Sadhvi Bhagawati keeps faith in service and sustainable living
TRIBUTE TO SPIRITUAL LEADER, CHARITY AMBASSADOR AND AUTHOR AS SHE TURNS 50
SADHVI BHAGAWATI SARASWATI, a leading spiritual leader in India who turns 50 on Sunday (14), has spent nearly half her life engaged in service.
Raised in an American family in Hollywood, California, and a graduate of Stanford University, Sadhvi Bhagawati left for India in the late 1990s.
She was completing her PhD in psychology when she arrived at the Parmarth Niketan Ashram in Rishikesh, which has been her home for the past 24 years. There, she gives daily spiritual discourses (satsang), teaches meditation, provides counselling and supervises charitable and humanitarian projects.
In 2000, Sadhvi Bhagawati was officially initiated into the order of sanyas (monastic renunciation) by her guru, His Holiness (HH) Pujya Swami Chidanand Saraswatiji (HH Pujya Muniji), a respected Indian spiritual leader and president of the Parmarth Niketan Ashram.
Sadhvi Bhagawati is today a renowned speaker who gives speeches at large international forums on a variety of topics – from yoga and conscious business to science and spirituality, from sustainable development to happiness and peace. Her talks are a blend of western and eastern philosophies and she is known as a spiritual bridge between the two cultures.
Sadhvi Bhagwati’s TEDx talk about her journey – Hollywood to the Holy Woods – has been watched by more than 160,000 people and the documentary on her life has been viewed online by nearly a quarter of a million people.
Among the many hats she wears, Sadhvi Bhagawati is the president of the Divine Shakti Foundation, a charitable organisation which runs education and vocational training programmes free of charge for women and children.
She is also the secretary-general of the Global Interfaith WASH Alliance, the world’s first grouping of religious leaders for Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), launched by Unicef in 2013.
Sadhvi Bhagawti has spoken at several United Nations events, including with the secretary-general and deputy secretarygeneral of the UN, and at many high-level international conferences and summits.
She is also the director of the International Yoga Festival, held at Parmarth Niketan since 1989.
In recognition of her work, Sadhvi Bhagawati has received several national and international awards.
She was the managing editor of the 11-volume Encyclopedia of Hinduism. In addition, she regularly contributes to publications such as the Huffington Post and Indian titles such as Dainik Jagran, Speaking Tree/Times of India, Thrive Global and The Pioneer.
Sadhvi Bhagawati’s book Come Home to Yourself was launched by the Dalai Lama with many revered saints, including HH Pujya Swami Ramdevji, HH Pujya Swami Chidanand Saraswatiji and HH Pujya Pujya Morari Bapuji, in attendance.
Sadhvi Bhagawati also serves on the UN Faith Advisory Council on religion as vice-chair. She is also on the steering committee for partnership for Religion and Sustainable Development (PaRD), an international body comprising the governments of 12 countries (including the US, the UK, and Germany), the United Nations, the World Bank, the African Union and the world’s most renowned faithbased organisations.
However, Sadhvi Bhagawati is most likely to be found spending time with children at her foundation’s schools, interacting and inspiring youth and young people to turn their lives from sense gratification to spirituality. People travel from all over the world simply to sit in her presence, to be blessed with the gift of her association and to remain connected to her light, inspiration, love and wisdom.