Three years ago Sushri Anan­da made a de­ci­sion that would for­ev­er be in the his­to­ry books for Trinidad and To­ba­go. This was when she be­came the youngest per­son to be ini­ti­at­ed as a Swa­mi (a Hin­du re­li­gious teacher) right here in Trinidad. The ini­ti­a­tion was done by two holy men of In­dia. With her ini­ti­a­tion, Sushri got a new name – Sad­hvi Anan­damaiy­ee Gir­i­ji, which means the em­bod­i­ment of bliss­ful­ness and one who is al­ways try­ing to go up­wards. Usu­al­ly, be­com­ing a Swa­mi means an im­mense amount of con­trol over the mind. As a Swa­mi, the young woman has to re­move ego, lust, anger, at­tach­ment, de­sire through men­tal strength, equi­lib­ri­um and tol­er­ance. In­stead, she must main­tain equi­lib­ri­um, sta­bil­i­ty, in­ner peace, keeps com­pas­sion in the face of any odds and re­jects af­fec­tion, ap­pre­ci­a­tion, recog­ni­tion, praise and ad­mi­ra­tion.

As we join the Hin­du com­mu­ni­ty in cel­e­brat­ing the re­li­gious fes­ti­val of Di­vali, the WE Mag team took some time to get to know a bit more about the young, fe­male Swa­mi and her de­ci­sion to choose the life which she now leads. Here’s what she had to share with us:

Why did you make the de­ci­sion to be­come a Swa­mi?

San­nyas (com­plete re­nun­ci­a­tion) re­quired in­ten­sive spir­i­tu­al prac­tices and in-depth study. This ma­te­r­i­al world is full of so many com­pli­ca­tions. The dai­ly plea­sures and com­forts of life nev­er held any at­trac­tion to me. Fur­ther in­spired by the life of my fa­ther, men­tor and teacher Swa­mi Brah­ma Swaru­panan­da, in his life as a Swa­mi and nur­tured by him from the ten­der age of three, I al­ways felt that there was a high­er pur­pose to this hu­man birth that went be­yond the realms of phys­i­cal and ma­te­r­i­al com­forts. There was al­ways a burn­ing fire and deep hunger in the depth of my be­ing to find the re­al pur­pose of ex­is­tence. San­nyas is the best way for in­ner peace, si­lence, hap­pi­ness and con­tent­ment. Tak­ing vows to be­come a Swa­mi was not a de­ci­sion but it was an evo­lu­tion from one stage of life to the next for com­plete ded­i­ca­tion for a high­er pur­pose, in ser­vice to hu­man­i­ty to­wards di­vin­i­ty.

What’s the biggest chal­lenge you’ve had to over­come and how did you deal with it?

Chal­lenges are part of the ebb and flow of life but I look at chal­lenges as op­por­tu­ni­ties, an av­enue of learn­ing and step­ping for­ward. If there are no chal­lenges, there is no scope for growth and de­vel­op­ment with ma­tu­ri­ty and the op­por­tu­ni­ty to de­vel­op in­to a bal­anced and in­te­grat­ed per­son­al­i­ty. “Clouds come float­ing in­to my life, no longer to car­ry rain or ush­er storm, but to add colour to my sun­set sky.”― Ra­bindranath Tagore.

Per­son­al chal­lenges are not too wor­ry­ing to me but I’m grave­ly con­cerned about our so­cial and na­tion­al chal­lenges. So­ci­ety is so frag­ment­ed, stressed and strug­gling. I love our coun­try, and hope that so­lid­i­fi­ca­tion would come in this so­ci­ety and na­tion and at all spheres, we would be amongst the top in the world. There is a great need to lift in

How did it feel hav­ing to shave your head, what did that rep­re­sent for you?

Shav­ing my head was in­deed a very emo­tion­al mo­ment for me. It rep­re­sent­ed the spir­it of re­nun­ci­a­tion and com­plete de­tach­ment. In­deed, I shed tears when I felt the first move­ment of the ra­zor on my head not due to sad­ness or fear but I felt the herald­ing of a new birth and at last the burn­ing agony of the heart was sa­ti­at­ed with rest­ful peace as the flow­ing riv­er merges in­to the source of the ocean. It is part of the tra­di­tion when ini­ti­at­ed in­to the path of San­nyas to clean your head and to take new, or­ange clothes which sym­bol­is­es a lifestyle com­mit­ted to­wards gain­ing self-knowl­edge. Or­ange rep­re­sents the fire of self­less ser­vice, dis­pas­sion, re­nun­ci­a­tion and ded­i­ca­tion.

Tell us some­thing about you that peo­ple may not know?

Sri Ra­makr­ish­na Paramhansa, Gu­ru of Swa­mi Vivekanan­da is my spir­i­tu­al ide­al. I find peace in plant­i­ng and nur­tur­ing flow­ers and trees and my favourite place to med­i­tate is when trav­el­ling alone on a long haul flight soar­ing in the sky.

What are you most grate­ful for?

The fact that I grew up in dif­fi­cult sit­u­a­tions in life. Child­hood was not easy but in the midst of all of these (sit­u­a­tions) I got courage, strength, in­ner con­fi­dence and de­vel­oped com­pas­sion, un­der­stand­ing and val­ue to help oth­ers to share, ac­com­mo­date, ad­just and tol­er­ate; high­er ap­pre­ci­a­tion and val­ue for life. Due to life’s strong roots there are many fruits. I am most grate­ful that I took birth in this coun­try, this na­tion and at the ear­ly age of three, I found my guide and mas­ter.

Do you have any words to share with oth­er women who may want to fol­low in your light?

I en­cour­age women who want to give their lives in full ser­vice to so­ci­ety, hu­man­i­ty and di­vin­i­ty. The path as a san­nyasin is a lifestyle, a phi­los­o­phy, a men­tal­i­ty, a be­hav­iour. The path is not easy. It re­quires con­trol of sense or­gans and com­plete de­tach­ment from the ma­te­r­i­al world. The mis­sion and vi­sion should be very clear and car­ried out with pas­sion to­wards to­tal hu­man de­vel­op­ment for a bet­ter world or­der. Let us be ready to be bear­ers of ‘Plus Val­ues’ wher­ev­er we go with the watch­words of Truth, Hu­mil­i­ty and Dig­ni­ty.

watch­words of Truth, Hu­mil­i­ty and Dig­ni­ty.