Swami Agnivesh

( Sep 21 1939 - Sep 11 2020 )

Other Detail

Achievements

Swami Agnivesh, born on September 21,1939 in Srikakulam, winner of the Alternative Nobel Peace Prize (the Right Livelihood Award), 2004, is a cyclonic Swami. At the young age of 28, he abandoned a promising career as a professor of law and Business Management Xt. Xavier's College , Calcutta for a life of activism. Born into a Brahmin - upper caste - South Indian family, he shed his name, caste, religion, family, and all his belongings and property to adopt the life of a 'Swami' or renunciate, and began his life's crusade for social justice and compassion. The term 'Swami' is misused and misunderstood. It denotes, as with Christian or Buddhist monks and renunciates, one who gives up all his individual, social and birth based identities and belongings to serve humanity and pursue spiritual truth. In 1994, he was appointed the Chairperson of the UN Trust Fund on Contemporary Forms of Slavery. He is better known across the globe in general and India in particular for his campaigns against bonded labor, and is founder-Chairperson of the Bandhua Mukti Morcha (Bonded Labor Liberation Front). Swami Agnivesh has spearheaded the interfaith and inter-religious movement nationally and globally. Applied Spirituality by Swami Agnivesh is taught in University of America. Glen Martin prescribes this book in Radford University. Many times he was attacked by BJP Hindu fanatics, Brutal attack in Pakur, Jharkhand on 17th July 2018 damaged his liver which ultimately led to his sad demise on September 11, 2020.

Profession

Spiritual Speaker

Address

Srikakulam, Andhra Pradesh