Grand marathon organised in Bhubaneswar on the martyrdom day of Swami Laxmananand Saraswati

Bhubaneswar. A grand marathon was organised in Bhubaneswar on the occasion of ‘Janmashtami’, the martyrdom day of Swami Lakshmananand Saraswati. More than three thousand people participated in this mass running programme organised by Swami Lakshmananand Saraswati Smriti Trust. People from different sections of the society participated in this programme. This mass run started from the Bhubaneswar Fair Grounds and again reached the Fair Grounds via Shri Ram Temple, Shreya Chowk, Master Canteen, Rajmahal Chowk and Giridurga Temple. After this, a resolution meeting was organised near the Fair Grounds, in which the saints gave blessings. Swami Shraddhanand Saraswati Maharaj, National Co-organizing Minister of All India Sant Samiti, Swami Shankaranandgiri Maharaj, President of East India and Odisha, Mahant Ramakrishna Das Maharaj, Head of Radhavallava Math of Odisha, Senior Sanyasi Swami Brahmananda Saraswati Maharaj, Swami Damodaranand Saraswati of Divya Jeevan Sangha Maharaj, Baba Ramesh Maharaj of Mah ima Alekh Gadi, Swami Jigyasanand Saraswati Maharaj, Swami Nirvananand Giri Maharaj, Eastern Minister of Vishwa Hindu Parishad Mahant Krishna Gopal Das Maharaj, Chaitanya Maharaj of Bhubaneswar and many saints. These saints began the great mass race showing the flag. Swami Lakshmananand Saraswati Smriti Nyaya’s administrator, Mansukhlal Sethia and heads of various social and religious organisations were also present at the programme. This programme was organised in conjunction with Jaikrishna Prushti.

A residential school and hostel were established in Kandhamal.

Addressing the gathering, the saints said that Swami Lakshmanananda Saraswati was born in 1924 in Gurujang village of Angul district of Odisha. He returned from the Himalayas in 1965 and came to Odisha to join the movement against cow slaughter and conversion. In 1968, he went to Kandhamal district under the scheme of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. For more than four decades, Swamiji worked tirelessly for the social, religious and economic development of the respective areas and tried to empower them. To improve the educational sector, Swamiji also established boarding schools, colleges and hostels in Chakkapada and Jaleshpata. He established satsang centres in all the villages of Kandhamal district. Thousands of tribals were freed from drug addiction through satsang. Swamiji was not only knowledgeable in literature and philosophy but also in agriculture, animal husbandry and fruit cultivation which he taught to the tribal people of Kandhamal. He was the main protector of the tribal culture. At that time, the poor were initiated into Christianity by showing deceit, fraud and greed. Swami ji stood firm like a mountain against this unjust and illegal act. As a result, he was always the target of Christian missionaries.

Swamiji was murdered in 2008 and got justice

The speakers present said that on August 23, 2008, during the holy festival of Janmashtami, at 7.30 pm, attackers entered the Shankaracharya School at Jaleshpata and opened fire killing Swami Lakshmanananda Saraswati, the school principal, Maa Bhaktamayee, Baba Amritananda and the teenage Baba and the father of a student, Puranjan Ganthi, were killed. No effort has been made so far to arrest the conspirators in this case. The saints demanded that justice be done in this murder case.

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