Conjugal life of Venkatanatha

VenkatanAtha’s (later Raghavendra Swamy) married a simple yet virtuous lady by name Saraswathi. She belonged to a very pious family. Saraswathi proved to be an ideal life partner for him. Venkatanatha and the couple had a son whom they named as Lakshminarayana.

They carried on with their married life under abject poverty. Many days in the week they had to contend with no food at all. Records say that he had no means to even buy a drop of oil for taking an oil bath on festival days. He could not afford to give his wife and son new clothes for years. 

These difficult circumstances did not deter Venkanna from the path of God. He continued with his study and imparted free lessons.

To tide over the circumstances he decided to seek refuge under Sri Sudhindra tirtha, even then his primary aim was to continue his education underhim. Sri Sudhindra tirtha was the pontiff of what was then known as the Vijayeendra muta (now Raghavendra swamy mutt).

Seeing the brilliant spark in him Sudheendra tiirtha’s wished to appoint him as the next pontiff. But Venkanna refused the offer as he had a wife and a son to look after. Moreover his son`s upanayana was also not yet been performed. Later on, Vidya, the goddess of learning appeared in his dream and directed him to take up this great responsibility. Now he could not refuse any longer. Sudheendra tiirtha asked Venkatanatha to perform the Upanayana samskara of his son at the earliest. As fate would have it during the celebration of his pontification, his wife fell into a well and died. After becoming Peethadhipati Raghavendra swamy provided salvation to his wife.