Guru-s
Pujya Swami Dayananda Saraswati ji
Pujya Swami Dayananda Saraswati blessing Swamini Brahmaprajnananda, March 2015
This tribute to Pujya Swami Dayananda Saraswati occurs in the ‘Tributes to Pujya Swamiji‘ published by AVRPT released on 23rd September, 2025 Aradhana day.
Where the given is, the giver is
They say ‘Count your blessings.’ But when it comes to beloved Pujya Swamiji, where does one begin and end?
Much like the jnana-ganga that flowed wherever he was, creating tributaries wherever he went, the flow of jnana-ganga and the flow of anugraha continues to flow and fill my heart and illumine my being.
It was 1998. I had been working for three years after my training in Clinical Psychology and Counselling in Bombay. My clients were doing well and my disillusionment with the Western psychology lens of pathologizing of the human mind, was growing. Here I was on the eve of my career and life seemed meaningless. Sure, one had mastered the mind but what for? It seemed like one was always a ‘work in progress’ and there were always some ‘core issues’ to work on.
It was then that I walked into a workshop by Swami Brahmavidananda ji and instantly knew that Vedanta was ‘home’. Some of the things that I had read in late childhood by Swami Vivekananda, Osho, J.Krishnamurti now fell in place. A magical year of attending Vedanta classes continued after which he blessed us with a yatra to Kedarnath and Badrinath.
The next month itself in November 1999 Bhagavan Shiva sent me to learn from his manifestation, Pujya Swamiji in Anaikatti. The truth became instantly clear and it was then that I decided to devote myself to Vedanta. I earnestly prayed to our Sri Medha Dakshinamurti after receiving the most precious treasure but did not feel ready to join full time. At 25 years then, my need to serve India and the cause of positive change for street children was very strong. Pujya Swamiji blessed me with mantra deeksha and assured me that ‘my time would come’.
After that all my annual leave was reserved for attending Vedanta camps in Rishikesh as I led the India programme of an international organization impacting 15000 street children annually. Every year when I would meet Pujya Swamiji in Rishikesh or Bombay, he would ask about the work and would often say, ‘You have a clean heart. Your seva is dear to me’.
In all these years of being with him, no request, no plea, no question was too small for him. Whether it was a child, a scholar, a politician, a singer, a disciple, a devotee, a religious leader, he was fully present. He once said – I never think about what I can get from a person. I just think of how best I can help the person. His boundless compassion and magnanimity was reflected every single time.
Pujya Swamiji ‘s heart had no circumference. His being enveloped us with love and acceptance so palpable and so deep that we were touched to the core and transformed.
Every year existential angst would strike and I would ask him when he would begin a full-time course. He would say, ‘Soon’. When Swami Sakshatkrtananda ji agreed, and the course was due to begin in 2010, I requested Pujya Swamiji to join. To my. shock, he said ‘You have been studying for long and already know Come after a year when I start the bhashya.’ I felt rejected and dejected. Later Swami Brahmavidananda ji explained to me that Pujya Swamiji was not rejecting but was being appreciative of my growth and learning over a decade and his teaching me as well.
Later, joining the course was like living in svarga at the feet of this Mahatma, free from all seeking, delighting in the glory and brilliance of our sampradaya with a Brahmanishtha guru and the Vedic way of living.
Pujya Swamiji once in his usual eloquent way said, ‘People think I am simple. I am not simple. I am clear.’
The hallmark of his teaching was to unfold Vedanta whereby ‘the person cannot but see’… Everyone who heard him was blessed with insight irrespective of their adhikaritvam, culture, nationality or background.
Then of course, it would be up to the person to take it forward. As he said,’ That you came to me is your prarabdha. What you do with it is your purushartha.’
He also taught us what Vedanta was not.
No airy-fairy mystical, superfluous words.
No system of thought.
No concepts.
No consciousness principle.
No charts.
No vagueness. No error or doubt.
Just the gift and blessing of Samyak darsanam (incidentally a word used by Shankaracharya almost 60 times in the Bhagavad Gita Bhashya) as he deftly wielded the pramana.
His emphasis was on what IS – Direct and immediate. Here and now.
His tapestry of brilliance wove together the sampradayika method of teaching –
Handling of the prakriyas.
Care and Precision of words.
Lightness of heart.
Delightful humor.
Timeliness of examples and metaphors.
Unparalleled establishment of Siddhanta.
Ruthless demolition of the purvapaksha position.
Compassion for all.
Uninhibited Ananda and a joy that overflowed.
