The amazing story of how the Baala Krishna Deity crossed the ocean from faraway Dvaarakaa in Northwest India to Udupi in the south is told in Madhva-vijaya, the biography of Shrila Madhvaacaarya. Madhva wanted to have a temple of Lord Krishna in Udupi; the devotees could then worship and serve tOn that very dayhe Lord and ennoble their souls. Well, it so happened that in Dvaarakaa, one of the main places of Krishna’s pastimes on earth five thousand years ago, a Deity lay concealed within a large mass of gopi-candana clay (the yellowish clay Vaisnavas use daily in marking their freshly bathed bodies as temples of Lord Vishnu). No one knew the Deity was there, but because the lump of clay was exceedingly heavy, some sailors loaded it onto their merchant ship as ballast. On the ship’s southward journey, just off the coast of Udupi, a tempest blew the ship aground on a sandbank.

On that very day, Shrila Madhvaacaarya absorbed in composing Dvaadasha-stotra, his famous twelve-part poem praising Lord Krishna, had gone to the beach to bathe or, as some say, to receive the Lord. Upon seeing the ship caught fast on the sandbank and hearing the cries of the sailors in distress, Shrila Madhvaacaarya waved his cloth in their direction. This calmed the stormy seas, and the ship floated free. Madhva then guided the vessel to safety. Eager to show his appreciation, the captain offered Madhva whatever he wanted from the ship’s cargo. Madhva chose the heavy lump of gopi-candana clay.Disciple attendants of Madhvaacaarya had just started back to Udupi with the large lump of clay when, but a short distance from the beach, the lump broke in two, revealing the handsome Deity of Lord Baala Krishna and The deity of Balarama which Madhavacharya installed at Malpe beach, in the Vadabhandeshwara temple. The Krishna deity, he brought to Udupi, and installed in his Matha there.But now the combined effort of thirty of Madhva’s disciples could not budge the Deity. Only when Madhvaacaarya himself embraced and lifted the Deity as if He were a child did the Deity consent to be moved. In great transcendental ecstasy Madhva carried the Lord the four miles back to Udupi. On the way he completed the remaining seven parts of Dvaadasha-stotra, reciting the verses out loud. Back in Udupi, Madhva bathed the Lord in the lake known as Madhva-sarovara and enshrined Him in the ShriKrishna Matha.

Shrila Madhvaacaarya instituted rigorous standards for worshipping ShriKrishna, and whenever he was in Udupi he would personally perform the thirteen daily worship ceremonies for the Lord.

How the Deity of Baala Krishna had come to be buried in Dvaarakaa is told in a work from the seventeenth century by Raghuvarya Tirtha, an aacaarya in succession from Shrila Madhvaacaarya. Once, during the time of Lord Krishna’s manifest pastimes on earth, mother Devaki lamented to the Lord over her misfortune at never having witnessed the Lord’s childhood pastimes in Vrindaavana. She entreated the Lord to make her happy and fortunate, like mother Yashodaa, by showing some of His childhood feats and frolics.

The Supreme Personality of Godhead, just to give pleasure to His pure devotee, at once assumed the form of a small child and clambered all over Devaki’s lap. Later, when Devaki went to churn butter, Krishna, acting like an ordinary mischievous child, broke the churn, ate the lumps of butter, and even smeared butter all over his transcendental body. He then snatched the churning rod and rope from Devaki’s hands. After sporting like this for some time, the Lord again assumed His usual form of eternal youth. Mother Devaki was thrilled beyond measure to see this childhood pastime of the Lord.

Queen Rukmini-devi, Lord Krishna’s consort, witnessed these pastimes, and the Lord’s mischievous behavior and childhood features enthralled her. To preserve the memory, she requested Lord to grant her a Deity similar to one seen that of childKrishna holding a churning rod and rope. Lord fulfilled her desire and Queen Rukminithus began to worship this Deity regularly. Later, after the Lord returned to the spiritual sky with His retinue, Arjuna deposited the Deity in a place called Rukminivana. In the course of centuries the Deity became completely covered with clay, and it remained in that condition near Dvaarakaa until merchant sailors brought it to Madhvaacaarya at Udupi.

Before his departure from this world, Shrila Madhvaacaarya appointed eight of his sannyaasi disciples to take charge of the worship at ShriKrishna Matha and to continue propagating Krishna consciousness in the region. Today the responsibility for the worship is rotated in two-year periods called paryaaya among eight sannyaasis in disciplic succession from the original eight. During the fourteen-year interim period between turns at paryaaya, each sannyaasi travels and preaches and raises funds for use when his turn for worship comes. During his paryaaya, he personally performs the thirteen daily ritual services to the Deity.

Each sannyaasi also heads his own Matha, where other Deities, ones given by Madhvaacaarya to the original eight sannyaasis, are worshipped. These eight Mathas are located along Car Street, a road that circles the Candramauleshvara and Ananteshvara temples and runs right past the main entrance to ShriKrishnaMatha. According to the significance of the festival being observed, sometimes only one cart and sometimes all three are used. A fourth cart, completely covered in silver, is used for special festivals.

