Birth and Early Life
Swami Atmasthananda was born on the holy Buddha Purnima—the thrice-blessed day on which Buddha was born, attained enlightenment, and entered nirvana. He hailed from Kshetripara of Dinajpur, now in Bangladesh. He was born in Sabajpur, his maternal house, near Dhaka in May 1919. His pre-monastic name was Satyakrishna. He passed the Entrance Examination from Dinajpur Zilla High School after which he studied IA in Guwahati Cotton College of Assam. During this time he would visit the Ramakrishna Ashrama at Dinajpur and got closely acquainted with Swami Gadadharananda, the head of the ashrama and a disciple of Swami Shivananda. Here Satyakrishna was attracted to the lives and teachings of Sri Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda under the loving guidance of Swami Gadadharananda. Their bonding was so full of love and trust that Gadadharananda instructed Satyakrishna—a boy belonging to Brahmin family with a tradition of worship at home—to perform regular puja and arati in the ashrama temple even before he had spiritual initiation.
After completing IA he took admission into the BA course in Scottish Church College and then he shifted to Presidency College, Kolkata. He was staying at that time as a student of Ramakrishna Mission Calcutta Students’ Home at Dum Dum, now in Belgharia. While studying there, he was inspired by the personality of Swami Nirvedananda, a disciple of Swami Brahmananda and the founder of the Students’ Home, who emphasised brahmacharya and God-oriented life, especially for students. After graduating with honours in philosophy, he took admission into the MA course in philosophy at the Calcutta University.
Student life is a time for receiving life-long inspiration and strength-giving ideas. During this period if one meets a pure and inspiring spiritual personality, then one’s spiritual aspirations take an upward turn and one is instantly attracted to lead a pure and holy life like an iron filing getting attracted to a powerful magnet. Similar things happened with Satyakrishna who met a number of stalwart monks of the Ramakrishna Order during this formative period of his life. Swami Achalananda, a disciple of Swami Vivekananda and the erstwhile Vice-President, was one among them who persuaded him to join the Order without completing the final MA examination. Swami Atmasthananda would fondly remember how once this disciple of Swamiji scolded him for delaying his decision to renounce the world.