Press Release
USA, August 20, 2005: Shanti Mandir issued the following press release:
At the request of Mahamandaleshwar Swami Nityanand of Shanti Mandir Ashram – news of Maharajji’s passing is being sent to Hinduism Today. Beloved to all of us, Mahamandaleshwar Swami Brahmanand Giriji Maharaj, left his body at on Thursday, August 18 at his ashram, Surat Giri Bangla, Kankhal. Gurudev Nityanand, along with Mahamandaleshwars Swami Vishveshvaranandji and Swami Abhedanandji were with Maharajji at the time of his passing. “He was not in pain and there was no suffering,” said Gurudev. Brahmanand’s body was placed in the Satsang Hall where many Mahamandaleshwar’s, Swami’s and devotees offered their last respects. On August 19th, following the Abhishek (bathing), the final procession through the streets of Haridwar to Neeladara took Maharajji’s body to be immersed into the Holy River Ganges – Jal Samadhi.
Additional articles and photographs of the ceremonies and the jal samadhi (water funeral) are posted in the following sites on Shanti Mandir’s website: here and here.
Mahamandaleshwar Swami Brahmanand Giriji Maharaj was born in Bihar in 1917. In his early twenties, while traveling in Vrindavan, Brahmanand heard about a great swami, Maheshwaranand Maharaj, who lived in Kankhal. Brahmanand went to visit the swami’s ashram in Surat Giri Bangla, in 1944. He was deeply impressed by the manner in which Maheshwaranand conducted the satsang, so he stayed and later traveled with Maheshwaranand to Gujarat and on to Mumbai. He took vows of Sannyas from Maheshwaranand in 1965. Swami Maheshwaranand started the Sanskrit Pathshala at his ashram in Mumbai in 1947. Brahmanand gave his first Sanskrit Exam there in 1948. He spent the years of 1950 and 1951 on a yatra at Kailash Mansarovar. Swami Brahmanand resumed his studies in Kashi/Varanasi in 1952 and completed them in 1962. He obtained his degree of Shastri in Nyaya (logic), and a degree of Acharya in Vedanta. He then returned to Mumbai and began to conduct satsang independently. In 1964, he helped to establish the Sannyas Ashram at Ghatkopar, Mumbai. In 1964, Swami Maheshwaranand had a heart attack. He decided at that time that Brahmanand would become his successor. On May, 1970, Swami Maheshwaranand left his body at Surat Giri Bangla. On May 16, 1970, the Sadhu Samaj accepted Swami Brahmanand, and he was named Mahamandaleshwar by Shri Panchayati Mahanirvani Akhara.
Swami Maheshwaranand established three ashrams in 1945 at Mumbai, Chandod and Amreli. Swami Brahmanand developed the ashram in Mumbai, and built two ashrams in Gujarat: one at Dakar, a holy Krishna site, and one at Jotana, the birthplace of Swami Maheshwaranand. Mahamandaleshwar Swami Brahmanand was the 10th Peethadeshwar (head of the peetha/ashram) of Surat Giri Bangla in Kankhal, a 300-year old ashram on the banks of the Ganges. Following the tradition of the Dashnami Sannyasis, he devoted his life to spreading the knowledge of the Prasthan Trayi: Brahma Sutra, Upanishads, and the Bhagwad Geeta, both at the ashrams and on pilgrimages with devotees around India.