Paramahamsa Omkarananda Saraswati
In the same year in which Jagadguru Swami Sivananda gave him Sannyasa-Diksha, his first book (The Story of an Eminent Yogi, 1947) was published and internationally appreciated and valued.
He is the author of numerous publications, and several Professors of the Universities and other prominent personalities around the world, esteem him as an intuitive philosopher, a versatile genius, a profound scholar of universal knowledge, a brilliant writer and a charismatic and inspired orator.
He was the right hand of Swami Sivananda for over a decade and wrote among
other works on Sivananda two monumental publications dealing with Sivananda Literature. The renowned Mahapandita SRI VISHNU VASANT SHASTRI PANSHIKAR, Leicester, England, the Chief-Acharya of Omkarananda Ashram, adores, as thousands around the world do, Swami Omkarananda as an Incarnation of God, and in adoration of his Divine Nature composed on him highly inspiring and immortal Bhajans, Hymns, Stotras, Aratikyams as well as the Srimad Omkara-Atharvashirsham.
Many are the Saints of India who pay their Homage to Swami Omkarananda. Among them, His Holiness SRI SATYAMITRANANDA, the builder of the Grand Bharatmata Mandir in Hardwar and a spiritual leader with a vast following both in United Kingdom (Great Britain) and in India, visited Omkarananda Ashram in Switzerland. He was enchanted by what he saw, and with reverence and awe exclaimed: “This is the Benares of Europe!”
The opulent literature of Swami Omkarananda on Sivananda bears rich evidence that Omkarananda’s own spiritual realisations enabled him to verify and describe by a direct personal inner knowledge the most luminous states of divine Consciousness that informed and inspired the phenomenon of the covert and overt life of the great Saint Swami Sivananda and the Light of the divine Knowledge in him.
A magazine published from Madras, the Call Divine portrayed with deep insight the relationship between these two spiritual giants: “What sweetness is to sugar and what fragrance is to a flower, Swami Omkarananda is to Swami Sivananda; because, the former is as wonderful as the latter.”
Our lineage, our Guruparampara, runs in this Order: Lord Narayana, Brahma, Dakshinamurti, Dattatreya, Four Kumaras, Vyasa, Vasishta, Gaudapada, Shankaracharya, Sivananda, Omkarananda. Our roots are in the Vedas and the Upanishads. Our Heart is Srividya; the Soul of our Being is Sri Yantra. Our Ishta Devata is Parabrahmaswaroopini Sri Mahatripurasundari. We are at the same time Siva Bhaktas and Vishnu Bhaktas because Siva and Vishnu are two of the many Faces of Parameshwari Tripurasundari. And because of our deep spirituality which is the quintessence of all religions, we belong to all religions of the world. We appreciate them, serve them, unite them and further the growth of the inner light in them.
From Sri Sadgurudeva Paramahamsa Omkarananda, sincere seekers of the Divine, no matter to which creed, caste, colour, race they belong, can obtain, if they earnestly so desire, Shuddhi- and Nama-Karana, Upanayana Sacrament, Mantra- and Sannyasa-Diksha, practise Yoga of Synthesis, belong to our lineage, become universal personalities of intense Devotion, divine Wisdom and experience the ultimate Truth, the goal of all great religions of the world. Over 170 disciples have received Sannyasa-Diksha.
Be it in the Himalayas or in the cities of Western Europe, Omkarananda Saraswati lives his life in seclusion, solitude and silence, far removed from publicity and propaganda.
“The perception of the one Life Principle or God, in all, the merging of the personal self in the Divine Self of all creatures, great and small, is the ultimate meaning and end of life.”
― Paramahamsa Omkarananda Saraswati
While Maharshi Ramana rarely engaged in abstract philosophy, his teachings naturally aligned with the principles of Advaita Vedanta (non-dualism). Some of his core ideas include:
How detached he is even from persons staying closest to him can be seen from the fact that he never during the entire period of thirty-one years of his total absence from Himalayas wrote a single word, or phoned, or sought any kind of contact with the wonderful Swami who is taking care of his Kutir in Sivananda Ashram adjoining Omkarananda Ashram in the Himalayas.
In consonance with this feature of his life, his Austrian Ashram on the top of a Hill with its own forests on three sides, and a valley down, commanding a view of the snowy Alps, affords him sceneries identical with the interior Himalayas. In spite of this fact, he is in the very midst of the multifarious activities of his Ashram. Notwithstanding his activities,
