte, moved to Kudali in 1933 and revived the Mutt. He undertook sañcāra and accepted the invitation from Maharaja of Mysore to undertake his cāturmāsya vow in Mysore that year. On July 5, 1933, he arrived at Srirangapatna and was welcomed and personally escorted to Mysore by the Maharaja. He continued to reside in the Sanskrit Pathashala in Mysore, blessing hundreds of seekers of knowledge with his nectarine discourses on Vēdānta, Tarka, and Mīmāmsā. Maharaja accepted H H as his Guru and learned Advaita Vedanta from him. Due to his charisma, Kudali Mutt, which was almost unknown till then, came to be known as one of the foremost Dharmic Institutions in Southern India.
Sri Ganesha Shastri was H H’s brother in pūrvāśrama and had a son named Sri Mahesha Shastri. This young man developed vairāgya early in his life and sought refuge at the lotus feet of H H. He learned Tarka, Vēdānta, Vyākaraṇa, and Sāhitya from H H and was initiated into Bālā mantrarāja. He later assumed the seat of Kudali Sringeri Peetha with the title, Sri Saccidānanda Shankara Bhāratī. In 1935, the sixty-second vardhantī of H H was performed with great devotion by the Maharaja and residents of Mysore. On March 10, 1936, Dhātu samvatsara, caitra kr̥ṣṇa caturthī, Saturday, H H attained Mahāsamādhi at 8.45 am. Maharaja of Mysore constructed the Adhishthanam of H H within the premises of Mysore Sanskrit College and established Svarnakalasha on the Adhishthana Mandira.