About Swami Aatmanand Ji
We all remember admiring the photograph of a child walking ahead of Mahatma Gandhi Ji while holding one end of his stick, the kid in this photograph was Rameshwar also known as Tulendra Verma who later on became one of the most respected saint, Swami Aatmanand Ji. Just a Glimpse of this picture amazes me to the core and fills in with the realization of the fact that that this kid is the great Swami Aatmanand who had devoted his self in the service of humanity in Chhattisgarh. He has selflessly dedicated his life to the tribal people, he lit the flame of knowledge in the young minds making them learn about compassion and serving the society.
Tulendra was born on 06 October 1929 in the badbanda village of the Raipur District. His Father Dhaniram Verma was a School teacher and his mother Bhagyavati Devi was a housewife. To get well trained in the field of education and teaching Dhaniram Ji enrolled himself in the Training center located at Wardha and shifted there with his family. Dhaniram Ji use to frequently visit Gandhi Ji's Sevagram ashram which was nearby, Tulendra use to visit Sevagram alongside his father. Baby Tulendra used to sing and hymn Bhajans in a very melodious voice. Gandhi Ji used to admire him for his beautiful voice, he use to listen to him with utmost interest. Gandhi Ji was habitual to roam around the ashram with Tulendra, he used to hold one end of the lathi and run which was followed by Gandhi Ji's famous walking style.
A few years later Dhaniram ji came back to Raipur and started a store and continued to lead a normal life whereas Tulendra passed his High school with first division from the St.Pauls School and for further education, he went to science college Nagpur. As there were lack of hostels, he started residing in the Ramkrishna Aashram, from here on he started admiring Swami Vivekananda Ji. He Post Graduated in MSc, Mathematics with First Division, while Following his friends advice he even opted for the IAS exam and came in the top 10 highest scoring candidates but keeping in mind his zeal for selfless service towards humanity, he didn't appear for the interview and went on with Ramakrishna mission's spiritual awakening and mediation.
In the year 1957, then Head of Ramkrishna mission Swami Shankarananda was immensely impressed by Tulendra's versatility and selfless love towards humanity He named Tulendra as Swami Tej Chaitanya, therefore swearing him with Brahamcharya. Swami Tej Chaitanya went to Aashram in the Peak of Himalayas for one year of tough meditation, after which he came back to Raipur. He started working towards glorifying the stay of Swami Vivekananda in Raipur, he started building the ashram for which he was not provided much help but later on the Belur math ashram approved of it.
The beautiful Swami Vivekananda Aashram of Raipur that we witness today is the result of the hard work of Swami Tej Chaitanya who was later on known as Swami Aatmananda. Swami Ji was so much selflessly dedicated towards the people of Chhattisgarh that whatever amount of money he had for building the temple he distributed those to the needy people. He worked very hard to provide food shelter and education to the refugees of Bangladesh that came to Chhattisgarh. On the government's special request he inaugurated the school of spiritual and moral education in Narayanpur. He was popular in Chhattisgarh for his dynamic work towards youth empowerment and moral education. On 27 August, While returning from Bhopal to Raipur, This energetic young soul was taken away from us in an accident near Rajnandgaon. The void will never be filled as he was irreplaceable.