Guru Lineage

Fondly known to his disciples as Gurugarau, Swami Srilasri Swaprakasananda theertha avadhootha was born in 1915 in a small village, Vidurbarthi in Andhra Pradesh. Hailing from the Dattatreya lineage, Sri Swaprakasananda had not received any formal education, yet with the Mother's Blessings, has vast knowledge of the Vedas and Sastras and is well versed in Sanskrit.

Sri Amritananda Natha Saraswathi (Dr.N. Prahalada Sastry) was born in Vishakapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, the first child of Sri Narasimha Rao and Srimati Lakshminarasamma. Guruji, as he is fondly referred to, started his spiritual quest at a very young age. Blessed with divine experiences early in his childhood,his young mind was teeming with questions, searching for the truth. The stage was set for his spiritual inclination that was to intensify later in life.

The ninth and last child of Sri. Sinnayya Pillai Navaratnam and Smt. Kamalambal, Sri Wijayaharan (Aiya) was born into a family of Devi upasakas. Worship of the Mother had been continuing in his father's family for more than six generations, but was abruptly halted in 1918 after the sudden demise of Sri Wijayaharan's paternal aunt. Sri Haran learnt of the tradition at the tender age of ten, from his father.

The year is 2002. I received a letter from an inmate in North Carolina prison a few days ago, asking for some explanation and spiritual consolation. It is interesting to know how he found our address. He is in the prison for a long time and due to his good behavior he is allowed to go to the prison library and use the computer also. He searched for Sri Vidya and Bingo! He landed on our website and found the temple address and wrote to me.