KOLKATA, INDIA, December 4, 2007: Swami Atmasthanandaji Maharaj was elected president of the Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission on Monday at a meeting of the board of trustees of the Math and the governing body of the Mission. He succeeds Swami Gahananandaji, who passed away last month. Disciples and devotees from the country and abroad converged on Belur Math on Monday to meet the 15th president of the Math and Mission. Swami’s message was, “Read Swami Vivekananda’s writings religiously… You can find the solutions to all problems in his writings,” was his message to the disciples and devotees.
Swami Atmasthanandaji had been one of the vice-presidents of the math and mission since May 22, 2007. In that capacity, he travelled extensively across the country and around the world. Devotee Harshaben Tribedi from Rajkot said, “I have seen him leading the relief work in Gujarat after the floods in Surat. He was also there for the drought victims in Kutch in our state. Thanks to him, the whole village was provided rotla (chapatis made from bajra) and dal for two years.”
Born in 1919 at Sabajpur, near Dhaka, Swami Atmasthanandaji received mantra diksha from Swami Vijyanandaji in 1938 and joined the Ramakrishna Order at Belur Math in January 1941, as a 22-year-old.