Swami Sridharananda
Swami Sridharananda is the President of the Vedanta Centres in Australia and the minister-in-charge of the Sydney Centre.
Born in Calcutta in December 1925, Swami Sridharananda was educated in Calcutta and obtained a degree in Mechanical Engineering. He joined the Ramakrishna Order in November 1947, received his initiation from Swami Virajananda Maharaj, the 6th President of the Ramakrishna Order. A direct disciple of Holy Mother Sarada Devi, Swami Virajanananda was among the first group of monks who worked along with Swami Vivekananda in establishing the Ramakrishna Mission.
Swami Sridharananda had the privilege of being a personal attendant to his master for 3 years until his Master attained of Mahasamadhi in 1951. He served the Ramakrishna Mission in various centres including Benares, Calcutta (Belur Math), Yangoon in Myanmar and Patna, before being deputed to Lucknow in December 1954. He was the main driving force in the establishment of the Lucknow Ashram and bringing it to its current eminence at its present location. He headed the Lucknow Centre for 46 years, till May 2000.
During 2000, he was assigned the task of establishing the Ramakrishna Order in Australia. Since October 2000 he has been engaged in establishing the Mission’s Centres in Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Adelaide. Swami Sridharananda resides at the Vedanta Centre of Sydney.
Swami Atmeshananda
Swami Atmeshananda is the current resident monk-in-charge of Vedanta Centre Brisbane, a position he has been serving since 2001. He is also the Vice President of Vedanta Centres in Australia.
He joined the Ramakrishna Order in 1978 and received monastic training at its Headquarters at Belur Math in India. Swami Atmeshananda received initiation from Swami Vireswarananda, a disciple of the Holy Mother.
Swami Atmeshananda has served in various capacities with the motto of ‘Service to beings is service to God’. Swami Atmeshananda served in the Ramakrishna Mission Singapore for several years before coming to Australia in March 2001.
Swami Atmeshananda regularly conducts classes on Vedanta including Bhagavad Gita, the Upanishads and Brahma Sutras. He is an exponent of religious harmony and unity of existence and regularly speaks at public events in Brisbane.