Ramakrishna Mission president 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 98. He had been suffering from a prolonged illness and was undergoing treatment at Seva Pratishthan, Kolkata, for the past two years, for age-related ailments. Recently, he had fever owing to infection. A team of specialist doctors were monitoring his health condition.

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."

Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted:

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 ji was blessed with immense knowledge & 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 ji.

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.

A brilliant student of Presidency College Maharaj was one of the favourite students of Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan who was then the George V Professor of Mental and Moral Philosophy, Calcutta University.

From student life, Maharaj came in contact with some of the direct disciples of Sri Ramakrishna. He was initiated by Swami Vijnananda, the fourth president of the Order and a direct disciple of Thakur.