In the portals of time, Pujya Swami Dayananda ji will stand out as a giant in the sampradaya in fulfilling his rishi-rnam as we follow in his footsteps in teaching as we were taught and helping others ‘see like we see’.
Pujya Swamiji was an institution of learning. From architecture to temples, from music to dance, from socio-political issues to children’s issues, from science to metaphysics, from Chandas to Jyotisham we received much learning and many brilliant insights while reveling under the vast banyan tree of Sanatana Dharma.
His vision and leadership spanned across diverse issues – movement of Seva for our people, leading a collective voice for Sanatana Dharma, freeing temples from Government control, advocacy against religious conversion, support to Veda pathashalas and much more. The various organisations and initiatives that he founded, continue to this day.
When we discussed Sannyasa Deeksha, he said, ’ I will be very proud to give you Sannyasa. You deserve it’. While this was yet another blessing and a deeply intimate sharing, I do so because his role in initiating women into sannyasa will go down in history as yet another milestone.
Before him Swami Chinmayananda ji had countered orthodoxy which said that women could not be taught Vedanta because they were not initiated into the Veda.
Gurudev and subsequently Pujya Swamiji promptly initiated keen seekers who happened to be women into the Gayatri mantra and Vedic chanting and of course Vedanta. After all, the qualities of adhikaritvam did not include gender or even nationality!
During our course, on Shankara Jayanti, as the puja was going on, Pujya Swamiji fortuitously entered the hall while Purna Kumbha was being offered to Shankaracharya. Surely it was not by chance! To me he was and is Bhagavan, Veda Vyasa, and Adi Shankaracharya all rolled into one.
When his health was failing and he would speak about his Gurus with tenderness or the times that the physical pain would get too much, it was moving to see him have tears in his eyes. His teaching, his living, his being softly whispered that nothing was separate or opposed to Brahman. Through his vulnerability he showed me that to be wise was to be fully human.
Teaching was like breathing, for him. During the last few months and days before his mahasamadhi, amidst the challenging health issues, he would conserve all his energy because ‘I have a class’. His brevity of expression and his dazzling clarity continued as he would thunder like a lion.
In September 2015 in Rishikesh, the last time I met him in the physical form, he was having difficulty breathing and speaking, lying in bed attached to monitors. I said, Love you Swamiji, Thank you for everything. He looked at me and then closed his eyes.
A tear escaped and flowed down to his ear.
His flow of blessings and wisdom continue to bless, guide, fortify and illumine me and countless others.
He gave, until his last breath.
Referring to Ishvara, he would often say, Where the given is, the giver is.
Pujya Swamiji blessed us with so much that,
Wherever the Shastra and Shankara Bhashya is, Pujya Swamiji IS.
Wherever the Acāryas and gurus are, the guru of gurus IS
Where Pujya Swami ji ‘s projects are, the legacy of vision for Hindu dharma, love for Bhārat and ‘Daya’ IS
Where Arsha Vidya Sampradaya is, the Guru IS
To me, every day of living, teaching and being with the Shastra is a tribute to him, the greatest of all, the Mahatma of Mahatmas, my most beloved Pujya Swamiji.
Swamini Brahmaprajnananda Saraswati
Mumbai
Please click here to see this pictorial tribute on YouTube
From the website – https://arshavidya.in/pujya-swamiji/
Pujya Sri Swami Dayananda Saraswati (1930-2015) was a distinguished, traditional teacher of Vedanta. His depth of understanding and nuanced appreciation of both Eastern and Western cultures made him that rare teacher who could communicate the vision of non-duality to modern listeners. He was able to make one see, with immediacy, the truth of oneself as the whole.
An eminent teacher of Vedanta and an erudite scholar in Sanskrit, Swamiji was well known for his excellent communication skills. Swamiji taught Vedanta in India for more than five decades, and around the world from 1976. In his public talks abroad, Swamiji spoke at many prestigious forums, and addressed international conventions, UNESCO and the United Nations, where he participated in the Millennium Peace Summit.
A teacher of teachers, Swamiji designed and taught six in-depth Vedanta courses, each spanning 30 to 36 months and eight more have been conducted with his guidance. The graduates from these courses are now acharyas, teaching around the world. More than two hundred are sannyasis and are highly respected as scholars and teachers throughout India and abroad. Some of these Swamis and Swaminis have conducted their own long-term residential courses under his guidance and with his assistance.
