Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s guru Swami Dayananda Saraswati has passed away at his ashram in Rishikesh. He was 85. He had been ailing for quite sometime. Modi had come to meet his ailing guru at his Rishikesh ashram on September 11. The meeting between the two had lasted for about 45 minutes.

Swami Dayananda Saraswati

• Swami was born in 1930 in Manjakudi as Natarajan.
• He was drawn to Indian philosophy, particularly the Advaita school, listening to Swami Chinmayananda.
• During the late 1950s and early 1960s, his association with Swami Chinmayananda grew closer as he began taking Vedanta lessons.
• In 1962, he took ‘Sanyas’ to become Swami Dayananda Saraswati.
• He continued his association with Swami Chinmayananda for a long time and the two set up Sandipani Sadhanalaya in the then Bombay to train people in Vedanta.
• Swami Dayananda Saraswati set up the Acharya Sabha, bringing pontiffs from all over the country on a common platform to take up the cause of Hinduism and debate the challenges it faced.
• He was also a vocal opponent of religious conversion, calling it assault on faith.

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The Brahmo Samaj was founded by ________.