Kalyandev ji Maharaj was born as Kaluram in Kotana village in the district of Baghpat in a family of Jangid Vishwakarma Brahmins, Uttar Pradesh to Bhoi Devi, wife of Pherdudatt.Th He grew up in the village of Mundbhar near Sisauli in the Muzaffarnagar district.
In his youth he travelled to Ayodhya and Haridwar with few belongings and begging along the way to sustain himself. At Haridwar, he heard of Swami Vivekananda"s visit to Khetri. He travelled to Khetri to meet Vivekananda.
On his return from Khetri, Kalyandev became the disciple of Swami Purnananda of Muni Ki Reti, Rishikesh.
Purananda named him Swami Kalyandev. Kalyandev did tapasya in the Himalayas for a few years but then decided to help the poor people of his region.
Kalyandev established almost three hundred schools and medical facilities for the villagers. His work covered western Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, Delhi and elsewhere.
Swami Kalyandev also helped rebuild dilapidated and neglected religious and historical sites.
He renovated a monument in Shuktal, sixty kilometres north of Meerut, associated with the great sage Shuka, the son of Veda Vyasa and the narrator of the Bhagavata. There the swami also established the Shukadeva Ashrama and Seva Samiti. At Shuktal, there is an 80 foot statue of Hanumanji.
He also renovated parts of Hastinapur, the old capital of the Pandavas and Kauravas.
Many places of pilgrimage in Haryana have also received his attention. Swami Kalyandev met Mahatma Gandhiji in 1915.
He was acquainted with luminaries such as Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Doctor Sampurnanand. Later life
He was also awarded an honorary Doctor of Literature by Meerut University.
In 2002, Sri Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the then prime minister of India, had printed The Seer of Three Centuries: Swami Kalyandev.
Swami Kalyandev died in India on July 14, 2004, his age has been disputed due to the uncertainty of his birth date.
VP Singh"s career had taken a nosedive and Swamiji"s advice essentially brought him back to political centrestage culminating in his becoming the Prime Minister of India. During an interview, Swami Kalyandev said his inspiration came in 1893, when he met Swami Vivekananda in Khetri, who said to him, "If you want to see God, go to the huts of the poor.
