Swami Madhavananda

Who was Swami Madhavananda?

Swami Madhavananda was the 9th president of the Ramakrishna Mission. A great scholar in Sanskrit, he has many works to his credit.

Swami Madhavananda, the ninth President of the Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission, was born on Saturday, 15 December 1888 at Baghanchra in Nadia district of West Bengal. His pre-monastic name was Nirmal Chandra Basu. His father was Hariprasad Basu. He was a brilliant student and did his graduation from the University of Calcutta with distinctions. During his student life he read the works of Swami Vivekananda and was inspired by the ideals and message of Sri Ramakrishna and Swamiji. He was initiated by the Holy Mother at Jayrambati in March 1909. The Holy Mother considered him to be as commendable as 'the elephant's tusk covered with gold'. He joined the monastery at Chennai in January 1910. He was initiated into sannyasa by Swami Brahmananda in January 1916. Later, his younger brother Vimal also joined the Order and came to be known as Swami Dayananda.

Swami Madhavananda spent a few years at the Udbodhan office assisting in the publication of the journal. He was later sent to Mayavati as the head of the Advaita Ashrama. He made several improvements there and started a Hindi organ of the Order called 'Samanvaya', with the assistance of the renowned Hindi poet, Suryakant Tripathi 'Nirala'. He was instrumental in spreading the ideals of Sri Ramakrishna-Swami Vivekananda in Gujarat and also in founding the Rajkot Centre. He was sent to the USA for preaching Vedanta at the San Francisco monastery.