Replete with a decorated elephant and a musical band, a parade on Car Street is an almost nightly event in Udupi. Residents and pilgrims alike turn out en masse to see the Lord riding high upon His cart and smiling beneficently upon the adoring devotees. The procession stops at intervals along the route, and the Lord is entertained by fireworks displays or worshiped by offerings from His many devotees. The parades start at eight and are usually over by nine-thirty.

For twelve years Madhyageha Bhatta would regularly travel the eight miles north from his village of Belle to Udipi. There at the Ananteshvara temple he would pray for a son. One day a devotee in a trancelike state climbed the temple flagpole and announced that to reestablish the purest principles of religion, a male child, an incarnation of Vaayu, the demigod in charge in air, would soon be born. Madhyageha understood within his heart that this would be his own child. Soon his wife, Vedavati, gave birth to a son. The happy couple named him Vaasudeva.

From infancy Vaasudeva showed extraordinary intellect, so much so that he was given brahminical initiation at age five, three years early. Whatever he heard of read, even just once, he could remember. His body was unusually strong, lustrous, and beautiful. At age eleven, Vaasudeva left home for Udipi, to live with Acyutapreksha, an ascetic widely respected for his scholarship and saintly character. After one year, despite strong protest from his father, Vaasudeva renounced the world. Acyutapreksha named him Purnaprajna.

Less than forty days after taking sannyaasa, Purnaprajna defeated Vaasudeva Pandit, a famous wandering scholar, in a public debate. The Pandit was known for his hair-splitting dialectical ability, but he was no match for young Purnaprajna. The Pandit spoke for three days and then dared anyone to refute his conclusions. Purnaprajna shocked the crowd when he accepted the issues, he repeated almost verbatim the Pandit’s  arguments. Then, one by one, he smashed them all. His victory was the talk of Udipi. Acyutapreksha gave him the title AAnandatirtha, in recognition of his mastery of Vedaanta.

Word spread far and wide about the debating skill of the young ascetic in Udipi. Challengers and admirers converged on the town. Buddhisaagara and Vaadisiàha, two Buddhist monks who had converted many to their fold, challenged Anandatirtha. After a day-long skirmish, they promised to return the next day. That night, however, they secretly fled from Udipi.

Anandatirtha went on a tour of South India. The most notable events on this tour were two encounters with Vidyaashankara Svaami, the lineal successor to Shripaada Shankaraacharya, who was the original propounder of the monistic theory of the Absolute Truth. Some basic tenets of Shankaraacharya’s philosophy are as follows: God and the soul are identical; the formless, senseless, impersonal Absolute is the only reality; all else is illusion; and the incarnations of God are all products of illusion. Anandatirtha was thoroughly familiar with this doctrine, so he knew all its weak points. With firmness and courage he challenged the venerated Vidyaashankara, and a fierce debate ensued. Vidyaashankara could not defeat his opponent, yet he refused to accept defeat. They met again, in Rameshvaram, during the monsoon season, at which time Vidyaashankara taunted and harassed Anandatirtha. But the young saint tolerated the abuse.

On his return journey, while addressing an assembly of learned men, Anandatirtha stated that every Vedic utterance conveyed a triple meaning, that each verse of the Mahaabhaarata had ten meanings, and that each of the thousand prominent names of Lord Vishnu had a hundred meanings. When the astonished assembly demanded he prove his statement, AAnandatirtha explained a hundred meanings of Vishva, the first name of Vishnu. Before he could proceed further, however, they begged him to stop, admitting they didn’t have the intelligence to comprehend his elaborate explanations.

Back in Udipi, Anandatirtha, who was now known as Madhva, wrote a commentary on the Bhagavad-gitaa and gave a copy to Acyutapreksha for his approval.

Madhva’s next tour was to Badarinaatha, high in the Himalayas. In Badarinaatha he met Shrila Vyaasadeva, the author of the four Vedas and their voluminous supplementary literature. In preparation for this meeting, Madhva had observed complete silence and complete fasting for forty-eight days. He learned the full meaning of the Vedaanta-sütra, the distilled essence of Vedic wisdom, from the transcendental author himself and promised to write a commentary on the sütras, one that would be faithful to Shrila Vyaasadeva’s original intent and purport. By the time he came down from the Himalayas, his commentary, Sütra-bhaashya, was completed. He sent a copy ahead to Udipi for Acyutapreksha’s approval.

On his return trip, Srila Madhvaacaarya converted Shobhana Bhatta and SaamiShaastri to Vaishnavism. They later became successors to Madhva, as Padmanaabha Tirtha and Narahari Tirtha. Madhva refused to let Narahari take sannyaasa, ordering him to remain in his high governmental position, in return for which he was to obtain the Deities of Müla Raama and Sitaa, lying in the King of Kalinga’s treasury. For many years Narahari remained in that service, until finally, just three months before Madhva’s departure from this world, Narahari brought the ancient images of Sitaa-Raama to his guru. These were the original Deities of Raama and Sitaa, worshiped by Mahaaraaja Ikshvaaku and then by Mahaaraaja Dasharatha, the father of Lord Raama. Then during the time of Lord Krishna’s advent, the Pandavas gave them to the Gajapati kings of Orissa. Eventually the Deities were kept in the king’s treasury.

