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Swamini Pramananda Spiritual Advisor Ganga Prem Hospice

Swamini Pramananda

Microbiology and spirituality may not look to be very compatible subjects but the Ganga Prem Hospice spiritual advisor, Swamini Pramananda has traversed a long way from being a microbiologist to a Vedanta teacher. Swamini Pramananda lives in Uttarkashi by the river Ganga to lead a secluded life of sadhana in the Himalayas. For the last twenty-five years, "Ammaji," as Swamini Pramananda's followers call her, has been teaching Vedanta, Sanskrit and Vedic Heritage, both in India and abroad. With her brother Sri Dhira Chaitanya, she wrote a series of 24 books, known as Purna Vidya, which provides a comprehensive overview of Vedic wisdom and culture.

Born in Bombay, Swamini Pramananda's interest in spiritual knowledge took her to California where she studied Vedanta and Sanskrit taught by Swami Dayananda. After completing her Masters degree in Microbiology from New York University, she worked in the same city for five years in a diagnostic research clinic and another five years as a researcher for the Institute of Basic Research.

Later Swamini Pramananda returned to India where she studied and taught Sanskrit and vedanta under her Guru ji's guidence. At the same time as teaching Vedic Heritage her interest in development work led her to run a programme for the empowerment of tribal women, as well as projects in health care and education for the poor tribal people of the hilly areas of Southern India.

Swamini Pramanada has been a part of the Ganga Prem Hospice project almost from its inception. As the Ganga Prem Hospice's spiritual advisor, she visits the Hospice's terminally-ill patients whenever she is in Rishikesh. Having seen death up close with cancer patients, and also having explored death as a spiritual subject as defined in the Vedas, Swamini Pramananda says, "Spirituality is the only way one can find solace in the last days. It reassures the individual that the soul has no death; that it continues to exist and evolve." One of the Swamini's own young disciples had cancer and she helped her by sharing her love and insight in student's last days.

Swamini Pramananda has traveled extensively throughout the world and finds a marked difference in people's attitudes towards death, in India and abroad. She says, "In India, death is very much considered a natural aspect of life. Reincarnation is a much more accepted concept in India than in other countries, though there has been a steady increase in the number of people believing in reincarnation abroad."

The only permanent components of Swamini Pramananda's daily routine are her prayers and meditation. "For the rest, I readily become a part of whatever picture emerges everyday." She continues to spend most of her time in retreat in her ashram but occasionally leaves her solitude to benefit small groups of seekers by sharing her vast scriptural knowledge with them.