Part-1

Shri Venugopala Krishnamurthy, who was known as Shri Datta Swami for some time, is called "Swami" by all devotees in short. Shri Datta Parabrahman Himself incarnated as Swami in the morning of the Phālguṇa śukla dvitīyā, Sunday, in the 4^th pāda of Uttarabhādra, in the Capricorn ascendant (lagna) in the year ‘Vyaya’. His father was Shri Viirabhadrayya Shastri. Their surname is ‘Jannābhaṭla’ and they belong to Kāśyapa gotra. His father wrote spontaneous poetry in Sanskrit and Telugu languages. He was the author of more than a hundred books. He was a great astrologer. His mother was Smt. Hanumāyamma. Swami’s birthplace is Nāgulavaram in Vinukonda taluk of Guntur district. This village was said to have been full of snake houses (ant hills) in ancient times. This is the place where Kashyapa, having received a cow as a gift from Takshaka, blessed Takshaka. Takshaka pleaded that it was against  Kashyapa’s duty to protect Parikshit and so Kashyapa returned back without protecting him.

1. Swami's Birth - Death of the Wicked

 Swami's grandfather, Shri Koteshwara Sastri, was a constant reciter of Lord Rama's name. When he died, his finger was showing upward on his hand, counting the names of Rama! While some evil people in their family were killing all infants through black magic, Swami was born in the eighth pregnancy. Those evil people died as soon as Swami was born. Swami was not named until He was 5-6 years old. Swami's paternal aunt, Seshamma garu, decided to name Swami "Venu Gopala Krishna" because Swami used to steal butter from the village and also from His own house.

To calm down the mischief of Swami, Upanayana was performed to Him and food was distributed to all the villagers. Swami’s father started teaching Him Sankskrit through Raghuvamsha. Swami, in that very tender age itself, started to recite and paraphrase the verses after the 8^th verse taught by His father.

As the spontaneous compositions started flowing in Sanskrit, Swami began to write Kavyas, Stotras, books in Vedanta Shastra etc., continuously and they are more than a hundred in number. Eminent Sanskrit scholars were amazed to see the Sanskrit poetry written by Swami at the age of 11 years. It was a great occasion when great scholars like Shri Maddulapalli Satyanarayana Sastri, Shri Tatacharyulu and others said that the verses of Swamiji were making one forget the poetic beauty of great Kalidasa. Shri Vavilala Venkateshwara Sastri, who is an excellent Vedanta scholar, praised Swami as "scholar of all the scriptures." Many great scholars like Shri Dorbala Prabhakara Sharma, Jannābhaṭla Viireshwara Sastri and others praised Swami immensely as having talent of divine nature.

i) From Vaiyāsakam (Mahākāvyam)

Upatyakābhūta jagattraye'pi, netratrayāvekṣita jantujālam |
Adhityakāyāṃ hi jaṭāsaṭābhiḥ, sākṣānmahā siṃhamivopaviṣṭam ||
(Śiva varṇanam)

Ullaṅghayaṃścitra vicitrarītyā, Bṛndāvane Gopavadhūjanānvā |
Turaṅgamān karṇarathāvarodham, muhurmuhuḥ paryaharanmurāriḥ ||
(Krishna driving the chariot during the killing of Saindhava)

Taraṇiḥ kiraṇena tacchiro – dhṛtamāṇikyarucaṃ prakāśayan |
Samadarśi rahasya janmane, svasutāyeva kareṇa vahnidaḥ ||
(The occasion after the killing of Karṇa)

ii) From Shri Krishna Bhagavatam
Vīrāya Kaṃsādiniśācarāṇām, Mārāya Rādhādimanasvinīnām |
Pārāya Saṃsāra mahāmburāśeḥ, Corāya Jārāya tapaśarāmi ||

Piñchāviṣkṛta śekharāya tulasī hārāya, pītāmbara –
Vyānaddhāya kaṭe rathaḥ karatale pāriplavadveṇave |
Sāyaṅkāla vanāntarāgata gavāṃ paścātkṛtāya vrajaiḥ
Vāmālokana vāmalocanakṛta spandāya te vandanam ||

Pādakṣepa jhalat jhaladdhvanirayai rānanda mātanvate
Muktāmekhalayā viśīṣṭakalayā cakṣussamākarṣate |
Āliptāya payobhi rantima gṛhadvārādbahi rdhāvate
Kasmaicinmahase namāmsi mahate bālāya nīlāya te ||

Swamiji used to predict the future at the age of 10. Everyone thought that His father was an astrologer and so He inherited it from him. But if we listen to some of the incidents as samples, we can easily recognise the divine power beyond astrology.

Part-2

2. Divine power beyond astrology:

In Kukatlapalli, a village next to Swami's village, a farmer came to Swami's house and gave Swami's father a wedding card for his daughter's marriage. Swami, a 10-year-old boy, was there. "The bride is going to die as soon as she gets married, then is this marriage required?”, Swami asked. The farmer was shocked. Listening this, everyone in the house scolded Swami. The daughter of the farmer got married in Tirupati in the presence of the Lord Venkateshwara. As soon as the wedding took place, while bowing to her in-laws the bride collapsed and died on spot! The entire village was shocked by this incident! Similarly, at the same age, Swami went to His uncle's house in the neighboring village of Kundurthi. Swami took a diary from his house and wrote that his aunt would die of cholera on a certain date. Swami signed it and also wrote the date of that day. His uncle did not see it at that time. She died of cholera on the date mentioned by Swami. Later only, His uncle came to know about the matter while reading his diary.

