Year 1997 His Divine Holiness At Age 19

Photos

His Divine Holiness Bhagavan Nithyananda Paramashivam (HDH) left home when He was 17. His first stop was the Ramakrishna Mutt in Mylapore, Chennai. After four years there He spent 6 months in their Belur Mutt in Kolkata after which He left the mutt and continued His Spiritual pursuit. Following pictures were taken during the time that He was a Brahmachari at the Ramakrishna Mutt.

Ramakrishna Mutt Period

1997 Dec | This was taken in the Chennai Central Railway station during my stay in Ramakrishna Mutt, Chennai. We had gone to bid farewell to Swami Tyagananda, the person with the bag of sweets. He was travelling to Calcutta to fly out from there to Boston, USA to his new posting at the Ramakrishna Mutt branch located there.

1997 Dec | This was taken during a 2-day trip to Tiruvannamalai by a group of us from Ramakrishna Mutt. We would make a yearly trip to a chosen holy place. Upon my persistence we made it to Tiruvannamalai, my birthplace, that year.

This photograph was taken in my house. Members of my biological family are performing pada puja (sacred offering to the feet of Sanyasis) as a mark of respect and gratitude to the sanyasis.

This photograph was taken in my premonastic home. One of the brahmacharis (monks) is offering arati (lit camphor) to the small altar in the living room.

This photograph was taken in my premonastic home. Sampath maharaj, the senior-most Swami amongst us was given a new born baby to bless with a name during our visit there, upon my guidance.

HDH organised for multifarious activities during this trip for the Maharaja's to get a fulfilling experience of the place. Gopal maharaj later recounts to the disciples of HDH that the two days were the most packed days in their life ever and never had anyone in the group participated so much in just two days!

This was taken during the guided tour of Tiruvannamalai for the group. The group can be seen climbing the sacred Arunachala Hill.

1997 October : It was Dusshera (nine-day festival dedicated to the Cosmic Mother) and HDH was in the Kancheepuram branch of the Ramakrishna mutt for around 3 months.

For Dusshera He hand-made these deities of Durga, Lakshmi and Saraswati with mud clay, decorated them and celebrated the 9-day festival. He took them out on procession to great demand and at the end of the nine days, immersed them in the nearby water body as per the tradition. He was 19 years then.