Swami Gahanananda

Who was Swami Gahanananda?

Swami Gahanananda, the 14th President of the Ramakrishna Order, was born in the village of Paharpur in Sylhet District in October 1916. Known as Naresh Ranjan Roy Choudhury in his pre-monastic days, Swami Gahanananda joined the Ramakrishna Order at its centre in Bhubaneswar in January 1939 at the age of 22. He received initiation in 1939, brahmacharya in 1944 with the name 'Amrita-chaitanya' and Sannyasa from Swami Virajananda Maharaj, the then-President of the Order. He was greatly influenced by the dedicated lives of some of the monks of Ramakrishna Order, especially Swami Prabhananda, who was his cousin in his pre-monastic life. He had also once met Swami Abhedanandaji Maharaj, a direct disciple of Sri Ramakrishna. He served at Advaita Ashrama, Kolkata, from 1942 to 1952 and at Shillong centre from 1953 to 1958.