Shankaracharya Swaroopanand Saraswati Passed Away at the Age of 98

• 12 Sep 2022

Why In News?

On September 11, 2022, Swami Swaroopanand Saraswati, the biggest religious leader of Hindus and Shankaracharya of Dwarka-Sharda Peeth, died at the age of 98 at Paramhansi Ganga Ashram in Jhoteshwar, Narsinghpur district of Madhya Pradesh.

Key Points

• Swami Swaroopanand Saraswati was born on September 2, 1924, in a Brahmin family in the village of Dighori near Jabalpur in Seoni district of Madhya Pradesh.
• It is known that 'Shankaracharya' is the eldest Mahant of the four Peethas of Hinduism. Jagadguru Shankaracharya Shri Swami Swaroopanand Saraswati ji was the Shankaracharya of two mathas (Dwarka and Jyotirmath). His parents named him Pothiram Upadhyay.
• At the age of nine, he left home and started religious journeys. During this time he reached Kashi and here he took lessons in Vedas, Vedanga and scriptures from Brahmalin Shri Swami Karpatri Maharaj.
• When Gandhiji gave the slogan of Quit India to the British in 1942, he also jumped into the freedom struggle and became famous as a 'revolutionary monk' at the age of 19. During this time, he also spent nine months in varanasi jail and six months in jail in his home state Madhya Pradesh.
• He was also the president of Karpatri Maharaj's political party 'Ram Rajya Parishad'. In 1940, he was made a Dandi Sanyasi and in 1981 he got the title of 'Shankaracharya'. In 1950, he took initiation of dand-sanyas from Sharda Peeth Shankaracharya Swami Brahmanand Saraswati and came to be known as Swami Swaroopanand Saraswati.
• Shankaracharya Swami Swaroopanand Saraswati was a freedom fighter, Ram Setu Protector, who declared Ganga a national river and fought for Ram Janmabhoomi, the first Satyagrahi of the cow protection movement, the first president of the RamRajya Parishad, was a strong opponent of hypocrisy.