The Ashrams founded by Swamiji in India are the Arsha Vidya Pitham in Rishikesh, the Arsha Vidya Gurukulam at Annaikatti, Coimbatore and the Arsha Vijnana Gurukulam at Nagpur. In the U.S., Swamiji founded the Arsha Vidya Gurukulam at Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania. Regular teaching programs in Vedanta, Sanskrit, yoga etc. are being conducted at these institutions. In addition, his students have set up many teaching centers in India and abroad that carry on the tradition of Vedantic teaching.
After teaching Vedanta for over four decades, Swamiji anticipating an erosion of dharma started various initiatives. In order to protect dharma, the person living a life of dharma, the dharmi, who is integral for protecting sanatana dharma needed to be protected. With this vision, Swamiji started the Dharma Rakshana Samiti in 1999, which spreads awareness of the richness of Vedic culture.
In 2000, Swamiji convened the Hindu Dharma Acharya Sabha, an apex body consisting of all the prominent acharyas of various sampradayas of Hinduism to address the need for an official unified voice to represent Sanatana dharma as a whole. The Sabha actively engages in preserving what is sacred for a Hindu by giving a strong voice to various causes like the Tirupati declaration, Ram Sethu and Tehri dam. The Acharya Sabha also engages with other religions of the world in an effort to promote peace and unity among religions. Swamiji convened two Hindu-Buddhist and Hindu-Jewish dialogues which were instrumental in promoting inter-faith understanding and creating mutual respect among the religions.
Swamiji also initiated and supported various humanitarian efforts for the last forty-five years. A significant one among these is the establishment of All India Movement for Seva in 2000. Awarded consultative status with ECOSOC (Economic and Social Council) by the United Nations in 2005, this organization is devoted to serving people in the remote areas of India, mainly in the field of Education and Health Care. It as an integrated community development program that reaches out to the tribal and rural people living in remote parts of the country, bringing them educational, nutritional, medical and infrastructural assistance. AIM for Seva runs over 120 free student homes for needy students spread all over the country.
In November 2001, Swamiji convened the first World Congress for the Preservation of Religious Diversity in Delhi, inaugurated by the Dalai Lama and the then Prime Minister Sri A.B. Vajpayee. An important outcome of the Congress was the formation of a Global Commission for the Preservation of Religious Diversity, spearheaded by Swamiji. Swamiji was also active in forming and participating in the Women’s Global Peace Initiative, which was convened at the United Nations in Geneva in October 2002.
Swamiji promoted several international events and participated as a speaker in many global forums, among which are: the United Nations gathering of NGOs, the UNESCO Seoul Global Convention, the United Nations 50th Anniversary Celebration, the Millennium World Peace Summit, the International Congress for the Preservation of Religious Diversity, the Conference on the Preservation of Sacred Sites, the World Council for Preservation of Religious Diversity, the Youth Peace Summit, the Global Peace Initiative of Women Religious and Spiritual Leaders, a Hindu-Christian dialogue with the World Council of Churches, and the Hindu-Jewish Leadership Summit.
In 2006, Swamiji initiated a renewal of the Thirumurai tradition at Siva temples. Through this project, the Oduvars who are the traditional singers of Thirumurai are encouraged and honoured with citation and cash reward.
In 2008, Swamiji represented Hinduism at the International Inter religious Conference at The Netherlands to participate and sign the Faith in Human Rights Statement, a historic document that vouchsafes human rights and fundamental freedom endorsed by the religious leaders of the world.
Some of the other major initiatives started by Pujya Swamiji include:
Pathashalas for preservation of Vedas and agamas
Preservation of Temple traditions and cultures
Thirumurai awareness and support – recognition of Oduvars and support for livelihood
Construction of Ashta DikPalakas and proper offerings at Brhadeesvarar temple
Thiruvidaimarudur ther (chariot) project
Promoting Education
Dayananda education trust offering kindergarten to PhD in a village for over 6000 students
Krupa by Dayananda- B.D.Goenka seva trust
Vedic heritage teaching program
Preservation of arts and music
Institution of Arsha Kala Bhushanam awards
Thiruppugazh conference
Promotion of global harmony and world peace
Thinkers meet (a forum for thinkers to address Hindu and National issues)
Digital library project to publish old manuscripts
International conference on Vedic Sarasvati River and Hindu Civilization (to get the true story of ancient India)
Fighting Global Warming (by advocating avoidance of red meat)
Swamiji attained Mahasamadhi at Rishikesh by the banks of the Ganga on 23rd September 2015.
Pujya Sri Swami Dayananda Saraswati was awarded the Padma Bhushan posthumously for his exemplary service to the nation in the field of spiritualism on Jan 25, 2016.
Swami Brahmavidananda Saraswati
