Swami Sarvapriyananda

Some Lesser Known Facts About Swami Sarvapriyananda

• Swami Sarvapriyananda is an Indian spiritual leader who is a minister of the Vedanta Society of New York. 

• He was born into a religious family in Kolkata but grew up in Bhubaneswar, Odisha. 

• His parents were devout followers of the Ramakrishna Order.

• He began reading books and Vedantas written by Sri Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda, at a young age.

• After he graduated from the Xavier Institute of Management (XIMB) in Bhubaneswar, he joined the Ramakrishna Order.

• In 1994, he joined the Ramakrishna Order. In 2004, he received ordination from Ramakrishna Math order Hindu swami Swami Ranganathananda. He changed his name to Swami Sarvapriyananda after completing his monastic vows.

• He has many years of experience working at Ramakrishna Math. Swami Sarvapriyananda was the Vedanta Society of Southern California’s assistant minister in 2015. He assumed leadership of the Vedanta Society of New York, USA, on January 6, 2017.

• He was selected to serve as the inaugural registrar of the Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda Educational and Research Center in Howrah, West Bengal.

• He served as an acharya in the Belur Math Monks training facility in Howrah, West Bengal. He also served the Ramakrishna Order as the vice principal of the Ramakrishna Mission Vidyapith in Deoghar and the principal of the Ramakrishna Mission Shikshanamandira (teacher-training college) in Belur Math.

• Sarvapriyananda frequently speaks at conferences and events centred around the teachings of Advaita Vedanta simplifying deep meanings of religion and spirituality.

• He is an expert on the Darshan school of Indian philosophy and an ardent supporter.

• He lived in an Indian monastery from 1994 to 2016, and then he moved to the United States in 2017 to serve at the Vedanta Society of Southern California.

• He was a member of the first group of Hindu swamis to take part in the Harvard Divinity School’s Nagral Fellowship programme for the 2019–20 academic year.

• During many of his public teachings, he stated that his first goal was to become a pilot, and his second goal was to find God, with the second goal eventually becoming his sole goal.

• Swami Sarvapriyananda has lectured at numerous colleges all around the world and has participated in prominent speaking events like TEDx, SAND, and Google Talks.

  

• In addition to speaking at the World Parliament of Religions in Toronto and the United Nations headquarters in New York, he has played an important role in organising and participating in other interfaith panels and seminars.

• His family initially opposed his decision to become a monk but eventually accepted it.

• He describes himself as a ‘voracious’ reader. His mother used to chastise him as a child for putting off doing his homework because he was too preoccupied with reading the Vedas. Not only that but he was frequently advised to play outside rather than read the Vedas because they are for the elderly.

• According to Fortune India, Sarvapriyananda is “one of the most well-known Vedanta speakers in the world today,” Speaking with Time on the occasion of the International Day of Yoga in 2018, Sarvapriyananda criticised the “vulgarisation and distortion of yoga today” and said that “performing (yoga) the appropriate way may change the way you live, work, and love.”

• In 2021, he wrote several books including What is Vedanta?, Who Am I?, and Dissolve into Infinity.