The Shri Guru Charitra is a book based on the life story of Shri Narasimha Saraswati, written by the 15th-16th century poet Shri Saraswati Gangadhar. The book includes the life story of Shri Narasimha Saraswati, his philosophy and related stories. The language used is the 14-15th century Marathi. The book is written as a conversation between Siddha and Namdharak who is listening to Siddha. It is divided into 3 parts: Dhyankand, Karmakand and Bhaktikand. It has 52 Chapters in which, the 51st chapter is also called as ′Gurucharitra Avatarnika′ which is the summary of the book. The book is assumed to be written in a village in Karnataka known as Kadaganchi. The writer is Saraswati Gangadhar who is a poet and an extreme vanshaj of Sayandev Sakhre, one of the disciples from four favorite disciples of Shriguru Narasimha Saraswati. The chronology Introduced in the Shri Guru Charitra of Shriguru Narasimha Saraswati is as follows:
Chronology
The main events of Sri Narasimha Saraswati's life are given below. Possible years and dates are given according to descriptions of the lunar and stellar events calendar mentioned in the Shri GuruCharitra.
Sha. 1380 : Nijanandagaman at Shrishaila Mountain.
The extreme 24 characteristics of Shri Gurumurti Shri Narasimha sarswati are not found in except some books are here found by Datta bhakt Wallabh Umrekar and his disciple Harish Jagdish Joshi.
The references found under various books and proper information and technical centre of ′Adhyatma′ are nowadays introduced are in many hearts :
Nath Sampradaya: The Nath yogis, that metamorphosed into a warrior ascetic group, consider Dattatreya as their theological founder. This group grew and became particularly prominent during the Islamic invasions and Hindu-Muslim wars in South Asia, from about the 14th to 18th century, although the Dattatreya roots of the peaceful Nath yogis go back to about the 10th century. The group was most active in Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Nepal. The tradition believes that the legendary Nath sampradaya yogi and Hatha Yoga innovator Gorakshanath was inspired and shaped by Dattatreya. Regional efforts and texts of the Nath tradition such as Yogi sampradaya vishkriti discussed Dattatreya.
Avadhuta Sampradaya: The nine Narayanas of the Avadhuta sampradaya are attributed to Dattatreya, an idea also found in the Natha sampradaya. A panth started by Pantmaharaj Balekundrikar of Balekundri near Belgavi is related to this.
Dasanami sampradaya and Shakti pithas: Dattatreya is revered in Dasanami and goddess-oriented Shaktism traditions.
Bhakti traditions: Dattatetreya's theology emphasizing simple life, kindness to all, questioning the status quo, self pursuit of knowledge and seeking spiritualmeaning of life appealed to Bhakti sant-poets of Hinduism such as Tukaram and Eknath, during an era of political and social upheavel caused by Islamic invasion in the Deccan region of India. They reverentially mentioned Dattatreya in their poems. The use of his symbolism was one of the many syncretic themes of this period where the ideas of Vaishnavism and Shaivism holistically fused in popular imagination.
Mahanubhav tradition: Along with Krishna, the Mahanubhav tradition considers Dattatreya as their divine inspiration. The Mahanubhav Panth, propagated by Sri Chakradhar Swami, has five Krishnas, of which Dattatreya is one as their Adi Guru, as well as the early teachers in their tradition. They worship Dattatreya as single headed with two arms. He has a temple dedicated in Mahur by this tradition.
Lal Padris: another Hindu yogi group from western India with roots in the 10th-century and with ideas similar to Nath and Kanphata sampradaya, traces Dattatreya as the basis of their spiritual ideas.
Around 1550 CE, Dattatreya Yogi taught the Dattatreya philosophy to his disciple Das Gosavi in Marathi. Das Gosavi then taught this philosophy to his two Telugu disciples Gopalbhatt and Sarvaved who studied and translated Das Gosavi's book of Vedantavyavaharsangraha into Telugu language. According to Prof. R. C. Dhere, Dattatreya Yogi and Das Gosavi are the original gurus in the Telugu Dattatreya tradition. Prof. Rao states that Dattatreya Shatakamu was written by Paramanandateertha who is equally important in his contributions to the Telugu tradition of Dattatreya. He was a proponent of Advaita philosophy and dedicated his two epics, Anubhavadarpanamu and Shivadnyanamanjari to Shri Dattatreya. His famous Vivekachintamani book was translated into Kannada by Nijashivagunayogi and Lingayat saint Shanatalingaswami translated this into Marathi.
