Paras Ramoutar
TRINIDAD, April 6, 2007: Trinidad-born Swami Ramananda Saraswati has returned home to become Spiritual Leader of the Divine Life Society (DLS). Swamiji, who also heads the Divine Life Society of Alberta, Canada, was initiated into sannyas, Hindu monasticism, on the bank of the holy river Ganga, and has spent several years in the Himalayas of India. Born at Penal Rock Road, into a strict and traditional priestly family and instructed in ancient Hindu rites and rituals by both his father and grandfather, he has spent more than 40 years in studying and preaching Hinduism and extolling the virtues of the Divine Life Society with headquarters in Rishikesh, India. He has worked throughout India; Alberta, Canada; and now Trinidad and Tobago.
“Trinidad and Tobago is going to benefit a great deal in all areas of human development, health care, child care and education through the working of the DLS,” he said. Swamiji said that prior to his initiation as a swami, he was a practicing counsellor and has, “treated many people from all walks of life in issues ranging from family and substance abuse to marriage and psychiatric problems.” “I am committed to dealing with traditional problems with a balanced approach of both modern counseling techniques and the ancient Hindu philosophies of yoga,” he said, in an interview at his Carslen Field, Chaguanas, office.
Swamiji remains committed, “to helping children, and I am currently working to raise awareness of poverty and child labor in India.” He is the founder of Nesackkarangal (Loving Hands) Orphanage, and was involved with the Shastri Nagar School and the Cherakulam Medical Center. “These projects all emphasize my ongoing commitment in helping to provide essential services and effecting self-sustaining, positive changes to economically underdeveloped communities,” he said. The DLS recently acquired approximately three and a half acres of land in Barrackpore for the construction of Care Facility, that will incorporate a senior’s home, a home for abandoned and abused children, a cultural center and a prayer/assembly hall.