Sri Sureshwaracharya is worshipped as the incarnation of Lord Brahma, the Creator.  In his pre-Sanyasa days, He was called Mandana Mishra and was a great scholar in the Purva Mimamsa branch of the Shastras.  Ubhayabharathi, his wife, was glorified as the incarnation of Goddess Saraswathi.  As part of His sacred mission on earth,  Sri Adi Shankara defeated Sri Mandana Mishra in a scholarly debate that ran for weeks, with Ubhayabharathi as the Judge.  As per the conditions of the debate, Sri Mandana renounced his life as a householder, embraced Sanyasa with the sacred name Sureshwara and became the beloved disciple of Sri Shankara.  He has authored great philosophic works such as ‘Naishkarmya Siddhi’.  He attained Mahasamadhi in 834AD.  His shrine is at Sringeri, adjacent to the shrine of Sri Sharada.

            The 4th Jagadguru Sri Jnanaghana was the author of the philosophic treatise called ‘Tattvasuddhi’.  An ardent devotee of Lord Sri Mahavishnu, this Acharya constructed the famous Janardhana Swamy temple at Sringeri.

            The 10th Jagadguru Sri Vidya Theertha was a Yogin par excellence.  The great sage decided to spend his last years in Lambika Yoga.  In that state one is completely freed from hunger and thirst.  He chose an underground chamber for His great penance and odered that the entrance be sealed.  He had an image carved out prior to His entering and this is seen even today in Sringeri and is known as the Chaturmurthy Vidhyeshwara.  The image is four-sided.  Three of the faces contain images of Brahma, Vishnu and Maheshwara.  In the front portion is an image of Sri Vidya Theertha in a sitting posture.  On top of the structure is a Lingam.  This signifies that the Guru is Brahma, Vishnu, Maheshwara and indeed the Supreme.  Sri Vidya Theertha indicated that after a lapse of 12 years, His body would become akin to that structure.  He however, warned that under no circumstances should the cave he opened before 12 years were over.  When the next pontiff, Sri Bharathi Theertha, was on tour, curiosity got the better of some of the Mutt staff.  They opened the cave to see how Sri Vidya Theertha was sustaining Himself within.  To their chagrin they found that the sage had disappeared.  Later he appeared in a dream of Sri Bharathi Theertha and said that on account of the indiscretion, his body would no more assume the shape promised earlier.  On the contrary, He ordered that the cave be closed and a Lingam be installed on the top.  Legend has it that Sri Vidya Theertha Himself appeared as that Lingam.

            During the reign of the sage par excellence Sri Vidyaranya, the 12th Jagadguru, Sringeri Sri Sharada Peetam became a Samsthana (a great institution supported by the royal patronage).  He blessed the princes Harihara and Bukka and caused the formation of the famous Vijayanagara Empire.  A celebrated scholar that He was,  the Acharya penned a number of philosophic treatises such as Panchadashi, Jivanmukti Viveka, Sarva Darshana Sangraha, etc.  He established many sub-Mutts with a view to strengthening the Sanatana Dharma Prachara as the country was caught in severe political turbulence.

            The 19th Acharya Sri Purushothama Bharathi(II) was the guiding spirit for the famous Emperor Krishnadevaraya.  With the Acharya’s guidance and blessings, the empire flourished and the people lived a prosperous and peaceful life.

            The 20th Jagadguru Sri Ramachandra Bharathi was a renowned Tapasvin.  Once He accepted the invitation from the Jains and visited their temple.  The moment he stepped into their temple, the Vigraha in the temple transformed itself into one of Lord Sri Ananta Padmanabha, the favourite deity of the Acharya!

            Sri Abhinava Nrisimha Bharathi, the 24th Jagadguru was an adept at Mantra Shastra.  He wrote a commentary to the famous ‘Shiva Gita’.  On a certain occasion, the Acharya visited Sri Malahanikareshwara temple.  There He noticed the absence of any image of Lord Ganesha.  So He drew a figure of Lord Ganesha with a piece of turmeric on one of the front pillars and worshipped it.  The power of His worship was such that by the passage of time, the line drawing image of Lord Ganesha started bulging out and ultimately bloomed into a full-fledged image of the Lord, as if professionally carved out on the pillar.  As this image of Lord Ganesha came out of the Sthambha (pillar), it is called Sthambha Ganapathy.

            The 25th Jagadguru Sri Sacchidananda Bharathi(I) was the beloved Guru of the Nayak dynasty of kings ruling over major parts of Karnataka.  It was during the time of this Acharya that the tyrant king Bhairava attacked Sringeri with a view to looting the treasures of the Peetam.  The Acharya sat in meditation invoking the blessings of the four guardian deities of Sringeri.  It was reported that thousands of divine soldiers emerged from the shrines of the deities and chased Bhairava and his army out of Singeri.

