Swami Swahananda was born on 29 June 1921 in a village near Habiganj in British India, now in Bangladesh, the youngest of three boys. His father, Nirmal Chandra Goswami, died in April 1921 at the age of 32, just two months before Swahananda was born. His mother, Pramilabala, was only 19 at that time.
University of Calcutta.
He joined the Ramakrishna Order in 1947 and received sannyasa, full monastic ordination, in 1956. Swahananda"s grandmother named him "Bipadbhanjan". Nirmal Chandra had been a disciple of Sarada Devi, and had received initiation from her in 1908.
Swahananda received a Bachelor of Arts from Murari Chand College, Sylhet, in 1943, and a double Master of Arts in English Literature and English Language from the University of Calcutta, in 1945 and 46.
He received initiation in February 1937 from Swami Vijnanananda, a direct disciple of Sri Ramakrishna, and subsequently joined the Ramakrishna Order in 1947. He remained a lecturer at the Vidyamandir at Belur Mathematics for two years, before being sent to the Ramakrishna Mathematics, Madras (now Chennai).
He was ordained a brahmacharin in 1952, and was called Brahmachari Durgachaitanya. In 1954, he joined the Mysore Study Circle.
He received sannyasa, full ordination, in 1956, from Swami Shankarananda.
In 1961 he went on pilgrimage in the Himalayas, and stayed at Uttarkashi to practice spiritual austerities for some months. In the late 1980s, he lectured and gave spiritual guidance in Moscow. Swami Swahananda ji died on 19 October 2012, at the age of 91 at 2:52 pm, Socialist Workers Party. He suffered a brain stem stroke on Wednesday morning.
After several tests and consultations with doctors it was determined that his condition was irreversible and life support was removed per his wishes.
