User:Yaw ankumah/sandbox/HH Swami SATYANAND SARASWATI

HIS HOLINESS SWAMI SATYANAND SARASWATI(1938-2019)

HEAD OF THE HINDU MONASTERY OF AFRICA, GHANA

Early Life:

His Holiness Swami Satyanand was born on 5th March, 1938 at Brafoyaw a town in Cape Coast in the central region of Ghana to parents who were both illiterate and peasant farmers. Born into a polygamous family, he was the last born of his mother who was the first wife of his father’s two wives.

His Holiness Swami Satyanand recounts that for 3 years he was seriously sick and his mother thought that he will not survive. He finally got healed in a native shrine called `Temawo’ (If you hate me, you will die) which eventually became his nick name and also household name.

Swami Satyanand was very lean in stature as a boy due to his ill health at the early stages of his life yet despite that he was a very active boy and played football as a hobby as well as ludo and draft. Swami Satyanand was a free spirited boy and obeyed all his duties and obligations as such did not have any fears as he recalls his only vice was disobeying his father who was not encouraging of him going to school.

Education and Career: His Holiness Swami Satyanand started school at the age of 8 on his own without the knowledge of his parents. His father was not enthused about giving him an education therefore he had to outwit him by getting up earlier than usual and also using four different routes as his father on several occasions tried to stop him along the way to his school. This hide and seek continued until his parents fought bitterly over it resulting in the eventual collapse of their marriage.

His Holiness Swami Satyanand went to school at Moree six miles away from his home on barefoot on a 2 hour walk mostly on an empty stomach and was survived by the generosity of friends. He had no uniform in his first year and only got one when his mother had to go and credit khaki at Cape Coast after the headmaster sacked him for not having the prescribed school attire.

All these hardships did not discourage him from pursuing education. After the completion of his basic education to the level of “standards three” which is class six in the current educational system he sat for the middle certificate examination and gained admission to middle school through a very competitive selection process because the whole of “Aseabu” and its surroundings had only one middle school.

When he reached form 3 at the middle school, Swami Satyanand took up some jobs as a farm labourer which he used to pay for the common entrance certificate examination which he passed with distinction and gained admission to Saint Augustine College in Cape Coast where he was also awarded a half scholarship. Unfortunately, due to economic difficulties he was unable to pursue secondary education so he continued and completed at form 4 where he sat for the middle school secondary education in 1955 and also graduated with a distinction.

His Holiness Swami Satyanand had his first official job as a messenger at the Holy Child at Cape Coast secondary school in 1956 where he worked for a year. He travelled to his cousin at Takoradi and there he also sat for an entry examination that gained him employment as a Tally clerk at the Takoradi Harbor a job he kept for 6 months.

Afterwards he went on to work with GB Ollivant as an accounts clerk and was later on promoted to the position of internal auditor and transferred to Accra where he simultaneously started taking corresponding courses in accounting in 1958. He started with School of Accounting in Glasgow where he wrote and passed RSA 2 and RSA 3 which took him two years to complete.

He further undertook a corresponding course of GCE O level with Cambridge certification examination and continued with the West Africa Certificate Examination where he passed impressively the courses of English, Economics and Geography.

His Holiness Swami Satyanand briefly worked with Football Post as account supervisor for only 3 months as he voluntarily resigned and went to work with Brink and Tile in 1966 which was an agency under State Enterprise Secretariat.

Thereafter, His Holiness Swami Satyanand was offered the opportunity to help structure the accounting system as an assistant accountant of the newly incorporated Ghana Industrial Holding Corporation (GIHOC) at its headquarters which was a replacement of the later. He was subsequently promoted to the position of senior accountant.

In 1976, he was transferred to Nsawam Canary as Senior Accountant. He later on resigned from Nsawam Canary and took up a job an Accountant with a private company at Cape Coast.

Spirituality:

His Holiness Swami Satyanand was born into the Catholic faith however he started his path to Hinduism when he joined the Divine Life Society in October 1972 and after some few months became a vegetarian.

He was first introduced to His Holiness Swami Ghananand Saraswati who was then known as Guru Guide Essel by his friend who was a disciple to the same, because he was then very sick and all attempt to get cured was to no avail.

Upon meeting with Guru Guide Essel who instructed him to perform some prayer rituals thereafter he was soon cured of his infirmity and with an unflinching sense of gratitude and devotion he became a member of the Divine Life Society.

His Holiness Swami Satyanand became very disciplined and devoted to the teachings and practices of Guru Guide Essel and therefore when the later got initiated into the Divine Order of Sanyasi, by His Holiness Swami Krishnanand Saraswati; thus becoming a Hindu Monk with the name His Holiness Swami Ghananand Saraswati in 1975, he obeisantly followed him and also became a Hindu under the reconstituted Hindu Monastery of Africa. For the next 27 years His Holiness Swami Satyanand then known as Mr. Sylvester Kwame Bentum became a disciple of his guru and Master His Holiness Swami Ghananand Saraswati.

In 2012, His Holiness Swami Satyanand was initiated into the divine order of Sanyasi by His Holiness Swami Ghananand Saraswati thus becoming the successor and the second monk of the Hindu Monastery of Africa after the divine transition of His Holiness Swami Ghananand Saraswati in 2016.

His Holiness Swami Satyanand has since built a shrine in the honour of Swami Ghananand Saraswati at the headquarters of the Hindu Monastery of Africa, where daily devotion is offered.

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