Udupi Sode Vadiraj Mutt on Wednesday announced 16-year-old Aniruddha Saralatthaya as successor to Sri Lakshmivara Tirtha Swamiji of Udupi Shirur Mutt, who passed away on July 19, 2018. Saralatthaya will ascend the seat as the 31st seer at Sode Mutt in Sirsi, Uttara Kannada, on May 14.
Sode Mutt, the dwandva mutt of Shirur Mutt, was entrusted with the responsibility of selecting the seer for the latter as Late Lakshmivara Tirtha had not appointed any successor. Sode Mutt seer Sri Vishwavallabha Tirtha told reporters at Shirur Mula Mutt near Udupi that appointing a teenager as heir to Ashta Mutts in Udupi was a tradition followed as per the recommendations of the Shastras.
Saralatthaya, son of Uday Kumar Saralatthaya and Srividya from Nidle village near Dharmasthala in Dakshina Kannada, has studied the Vedas, Tatparya Nirnaya and Yuktamallika, a magnum opus by Sode Mutt founder Sri Vadiraja Tirtha Swamiji. He would ably take up the new responsibility and undertake further studies in Vedanta and may continue his formal education through informal mode of education, Sri Vishwavallabha Tirtha said.
Having undergone formal education till Class 10, Saralatthaya will be ordained into Sanyasa between 7.35 a.m. and 8 a.m. on May 13, followed by his anointment as the seer of Shirur Mutt the next day between 12.35 p.m. and 12.50 p.m., Sri Vishwavallabha Tirtha said.
Saralatthaya, who was present, said that he chose to walk the path of renunciation as he felt worshipping Lord Krishna was a task that gives him ultimate content.
His ancestors served as priests of Sri Durga Parameshwari Temple, Kadya, near Kukke Subrahmanya. His father came to Udupi in 1988 for higher studies. He later pursued B.Ed, and Ph.D, at the National Sanskrit University, Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh. Regarding objections to the anointment by some followers of Late Sri Lakshmivara Tirtha, Sri Vishwavallabha Tirtha said that those objecting were not related to the affairs of the dwandva mutts, Sode and Shirur, and hence, he would not make any comment.
