CHENNAI: Swami Dayananda Saraswati, a seer born in the laps of Cauvery who went on to give rise to a legion of Vedantis over the years, attained mahasamadhi late on Wednesday night.
He was 85 and died of age-related ailments, Ashram officials told Express over phone from Rishikesh. Born as Natarajan on August 15, 1930, at Manjakkudi village in Thanjavur, Swami was a disciple of Swami Chinmayananda, one of the most-respected spiritual gurus of the time. Over the years, Swami Dayananda Saraswati established himself as one of the best scholars of Vedanta — his disciples include Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who had called on the guru only 10 days ago.
Keen to preserve the Vedic vision and traditions, Swami established a string of centres where Vedanta was taught in the tradition of instruction passed on from Adi Sankara. Among these, the most prominent centres in India are Arsha Vidya Ashram in Rishikesh and Arsha Vidya Gurukulam in Coimbatore, while the Arsha Vidya Gurukulam at Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania, is an internationally renowned centre of spirituality. In the 1960s and 1970s, as the world worried about existentialist questions, Swami gave them ideas from Vedanta, the insights passed on by the seers, but in a contemporary approach.
He was informal but erudite, a treasure trove of wisdom who wore it lightly.
In the later part of his life, Swami began a social movement called All India Movement (AIM) for Seva, that reached out to the rural masses, offering them a helping hand in medical educational and infrastructure which were lacking.
He also sought to bring together the various schools of thoughts within Hinduism under the Hindu Dharma Acharya Sabha (Council for the Teachers of Hindu Tradition), a first of its kind effort in the thousands of years history of the religion.
In the recent years, Swami was reportedly troubled by kidney ailments, for which he was undergoing treatment in the United States. He had returned to India only less than a month ago, apparently deciding that he did not want to undergo the treatment anymore.
However, gentle persuasion from his disciples including Prime Minister Modi managed to convince him to continue it.