AWARDED: Sri Swami Satchidananda the Juliet Hollister Award on December 16, 1996, before an august assembly at the United Nations. Swamiji received the award in recognition of his teachings of Integral Yoga, interfaith understanding and for creating the Integral Yoga Institutes. The award's founder has longed to create a "Spiritual United Nations" to encourage dialogue between the world's religions and to find solutions for international disputes.

OPENED: The Institute of Vedic Mathematics by Dr. T. Satyanarayana Raju in Troy, Michigan in January, 1995. The author of 20 books on Vedic mathematics in English and Telugu, he is known for his innovative teaching methods. He said, "Mathematics should be fun, and learning math should be a joyous venture." He invented a technique of using fingers to perform math calculations. The institute's address is: 6095 Riverton, Troy, Michigan 48098 USA.

HONORED: Dr. Ahangamage Tudor Ariyaratne with India's highest annual award, the 1996 Gandhi Peace Prize, for his lifelong achievements of elevating, through nonviolence, the material, moral and spiritual condition of the people of Sri Lanka.

TRANSITION: Swami Aseshananda, age 97, on October 16, 1996, at the Vedanta Society of Portland, Oregon. A Ramakrishna monk since 1921, he was the last living monastic disciple of Sri Sarada Devi. Arriving in the US in 1947, he served as assistant to Swami Nikhilananda in New York and Swami Prabhavananda in California before heading the Society's center in Portland.