[Advaita-l] Physical fitness

[Venkata sriram P]

Dear Venkatesh Murty Garu,
 
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My wife is Madhva by birth. She told Madhva had huge physical strength
and drank many litres of milk and ate many dozen bananas at once and
lifted heavy things like rocks.  I feel Adi Sankara must have huge
physical stamina also. He walked all over India and also climbed
mountains.
 
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MadhvAs believe the Madhvacharya to be the incarnation of Bhima (the one among pANDavAs).   As we all know, Bhima was known for his physical strength, to depict his transcendental aspect of Bhima, Madhvacharya used to demonstrate such strength.   Their basic philosophy is “hari sarvOttama – vAyu jIvOttama” and dAsya bhAkti Is adopted.  Their main ideal is Lord Hanuman who is worshipped as “mukhya prAna tattva”.   
 
Lord Rama in the form of Agni tattva is Hari and Lord Hanuman in the form of Prana tattva is Jiva.   Both the tattvas shouldn’t be separated which is “hari-vAyu tattva”.  The “mukhya-prANa tattva” is said to be present inside the mouth beneath the jaws as the vyutpatti is “mukhE bhavati iti mukhya prANaH”.   
 
BTW, it is interesting to note that Brahma Yamala Tantra extols  Lord Rama as “a-kAra”; Lakshmana as “u-kAra”; Sita as “ma-kAra” and Anjaneya as “ardha-mAtra”.  So,  rAma-lakShmaNa-sIta-hanumAn” are praNavAtmakA swarupa.  
 
Regs,
Sriram