UDUPI: The verdant Poornaprajna Vidyapeetha campus in Bengaluru came alive to boisterous cheers of its students on Diwali day. An impromptu arm wrestling match involving Sri Vishwaprasanna Tirtha swamiji of Pejavar Adhokshaja mutt and a student at the Vidyapeetha got the students all excited and they cheered the duo till such time the swamiji, 56 beat back the challenge from the student, aged little over 25.
The swamiji, in a one-minute video that has gone viral, took on his student on the lawns of the Vidyapeetha. Both went arm-to-arm from a seating crouched position. The swamiji ended the challenge in a minute by firmly pushing down the arm of the contender to the ground. All this happened prior to the famed ‘Taila Abhyanjana’ or a period before the traditional Diwali oil bath. Bodies of both the seer and the student were soaked in oil.
If the swamiji celebrating Diwali at the Vidyapeetha that his senior Sri Vishvesha Tirtha founded in 1956 was cause for cheer, the seer literally strong arming his student, almost half his age meant that their joy knew no bounds. An accomplished yoga exponent, Sri Vishwaprasanna also revels in showing his expertise in swimming and his celebrating Diwali with students of Veda and shastra at the Vidyapeetha was a novelty for them.
Incidentally, Sri Vishwaprasanna Tirtha had once gone toe-to-toe with Sri Vishwavallabha Tirtha swamiji of Sri Sodhe Mutt in a ‘friendly’ kabaddi match during Diwali at Sri Krishna Temple premises in the past. Watchers of Sri Krishna Temple and the ‘Ashta Mutt’ tradition aver that such activities only reinforce the bond that the heads of the mutts have with not only their disciples, but also those who believe in the Madhwa philosophy.