Swami Sarvapriyananda | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Personal life | |
| Born | Biswarup Mitra (1971-02-10)10 February 1971 (age 54) |
| Education | MBA fromXavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar |
| Occupation | Sannyasi atRamakrishna Order |
| Religious life | |
| Religion | Hinduism |
| Philosophy | Advaita Vedanta |
| Religious career | |
| Guru | Swami Bhuteshananda |
Swami Sarvapriyananda (pre-monastic nameBiswarup Mitra) is a Hindu monk (sannyasi) belonging to theRamakrishna Order. He is the current residentSwami and head of theVedanta Society of New York, a position he has been serving since January 2017.[1][2]
Swami Sarvapriyananda was born in Kolkata and grew up inBhubhaneshwar, in the Indian state ofOdisha to a pious Bengali family. From childhood onwards, he was inclined towardsspirituality and was inspired by the lives ofSri Ramakrishna andSwami Vivekananda. His family was also devoutly religious. His parents and grandparents wereinitiated devotees in the Ramakrishna Order tradition.[3] He has stated that his first goal in life was to become a pilot, and the second was to find God, with the second goal later becoming his only goal.[3][4] At age 23, Sarvapriyananda (then Biswarup Mitra) joined the Ramakrishna Order in 1994 and took his monastic vows as sanyasa diksha was bestowed upon himbySwami Ranganathananda in 2004.[1] His family, at first, objected to his decision to become a monk but later accepted his decision. After passing school, he completed his Business Management degree fromXavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar.[citation needed]
Swami Sarvapriyananda served as assistant minister of theVedanta Society of Southern California in 2015.[1] He was later appointed head of theVedanta Society of New York, a position he has been serving since 6 January 2017.[1]Swami Tathagatananda was his predecessor.[5][non-primary source needed] He was in the first group of Hindu swamis to participate as a Nagral Fellow for the year 2019–20 atHarvard Divinity School.[6][1][4]
Before being posted to the Hollywood Temple, he served as anacharya or teacher at Monastic probationer training center,Belur Math. He also served theRamakrishna Order by becoming the vice principal of Deoghar Vidyapith Higher Secondary School and becoming Principal ofRamakrishna Mission Shikshanamandira (teacher-training college), Belur Math.[7][non-primary source needed]
Swami Sarvapriyananda frequently speaks at symposia and events focused onAdvaita Vedanta teachings,[8][9][10] and has participated in discussions with othernon-dualists.[11] He is a very strong proponent and scholar of the IndianUpanishad school of thought and the philosophy orDarshan, particularly ofSelf andConsciousness contained in them. He has delivered many lectures on the same topic. In episode five of Dispatches from The Well[12] hosted atBig Think media portal, he reflects on contributions of Vedanta to the conversation on theHard problem of consciousness.Fortune India mentions Sarvapriyananda as "one of the best known lecturers of theVedanta in the world today".[13] Speaking withTime on the occasion of theInternational Day of Yoga in 2018, Sarvapriyananda stated that "doing (yoga) the right way can change the way you live, work and love" while criticising the "vulgarisation and distortion of yoga today".[14]
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