Swami Pranrupanand

There is a saying in Indian culture that “one who has no one has God”. Swami Pranrupanand Ji has made this a reality by giving support to the orphan tribal children with his sense of service. The person who does such work on earth is akin to God for us. Our scriptures delineate many forms and types of service. Serving mankind is one of the best services. Swami Ji has done the paramount work of protecting humanity by accepting the same.

Swami Pranrupanand Ji was born in Odisha. Swami Ji attained sanyas in 1968 after completing his graduation in science and entered the Ramakrishna Mission’s service scheme and served till 1978. By staying in the Ramakrishna Mission, he yearned for the service of all living beings.

While living the life of an ascetic, Swami Ji visited the vanvasi areas and meditated deeply. Seeing the lack and challenges of the forest life, his heart melted and he decided to work for their adequate development. Swami Ji realised that neither there is a way for the convenience of traffic, nor is there a system for the supply of drinking water. One has to fetch drinking water from far away. There is a significant lack of education. Consequently, due to this illiteracy, chaos was flourishing. There were also considerable cases of converting people by means of economic temptation and fear of deceit. Then Swami Ji was inspired to come out of the Ramakrishna Mission and work for the development of the humble vanvasis and to retrieve them out of the vicious circle spread by the missionaries. This became the main aim of his life.

While working in the forest areas, in 1982 Swami Pranrupanand Ji built an orphanage for 25 orphans and made a successful plan to make them self-sufficient and fruitfully achieved his goal. Fulfilling this responsibility, he served as the working president of the ‘Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram’ Odisha and completed a tenure of 25 years and also safeguarded the Orphanage.

Moving firmly on his duty and allegiance, Swami Ji facilitated the religious reaffirmation of 50 children of the Yashoda Sadan.

Due to his tireless efforts to stop the conversion many tribal areas such as Kandhamal, Ganjam, Gajapati, etc, remained free from conversion. This is a great achievement in the context of the preservation of Indian culture.

Apart from Odisha, Swami Ji improved the standard of living of the tribals of Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, Jharkhand and Bengal by staying in the forest areas and communicating religious words as well. Swami Ji undertook the imperative work of propagating and disseminating the literature concerning Swami Vivekananda. At the time when he started the orphanage, due to financial constraints, it started functioning in a makeshift hut. However, a benevolent teacher donated the place and an Australian resident provided financial support for the building construction. When a person follows the course of service with a true conscience, then his path becomes smooth.

Swami Ji has also published a bilingual (Odia-English) monthly magazine named Prabha to make his resolution more comprehensive. Along with this, for the welfare of this world, he also published 3 lakh Vishnu Sahasranamam, 10 thousand Shrimad Bhagwat Gita and 10 thousand Shiva Mahimna Stotram. Swami Ji also took charge of Thakkar Bapa Ashram (established by Shri. Mohan Nayak) near Brahmapur. He was also effectively the in-charge of Kolkata’s Ramakrishna Mission hostel for 5 years.

Education initiates substantial change in an individual. Creates a conscience of what should be done and what should not be done. Swami Ji didn’t only provide accommodation and food to the orphan children but he also made proper arrangements for their education. By making arrangements for their education, the trend of fish theft from the Central Fisheries Research Centre by the residents of Uttara village was also stopped. Later the same people also started working there. The tendency of drug addiction also decreased due to promising employment opportunities. After this endeavour, Swamiji was addressed as the ‘Uttara Baka’. When there is goodness in the goal and the work is carried out with authenticity, then it becomes a movement. Witnessing the work of Swamiji, the Marwari Mahila Samiti of Bhubaneswar took a pledge to provide financial support for the ashram.

The ashram has made constant efforts to improve the future of the children. Some children from here are working as engineers in the Air Force and headmasters in schools. This is a unique example of excellence in achievement.

Swami Pranrupanand Ji’s efforts towards the upliftment of tribals are commendable and for his excellent service, ‘Sant Eshwer Foundation’ has honoured him with the ‘Sant Eshwer Vishisht Seva Samman’ for the year 2019.