Swami Prakashananda: A Pillar of Sanatana Dharma

 

 

His Holiness Swami Prakashananda ji Maharaj (99), who attained Mahasamadhi on Monday, July 7, 2021, was a mendicant of the highest order. He had made great contributions as the head of the Sivagiri Math and the Sivagiri Sree Narayana Dharma Sangham Trust for three terms. He was the president of the Sree Narayana Dharma Sangham.

 

Swamiji had also served as the General Secretary of the Dharma Sangham for nine years. He was one among the sanyasins, who had imbibed the teachings of Sree Narayana Guru and made his vision part of their lives. Through his humble life and gentle manners he had endeared everyone treated them with love and affection. He was one the leading lights who had made invaluable contributions to promote the Hindu cause in Kerala.

 

 

Swamiji had taken a non-comprising attitude with regard to maintaining the sanctity and purity of the Sree Narayana Guru order. Hence, he became a link of the long chain of sanyasins, who had striven hard to spread our Dharmic values. He, who had acquired erudition in Sree Narayana Guru Darshana, and in his Mahasamadhi, we have lost a great spiritual luminary. His pioneering contributions in making Varkala Sivagiri Math a world renowned spiritual center will ever be remembered.

 

Born in the year 1923 in the Elikkattoor Kalatharadi family as the son of the couple Raman and Velumbi, his poorvashrama name was Kumaran. He, who reached the Sivagiri Math when he was 23 years old, in 1958, was initiated into the Sanyasashrama when he was 35 years old by His Holiness Swami Shankarananda. He had then served as in-charge of the Maths at Aruvippuram and Kunnumpara.

 

Swamiji became the Dharma Sangham secretary in 1970, and as the secretary he was instrumental in establishing Sivagiri Brahmavidyalayam in 1975. From 1983, for eight years, he had taken the vow of silence (mouna-vritha).