Swami Harshananda,Bengaluru head of Ramakrishna Ashram,no more

andwas also a good singer and orator, the officials said.Several of his works have been translated into foreignlanguages, they said.Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa condoled the demise of theseer.In his message, Yediyurappa said Swami Harshananda was ascholar who upheld the philosophies of Ramakrishna Paramahamsaand Swami Vivekananda.He was an orator par excellence, he said.

Swami Harshananda, head of theBengaluru unit of the Ramakrishna Ashram, died of cardiacarrest here on Tuesday, ashram authorities said.

The 91-year-old seer had been suffering from age relatedissues and was on a wheelchair for the past few months, theysaid.

''Despite this, he moved around and took care of theaffairs of the Ashram. After having lunch today, he went tohis room, where he breathed his last at about 1 PM, an Ashramofficial told PTI A gold medalist mechanical engineer from the UniversityVisvesvaraya College of Engineering, he chose to don ochrerobes and become a monk.

Attracted by Swami Vivekananda's teachings, he joined theRamakrishna Mission in 1954 and grew spiritually under thetutelage of Swami Virajananda, the sixth president of theBengaluru branch of Ramakrishna Mission,Ashram officials said.

They said he was initiated into the monastic order bySwami Vishuddhananda, the eighth president of the Ashram, in1962.

Known for his administrative skills, the Swami had workedin Benglauru, Mysuru, Mangaluru, Belur Math in West Bengal(headquarters of the Ramakrishna Mission) and Allahabad, theyadded.

He was president of the Ramakrishna Math here since 1989.

''Swamiji was multi-lingual and was an expert in Sanskrit,Kannada, Telugu, Hindi, Bengali and English,'' they said.

He had composed several books in Kannada, Sanskrit andEnglish, including 'A Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism'. andwas also a good singer and orator, the officials said.

Several of his works have been translated into foreignlanguages, they said.

Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa condoled the demise of theseer.

In his message, Yediyurappa said ''Swami Harshananda was ascholar who upheld the philosophies of Ramakrishna Paramahamsaand Swami Vivekananda.

He was an orator par excellence,'' he said.