Sri Vidhushekara Bharati Vardhanti

Sri Vidhushekara Bharati Swamigal is the 37th Shankaracharya of Dakshinamnaya Sri Sringeri Sharada Peetham.

Sri Vidhushekara Bharati Swamiji was born Sri Kuppa Venkateshwara Prasada Sharma on July 24 1993 in Tirupati. It also happened to be the auspicious festival Naga Panchami on that day. He was born as the second son of Sri Kuppa Shivasubrahmanya Avadhani and Smt.Seetha Nagalakshmi.

Sri Venkateshwara Prasada Sharma studied Vedas and other spiritual scriptures from his grandfather Sri Kuppa Ramagopala Vajapeya-Yaaji who is an eminent Vedic scholar. Also, Sri Prasada Sharma learned advanced lessons from his father Sri Kuppa Shivasubrahmanya Avadhani who is also a great Vedic scholar and is now the Principal of the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam's Veda Vigjnana Peetham in Tirumala.

It is said that Sri Prasada Sharma developed a keen interest and devotion towards spiritual studies and the Vedas and learned them very rapidly. Also, I remember reading that Sri Prasada Sharma had a deep devotion to Lord Krishna at a very young age and their parents, performed his Upanayanam at the age of five itself.

When Sri Prasada Sharma was 13 years old, he visited Sringeri along with his parents. It is said that his first visit to Sringeri and the Jagadguru Sri Bharati Tirtha Mahaswamiji, had a great impact on him and he yearned to study advanced Shastras. In 2009 Sri Prasada Sharma requested Swamiji to accept him as a disciple to study the Shastras at Sringeri and Swamiji was touched by the boy's sincerity and devotion and accepted him as a disciple at Sringeri.

Sri Prasada Sharma took the vows of Sanyasa in a grand ceremony on the 22nd and 23 rd of January 2015 known as the Shishya Sweekara Ceremony where he was given the Yoga Patta ( monastic name) as Sri Vidhushekara Bharati Swamiji. "Vidhu" in Sanskrit means Chandra (moon). Sri Sri Bharati Tirtha Mahaswamiji explained that he chose this name as a mark of respect to his great guru Sri Chandrashekara Bharati Mahaswamiji (I humbly request you to read about this great saint in the book "The Saint of Sringeri"). As it would be inappropriate to call his successor using the same name, he chose the word "Sri Vidhushekara".