Pranavananda Saraswathi
Sri Lankan guru
Pranavānanda Saraswati (Swami Pranavananda; 28 August 1908 – 28 August 1982) known previously as N. Ponniah was a founding member of the Divine Life Society in Malaysia.
Early life
N. Ponniah was born on 28 August 1908 at Alavaddi, in Sri Lanka. His parents Nagamuthu and Kannagi were devout Hindus. He studied at Arunodaya College. His college Principal T. Sinnathamby was a great influence. He came into contact with Yogaswami, through the help and guidance of K. Satkunasingam - who was later known as Siva Sathar - who showed him the Yoga Marg.
Service in Malaysia
In 1925 Ponniah went to Malaya and joined the Railway Department. Thereafter he took up employment with the Rubber Research Institute of Malaya served for more than 35 years, rising to Administrative Assistant by the time he retired in 1963. He identified with the activities of Vivekananda Ashrama, Brahma Gyana Sabah, Arul-Neri Thirukkuttam, Theiva-Neri Kazhakam, The Theosophical Society, Hindu Prachar Sabha, Pure Life Society, especially during their formative years.
Blessings of the sages
Ponniah undertook his first pilgrimage to India in 1948, and had darshan and blessings of Bhagawan Ramana Maharshi, Sri Aurobindo, and Kavi Yogi Sudhananda Bharatiar.
The public source identifies “Pranavananda Saraswathi” as sri Lankan guru. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Pranavananda, Saraswathi and Lankan.
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This entry incorporates text from “Pranavananda Saraswathi” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.