Brahmananda Saraswati
Brahmananda Saraswati (21 December 1871[1] - 20 May 1953) was the Shankaracharya of Jyotir Math, a revered Hindu spiritual title in India, from 1941 to 1953.[2]
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[edit] Early life
Brahmananda Saraswati was born into a Brahmin family in the village of Gana, near Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh, India. He was called Rajaram in his younger days and was also known as Maha Yogiraj.[3]
At the age of nine Rajaram left his home unannounced to follow a spiritual path of renunciation but was soon returned to his parents by a policeman.[4] On returning home, he asked his parents for permission to leave home and begin the life of a recluse. His parents wanted him to marry and live the life of a householder and asked their family guru, or panditji, to convince Rajaram to forget his dream of a reclusive life. The family guru, however, was so impressed with Rajaram's advanced state of wisdom and spiritual evolution that he gave up any attempt to change the boy's mind. The parents then also acquiesced and gave their permission for Rajaram to leave. Two days later Rajaram formally renounced his family life and left his boyhood home in search of solitude in the Himalayas.[4]The story of Rajaram's youthful renunciation echoes a similar tale about Shankara who is said to have abandoned his mother to lead a renunciate life at the age of eight.[5]
Rajaram traveled by foot to the town of Haridwar and then on to Rishikesh, the gateway to the Himalayas. Here he began the search for a suitable guru or spiritual master.[4] Rajaram met many wise sages, but none of them met his requirements of life long celibacy and an intimate knowledge and experience of the Vedas.[4]
Five years later at the age of fourteen, in a village in Uttar Kashi, Rajaram found his chosen Master and became a disciple of Dandi Swami Krishnanand Saraswati.[4][6] At that time, Rajaram was given the name of Brahma Chaitanya Brahmachari. He then became the favorite disciple in his master's ashram and, according his master's instructions, he retired to a cave, resolving not to emerge until he had attained enlightenment.
[edit] Adult life
At the age of twenty five, the Brahmachari emerged from his cave and permanently rejoined his Master at his ashram.[4]
In 1904, at the age of thirty-six Brahmachari was initiated into the order of "Sannyas" by his Master at the great Indian celebration called Kumbh Mela.[7] At that time, Brahmachari was formally ordained into the ascetic order and given the name Shri Swami Brahmanand Saraswati Maharaj.[4]
[edit] Shankaracharya of Jyotir Math
In 1941, at the age of 70, after repeated requests and decades of meditation and living alone in silence in the forests and mountains of India, Swami Brahmananda Saraswati accepted the position of Shankaracharya (spiritual leader) of Jyotir Math, a position that had been vacant for about 150 years.[3][4]
The Adi Shankara (c. 8th century CE), the great reviver of Vedic Sanatana Dharma, had set up four principal seats of learning in India.[4] Shankara's four principal disciples, Padma-Pada, Hasta-Malaka, Vartika-Kara and Trotaka were assigned to these four learning centers in the north, south, east and west of India [2]. Shankara's insistence that only Brahmins were entitled to lead a life of renunciation attracted much hostility[8]. He refashioned the Buddhist notion of formal monastic orders and made them available to his followers. This prompted Ramanuja to call him a crypto-Buddhist[9] and Madhva continued the assault, saying that Shankara's unflinching monism was prompted by his inability to count beyond one.[10] Followers of the orthodox school of Mimamsa were also unhappy at his emphasis on the importance of renunciation.[11] Shankara's later rise to pre-eminence represents a turn-around in his reputation.
On various occasions Brahmananda Saraswati was visited by public figures such as Dr. Rajendra Prasad, the president of India, and the philosopher Dr. Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan, who succeeded Prasad as President of India.[3][12] In 1950, President Radhakrishnan addressed Brahmananda Saraswati as Vedanta Incarnate, the embodiment of truth.[3][12]
[edit] Disciples
[edit] Shantananda Swamiji Maharaj
Five months before his death in 1953, Brahmananda Sarawsati made a will naming one of his disciples, Shri Swami Shantananda Swamiji Maharaj as his successor.[13]
[edit] Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi became a devotee of Brahmananda Saraswati shortly before Brahmanda Saraswati was installed as Shankaracharya in 1941. The Maharishi later became the Shankaracharya's personal assistant. The Maharishi wrote an essay on Brahmananda Sarawsati, whom he revered as Guru Dev or greatest teacher, saying: "In the English Language, his devotees felt that the expression "His Holiness" did not adequately describe this personified Divine Effulgence; and so the new expression "His Divinity" was used. With such unique adoration of newer and fuller grandeur, transcending the glories of the expression of antiquity, was worshiped the holy name of Guru Deva, the living expression of Upanishadic Reality, the embodiment of the transcendent Divinity." This essay was included later in the 1955 book Beacon Light of the Himalayas.[14]
