Shuddhaanandaa Brahmachari born 10 May 1949, is a motivational speaker and social advocate. He lives in

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

, India, where he founded and is the current mentor of Lokenath Divine Life Mission. He has authored several books and travels internationally, speaking on

stress Stress may refer to: Science and medicine * Stress (biology), an organism's response to a stressor such as an environmental condition * Stress (linguistics), relative emphasis or prominence given to a syllable in a word, or to a word in a phrase ...

reduction,

mindfulness Mindfulness is the practice of purposely bringing one's attention to the present-moment experience without evaluation, a skill one develops through meditation or other training. Mindfulness derives from ''sati'', a significant element of Hind ...

and

meditation Meditation is a practice in which an individual uses a technique – such as mindfulness, or focusing the mind on a particular object, thought, or activity – to train attention and awareness, and achieve a mentally clear and emotionally cal ...

and

microcredit :''This article is specific to small loans, often provided in a pooled manner. For direct payments to individuals for specific projects, see Micropatronage. For financial services to the poor, see Microfinance. For small payments, see Micropayme ...

Early life and career

He received a Master of Commerce degree in 1972 at

Andhra University Andhra University (IAST: ''Āndhra Vișvakalāpariṣhat'') is a public university located in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, India. It was established in 1926. History King Vikram Deo Verma, the Maharaja of Jeypore was one of the biggest do ...

Visakhapatnam , image_alt = , image_caption = From top, left to right: Visakhapatnam aerial view, Vizag seaport, Simhachalam Temple, Aerial view of Rushikonda Beach, Beach road, Novotel, Novotel Visakhapatnam, INS Kursura (S20), INS ...

and taught

Commerce Commerce is the large-scale organized system of activities, functions, procedures and institutions directly and indirectly related to the exchange (buying and selling) of goods and services among two or more parties within local, regional, nation ...

Andhra Vidyalaya College Andhra Vidyalaya College of Arts, Science and Commerce, popularly known as A. V. College, is an educational institution located in Hyderabad, India. The college offers undergraduate graduate and post graduate courses. The college is located on ...

(affiliated to Osmania University). From 1972–1976 he was a lecturer of Commerce at Andhra Vidyalaya College, (affiliated to Osmania University) in Hyderabad, India.

Humanitarian work

He founded Lokenath Divine Life Mission (LDLM) in 1985 in

West Bengal West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fourt ...

, India. Lokenath Divine Life Mission works in the field of education, health care and women's empowerment, utililizing

self-help programs. A former professor of economics, Brahmachari’s model aims at direct credit linkage between banks and SHGs, completely eliminating agencies that play the middleman, such as NGOs. LDLM’s role is to create SHGs through awareness, training and organisation and then enable their credit linkage with the banks. LDLM also performs resource linkage as well as addressing targeted areas of need and collaborating with other organizations on additional programs.

Motivational and spiritual teacher

In 2005, he founded the Stress Management Academy, and began conducting global seminars on breathing, relaxation, meditation, mindfulness and positive thinking for schools, corporations, hospitals, prisons and other venues under his Course of Mindfulness program.

Awards and major speaking engagements

He addressed the Parliament of World Religion in Chicago, (1993) and Barcelona (2004), was a keynote speaker at the Global Youth Conference held at the Capital Center, Washington, DC (1993), and was a special invitee to the United Nations World Millennium Summit of spiritual leaders in New York, (2000). He was a keynote speaker at the International Conference on Spiritual Paradigm for Surmounting Global Management Crisis in Varanasi, India in 2012, 2013. He received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the S.T.A.R foundation at the House of Lords in the United Kingdom on 21 July 2015 for his "invaluable and outstanding contribution to society". He was presented the Award by The Rt Hon, Lord Hunt of Wirral MBE

Books

* The Incredible Life of a Himalayan Yogi: The Times, Teachings and Life of Living Shiva Baba Lokenath, 2014 * Your Mind, Your Best Friend in 2003 * Cleaning the Mirror of Mind: Clutter Free Home, Clutter Free Mind, 2013 Shuddhaanandaa Brahmachari is also a spotlight writer for ''OM Times e-zine''.

Sources

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brahmachari, Shuddhaanandaa 1949 births Bengali Hindus Bengali writers 20th-century Bengalis Activists from West Bengal Bengali philosophers Social workers from West Bengal Bengali activists Indian self-help writers Indian religious writers Indian spiritual writers 20th-century Indian scholars Indian human rights activists Indian activists Indian humanitarians Indian motivational speakers Indian health activists Living people Andhra University alumni