            Sri Sacchidananda Bharathi (III), the 30th Jagadguru was worshipped even by Muslim rulers such as Hyder Ali Tippu Sultan and Nizam-UI-Mulk.  They were in constant touch with the great Acharya through letters and took his divine guidance and couselling in matters of religious and political importance. There was an interesting episode recorded during this Acharya’s reign. Poornayya, the diwan of the Kingdom of Mysore was a staunch opponent to the tenets of Advaita.  He invited His Holiness the 30th Acharya for a debate.  The Jagadguru accepted his challenge on the condition that there should be a screen placed between the two as the debate was in progress.  The diwan agreed to this and the debate started.  When the debate reached a point, the diwan was surprised to hear the voice of a female from the other side of the screen.  Curious, he moved the screen and took a look.  He was taken aback, for he saw Sri Sharada Herself there.  Her form immediately transformed into that of the Acharya.  The diwan realised the fact that the Jagadgurus of the Peetam were all human forms of Goddess Sharada.  He accepted his defeat, fell at the lotus feet of the Acharya and became His disciple.

            The 32nd Jagadguru Sri Nrisimha Bharathi Mahaswamiji (VIII), also reverentially addressed as Sri Vruddha Nrisimha Bharathi was born in Sringeri.  Even as a boy, He had walked all the way to Kashi to learn the Shastras from learned scholars.  He conquered hunger and sleep.  When He was hardly fifty years of age, he gave up normal food and subsisted on a handful of boiled bitter gourd.  He spent practically the whole day in meditation and puja.  While He was in Bangalore in 1858, Commissioner Bowring, who had heard of the austere and godly life of the Acharya,  wished to see for himself the truth of the reports.  So on a certain day, he went incognito to the Acharya’s camp at one o’clock in the night and peeped through the curtain in front of the puja hall.  He was astonished to find the Acharya deeply immersed in the worship of Sri Chandramouleeswara, oblivious of what was happening around.  The Commissioner became a follower of the Acharya, and even wrote to the then British administration about the greatness of the Jagadguru.   The Acharya’s will was indomitable and He never swerved from any decision He had taken.  However, His heart melted at the sight of any being in distress.

            There are several incidents that speak of the 32nd Acharya’s compassionate ways of correcting erring minds.  What follows is one such incident.  In 1838, the Acharya visited the temple of Sri Ramanatha at Rameswaram.  When He went for a bath at the sacred Koti-theertha, He directed His attendents to draw the sacred water from the well for His bath.  The staff of the temple however were adamant that they would never allow any outsider to draw water from the well.  They insisted that only they would do it.  The compassionate Acharya wanted to teach them a lesson.  He went to another well to the south of the inner shrine, known as Sarva-theertha and concluded His bath with the water from this well.  He announced to the people assembled that henceforth it would be enough for pilgrims to conclude their baths with the water of the Sarva-theertha.  People started to follow His commands.  As a result, the water of the Koti-theertha was forsaken by pilgrims and it became filthy.  The priests realised their fault, went to the great Guru and sought His pardon.  An ocean of mercy, He pardoned them and during His next visit to Rameswaram, He reset the Koti-theertha as one fit for use!

            The 33rd Jagadguru Sri Sacchidananda Shivabhinava Nrisimha Bharathi Mahaswamiji is glorified to be the reincarnation of Sri Adi Shankara Himself.  Embracing Sanyasa at the age of eight itself, His Holiness displayed an intense Guru Bhakti.  His devotion and attachment to Goddess Sharada was beyond human comprehension.  An epitome of compassion and an inimitable scholar, the great Acharya instantly transformed turbulent minds into towers of peace.  He was the Acharya who took steps to rediscover the sacred birth place of Sri Adi Shankara at Kalady.  After spotting the sacred place, He had beautiful shrines constructed there for Sri Shankara and Sri Sharada and consecrated them in 1910.  This apart, He also arranged to get the complete works of Sri Adi Shankara printed and published.  Moreover, He initiated the celebration of Sri Shankara Jayanti throughout the country every year during the Vaishaka Shukla Panchami day.  He used to compose verses in chaste Sanskrit extempore, and all those sacred verses have been brought out in print under the title ‘Bhakti Sudha Tarangini’.

            Jagadguru Sri Chandrasekhara Bharathi Mahaswamiji, the 34th Acharya of Sri Sharada Peetam was a great Jeevanmukta.  Ever established in the self, the great Acharya instilled spiritual inclination in the minds of one and all who visited Him.  He blessed the world of Astikas (believers) with an unequalled commentary on Sri Shankara’s ‘Viveka Choodamani’, besides His extempore composition of awe-inspiring verses in Sanskrit.  An ocean of mercy and a strong proponent of the efficacy of mantras, the Acharya blessed a number of famine-hit places with copious rains through the recital of Vedic Mantras.  

He was the supreme refuge for anyone in distress.  People afflicted with chronic illnesses were cured instantly by His grace, and people caught in the snare of sense pleasures found quick recovery in His divine presence.   Thousands thronged His abode from far and near even if His darshan were to be for a few minutes.  A scholar par excellence, the Acharya mesmerised one and all with His extraordinal scriptural knowledge in the annual assembly of scholars organised by the Peetam.