Thiruvananthapuram, Dec 15 (IANS): On the 112th birth anniversary of Swami Ranganathananda, former national general secretary of the BJP, Ram Madhav, who is presently the founder director of India Foundation, a right wing think-tank, said that the former was a self evasive saint who stood for dharma and its eternal values.
He said this while delivering the key note address in a webinar titled 'Remembering Swami Rangathananda on his birthday', which was organised by the Centre for Policy and Development Studies, a think-tank.
He said that Swamiji had even declined the highest civilian order of the country, the Padma Vibhushan, in 2000 stating that the award was for Sree Ramakrishna Mission.
Swami Ranganathanada assumed office as President of the Sree Ramakrishna Mission during turbulent times and steered the mission strongly.
"Kerala is God's own country owing to its natural beauty as well as owing to the 'rishi parampara' of the state starting from Adi Sankaracharya, Sree Narayana Guru, Mata Amritanandamayi, Swami Chinmayananda, Swami Ranganathananda and many others. Swami Ranganathanda and Swami Chinmayananda were instrumental in connecting the upper echelons of the Hindu society with Sanathana Dharma and Bhagavat Gita and taking away western influence from the society," said Ram Madhav.
He also said that Swami Ranganathanada was inspired by Sree Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and his teachings at the age of fourteen after reading a book by Swami Nikhilananda and added that it would have been providence that such a book landed in the hands of a fourteen-year old at a remote village in Kerala more than a hundred years ago.
Born in Thrissur in Kerala, Swami Ranganathanada had later on mentioned that this book had created an explosion within him and he later joined the Sree Ramakrishna order at the age of seventeen.
Swami Ranganathanada went on to head the Sree Ramakrishna Mission from 1998 till 2005 when he attained 'Maha Samadhi' on April 25,2005.
Ram Madhav also pointed out that Swami Ranganathanada had travelled across the length and breadth of the country like Adi Saankaaracharya and established Ramakrishna Mission institutions, including educational institutes and hospitals in remotest places of the country, including the northeastern states.