Dayananda Saraswati, Hindu monk & teacher, Died at 85

Swami Dayananda Saraswati was born on August 15, 1930 and died on September 23, 2015.

He was a monk of the Hindu monastic order and a renowned traditional teacher of Advaita Vedanta, and founder of the Arsha Vidya Gurukulam.

His parents are Shri. Gopala Iyer and Smt. Valambal.

Saraswati attended the District Board School at Kodavasal.

Saraswati father passed away when he was 8 years old.

Natarajan had to shoulder a significant portion of family responsibility along with his education.

After he had finished with his early education, Saraswati went to Chennai (erstwhile Madras) for earning a livelihood.

He picked up a job for a week as a journalist, at the weekly magazine Dharmika Hindu (run by T. K. Jagannathacharya) and also for erstwhile Volkart Brothers (now Voltas Limited) for some time.

Saraswati became a fighter pilot and joined the Indian Air Force, he left after six months as he felt suffocated by the regimentation there.

Saraswati took great interest in ‘Vedanta’, this is also known as Upanishad, which is a positional name for the wisdom contained in the end portion of the Vedas, the most ancient body of scriptural and religious knowledge known to humankind.

After he had listened to the public talks of Swami Chinmayananda in the years 1952–53.

Saraswati became actively involved with Chinmaya Mission in various roles.

As he began his work with the mission, he was made its Secretary within the first year of its inception.

Dayananda Saraswati attended the Sanskrit classes of P.S. Subramania Iyer, a retired Professor of English and he also study under Swami Pranavananda at Gudivada (near Vijayawada) to clarify many of his doubts on Vedanta and self-enquiry.

He has written programs, held classes and authored books.

Books he has authored include; ‘Crisis Management’, Bhagavadgita Home Study (His magnum opus running into 3000 pages, now in 4th Edition), Freedom from Fear and many more.

He has also promoted several inter-religious dialogues, Dayananda has also taken part in Hindu-Jewish conferences facilitated by the World Council of Religious Leaders under that organisation “Religion One on One” initiative.

Dayananda has also participated in two Hindu-Buddhist summits.

One of the most well-known Shishya of Swami Dayananda Saraswati is Sri Narendra Modi, honorable Prime Minister of India.

Swami Dayananda Saraswati passed away at 85 yrs old.