Swami Shantananda Saraswati

Swami Shantanand Saraswati (1913–1997) was Shankaracharya of the Jyotir Math monastery from 1953 to 1980; he was a direct disciple of Brahmananda Saraswati and succeeded him as Shankaracharya.

His life In 1953, five months before his death, Brahmananda Saraswati, the Shankaracharya of Jyotir Math, made a hand-written will naming his disciple, Swami Shantanand Saraswati, as his successor. Shantanand assumed the Shankarcharya-ship but his authority was later disputed by several of Brahmananda's disciples and followers who did not feel (due at least in part to Shantananda's lack of lifelong celibacy) that Shantanand met the requirements described in the Mahanusasana texts. In 1960 Dr Francis Roles (the named successor of P. D. Ouspensky) of The Study Society, travelled to India and became a follower of Swami Shantananda Saraswati; a few years later Leon MacLaren of the School of Economic Science also visited Shantananda Saraswati in India and became a follower. From this point on the teachings of both organisations became predominantly based on Advaita Vedanta. He also provided guidance to the School of Meditation in Holland Park, London, from 1967 to his death. For more than thirty years he passed on his teaching to the West. Before he died he wrote a letter to students in the West saying: "You have all that is needed to carry on, you need only to put what has been given into practice". However, Krishnabodha died in 1973, and he nominated his disciple Swaroopananda Saraswati, a prior disciple of Brahmananda, as his successor. But because Shantananda still occupied the Jyotir Math ashram built by Brahmananda, Swaroopananda took residence in a nearby building or ashram instead. These schools are also responsible for the promulgation of a particular type of meditation, sometimes known as "transcendental meditation".

During his tenure, Shantanand was "supportive" of another Brahamananda disciple Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and "often appeared with him in public". In 1961 he appeared at one of the Maharishi's training courses in Rishikesh and addressed the trainees, describing the meditation method as "the master key to the knowledge of Vedanta": "There are other keys, but a master key is enough to open all the locks". In 1963 Sri Shantanand gave his support to the Marharishi's "All Indian Campaign". Shantanand, in his capacity as senior Shankaracharya, then appointed Swami Vasudevananda Saraswati to the role. Shantananda himself died in 1997.

Teachings

Shantananda Saraswati taught that people should develop their spiritual life while fully engaged in worldly responsibilities, encouraging them to act to uplift their families, professions, communities, and to manifest the harmony, beauty, and efficiency of their spiritual practices in their everyday life.

Sri Shantananda Saraswati (perhaps reflecting his experience as a husband and then a father) referred to love as "the natural in-between", a state of being that can always be availed because it lies within us all.

Published discourses

Good Company. Good Company II. The Man Who Wanted to Meet God: Myths and Stories That Explain the Inexplicable by His Holiness Shantanand Saraswati. Teachings of His Holiness Shantanand Saraswati.