Tibbetibaba

Tibbetibaba also known as Mahasadhak Tibbetibaba or Paramhamsa Tibbetibaba, alternative spellings Tibbatibaba, Tibbati Baba, Tibbeti Baba, Tibbotibaba or Tibboti Baba (“Tibetan Baba” or the Monk from Tibet, when translated into English.) born Nabin Chattopadhhyaya Bengali: নবীন চট্টোপাধ্যায়;Mahasamadhi or death – 19 November 1930) was a famous Bengali philosopher, saint and yogi. He was one of the few saints in India whose life was an amalgamation of the Advaita Vedanta doctrine of Hinduism and Mahayana Buddhist doctrine....

December 26, 2021 · 1 min · TheAum

Trailanga

Trailanga Swami (also Tailang Swami, Telang Swami) (reportedly 27 November 1607– 26 December 1887), whose monastic name was Swami Ganapati Saraswati, was a Hindu yogi and mystic famed for his spiritual powers who lived in Varanasi, India. He is a legendary figure in Bengal, with stories told of his yogic powers and longevity. According to some accounts, Trailanga Swami lived to be 280 years old, residing at Varanasi between 1737 and 1887....

December 26, 2021 · 1 min · TheAum

Tukaram

Sant Tukaram Maharaj (Marathi pronunciation: [t̪ukaːɾam]) was a 17th-century Marathi poet, Hindu sant (saint) and a great devotee of Lord Shri Vitthal (Krishna - Almighty), popularly known as Tuka, Tukobaraya, Tukoba in Maharashtra. He was a Sant of Varkari sampradaya in Maharashtra, India. He was part of the egalitarian, personalized Varkari devotionalism tradition. Sant Tukaram Maharaj is best known for his devotional poetry called Abhanga and community-oriented worship with spiritual songs known as kirtans....

December 26, 2021 · 1 min · TheAum

Tulsidas

Tulsidas (Hindi pronunciation: [t̪ʊls̪iːd̪aːs̪]; 1532–1623), also known as Goswami Tulsidas, was a Ramanandi Vaishnava Hindu saint and poet, renowned for his devotion to the deity Rama. He wrote several popular works in Sanskrit and Awadhi, but is best known as the author of the epic Ramcharitmanas, a retelling of the Sanskrit Ramayana based on Rama’s life in the vernacular Awadhi. Tulsidas spent most of his life in the city of Varanasi and Ayodhya....

December 26, 2021 · 1 min · TheAum

Tyagaraja

Tyagaraja ( Telugu : త్యాగరాజ )(4 May 1767 – 6 January 1847), also known as Tyāgayya, was a composer and vocalist of Carnatic music, a form of Indian classical music. He was prolific and highly influential in the development of India’s classical music tradition. Tyagaraja and his contemporaries, Shyama Shastri and Muthuswami Dikshitar, are regarded as the Trinity of Carnatic music. Tyagaraja composed thousands of devotional compositions, most in Telugu and in praise of Lord Rama, many of which remain popular today....

December 26, 2021 · 1 min · TheAum

U. G. Krishnamurti

Uppaluri Gopala Krishnamurti (9 July 1918 – 22 March 2007) was an Indian philosopher who questioned the state of spiritual enlightenment. Having pursued a religious path in his youth and eventually rejecting it, U.G. claimed to have experienced a devastating biological transformation on his 49th birthday, an event he refers to as “the calamity”. He emphasized that this transformation back to “the natural state” is a rare, acausal, biological occurrence with no religious context....

December 26, 2021 · 1 min · TheAum

Vācaspati Miśra

Vachaspati Mishra was a ninth or tenth century Indian Hindu philosopher of the Advaita Vedanta tradition. He wrote so broadly on various branches of Indian philosophy that later Indian scholars called him “one for whom all systems are his own”, or in Sanskrit, a sarva-tantra-sva-tantra. Vācaspati Miśra was a prolific scholar and his writings are extensive, including bhasya (commentaries) on key texts of almost every 9th-century school of Hindu philosophy with notes on non-Hindu or nāstika traditions such as Buddhism and Carvaka....

December 26, 2021 · 1 min · TheAum

Vadiraja Tirtha

Sri Vadiraja Tirtharu (c.1480 – c.1600) was a Dvaita philosopher, poet, traveller and mystic. A polymath of his time, he authored many works, often polemical, on Madhva theology and metaphysics. Additionally, he composed numerous poems and as the pontiff of Sodhe Mutt, renovated the temple complex at Udupi and established the Paryaya system of worship. He is also credited with enriching the Kannada literature of the time by translating Madhvacharya’s works to Kannada, giving impetus and contributing to the Haridasa movement....

