Shantananda Saraswati

Swami Shantanand Saraswati (1913–1997) was Shankaracharya of the Jyotir Math monastery from 1953 to 1980; he was a direct disciple of Brahmananda Saraswati and succeeded him as Shankaracharya.

His life

In 1953, five months before his death, Brahmananda Saraswati, the Shankaracharya of Jyotir Math, made a hand-written will naming his disciple, Swami Shantanand Saraswati, as his successor.Unknown author (2005
Indology
The Jyotirmatha Shankaracharya Lineage in the 20th Century, retrieved 4 August 2012 Shantanand assumed the Shankarcharya-ship but his authority was later disputed by several of Brahmananda's disciples and followers who did not feel (due at least in part to Shantananda's lack of lifelong celibacy) that Shantanand met the requirements described in the Mahanusasana texts.

Shantananda Saraswati became a devotee of Brahmananda Saraswati at an early age. He wanted to become a monk but Brahmananda Saraswati instructed him to marry. Due to this Shantanand lived the life of a householder, worked as a bookbinder, and supported a wife and child for fourteen years. Upon his wife's death he once more sought, and was granted, permission from Brahmananda Saraswati to become a monk. Shantananda was the first Shankaracharya to have lived as a householder for part of his life. This break in tradition has continued to cause controversy and dissent among some disciples of Brahmananda.

Shantananda Saraswati received Western visitors from a number of organisations thus making his teaching available to many around the world. In 1960 Dr Francis Roles (the named successor of P. D. Ouspensky) of The Study Society, travelled to India and became a follower of Swami Shantananda Saraswati; a few years later Leon MacLaren of the School of Economic Science also visited Shantananda Saraswati in India and became a follower. From this point on the teachings of both organisations became predominantly based on Advaita Vedanta. He also provided guidance to the ''School of Meditation'' in Holland Park, London, from 1967 to his death. For more than thirty years he passed on his teaching to the West. Before he died he wrote a letter to students in the West saying: "You have all that is needed to carry on, you need only to put what has been given into practice".

Meanwhile, organizations which had been concerned with reviving the Jyotir Math in the 1930s reconvened and proposed Swami Krishnabodha Asrama as Shankaracharya despite Shantanand's claim and occupation of the Jyotir Math Shankaracharya-ship.Unknown author (5 May 1999) archive
here
Accessed: 2012-08-30. o

Advaita Vedanta web page, retrieved 28 August 2012 However, Krishnabodha died in 1973, and he nominated his disciple Swaroopananda Saraswati, a prior disciple of Brahmananda, as his successor. But because Shantananda still occupied the Jyotir Math ashram built by Brahmananda, Swaroopananda took residence in a nearby building or ashram

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