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Siddharta Gautama Buddha is the founder of  Buddhism. He born in 623B.C. in Northern India as prince Siddhattha to King Suddhodana of the aristocratic Sakyan clan. At the age of 29, the young prince renounced the world in search for the meaning of life. At 35, he attained enlightenment. Since then he spent the rest of his life engaged indefatigably in teaching his doctrines to the masses. The Buddha passed away into final Nibbana when he was 80 years old, after giving 45 years of invaluable service to mankind. Discrimination people based on caste, meaningles superstitous customs practiced by HIndus at that time leads Him to leave the castle and to seek the truth. Which later became His teachings.

Shirdi Sai Baba opposed all persecution based on caste and religion. He was an opponent of religious orthodoxy - both Hindu and Muslim. Although Sai Baba himself led the life of an ascetic, he advised his followers to lead an ordinary family life.

Sai Baba encouraged his devotees to pray, chant God's name, and read holy scriptures. He told Muslims to study the Qur'an, and Hindus to study texts such as the Ramayana, Bhagavad Gita and Yoga Vashista. He advised his devotees and followers to lead a moral life, help others, love every living being without any discrimination, and develop two important features of character: faith (Shraddha) and patience (Saburi). He criticized atheism in his teachings, Sai Baba emphasized the importance of performing one's duties without attachment to earthly matters, and of being content regardless of the situation. - wikipedia

Shri Adi Shankaracharya  (the first "sankara' in his lineage). Shankara was born in Kalady, a village in Kerala. Shankara travelled extensively, while writing commentaries on the Upanishads, Vishnu sahasranama, and the Bhagavad Gita. He advocated the greatness and importance of the important Hindu scriptures, the Vedas (most particularly on the Upanishads, also known as Vedanta), spoke to a spirituality founded on reason and without dogma or ritualism, and gave new life to Hinduism. Shankara denounced caste and meaningless ritual as foolish, and in his own charismatic manner exhorted the true devotee to meditate on god’s love and to apprehend truth.

Sri Raghavendra Swami was born as Sri Venkanna Bhatta (Venkata Ramana), the second son of Sri Thimanna Bhatta and Smt. Gopikamba. He is one of the famous saint in India.

" On Dwitiya Day of Sravana Krishna Paksha in 1671, Raghavendra Swami gave a soul-stirring speech  to hundreds of devotees who had gathered to watch the event. Some quotes from that speech are as follows -

• "Without right living, right thinking will never come. Right living is performing one's ordained duties according to one's station in life without hankering the after fruits of the actions and on the other hand offering all one's activities to the Lord. This is real sadachara (right living). This is real karma yoga."

• "Social work done for the good of worthy people should also be considered as the Lord's worship. In short, our life itself is a worship. Every action is a puja. This life is precious. Every second of our life is precious. Not even a second that has gone will come back. Listening to the right shastras and always remembering Him is the highest duty."

• "Always keep away from people who merely perform miracles without following the shastras and yet call themselves God or guru. I have performed miracles, and so have great persons like Srimadvacharya. These are based on yoga siddhi and the shastras. There is no fraud or trickery at all. These miracles were performed only to show the greatness of God and the wonderful powers that one can attain with His grace. "

• "Right knowledge (jnana) is greater than any miracle. Without this no real miracle can take place. Any miracle performed without this right knowledge is only sorcery. No good will come to those who perform such miracles and also those who believe in them."

• "Have devotion to the Lord. This devotion should never be blind faith. Accepting the Lord's supremacy wholeheartedly is true devotion. Blind faith is not devotion. It is only stupidity. We should have devotion, not only for the Lord, but also for all other deities and preceptors in keeping with their status."

            - wikipedia

Vallalar was born in a village near Chidambaram. As a child Vallalar lived in Chennai. Vallalar did not have any formal education, however, at the age of nine he composed a Tamil hymn, Deivamani Malai (Garland of Songs), on the god Murugan. As a boy Ramalingal used to be quite rebellious refusing to be educated at school or from a teacher. Instead Ramalingam used to spend his time at the local temple meditating.

One of the primary teaching of valallar is "Service to mankind is path of moksha". He declared that death is not natural that our life's first priority should be fight death. He said path of compassion and mercy are only path to God.

He declared plight of mankind is due to his own acts. Due to this we have lost God like intelligence and "Sutha Deham" which he gave to us intially.

He advocated a casteless society. Vallalar was opposed to superstitions and rituals. He forbade killing animals for the sake of food. He advocated feeding the poor as the highest form of worship. He condemned inequality based on birth. Although he is credited with a number of miracles he urged his followers to pay scant regard to miracles.

His teachings go from simple basic ideas and then slowly go in depth. He composed thousands of verses breathing universal love and peace, called Tiruvarutpa.