Founder & History
The Initial years
Ram Chandra was born on 1969 July 18
Ramchandra is the eldest of a peasant family living in Purkot, Gulmi district, in western Nepal. It is a very mountainous region, a real patchwork of terraced crops and earth houses, between 1400 and 2300 m above sea level. It is dominated by peaks at 3000 m, not very far from Dhaulagiri, One of the
highest mountains in Himalayas, entirely in Nepal (8167 m), which can be seen in the distance when you climb on the ridges above the villages.
There, in this lost corner of Nepal, a very poor and often very hard life is given to him to live. He is the oldest of 5 brothers and sisters. At the birth of his last brother, he just turned 12 years old, and then decides to secretly leave his family and his country in the hope of finding a job and a future: it will make one mouth less to feed for his parents.
On foot, following some 18-20 year old villagers, he walks tor 4 days, 14 hours a day, to Butwal. Discovers electricity and the train .. which makes a terrible noise!
And it is in the process of reaching India, always in the company of the young people who took him with them.
Paradise on Earth
He begs Goddess Parvati to give him some food.
Hungry, he pounces on the food before turning to the old lady to thank her .. but she’s gone.. and he doesn’t even see her on the way, either one way or the other.
Seeing this opportunity, the opportunity to learn to shoot and to be able to defend cows from tiger attacks, (as had happened several times in his youth), he agreed to become a soldier.
This new life seems to him to be heaven on earth: he can eat every day, several times a day, Full of good things like he has never had, can wash himself with soap and learn various things
Return To Source
After a few years, his regiment was transferred to Calcutta (Varanasi), near a Shiva temple where he met a monk who told him that a Brahmin should read, learn, and do austerities. He must study Life, texts, Masters…and not be a simple soldier!
Ramchandra comes from a Brahmin family.
He reads a verse from the Ramayana of Valmiki.
He then realizes that he does not like military service and arms and ends up leaving the army to start, at 15, a lite of a sadhu, pilgrim monk, which will last 6 years.
He learns Sanskrit and English, meditation and many practices, makes vows of silence, makes many austerities and advance, with different masters, in the discovery of knowledge transmitted for millennia on the realities and illusions of life.
The Mother & Sri Arubindo
He suddenly discovers the philosophy of Sri Aurobindo and of Mother through a book. Feeling the nectar of life in these writings, he immediately leaves for Pondicherry and settles, very shortly after, in the ashram where he will live for 12 years.
He became the servant of Champaklal, who was himself the personal servant of Sri Aurobindo and Mother for more than 50 years.
After 3 intense years in his service, Champaklal died in his arms during a stay in Bombay (Mumbai). This period of 3 years is, he says, for him, the golden age of his life
Return to Nepal
Atter almost 2 decades, in January 1993, at 30, he returned to Nepal.
He is seized by the misery of children, malnourished, dirty, dragging on the roads and so many What shocked him the most? the snot that drools from the noses of so many children!
He decided to create an ashram to publicize the integral yoga and the philosophy of Sri Aurobindo and Mother, of French origin, who is at the origin of the creation of Auroville. He founded, with 7 other Nepalese, the Sri Aurobindo Yoga Mandir then he returned to Pondicherry where he thought he would live while returning from time to time to Kathmandu to develop and guide the ashram, bring money and transmit the teachings.
But it doesn’t go the way he wants. after 2 months of absence, he finds the dirty and inactive ashram, his money is wasted. Never mind: After going back to Pondicherry it’s not the same anymore. His soul is not happy.
After intense questioning, he decides to follow until the end of the way which will indicate to him his master and friend Nirod- Da, one of the twelve close disciples of Sri Aurobindo you never know, sometimes that he tells me to stay, that my place is really here. In his heart, this is what he would like: to stay at the ashram, with his spiritual family, here he feels so happy. Life calls him to return to Nepal, and the voice does not only confirm it: you have nothing to do here. Go back to Nepal
The Sri Arubindo Yoga Mandir
He decides to come to the aid of all these children encountered on the roads of his return, feeling deep down the need to serve is people and his county.
With his few savings, an April 24, 1993, abandoning the first ashram project, he bought a small earth house on the heights of Kathmandu, without water, electricity and toilets. This is where the first ashram will develop in order to realize the teachings of Sri Aurobindo and Mother.
He begins to take with him children, orphans or from very poor families, to offer them an education.
They are 3, 4 or 5 years old.
During the day, he leaves to work in Kathmandu, leaving them some school work to do. Then he gives them lessons from his return from work, until the evening.
After a year, there are 20. then 40 of them living in the little house. They go to school outside, in front of the house. Since then, he has devoted himself completely to this work, guiding many children and adults to regain the dignity or being and living. In his eyes, t is not useful to run away from the world to have spiritual experiences: he wants all his peers to have a deep experience and shows them the way, convinced that a quantum leap will result in the evolution of humanity.
A life at the service of mother & children
Swami Ramchandra Das is a real Karmayogi
The practice of karma-yoga is one of the 4 traditional ways of yoga: selfless action yoga. It is based or the detachment from the fruits of the action…on the fact of desiring neither praise nor reward for what has been accomplished.
The Karmayogi acts in an impartial and impersonal manner, without ego: he has no personal interest and has rejected any sense of possessiveness. Satisfied with what falls to him without having sought it, having crossed dualities, envying no one, equal in failure and success, he is not chained even when he acts
An example and an inspiration for all. For those who have met him. Ramchandra inspires respect, so great is the Gift of himself, and so much he radiates kindness!
All the children call him “Mama” (Maternal Uncle)
He makes you want to follow him and give, give and give again.. his life and his heart, without counting. without restraint, and without fear.
I never planned anything. It all comes. So, l start, I do. and it comes! It’s like that! With the Divine, EVERYTHING is possible
