Dandi Swami Narayananand Saraswati

दण्डी स्वामी नारायणानन्द सरस्वती
Daṇḍī Svāmī Nārāyaṇānanda Sarasvatī

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नारायणानन्द Nārāyaṇānanda
Nārāyaṇa = Supreme Being + ānanda = bliss, ecstacy

Dandi Swami is variously known and referred to as:-
'Dandi Swami Narayanand', 'Narayanananda', 'Narayananda',
'Swami Narayana', 'Dandiswami', 'Narayanandaji', 'Swamiji' etc

Before becoming a sannyasi, Dandi Swami Narayananand was a student of Swami Brahmanand Saraswati, Shankaracharya of Jyotirmath (1941-1953). Here is a film of the guru taken towards the end of his life.

Swami Sivananda's ashram in Rishikesh attracted many visitors in the early 1950's, including the new Shankaracharya of Jyotir Math, Swami Shantanand Saraswati. Some of these meetings were captured on film:-

'Gurus' - documentary

Jerry Hall - Gurus - the search for enlightenment

Jerry Hall
'Gurus' - The Search for Enlightenment - BBC3 - 2003

When in 2003 Jerry Hall interviewed Dandi Swami Narayananand Saraswati (a fellow student of the same guru as Maharishi Mahesh Yogi), she was clearly hoping to talk to him about The Beatles and their visit to Rishikesh. However, in 1968 Dandi Swami was elsewhere, in the service of Shankaracharya Shantanand Saraswati (successor to the guru of Dandi Swami & Maharishi).

Jerry Hall's three-part series, entitled 'Gurus', was shown in the UK on BBC3 in Autumn 2003 & Dandi Swami Narayananand makes a brief appearance:-

Bjarne Hansen captured Dandi Swami Narayananand on video and kindly shared the clip via YouTube:-

Bjarne recalls: "My wife Vibeke and I spent Newyear's day of 2007 with Dandiswami in Rishikesh - puja, meditation, spiritual jokes and laughter .... That was when the short video of him was shot. Now, his English was not good but anyhow, we were able to communicate. Dandiswami insisted I knew someone named Eva in Denmark, and I had to reply to him; 'No.... there are so many Evas in Denmark, no chance,....' But he insisted and gave me a telephone number.
Now when we returned from India I made the call and found I knew Eva, indeed she had been my neighbour for a short while in 1982, in Sweden, .. & I had not talked to her for decades.
It's a small world and Rishikesh is magic, thanks to Souls like Dandiswami, since thousands of years ...."
"Dandiswami was very fond of Eva Bergmann as she helped him in small ways such as buying warm clothes etc."

Dandi Swami Narayananand Saraswati & Bjarne Hansen
Bjarne Ulrich Hansen & Dandi Swami Narayananand Saraswati
inside Swami Dandiji's Kutir - New year 2007
Rishikesh, India

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