Early Years
Satchidananda was born in 1914 into a pious and devoted Gounder family at Chettipalayam, a small village in Coimbatore, near Podanur in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu and was named as C. K. Ramaswamy Gounder. His parents affectionately called him Ramu. He remained a vegetarian all his life and abstained from eating meat at all times. After graduating from an agricultural college, he took a position with his uncle's firm, which imported motorcycles. By the age of 23 he became a manager at India's National Electric Works. During this period he got married and had two children. His wife died five years later. Ramaswamy then left his two young sons with their paternal grandmother and decided to go on a spiritual journey.
Read more about this topic: Satchidananda Saraswati
Famous quotes related to early years:
“I believe that if we are to survive as a planet, we must teach this next generation to handle their own conflicts assertively and nonviolently. If in their early years our children learn to listen to all sides of the story, use their heads and then their mouths, and come up with a plan and share, then, when they become our leaders, and some of them will, they will have the tools to handle global problems and conflict.”
—Barbara Coloroso (20th century)