( Gurugaru )

Fondly known to his disciples as Gurugaru, Swami Srilasri Swaprakasananda Theertha Avadhootha was born in 1915 in the small village of Vidurbarthi, in Andhra Pradesh. Hailing from the Dattatreya lineage, Sri Swaprakasananda received no formal education; yet with the Mother's blessings, he acquired vast knowledge of the Vedas and Sastras and became well-versed in Sanskrit.

During his 20th year, Sri Gurugaru came in contact with some of India's finest spiritual gurus. He received diksha from Sri Poornananda Yogi, a disciple of the Tibetian guru Maru Maharishi. He was introduced to SriVidya upasana by Sri Kesari Kameswara Rao of the Madhvacharya sampradaya. In his 32nd year, Sri Gurugaru received diksha into the Mahavidyas of Sri Rajarajeswari, Vanadurga and Saptasathi Chandi. He attained poorna diksha from Sri Gnanananda Saraswathi of Anakapalli.

Traveling the length and breadth of India to enhance his spiritual knowledge, Sri Gurugaru had mastered the 64 Tantras by the time he was 40 years old. By 43, he had learnt 70 million mantras from the teachings of 18 peetams and many gurus. He spent a few years in Kasi contemplating and analysing the source of the mantras he had learnt, greatly aided by Sri Dakshinamurthi Paramahamsa of Lalithanagar, Vishakapatnam.

In addition to the siddhis he had already received, he became a Vedic scholar at the age of 58 with the grace of Chintamani Mahavidyeswari. By 1980, in his 65th year, Sri Gurugaru felt the urge to renounce the material world and take up sanyas. To this end, he travelled to the Sri Bhadrakali Mahapeetam at Haridhwar's Saptarishi sarovar. Sanyasa diksha was showered on him by Srilasri Kalyanananda Bharathi Theertha Maharaj. Years later, with his Guru's blessings, Sri Gurugaru took up the Avadhootha Ashrama.

Sri Gurugaru attained Maha Samathi on Guru Poornima day of the year 2003.