Those trained by the Maharishi respect Brahmananda Saraswati as their Guru Dev and as an outstanding representative of the Vedic tradition. It is in recognition of Guru Dev as the modern custodian of the Vedic tradition that a puja ceremony is performed by the Transcendental Meditation teacher during personal instruction. In Monier-Williams' Sanskrit dictionary, the primary meaning of 'puja' is honour.[15]
An explanation of the purpose of the TM puja ceremony, the Sanskrit text of the ceremony, and its English translation was written and published by the Maharishi in the pamphlet, The Holy Tradition.[16] The court in Malnak v Yogi, quoting and citing The Holy Tradition, found that this ceremony involved the making of offerings to a deified Guru Dev.[16][17][18] The title Guru Dev is widely used, often to refer to a deceased spiritual teacher. Mahatma Gandhi called the Bengali poet and musician Rabindranath Tagore Guru Dev.[19]
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, in his farewell message on January 11, 2008, announced the establishment of the Brahmananda Saraswati Trust, named in honor of his teacher, to support large groups totaling more than 30,000 peace-creating Vedic Pandits in perpetuity across India.[20]
[edit] Swami Shree Swaroopananda Saraswati ji
“Swami Shree Swaroopananda Saraswati ji was born Pothiram Upadhyay in 1924, in Seoni District, the village of Dighori, in Madhya Pradesh. At nine years old he left home to visit the holy places of India, including Varanasi where he eventually studied with Swami Karpatri who is also known as Hariharananda Saraswati, a disciple of Guru Dev Swami Brahmananda Saraswati. In 1942 when he was nineteen years old he became a freedom fighter in the Quit India movement and was known as 'Revolutionary Sadhu'. He served two prison sentences for this offence, of 9 months & 6 months. In 1950 Guru Dev made him a dandi sannyasi. After Guru Dev's passing in 1953, Swarupanandji took up with a new guru, Swami Krishnabhodashram ji Maharaj. Krishnabhodashramji was established as Guru Dev's successor by Swami Karpatri. Swami Swarupanandji became president of the Ramrajya Parishad Party, which had been set up by Swami Karpatri. On Krishnabhodashram's demise the post of Shankaracharya of Jyotir Math passed to Swami Swarupanandji. There were now two Shankaracharya ashrams in Joshimath, Swami Swaroopanand's on the site of Trotakacharya's cave, just below the ashram that Guru Dev Swami Brahmanand had built in the 1940s. In 1982 Swami Swaroopanand inherited the title of Shankaracharya of Dwarka.”[21]
[edit] References
- ^ Birthdate of Shankaracharya Swami Brahmanand Saraswati, Paul Mason. Retrieved 28 November 2011
- ^ a b Love and God, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Age of Enlightenment Press, 1973 p. 9
- ^ a b c d Love and God, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Age of Enlightenment Press, 1973 p. 5-9
- ^ a b c d e f g h i The Whole Thing the Real Thing, Prem C. Pasricha, Delhi Photo Company, 1977 p. 59
- ^ Doniger, Wendy, The Hindus, An Alternative History, Oxford University Press, 2010, ISBN 978-0-19-959334-7, pbk
- ^ Love and God, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Age of Enlightenment Press, 1973 p. 6
- ^ 'The Life & Teachings of 'Guru Dev' Paul Mason
- ^ Kripal, Jeffrey, Western Popular Culture, Hindu Influences on, London, Routledge/Curzon, 2007
- ^ Ramanuja's commentary on Badarayanan's Brahmasutra Upanishad (Shribashya 2.2.27); Isayeva, Natalia, Shankara and Indian Philosophy, Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 1992
- ^ Grierson, G.A., Madhavas, In Hasting's Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, 8:232-35
- ^ Doniger, Wendy, The Hindus, An Alternative History, Oxford University Press, 2010, ISBN 978-0-19-93554-7, pbk
- ^ a b The Whole Thing the Real Thing, Prem C. Pasricha, Delhi Photo Company, 1977 p. 68
- ^ The Whole Thing the Real Thing, Prem C. Pasricha, Delhi Photo Company, 1977 p. 71
- ^ Yogi, Maharishi Mahesh, Beacon Light of the Himalyas 1955, p. 65.
- ^ A Sanskrit-English Dictionary, Etymologically and Philologically Arranged with Special Reference to Cognate Indo-European Languages, Monier Monier-Williams, revised by E. Leumann. C. Cappeller, et al., undated, Motilal Banrsidaas, Delhi, a reprint of 1899 edition, Clarendon Press, Oxford
- ^ a b Malnak v Yogi, 440 F.Supp. 1284 (D.N.J.1977)
- ^ Malnak v. Yogi, 592 F.2d 197, 203 (3rd Cir., 1979)
- ^ Rosenblum, Nancy L., Obligations of Citizenship and Demands of Faith: Religious Accommodation in Pluralist Democracies Princeton University Press (2000)ISBN 0-691-00708-X, 9780691007083 p. 210
- ^ Sil, N.P., Devotio Humana: Rabindranath's Love Poems Revisited, Parabaas, 2005
- ^ Maharishi's Obit
- ^ Official website of Swami Shree Swaroopananda Saraswati ji
[edit] External links
- Life & Teaching of Guru Dev, Shankaracharya Swami Brahmanand Saraswati
- Biographical data and quotations
- The official website of Swami Shree Swaroopananda Saraswati ji
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