Swami DayanandaSaraswathi was a distinguished teacher of Vedanta and had scores of followers in the east and west.
Profile
Swami DayanandaSaraswathi was born asNataraja on 15th August 1930 in Manjakudi, Tamilandu. His parents were GopalaIyer and Valambal. Nataraj was the eldest of four siblings. His father died when he was eight and some responsibility of the family fell on his shoulders. He managed it well with his education. After his education he came to Chennai to work as a journalist for the magazine Dharmika Hindu and later worked for Voltas. He desired to serve in the Indian Air Force but left it suffocated by the strict regulation of the Air Force. When he was 23, in 1953, he listened to the talks of Swami Chinmayananda and realised his true calling Vedanta. From then on he began to involve with the work of Chinmaya Mission. He helped Swami Chinmayananda with editing and publication of books and in setting up various Chinmaya Mission centres especially in south India. In 1961 Natarajan went to study formally under Swami Pranavananda at Gudivada. His clarity on Vedanta was heightened and in 1962 he was given sanayasa by Swami Chinmayananda and he was the first disciple of Swami Chinmayananda. However before entering into the work of Chinmaya Mission, he went toRishikesh to do intense study of Brahma Sutras under Swami Tarananda. Around 1967 Swami Chinmayananda fell ill and Swami Dayananda began to shoulder the work of conducting the GeetaGnanaYaganas. He was the chief acharya of the SandeepaniSadhanalaya of Chinmaya Mission, the institution to train people into scriptures, for few years. Around 1986 he established his own organisation called ArshaVidyaGurukulam in Saylorsburg, Pennyslvania. The samework continued in the new organisation and at the age of 85, on September 23rd 2015, he attained Samadhi.
Philosophy Propounded
Advaita Vedanta was the philosophy propagated by Swami Dayananda. He also strongly believed in reviving the culture of the country and helped the priest class of people who were being marginalised.
Work Done to Spread the Philosophy
Swami Dayananda gave numerous lectures and has written more than 50 books on Vedanta, Bhagavad Gita, Values, devotion and more. He trained aspirants of Vedanta and initiated them into Sanayasa. ArshaVidyaGurukulam has centres all over the world. The Aim ForSeva programme is an innovative programme for tribal and poor children. They are educated in the Indian culture, given secular education, fed well and housed in neat hostels. For the great contribution to nation Swami Dayananda was awarded Padma Bhushan posthumously in 2016.
