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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