Former Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission President Swami Atmasthanandaji Maharaj is the reason behind Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s political and spiritual journey, as the PM himself shared during a recent podcast with American podcaster Lex Fridman. The podcast was released on Sunday, March 16, and has been making headlines ever since. Let us find out more about Swami Atmasthananda.
PM Modi’s journey with Swami Atmasthananda
PM Modi’s journey with Swami Atmasthananda began when he got inspired by Swami Vivekananda at a young age and reached the ashram to take sanyas and become a monk. But Swami Atmasthananda guided him, saying that the monk life wasn’t for him, and that he was meant to work among people.
When erstwhile Gujarat chief minister Modi visited Belur Math in 2013, he had said, “I had the fortune of spending time with Swami Atmasthanandaji during my childhood. I have received a lot of affection from him. He has been by my side and supported me at every crucial juncture of my life.”
In fact, when PM Modi took oath as prime minister on May 26, 2014, he had a prasadi flower in the pocket of his jacket, which was a divine blessing from Swami Atmasthananda in Belur. Swamiji had sent him the flower along with a letter addressing him as Narendrabhai.
In the letter that he had sent, Swami Atmasthananda had written, “I am eagerly looking forward to your visit to Belur Math as the Prime Minister of India. I am happy to learn that you have got a thumping majority. Sri Ramakrishna has given you the opportunity to serve the people of India irrespective of caste, creed and religion.”
A few months later, PM Modi went to visit him at the ashram.
After Swami Atmasthananda’s death in 2017, PM Modi tweeted, “The demise of Swami Atmasthananda ji is a personal loss for me. I lived with him during a very important period of my life.”
Check out the tweet here:
The demise of Swami Atmasthananda ji is a personal loss for me. I lived with him during a very important period of my life. pic.twitter.com/eY3TKU41Xf
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) June 18, 2017
Know all about Swami Atmasthananda and his life
Born on the holy Buddha Purnima in Sabajpur, near Dhaka in May 1919, Swami Atmasthananda’s pre-monastic name was Satyakrishna. When he was in college, he started visiting the Ramakrishna Ashrama at Dinajpur and got associated with Swami Gadadharananda, the head of the ashrama and a disciple of Swami Shivananda. He got attracted to the lives and teachings of Sri Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda and under the guidance of his guru, he started to perform puja and arati in the temple at the ashram.
After he joined the Ramakrishna Order at Belur Math in 1941 at just 22 years old, he was given the name Swami Atmasthananda, along with Brahmacharya vows and Sannyasa vows by Swami Virajanandaji Maharaj, the sixth President of the Order.
In 1973, Swami Atmasthananda became a Trustee of the Ramakrishna Math and Member of the Governing Body of the Ramakrishna Mission. Two years later, in 1975, he was appointed Assistant Secretary of the twin organisations.
In 1992, he was appointed the General Secretary of the Ramakrishna Math and the Ramakrishna Mission in 1992, which he held for five years, In 1997, he became a Vice-President of the Order. When the then President Swami Gahanananda passed away on 3 December 2007, Swami Atmasthananda was elected the President of the Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission as the 15th President of the Order.
