Swami Dayananda Sarasvati

Swami Dayananda Saraswati (1930 - ) is a distinguished Hindu teacher of Vedanta and Sanskrit in the tradition of Adi Shankara.

After receiving sannyasa (formal renunciation) in 1962, he devoted his life to the study and teaching of Vedanta, Swami Dayananda's initial exposure to the Upanisads was through Sri Swami Chinmayananda. He studied Sanskrit under Professor Veera Raghavacharya and Vedanta under Swami Pranavananda and Swami Tarananda.

Swami Dayananda has been teaching Vedanta in India for more than five decades and around the world since 1976, in both intensive resident courses and public discourse. He is a master in conveying the non-dual vision of Hinduism, and is acknowledged as such by such venerable figures as the Acaryas of Kanchi.

His deep scholarship and assimilation of Vedanta combined with a subtle appreciation of contemporary problems make him that rare teacher who can reach both traditional and modern students.

A teacher of teachers, Swami Dayananda designed and taught six resident in-depth Vedanta courses, each spanning 30 to 36 months.

Four were conducted in India, and two in the United States. Each course graduated about 60 qualified acharyas,teachers, who are now teaching around the world. More than one hundred are now renunciates (sannyasis) and are highly respected as scholars and teachers throughout India and the world.

Under Swami Dayananda's guidance, various centers of Vedic teaching have been founded around the world - two primary centers in India at Rishikesh and Coimbatore and one in the U.S. at Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania. At present there are more than one hundred centers in India and the world that carry on the same tradition of Vedantic teaching.

In addition to teaching, Swami Dayananda has initiated and supported various philanthropic efforts. The most recent and far-reaching of these is the establishment of the AIM (All India Movement ) for Seva, with the blessings of the members of the Acharya Sabha.

Chaired by the Former President of India Sri R. Venkatraman, this organization provides care for people isolated from the main-stream society, all over India through developmental programs in the fields of education, health-care, self-help for women, micro-finance, environment protection and improvement and cultural validation.

Swami Dayananda has also participated in international forums such as the United Nations gathering of NGOs in 1980 where he spoke on "The Moral Imperatives of Ending the Arms Race", the UNESCO Seoul Global Convention where he spoke on "Tolerance, Restoration of Morality and Humanity" in September, 1995; the United Nations 50th Anniversary Celebration where he represented the Shankaracarya of Kanchi in October, 1995, the Millennium World Peace Summit where he represented the Hindu delegation in New York, September 2000; the International Congress for the Preservation of Religious Diversity, which he initiated and co-chaired in Delhi, November 2001; the Conference on the Preservation of Sacred Sites in Taipei in June, 2002; the World Council for Preservation of Religious Diversity, which he also initiated and co-chaired in Bangkok June, 2002; the Global Peace Initiative of Women, which he helped organize and for which he delivered the keynote address in Geneva, October 2002; initiated a Hindu-Christian dialogue with the World Council of Churches in Geneva, October 2002, and the Foundation for the Future where he is one of 73 Participant Scholars for The Next Thousand Years television series. He also particiapted in the Youth Peace Summit in Nairobi 2003.

External links

* [http://www.wie.org/j14/dayananda.asp] - Interview by Andrew Cohen from International "Enlightenment" magazine.
* [http://www.arshavidhyapitam.org/] - website of his original ashram in Rishikesh which has three year intensive courses in Sanskrit and Traditional Advaita Vedanta.
* [http://www.arshavidya.org/] - Arshavidya organisation in Saylorsberg USA set up by Swami Dayananda Saraswati - the site has a list of fully trained teachers in India, America, Australia and many other countries, a list of residential schools and MP3s of some lectures.