While still in his twenties, Srila Madhvaacaarya undertook a second tour to Badarinaatha, this one after he had founded Shri Krishna Matha in Udipi. On the way, a tyrannical king pressed Madhva’s party into digging a reservoir for the city of Devagiri. Madhva, however, persuaded the king himself to take part in the digging and then left with the party. The pilgrims had many other hardships and misadventures, but Madhva always saved them with his quick thinking and mystic powers. In Badarinaatha, Madhva again heard from Vyaasa, who gave him eight sacred Shaalagraama stones.

On his return trip Madhva stopped in Goa, where he enacted an amazing gastronomical feat. Previously he had eaten a thousand bananas in one sitting. But in Goa, he outdid his earlier record. He ate four thousand bananas and then drank thirty pots of milk. When asked to prove that plants indeed respond to music, Madhva took a few seeds in his palm and began singing in his melodious voice. The seeds sprouted. Madhva continued singing, and the plants grew, swaying to the melody. Madhva continued singing. The plants grew into full maturity and yielded the fruits and flowers. News of this feat spread everywhere.

From Udipi Madhva traveled south again. In Vishnumangalam he debated with Trivikramaacaarya, a logician and grammarian of remarkable skill, who was able to make the Sanskrit language convey any meaning that suited his purpose. The debate lasted fifteen days, and in the end Trivikrama surrendered at Madhva’s feet. A full account of that debate is given in the Madhva-vijaya, written by the son of Trivikramaacaarya. News of Trivikrama’s conversion brought hundreds more men and women into Madhva’s fold. His life’s mission thus became firmly rooted in India.

SHrila Madhvaacaarya wrote thirty-nine books clarifying the tenets of Vaishnavism and showing Vaishnavism to be the true Vedic religion. In many of his works he attacked the monistic creed of Shankaraacaarya’s followers, exposing to impede Madhva’s mission by less honorable means. They tried to defame him, declaring him a heretic and all his followers outcasts. They even stole his writings and his valuable collection of ancient books, thinking that without literature his mission would be finished. Somehow, King Jaya Simha of Vishnumangalam acquired the books and returned them to Madhvaacaarya.

Madhva had appeared in two other incarnations. During the time of Lord Krishna’s appearance on earth he appeared as the warrior Bhima, one of the five Paandava brothers. During the time of Lord Raama, he incarnated as the beloved Hanumaan, the ideal servant of the Supreme Lord. And, as in those incarnations, Madhva performed many feats of strength and displayed mystical perfections. As a child he would appear suddenly in one mighty leap from anywhere in  mighty leap from anywhere in response to his mother’s call. In school he cured a friend’s headache by blowing in his ear. To help his father out of debt he turned tamarind seeds into money. On two occasions he made seeds sprout into plants by his singing. An enormous rock in Ambu Tirtha, requiring at least fifty men to move it, bears an inscription stating that Madhvaacaarya placed it there with one hand. Many times Madhva made small quantities of food increase for distribution to hundreds of people. At the age of seventy-nine, his mission well established, SHrila Madhvaacaarya passed away. His devotees say he went to Badarinaatha to join Shrila Vyaasadeva. 

Udupi emerged as a great centre of vedantic philosophy after the advent of Shri Madhvacharya. He was the exponent of ‘Dwaita Vedanta’

Shri Madhvacharya was born in a place called Pajaka at the foot of-a hill called Kunjarugiri or Durga betta, with a Durga temple on its top. The Acharya was born in fulfillment of the prayers offered at Ananteshwara temple by his parents who were Shivalli Brahmins. He was initiated into ascetic renounced order in his sixteenth year. He traversed the length and breadth of the country many times with his trusted disciples. Badrinath in the Himalayas was his favourite spot, where he is reported to have visited the hermitage of his Guru, the divine sage Shri Vedavyasa and received directions for writing his commentaries on ‘Brahmasutras’ and the Mahabharatha epic composed by the divine sage. In all he has written 37 works, 4 on Brahmasutras, 10 on Upanishads, 2 on Shri Bhagavadgita and the rest on various topics of philosophy.

The ‘Dwaita’ philosophy highlights that the Lord and the living entity are always different. Salvation (Moksha) is possible through pure devotion (Bhakti), which is eternal bliss. In several of his works the great Acharya has disclosed his identity as the third incarnation of Lord Vayu, the earlier incarnations being Hanuman and Bhima. He disappeared from human sight in 1317 .A.D. while delivering a discourse on Aitareya Upanishad at a particular spot in Ananteshwara temple.