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Creating and maintaining sustainable and integrated community development initiatives, which includes a space for value-based education and cultural validation, in the birthplace of Pujya Swami Dayananda Saraswati.
SDET’s work has transformed a silent village into a vibrant centre of learning.
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SDET makes judicial use of all funds received towards the integrated community programme.
Pujya Swami Dayananda Saraswati was a profound thinker, philosopher, spiritual teacher and one of the greatest masters of Vedanta. He was born on August 15, 1930, in Manjakkudi, a small village on the banks of River Kaveri in Tiruvarur district, Tamil Nadu.
As a world renowned spiritual teacher, Swami Dayananda Saraswati’s influence on the world stage has been enormous. Posthumously awarded the Padma Bhushan, he was the founder of AIM for Seva, Swami Dayananda Educational Trust, Arsha Vidya Research & Publication Trust and Arsha Vidya Gurukulams in India and USA.
Though deeply rooted in the richness of Indian tradition, Swami Dayananda Saraswati was contemporary in his thinking and approach to the issues of the day. His impeccable logic, brilliant analysis, erudition, precise use of language, and humour made him a renowned and sought after teacher of Advaita Vedanta. His discourses taught the most profound truths in simple language, leaving the audience spellbound.
Swami Dayananda Saraswati did not confine himself just to Vedanta. His benevolence and empathy extended to all civilisations, and all cultural forms that helped bring positive change in the lives of thousands of people. He strove to preserve, nurture and appreciate the diversity of human culture.
The Swami Dayananda Educational Trust (SDET), founded by Swami Dayananda Saraswati in 2003, is based in Manjakkudi in Tiruvarur District, Tamil Nadu. Nestled amidst lush paddy fields, Manjakkudi (the birthplace of our founder) is home to an integrated community development project instituted, developed and sustained by SDET. Over close to two decades now, SDET’s continued work through its projects have transformed this silent village into a vibrant centre of learning, nourishing young minds to explore, experiment and expand their horizon.
A major transformation is silently underway in this tiny hamlet in the Kaveri delta of southern Tamil Nadu. Since 2001, one initiative led to another — education and employment, Vedic school, farming and cows and community healthcare — reflecting a logical and symbiotic evolution of one project with and after another.
Today, Manjakkudi has evolved to become a knowledge hub with 4,000 students from 300 villages commuting daily to study in the three educational institutions located in this region.
The integrated community programme in Manjakkudi aims to create societal change and progress from the grassroots. The aim is to work towards development without compromising the essential character of the rural traditions, culture and lifestyle.
children educated daily
families benefited by direct employment
of land under green projects
villages benefited by integrated community development programme
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The village of Manjakkudi earned one more feather in its cap – with its inauguration of the Swami Dayananda Centre for Learning by Carnatic musician Padma Shri Bombay Jayashri Ramnath.