PM Modi's guru, Swami Atmasthananda passes away

Swami Atmasthananda, the president of Ramakrishna Mission and Ramakrishna Math, more familiarly known as the illustrious guru of Prime Minister Narendra Modi passed away on Sunday evening at 5. 30 pm. He was 99. He had been suffering from a prolonged illness and was undergoing treatment at Seva Pratishthan, Kolkata, for the past two years, for agerelated ailments. Recently, he had fever owing to infection. A team of specialist doctors were monitoring his health condition.

Taking to Twitter, PM Narendra Modi condoled the ‘personal loss’, because he considered Atmasthananda his ‘guru’. “The demise of Swami Atmasthananda ji is a personal loss for me. I lived with him during a very important period of my life. Swami Atmasthananda was blessed with immense knowledge and wisdom. Generations will remember his exemplary personality. Whenever I would visit Kolkata, I would always make it a point to seek the blessings of Swami Atmasthananda”, he said in a series of tweets.

Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee who went to see him at the hospital later tweeted “Saddened that Rev. Swami Atmasthanandaji, President, Ramakrishna Math & Mission passed away on Sunday at Seva Pratishthan. I paid my last visit to him this afternoon. a life of outstanding social & religious service. This is an irreparable loss to mankind.”

The mortal remains of Atmasthanandaji were taken to Belur Math which was kept open throughout the night for the devotees to pay their last respects to Maharaj. He will be cremated at the Math on Monday afternoon.

As soon as the news of his death spread hundreds of devotees came to the hospital to pay their last respects. His mortal remains were taken to the Belur Math in a specially designed hearse. Satyakrishna Bhattacharya who later became Swami Atmasthananda was born in Dinajpur now in Bangladesh.