[3] Jagadguru Ramanandacharya Swami Rambhadracharya[α][4] (born Pandit Giridhar Mishra on 14 January 1950)[β] is an Indian Hindu spiritual leader, educator, Sanskrit scholar, polyglot, poet, author, textual commentator, philosopher, composer, singer, playwright and Katha artist based in Chitrakoot, India.

[9][10] He is the founder and lifelong chancellor of the Jagadguru Rambhadracharya Handicapped University in Chitrakoot, which offers graduate and postgraduate courses exclusively to four types of disabled students.

The great aunt was a devotee of Mirabai, a female saint of the Bhakti era in medieval India, who used the name Giridhar to address the god Krishna in her compositions.

In the afternoons, his grandfather would narrate to him various episodes of the Hindu epics Ramayana and Mahabharata, and devotional works like Vishramsagar, Sukhsagar, Premsagar and Brajvilas.

O Ahir lady (cowherd girl), you are excessively inclined to quarrel, and come and stand here uninvited' – so says Yashoda, holding on to the hand of Giridhara (Krishna) and covering [his face] with the end of her Sari", sings Giridhara (the poet).At the age of five, Giridhar memorised the entire Bhagavad Gita, consisting of around 700 verses with chapter and verse numbers, in 15 days, with the help of his neighbour, Pandit Murlidhar Mishra.

[14][30][32][34][35] He released the first Braille version of the scripture, with the original Sanskrit text and a Hindi commentary, at New Delhi on 30 November 2007, 52 years after memorising the Gita.

Having mastered the Bhagavad Gita and Ramcharitmanas at a very young age, Giridhar started visiting the Katha programmes held near his village once every three years in the intercalary month of Purushottama.

[30][31] This incident left a strong impression on Giridhar; he says at the beginning of his autobiography:[38] I am the same person who was considered to be inauspicious for accompanying a marriage party. ...

mahāghoraśokāgninā'tapyamānaṃ patantaṃ nirāsārasaṃsārasindhau । nāthaṃ jaḍaṃ mohapāśena baddhaṃ prabho pāhi māṃ sevakakleśaharttaḥ ॥ O omnipotent Lord, remover of the distress of your worshippers!

Protect me, who is being consumed by the extremely dreadful fire of sorrows, who is helplessly falling in the ocean of the mundane world, who is without any protector, who is ignorant, and who is bonded by the shackles of delusion.In 1971 Giridhar enrolled at the Sampurnanand Sanskrit University in Varanasi for higher studies in Vyakarana.

kiṃ dṛṣṭavyaṃ patitajagati vyāptadoṣe'pyasatye māyācārāvratatanubhṛtāṃ pāparājadvicāre । dṛṣṭavyo'sau cikuranikuraiḥ pūrṇavaktrāravindaḥ pūrṇānando dhṛtaśiśutanuḥ rāmacandro mukundaḥ ॥ What is to be seen in this fallen world, which is false and filled with vices, is full of disputes and is governed by the sins of deceitful and wicked humans?

[39] In 1976 Giridhar narrated a Katha on Ramcharitmanas to Swami Karpatri, who advised him not to marry, to stay a lifelong Brahmachari (celibate bachelor) and to take initiation in a Srivaishnava Sampradaya (a sect worshipping Vishnu, Krishna, or Rama as the supreme God).

[46][47] Giridhar took vairagi (renouncer) initiation or Virakta Diksha in the Ramananda Sampradaya on the Kartika full-moon day of 19 November 1983 from Shri Ramcharandas Maharaj Phalahari.

paya ahāra phala khāi japu rāma nāma ṣaṭa māsa । sakala sumaṃgala siddhi saba karatala tulasīdāsa ॥ Chant the name of Rama subsisting on a diet of milk and fruits for six months.

[8] On 3 February 1989, at the Kumbh Mela in Allahabad, the appointment was unanimously supported by the Mahants of the three Akharas, the four sub-Sampradayas, the Khalsas and saints of the Ramananda Sampradaya.

[54] In July 2003 Rambhadracharya deposed as an expert witness for religious matters (OPW 16) in Other Original Suit Number 5 of the Ram Janmabhoomi Babri Masjid dispute case in the Allahabad High Court.

[58][59][60] In his affidavit, he cited the ancient Hindu scriptures including the Ramayana, Rāmatāpanīya Upaniṣad, Skanda Purana, Yajurveda, Atharvaveda, and others describing Ayodhya as a city holy to Hindus and the birthplace of Rama.

[10][13] He founded the Jagadguru Rambhadracharya Handicapped University, an institution of higher learning solely for disabled students, on 27 September 2001 in Chitrakoot.

[76] Gita Devi, secretary of JRHU, said that Rambhadracharya had been threatened by al-Qaeda, as Ram Janmabhoomi Nyas president Nrityagopal had been in the past.

[82][83] On 26 August 2013, a local lawyer Ranjana Agnihotri filed a habeas corpus petition in the Allahabad High Court's Lucknow bench, on which judges Imtiyaz Murtaza and D K Upadhayaya passed the release order for Rambhadracharya, along with Singhal and Praveen Togadia.

[22][75] Rambhadracharya composed Sanskrit commentaries titled Śrīrāghavakṛpābhāṣyam on the Prasthanatrayi scriptures – the Brahma Sutra,[86]: 107  the Bhagavad Gita,[86]: 178  and eleven Upanishads.

[97] Rewa Prasad Dwivedi writes in his Sanskrit poem dedicated to Rambhadracharya that he is an encyclopaedia of learning whose literature is like numerous Narmadā rivers flowing out simultaneously, and in whose literary works Shiva and Parvati delight while performing Tandava and Lasya.

[70] Atal Bihari Vajpayee considered Rambhadracharya to be an "immensely learned person well versed in Vedic and Puranic literature besides the grammar", and commended his intelligence and memory.

Abdul Kalam and the then union Home Minister Shivraj Patil in July 2005 to hand over a memorandum urging to strengthen the security arrangements for important religious places in the country.

[116] Abhiraj Rajendra Mishra said that Rambhadracharya is of a high-mind, has a stupendous grip on the Indian literature, and "his soul feels the true pleasure in serving oppressed disabled people".

[117] Mata Prasad Pandey, the Speaker of Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly, said that Rambhadracharya has opened a door of development for those with disabilities in India, and that he has achieved what eminent industrialists and the government cannot do.

[13][125] He has travelled to several countries, including England, Mauritius, Singapore, and the United States to deliver discourses on Hindu religion and peace.

[128] Rambhadracharya was one of the spiritual and religious Gurus from India at the Millennium World Peace Summit, organised by the United Nations in New York City from 28 to 31 August 2000.

While addressing the gathering, he gave Sanskrit definitions for the words Bharata (the ancient name of India) and Hindu, and touched upon the Nirguna and Saguna aspects of God.

[130] Rambhadracharya has been honoured by several leaders and politicians, including A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, Somnath Chatterjee, Shilendra Kumar Singh, and Indira Gandhi.