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XXXI His contempt for riches was supreme. His faith in the Grace of God was unshakable. He considered it sinful to identify man with God. He stoutly believed that the relationship between the Individual soul and God was that of master and servant. His writings bear throughout the stamp of his nature. Their manner is peculiar and is the author's own. Our author is worshipped as a Great Saint. His name was Venkatanatha. He is referred to by that name in the Sarvadarsana Sangraha where some of his verses in the Tatvamukta Kalapa are quoted He was believed to be the gift of the God at Tirupati and was named after Him. His mother while at Tirupati dreamt a dream that she had swallowed the small bell used for the worship of the God. His father had a simi. lar dream the same night. Some years after the dream, our author was born. The small bell in the Tirupati temple disappeared from the night of the above dream. The Archakars of the temple were accused of having abstracted the bell. Then the Jeer of the temple dreamt a dream in which the God declared that the bell had disappeared by His own will and directed that no bell should be substituted. To this day, no bell is used inside the shrine at Tirupati for worship. Venkatanatha was believed to be an incarnation of the Lord's bell. He himself shared in that belief and bas given expression to it in the Sankalpasuryodaya. वित्रासिनी विबुधवैरिवरूथिनीनां. पासनेन परिचारविधौ प्रयुक्ता ।
