व्यासम् वसिष्ठ नप्तारम् सक्तेपौत्रमकल्मषम्
पराशरात्मजम् वंदे शुकतातम् तपोनिधिम्
I salute him, the great sage Vyasa, the pure and the holy one who is the very embodiment of Taposhakti, who is the great-grandson of Sage Shakti, the son of sage Parashara and the father of sage Shuka.
व्यासाय विष्णुरूपाय व्यासरूपाय विष्णवे
नमोवे ब्रह्मनिधये वासिष्ठाय नमो नम:
I salute Vyasa in the form of Vishnu and Vishnu in the form of Vyasa, for he was the progeny of Maharishi Vasistha and the embodiment of the true knowledge of Brahman.
In Bhagawad Gita, Lord Sri Krishna says ‘Muneem Parayanam Vyasa’ i.e ‘Of all the sages, I am Vyasa‘.
In these few lines, the lineage and the divine power of Sage Vedavyasa are revealed to us. It is through the profound wisdom and grace of the sage that we mortal humans have received the Vedas, the Mahabharata, the Brahmasutras, the Srimad Bhagavatam and the eighteen great Puranas.
And so I bow my head to the great Rishi who charted the way for us to connect to Sri Vishnu. And so do all the followers of Kashi Math whose presiding deity is Lord VedVyasa.
According to history, the first guru in the Kashi Math lineage, Shri Yadavendra was gifted the idols of Shri Vyas, Shri Ramchandra and a Shaligrama by his Guru Shri Vijayendratirtha. Every year we celebrate Guru Pournima on the birthday of Lord Vyasa. A second idol was discovered in the PanchGanga in Varanasi by Shri Keshavendra Teertha Swami. The beautiful idol is adorned with earrings, ShriVatsalanchana on the right chest and has Shanka-Chakra embossed on both shoulders. It is tradition that the KashiMath pontiff has to take a dip in the Holy Ganga along with the Vyaas idol on their head during every visit to Varanasi.
Please take a moment to listen to the beautiful Badarayana Suprabhatam. For more such stotras and bhajans check http://gsbkatte.com/kashi-math/