Guru Govinda Bhat





GURU GOVINDA BHAT

Once while playing with fellow kids and gleefully watching soaring pigeons, Sharif was noticed by the Guru Govinda Bhat of Kalasa village.Guru Govinda Bhat was a Smartha Brahmin (one who worships Lord Shiva), who professed AdiShankaracharya’s philosophy of Advaita (monoism).  He was both enigmatic and unconventional to the core.  His ancestors were royal astrologers in the court of Vijayanagara Emperors.  After the Battle of Talikota (1565) which marked the fall of the glorious Vijayanagara Empire, the ancestors of Govinda Bhat were forced to scout about in search of bread and shelter.  One of the ancestors chose to settle down at Kalasa village, Kundugola Taluq of Dharwad district and continued with age-old family tradition and profession of Learning (adhyanana) and Teaching (Adhyapana).

Passing by, he happened to notice the glee and acumen on the juvenile Sharif’s face. Curious about his origins, he enquired with the group of kids about Sharif’s parents. On learning that he was the son of Imam Saab and Hajjuma, who fortunately were well acquainted with him, he decided in a spur of a moment that this boy was destined for something bigger. Hoping to take him under his wraps, he grasped the hand of the young Sharif and asked him to follow him.

Though a small boy, Sharif daringly wrestled out of the grasp of his holder and asked him as to why he was holding his hands. The Great Guru Govinda Bhatt enquired Sharif about his father. To this the young Sharif replied “Your father and my father are one and the same”.  Overwhelmed by the daring reply, Govinda Bhatt met Sharif’s parents and requested them to send the boy along with him as he saw a great future for the boy. The parents of Sharif, even though forlorn by the unexpected proposal, were prudent enough to send their sole ambition with the Master keeping in mind the augmentation of the child and his scholastic needs. And what a providence that turned out to be; otherwise, the humankind would have lost a priceless endowment of ancient Gurus.

Here in Kalasa, the abode of the Guru Govinda Bhat, Sharif discovers, realizes, assimilates and discerns in the harness of Hinduism, its Mores, the Vedas, the Upanishads, Puranas, Hymns, the Slokaas, the Sutras and the Epics, the Vachanaas, the Keerthanaas and Maxims and Dictums with utmost awe and resolve. While in the process of teaching his disciple the intricacies of the Vedas and Upanishads, Guru Govinda Bhatt faced the resentment of his fellow kind.

Furious that he was teaching the sacred Vedas to someone who had not undergone the ritual of Upanayana (means of gifting of inner eyes by the Guru) and that too to a Muslim, this toady tribe confronted the Guru for his contempt to their traditions and his highhandedness. But their discordant and cold ways had no effect on the modest and unassuming Guru-Shishya. It actually proved as a catalyst in their union and bolstered their amazing togetherness and they both started sharing a very jovial attachment. And then one day the Guru Sri Govinda Bhat performed the Thread Ceremony (Upanayana) by placing a sacred thread (Janiwara) on Sharif, thus beatifying him, making him eligible for Vedic studies. In the process gifted Sharif with a means for inner vision and realization.




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