Swami Dayanand Giri was a teacher at Rishikesh's Dayanand Saraswati Ashram and Coimbatore's Arsh Vidya Gurukulam. He had been teaching Vedanta and Sanskrit in India as well as abroad. He established All India Movement for Seva (public welfare) in 2000 and was awarded by the United Nations in 2005.
PM Narendra Modi had been in touch with the 87-year-old guru since his RSS days. Swami Dayanand had personally congratulated PM Modi after he had proposed International Yoga Day in United Nations.
The guru had been brought back to the ashram after 10 days of treatment at the Jollygrant Himalayan Hospital, where his condition had begun to decline steadily. He took his last breath on Wednesday night.
The spiritual guru had been ailing for a long time.
