Swami Ishatmananda Maharaj | KALPATARU UTSAV 2022 | 3rd January 2022, Monday.

Swami Ishatmananda, a monk of the Ramakrishna Mission, got associated with the holy order at the Ramakrishna Mission, Cherrapunji, Meghalaya.

The 10th President of the Order, Srimat Swami Vireshwaranandaji Maharaj blessed him by initiation.

He was attached with Advaita Ashrama (Kolkata) an English publication center of the Ramakrishna order for 12 years and was bestowed with Sanyasa in 1986 by Srimat Swami Gambhiranandaji Maharaj, the 11th President of the Order.

He has worked at the well-known educational institution of the Ramakrishna Mission in Purulia, West-Bengal. He has redered his services at time of natural calamities in Assam, West Bengal, and Orissa.

Swamiji is the Founder Secretary of the Ramakrishna Mission, Port Blair, Andaman Islands, where he built a home for destitute and orphans. He constructed two huge buildings, Jnana Mandir and Karma Mandir, housing a national level competitive examination coaching center and a vocational center, respectively.

Swami Ishatmananda was also the principal-cum-Secretary of the Ramakrishna Mission School, Narottam Nagar, Tirap, Arunachal Pradesh. An educational institution situated in the deep jungle of Tirap district, it basically runs on the "gurukul system" with four English medium schools. More than 500 Arunachali tribal students, from Class I to Class XII, stay in the ashrama under the guidance of the sanyasins. It has a 20 bed-hospital "Swasti" and a "Vishwakarma Vidyalaya", where tribal girls receive vocational training.

Swami Ishatmananda was the Vice-President of the Uttar-Purbanchal Ramakrishna Vivekananda Bhava Prachar Parishad which has 59 centers all over Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Nagaland, and Manipur.

He has written many articles that have been published in Ramakrishna Mission journals and other journals as well. He has given discourses on the Bhagavad Gita in different parts of Assam, extensively traveled different places of India, attended seminars and delivered lectures at colleges, universities, and devotee congregation on spiritual ideals and ideologies.

Advaita Ashram, Kolkata has published his discourses on the Bhagavad Gita as a set of 14 DVDs. Swami Ishatmananda has translated Swami Budhananda's book "The mind and its control" to Bengali.

Swami Ishatmananda came to Vivekananda Vedanta Society of Chicago on 28th February and took charge as the President on March 4th 2013. Under his leadership the society observed 150th Birth Anniversary of Swami Vivekananda through different programs held from August through November 2013.

During the 2013 Indian Independence day a life-size cutout of Swamiji was carried on a float in a procession in Chicago. In October 2013, he organized a program at the University of Chicago's Rockefeller Memorial Chapel in collaboration with the University's Spiritual Life Office. Around 700 people attended and the first two scholars to the “Indian Ministry of Culture Vivekananda Visiting Professorship” were announced. The program also included choir singing, fusion music, lectures by univesity faculty, and addresses by the monks.