Swami Sarvapriyananda
Hindu monk
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Through Swami, Swami Vivekananda and Upanishads
Early life and education
Sarvapriyananda's pre-monastic name was Biswarup Mitra. He was born in a Bengali Kulin Kayastha family at Kolkata and grew up in Bhubhaneshwar, in the Indian state of Odisha to a pious Bengali family. From childhood onwards, he was inclined towards spirituality and was inspired by the lives of Sri Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda. His family was also devoutly religious. His parents and grandparents were initiated devotees in the Ramakrishna Order tradition. He has stated that his first goal in life was to become a pilot, and the second was to find God, with the second goal later becoming his only goal. At age 23, Sarvapriyananda (then Biswarup Mitra) joined the Ramakrishna Order in 1994 and took his monastic vows as sannyasa diksha was bestowed upon him by Swami Ranganathananda in 2004. His family, at first, objected to his decision to become a monk but later accepted his decision. After passing school, he completed postgraduate studies in business management at the Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar, graduating with its 1994 batch.
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Monastic life
Swami Sarvapriyananda served as assistant minister of the Vedanta Society of Southern California in 2015. He was later appointed head of the Vedanta Society of New York, a position he has been serving since 6 January 2017. Swami Tathagatananda was his predecessor. He was in the first group of Hindu swamis to participate as a Nagral Fellow for the year 2019–20 at Harvard Divinity School.
Before being posted to the Hollywood Temple, he served as an acharya or teacher at Monastic probationer training center, Belur Math. He also served the Ramakrishna Order by becoming the vice principal of Deoghar Vidyapith Higher Secondary School and becoming Principal of Ramakrishna Mission Shikshanamandira (teacher-training college), Belur Math.
Teachings
Swami Sarvapriyananda frequently speaks at symposia and events focused on Advaita Vedanta teachings, and has participated in discussions with other non-dualists. He is a very strong proponent and scholar of the Indian Upanishad school of thought and the philosophy or Darshan, particularly of Self and Consciousness contained in them. He has delivered many lectures on the same topic. In episode five of Dispatches from The Well hosted at Big Think media portal, he reflects on contributions of Vedanta to the conversation on the Hard problem of consciousness. Fortune India mentions Sarvapriyananda as "one of the best known lecturers of the Vedanta in the world today". Speaking with Time on the occasion of the International Day of Yoga in 2018, Sarvapriyananda stated that "doing (yoga) the right way can change the way you live, work and love" while criticising the "vulgarisation and distortion of yoga today".
In 2026, Swami Sarvapriyananda was among the theologians and spiritual leaders invited by Anthropic to its San Francisco headquarters to discuss AI ethics and morality.