About

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 4^th Ācārya Sabhā 2010 in Hyderabad, 5^th Ācārya Sabhā 2012 in Ahmedabad, 6th Ācārya Sabhā 2016 in Goa, and 7^th 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), Rameshwaram (2010), Somnath (2009, Dec 2018), Nageshvara (Dec 2018), Grishneshwar (2012), Kashi Vishwanath (March 2019)   (out of 12), almost all Buddhist (Dhauli, Ajanta, Ellora, Ratnagiri, Udaigiri, Lalitgiri, Khandgiri, Udaygiri (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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