Vanamali Mataji

Vanamali Mataji resides in Vanamali Ashram, Rishikesh. Vanamali is one of the names of Lord Krishna and she is an ardent Krishna Bhakta. She has published many books on the Hindu gods - Sri Krishna Lila, Sri Rama Lila, Sri Shiva Lila, Sri Devi Lila, The Lila of the Sons of Shiva, Hanuman Lila, The Science called Hinduism, Dwarakanatha, Gurudeva, Nitya Yoga (Essays on the Bhagavad Gita), Translation of the Bhagavad Gita etc. Most of these have been published in the US by Inner Traditions, Vermont, under different names. She has conducted classes on the Vedic Way of Life in many countries and gives talks on the Sreemad Bhagavad Gita both in the Ashram and abroad.

The Ashram is run by Mohanji who is her brother and is an exemplary Karma Yogi. The Ashram does a lot of charitable work in both Rishikesh and in a small Himalayan village called Gaja in the Garwal Himalayas. About a hundred widows are being given rations and many have also been adopted by various philanthropists all over the world. They also help in running a small village school in Gaja and a Tribal school in the Wynad district of Kerala.

In Gaja they distribute shawls, sweaters, blankets etc during the winter and school books to poor children. They are also in the process of replacing the granite roofs of the villagers with tin roofs before the rainy season.

At the moment Mataji is very concerned at the total lack of knowledge about Hinduism by the modern generation. She feels that the only way to offset this is to try and see that the future generation is given a basic education in Hinduism along with their ordinary school curriculum. With this in view she has just started a Trust called “Adiveda” which is meant to teach children all about Hinduism starting from primary schools. For this she has written something called the “Basic Tenets of Hinduism” which is being translated into Hindi. Mataji hopes to train teachers and send them to all schools starting with the Hindi speaking states so that the children get a firm foundation of what it means to be a Hindu. After some time she hopes to get translations in different state languages so that it spreads all over India. This is the only way in which we can preserve our national heritage of the Sanatana Dharma which has been given to our country by the great rishis and which will prove a boon to the whole of humanity.