3. Sri Karapatra Swami invites Shri Datta Swami as the successor of the Piitham

Earning a Ph.D. degree in Chemistry at the age of 19 and attaining a distinguished position in the universe shows the unimaginable talent of Swami! He lived in Kashi and Prayaga for five years due to His education and used to bathe in the Ganges and perform Rudrabhishekam every day. Around the age of 15, Swami also debated with many Sanskrit scholars and astonished them with His excellent scholarship. He showed 102 meanings to the word “Tu” in the Brahma Sutra, "Tattu Samanvayāt" and this was published by the Kashi Pandits in the Vedanta magazine (Prabhā) and honored Swami. Is it not a proof of His talent that Shri Karapatra Swamy, the head of the Kashi Piitha, and a stalwart in Vedanta, asked Swami to become a Samnyasi (saint/ renunciant) and become the next head of the Piitha? Swami was also ready and informed His father, but His father did not agree since Swami is the eldest son. If this is not a divine plan, what else is it? How can Swami become a pontiff of an Advaita Piitha and limit His circle to only selected, when there was a task ahead of Him to uplift souls like us? Is this not our greatest fortune?

Part-3

4. Debate on Incarnations with Arya Samaj Scholars

Once, the Mahakumbh Mela was held in Prayag. There were debates between Arya Samaj and followers of Sanatana Dharma. Arya Samaj believes in the formless God. It does not believe in a formful God and human incarnations. Followers of Sanatana Dharma believe in a formful God and human incarnations. The debate went on for 5 days. Swami, at the age of 16 years, argued in Sanskrit with Arya Samaj scholars and ended the discussion in just 5 minutes. Here is the essence of the arguments.

Swami:- Is God omnipotent? Or not?

Arya Samaj Scholars:- God is omnipotent. This is accepted by all religions.

Swami:- The God who has all the powers must have also the power to take form and the power to take incarnations. If such a power is not there with Him, then we cannot accept that God is omnipotent. Accordingly, we are forced to say that He is the one who does not have that power.

Arya Samaj Scholars:-  Fine, but, God uses the power only when it is needed. In this case, there is no need and so He did not use that power.

Swami:- No. It is needed. Because we cannot meditate on the formless God. Therefore, the God with form is needed. The formful God, like idols, etc., only provide vision and touch. In addition to these, to bless conversations and co-living, God incarnates in human form.

Arya Samaj Scholars:- The verses like "Na tasya pratimā", "Arūpam", "Na cakṣuṣā" etc., speak of the formless God.

Swami:- The verses like "Yatsākṣāt", "Pratyāgātmānamaikṣat", etc., say that Brahman is present directly in front of the eyes and was seen by the eyes. The verses that speak of formlessness speak of the power of Ishvara that is not different from Ishvara.

Hearing these arguments from Swami, Arya Samaj scholars were speechless.

5. The Occasion of Swami Debating with Head of Advaita Pīṭham

Head of Advaita Pīṭham:- Seeing his son, an ignorant ordinary soul, the father said, "Tattvamasi" - "You are that Brahman." Therefore, any ordinary soul is also Brahman.

Swami:- In the sentence Tattvamasi (Tat+Tvam+Asi), the verbal form "Asi" (you are) is in present tense. But, it should be considered in the future tense as it is grammatically acceptable to say "you will become very soon". It should be noted that here, at the end of the anuvāka, out of his great affection, the father is blessing his son that he will attain Brahmatva very soon.

The head of the Piitham was surprised by this explanation and looked into Swami’s form very closely. He was satisfied with the darshan of Lord Datta in Him and praised Him by saying, "You are capable of correlating the three religions and establishing a correlating philosophy (Samanvaya Siddhānta)." This incident reminds us a previous episode where Shri Datta in the guise of a Candala, preached to Adi Shankara. The phrase "Tattvamasi" is a stronghold for Advaita philosophy. Correlating it in the correct way, Swami proposed the correlating philosophy of the three religions and wrote many books in Sanskrit. In the initial stage, Swami always spent long periods of time in discussions, debates and satsangs on Vedanta Shastra with great Sanskrit scholars. In the second stage, He wanted to uplift the ignorant souls and composed ‘Datta Veda’, ‘Dattaguru Bhagavad Gita’ and ‘Datta Upanishad’ with Telugu and English translations and propagated the path of spiritual knowledge through devotees. Swami popularized the concept of devotion through His  other books published as Gopi Gitas and Bhakti Ganga.

Swami became a professor in Chemistry by the very young age of 30. Swami's wife is Srimati Jayalakshmi Narasakumari. He has got three sons: Ch. Anjaneya, Viirabhadra and Vatsaara Rishi. His daughter is Ch. Sow. Hanumayamma. Preaching to the ordinary human being about the path of liberation, Swami says, "The time remaining after taking care of duties and rest, without being wasted in addictions such as watching TV, movies, reading storybooks, or unnecessary conversations, if dedicated to spiritual effort, the soul can be uplifted. Sādhanā is aspirationless devotion attracted by the wonderful and divine qualities of God, not leaving God in spite of difficulties given by Him. Also, it is the continuous stream of love and flow of devotion towards God.