Dada Maheshvarananda (born May 11, 1953) is a

yogic Yoga (UK: , US: ; 'yoga' ; ) is a group of physical, mental, and spiritual practices or disciplines that originated with its own philosophy in ancient India, aimed at controlling body and mind to attain various salvation goals, as pra ...

monk A monk (; from , ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a man who is a member of a religious order and lives in a monastery. A monk usually lives his life in prayer and contemplation. The concept is ancient and can be seen in many reli ...

, activist, writer and the founder of the Prout Research Institute of Venezuela. Since becoming a monk in

Ananda Marga Ānanda Mārga (, Schwa deletion in Indo-Aryan languages, also spelled Anand Marg and Ananda Marg), or officially Ānanda Mārga Pracāraka Saṃgha (organization for the propagation of the path of bliss), is a world-wide socio-spiritual orga ...

, Maheshvarananda has taught

meditation Meditation is a practice in which an individual uses a technique to train attention and awareness and detach from reflexive, "discursive thinking", achieving a mentally clear and emotionally calm and stable state, while not judging the meditat ...

yoga Yoga (UK: , US: ; 'yoga' ; ) is a group of physical, mental, and spiritual practices or disciplines that originated with its own philosophy in ancient India, aimed at controlling body and mind to attain various salvation goals, as pra ...

and the Progressive Utilization Theory (PROUT) globally.

Early life

Southeast Asia

From 1979 to 1991 Maheshvarananda taught meditation and yoga in

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

and the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

(also known as "

Maharlika The ''maharlika'' (Baybayin pre-virama: ᜋᜑᜎᜒᜃ meaning freeman or freedman) were the feudal warrior class in ancient Tagalog society in Luzon, the Philippines. They belonged to the lower nobility class similar to the ''timawa'' of the ...

").Go with the Flow
" (1985)

Brazil

From 1992 to 2003 Maheshvarananda worked in Brazil, where he participated in Eco-92 and the

World Social Forum The World Social Forum (WSF, ) is an annual meeting of civil society organizations, first held in Brazil, which offers a self-conscious effort to develop an alternative future through the championing of counter-hegemonic globalization. The Worl ...

Venezuela

Maheshvarananda and José Albarrán founded the Prout Research Institute of Venezuela in Caracas, an independent, not-for-profit foundation.

Publications

*“Go with the Flow” (1985) *"A Personal Remembrance and Conversation with Paulo Freire, Educator of the Oppressed" in ''Neohumanist Educational Futures: Liberating the Pedagogical Intellect'', edited by

Sohail Inayatullah Sohail Inayatullah is a Pakistani-born Australian academic, futures studies researcher and a professor at the Graduate Institute of Futures Studies at Tamkang University in Taipei, Taiwan. Biography Born in 1958 in Lahore, Pakistan, to a fath ...

, Marcus Bussey and Ivana Milojević, Tapei, Tamkang University Press, 2006. *“Revolutionary Consciousness: Development as transformation” in ''Development'' 46, (1 December 2003). *“Will Organized Religions Survive in the New Millennium?” in ''New Renaissance'', Vol. 9, Number 3. *“Ideal Leadership” *"Spirituality and Social Change" *"The Human Costs of Economic Meltdown and its Alternative" *"A New Social Paradigm Based On Spiritual Values" on

Znet ZNetwork, formerly known as Z Communications, is a left-wing activist-oriented media group founded in 1986 by Michael Albert and Lydia Sargent.Max Elbaum''Revolution in the Air: Sixties Radicals Turn to Lenin, Mao and Che'' London, England, UK; ...

. *Published with Mariah Branch, ''The Progressive Utilization Theory (Prout): Alternative Economic and Social Model for the Welfare of All'' (2010) in '' WorkingUSA: The Journal of Labor and Society''. *''After Capitalism: Prout's Vision for a New World'' (2003, Proutist Universal Publications) (paperback), published in 10 languages. *'' After Capitalism: Economic Democracy in Action'' (2012, Innerworld Publications) (paperback) *''Cooperative Games for a Cooperative World: Facilitating Trust, Communication and Spiritual Connection'' (2017, InnerWorld Publications) (paperback), published in three languages.

References

External links

Prout Research Institute of Venezuela
{{DEFAULTSORT:Maheshvarananda, Dada 1953 births Living people American pacifists 20th-century American monks Activists from Philadelphia 21st-century American monks