He was awarded posthumously the Padma Bhushan, (the third-highest civilian award in the Republic of India), for his exemplary service to the nation in the field of spiritualism in 2016. He was also the spiritual Guru of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Pujya Swamiji as he was fondly known was a renowned traditional teacher of Advaita Vedanta, and founder of the Arsha Vidya Gurukulams in Pennsylvania, USA Rishikesh, Uttarakhand and Coimbatore Tamil Nadu, India. Swami Dayananda Saraswati (15 August 1930 – 23 September 2015) was a renunciate monk of the Hindu Saraswati order of sannyasa.
