Swāmini Ātmaprajñānanda Saraswati is a student-disciple
of His Holiness Śri Swāmi Dayānanda Saraswati (1930-2015)
Padma Bhushan (2016), founder of the Ārsha Vidyā paramparā (tradition). She is a Daśanāmi Sannyāsini of Śankara-Bhagavatpāda order, belonging to Niranjan Akhādā.
She is an Advaita
Vedantin, and Vedic and Sanskrit Scholar (holding a Ph.D. in Sanskrit). Her
other areas of study and research are - Vedic Studies, Temple-Architecture,
Buddhism, Bhakti Movement in India. (Her other technical degrees are MBA (in
Finance and Marketing), PG Diploma in Journalism and Certificate in Human
Rights, which she earned in per previous āśrama).
Swāmini is a Master in the Speaking Tree, and
writes regularly on Advaita Vedanta, and answers individual questions. She has
answered more than 8,000 questions in the Speaking Tree on her 140 blogs. She
was conferred the title Vedanta Śiromani by
them in 2017.
Books authored:
1. Daśaśānti (2008)
2. Rūpasiddhi (2008)
3. Nomenclature of the Vedas (2012)
4. Ṛṣikās of the Ṛgveda (2013)
5. Om:The Sound Symbol (2014)
6. Vision of Advaita Vedanta in Taittirīya Upaniṣad (2016)
7. SubhāshitaPrajñāvali (2020)
8. Śrīmad Bhagavadgītā - a Study (2020)
Chants
Vedic chants are included
in the UNESCO Lists of Intangible Cultural Heritage. Swāmini is a Kṛṣṇa-Yajurvedi Taittirīya-Sākhādhyāyī. Her Vedic/Sanskrit chants comprising 8 ½ hours are
available in the YouTube along with selected images of paintings and sculptures
duly captioned with elaborate script. The Channel has more than 620,000 views
until date (28.4.2020), and more than 2,560 subscribers.
Intrafaith Meetings
Swamini was a
participant in the 4th Ācārya Sabhā 2010 in Hyderabad, 5th
Ācārya
Sabhā 2012 in Ahmedabad, 6th Ācārya Sabhā 2016 in
Goa, and 7th Ācārya Sabhā in Rajkot.
Interfaith Meeting
Swāmini was a
delegate and signatory in “A Meeting of
Diverse Spiritual Traditions in India” convened by The Office of His
Holiness the Dalai Lama in 2014.
Parivarajanam and Temple Visits:
Swāmini has
visited (by flight, train, car, on foot) more than 100 temples/holy sites in
India, has extensively photographed them, and has studied their legends,
architectural history. They include four temples of elements (Chidambaram, Kanchipuram,
Jambukeswara, Arunachaleswara, Seven Jyotirlingas - Kedarnath (1998), Srisailam (2007, 2010), Rameswaram (2010), Somanath (2009, Dec 2018), Nageswara (Dec
2018), Ghrishneswara (2012),
Kashi Vishvanatha (March
2019) out of twelve, almost all Buddhist (Dhauli,
Ajanta, Ellora, Ratnagiri, Udaigiri, Lalitgiri, Khandgiri, Udaygiri (the Silver Triangle) and Jain pilgrim-sites (Khandagiri, Mt.Abu), and all famous
Indo-Islamic architecture. Out of these, twelve are listed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
Ārsha Vidyā Vikās Kendra (AVVK), a Teachings and Research
Centre
Swāmini is the Founder Ācāryā of Ārsha Vidyā Vikās Kendra
(AVVK), a Teaching and Research
Centre for Vedānta, Sanskrit, and Indian
Culture. She has taught Vedanta and Sanskrit to many eligible students in
short-term courses in Bhubaneswar as well as in Rishikesh.
AVVK Indological Library
AVVK maintains an
Indological Library of around 3,000 texts, and an archive of Vedic Chants,
Indian Classical Music, and Palm leaf Manuscripts.
Indological Conference
In addition to her teaching
and research activities, she has convened ten Indological Conferences in 2009 (Bhubaneswar),
2010 (Bhubaneswar), 2011 (Bhubaneswar), 2013 (Bhubaneswar), 2014 (Bhubaneswar),
2014 (Baripada), 2016 (Rishikesh), 2018 (Rishikesh), 2019 (Rishikesh), 2020 (Rishikesh)
on various Indological topics.
Honouring Scholars
The Trust has honoured more than fifty
Indological scholars during the last ten years for their contribution to the
domain of Indological studies and research.
Outreach
activities
Besides her academic activities she is involved
in various outreach activities in the community through her Sri Medhā Dakshinamurty Trust. She regularly organises
Health Camps, Blood Donation Camps in the nearby villages. She distributes dresses, study materials to the children of migrant-labours
of the local slums besides taking classes for them on Sundays. For last six years
she has been distributing 100-150 blankets during winter to the needy.
Educational
Endowment
She has also gifted decent corpus for Educational
Endowment to three educational institutions out of which the best graduate/best
all rounder is awarded every year.
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