Pravrajika Bhaktiprana

Pravrajika Bhaktiprana (October 1920 – 11 December 2022) was an Indian Hindu sannyasini and the fourth president of the Sri Sarada Math and Ramakrishna Sarada Mission, Dakshineswar, in Kolkata, India. She took over as president of the institution on 2 April 2009. In her name "Pravrajika" means "mendicant nun" and the suffix to her name Bhakti is 'prana' which means "who is devoted to".

Early life Bhaktiprana was born in Calcutta (now Kolkata) in October 1920. She did her school education from the Gouri Ma's Saradeswari Ashram in Calcutta. Right from a very young age her interest was towards spirituality, and she was associated with the monks of the Belur Math of the Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission. She initially trained as a nurse. In 1950, she was employed as a nurse at the Matri Bhavan, a hospital that was under the Ramakrishna Sarada Mission in Tollygunge. Following the death of Pravrajika Shraddhaprana in February 2009, she took over as president of the mission in April 2009. On assuming this position she said "All my life, I have tried to live for others. That’s what Ma [Sarada Devi] would’ve wanted me to do... Without Ma’s blessings, we are nothing." Bhaktiprana died on 11 December 2022, at a hospital, late Sunday night at the age of 102.