December 26, 2021 · 1 min · TheAum

Vallabha

Vallabhacharya (1479–1531 CE), also known as Vallabha and Vishnuswami, or Vallabha Acharya, was an Indian philosopher who founded the Krishna-centered PushtiMarg sect of Vaishnavism in the Braj region of India,and the philosophy of Shuddha advaita (Pure Non-dualism). Vallabha was born in a Telugu Tailang Brahmin family that had been living in Varanasi, who escaped to Champaran of Chhattisgarh state while expecting Vallabha, expecting a Muslim invasion, which ultimately didn’t happen, during the late 15th century....

December 26, 2021 · 2 min · TheAum

Valluvar

Thiruvalluvar (Tamil: திருவள்ளுவர்), commonly known as Valluvar, was a celebrated Tamil poet and philosopher. He is best known as the author of the Tirukkuṟaḷ, a collection of couplets on ethics, political and economical matters, and love. The text is considered an exceptional and widely cherished work of the Tamil literature.Almost no authentic information is available about Valluvar, states Kamil Zvelebil – a scholar of Tamil literature. His life and likely background are variously inferred from his literary works by different biographers....

December 26, 2021 · 2 min · TheAum

Valmiki

Valmiki (; Sanskrit: वाल्मीकि, Vālmīki [ʋɑːlmiːki]) is celebrated as the harbinger-poet in Sanskrit literature. The epic Ramayana, dated variously from the 5th century BCE to first century BCE, is attributed to him, based on the attribution in the text itself. He is revered as Ādi Kavi, the first poet, author of Ramayana, the first epic poem. The Ramayana, originally written by Valmiki, consists of 24,000 shlokas and seven cantos (kaṇḍas). The Ramayana is composed of about 480,002 words, being a quarter of the length of the full text of the Mahabharata or about four times the length of the Iliad....

December 26, 2021 · 2 min · TheAum

Vashistha

Vashista (Sanskrit: वसिष्ठ, IAST: Vasiṣṭha) is one of the oldest and most revered Vedic rishis or sages. He is one of the Saptarishis (seven great Rishis) of India. Vashistha is credited as the chief author of Mandala 7 of the Rigveda. Vashishtha and his family are mentioned in Rigvedic verse 10.167.4, other Rigvedic mandalas and in many Vedic texts. His ideas have been influential and he was called the first sage of the Vedanta school of Hindu philosophy by Adi Shankara....

December 26, 2021 · 1 min · TheAum

Vedanta Desika

Sri Vedanta Desikan (Swami Desika, Swami Vedanta Desika, Thoopul Nigamaantha Desikan) (1268–1369)) was an Indian polymath who wrote philosophical as well as religious and poetical works in several languages, including Sanskrit, Maṇipravāḷa—a Sanskritised form of literary Tamil—and Tamil. He was an Indian philosopher, Sri Vaishnava guru, and one of the most brilliant stalwarts of Sri Vaishnavism in the post-Ramanuja period. He was a Hindu devotee, poet, Master of Acharyas ( desikan) and a logician and mathematician....

December 26, 2021 · 1 min · TheAum

Vidyaranya

Vidyaranya (IAST: Vidyāraṇya) is variously known as a kingmaker, patron saint and high priest to Harihara I and Bukka Raya I, the founders of the Vijayanagara Empire. He was the first Jagadguru of the Śringeri Śarada Pītham from 1380-1386.Vidyaranya helped the brothers establish the empire sometime in 1336. He later served as a mentor and guide to three generations of kings who ruled over the Vijayanagara Empire. Vijayanagara (Hampi), the capital of the empire, had a temple dedicated to Mādhavācārya....

December 26, 2021 · 1 min · TheAum

Vishvamitra

Brahmarshi Vishvamitra (Sanskrit: विश्वामित्र, IAST: Viśvā-mitra) is one of the most venerated rishis or sages of ancient India. A near-divine being, he is also credited as the author of most of Mandala 3 of the Rigveda, including Gayatri Mantra. The Puranas mention that only 24 rishis since antiquity have understood the whole meaning of—and thus wielded the whole power of—Gayatri Mantra. Vishvamitra is supposed to be the first, and Yajnavalkya the last....

December 26, 2021 · 1 min · TheAum