Satchidanandendra Saraswati

Sri Satchidanandendra Saraswati Swamiji (5 January 1880 – 5 August 1975) was the founder of the Adhyatma Prakasha Karyalaya in Holenarasipura, Hassan district, Karnataka, India. He was a great Vedantin of Advaitha Philosophy.

Life

Swami Satchidanandendra Saraswati (1880-1975) is without doubt one of the greatest exponents of traditional Advaita Vedanta in modern times. Born as Sri Yellambalase Subbarao, he worked as a school teacher in the Indian state of Karnataka.[1] He gave many lectures and wrote many articles on the Vedanta in English, Kannada and Sanskrit.[1] His books, articles and lectures have made an important impact on disciples, pandits, sadhus and also scholars in the field of classical Indian philosophy. Satchidanandendra Swamiji authored some 200 works, and he dedicated his life to teaching about the pristine pure Advaita Vedanta philosophy of Shankara.

Satchidanandendra Saraswati was a philosopher[2] who dedicated all his life for the Vedanta sadhana and attained Brahma-jnana. He was known as a Jivanmukta sage. He was the best example of a Sanskrit saying, "One should spend one's life until sleep and until death only in Vedantic contemplation".

Having grown up in an orthodox South Indian Brahmin family, young Y. Subbaraya Sharma (as was his name prior to sannyasa) became attached to Vedanta and Hindu philosophy. In 1910 he was initiated into the study of Shankara´s scriptures by the Jagadguru Shankaracharya of Sringeri Peetham. He learnt Vedanta from Virupaksha Shastri (the guru of Swami Chandrasekhara Bharati) and K.A. Krishnaswamy Iyer. Swami Satchidanandendra Saraswati soon became well known for having shown that the later Vedantic tradition had in fact deviated from the teachings of the classical acharyas Gaudapada, Shankara and Sureshvara. This led to many fascinating discussions with learned pandits. In 1920 he founded the organisation Adhyatma Prakasha Karyalaya, which is still very active today. He was initiated into sannyasa in 1948. As a sannyasi, Satchidanandendra Swamiji lived a very simple and secluded life at his small ashram in Holenarsipur.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Adhyatmaprakasha Karyalaya website Retrieved 4 November 2011
  2. ↑ Witz, Klaus G. (1998). The supreme wisdom of the Upaniṣads: an introduction. Motilal Banarsidass. pp. 388–390. ISBN 978-81-208-1573-5.

Sources

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