His Holiness Jagadguru Sri Shivarathri Deshikendra Mahaswamiji

• Has been responsible for giving momentum in the southern part of the country to support the effort of His Excellency Dr. A.P.G. Abdul Kalam, former President of India, being one of the member, to start the ‘Foundation for Unity of Religions’ (FUREC). Present President of an all India level organisation, along with leading religious heads.
• Has taken the initiative of spreading Indian Spirituality & Culture in United States of America, by establishing a JSS SPIRITUAL MISSION, at Maryland, USA.
• Has involved in promoting the values present in Indian Tradition & Culture within India, for the benefit of different sections of the society through various activities like Retreat Camps, Celebrating the Birth Anniversary Functions of the earlier pontiffs of Suttur Math & Other important religious leaders, messages through house-to-house visits & organizing fairs, jatras for the benefit of urban & rural people.
• Has involved in providing right directions to the leaders of the society & common man through constant interactions, which will help the society to bring in harmony.
• Has involved in enabling the passing of knowledge present in our spiritual scripts & texts through publications & establishment of Vedic Schools & Gurukulas (School for Training & Religious Heads).
  Believing in the words of his Predecessor, “Ignorance is the root of all evils in the society and education is the sovereign remedy”, he has steered and guided JSS Mahavidyapeetha to become the centre of learning by guiding more than 300 Educational Institutions spread across Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh.

Efforts are made to provide value based education in all the institutions by giving importance to overall development of an individual through state-of-art facilities to make the learner a useful citizen to the country. Majority of the institutions have collaborations with reputed universities, industrial and research organizations within and outside India (USA, UK, Australia, Ukraine, Finland, Japan, France, Italy, Singapore, Malaysia, etc.) for many of their formal programmes. There are more than 60,000 students studying in these institutions.

Free Education School
To provide education to the economically deprived section of the society, His Holiness has dedicated a free residential school at Suttur. There are more than 5,000 children studying in this school, irrespective of caste and creed, coming from different Districts of Karnataka and Tamilnadu. The school provides all modern facilities to the children with an outlay of Rs.15 crores. This unique institution was inaugurated in 2003 by H.E. Dr. A.P.J.Abdul Kalam, then President of India. It has drawn nationwide attention.

Special Schools for Physically & Mentally challenged
To realize the dreams of his mentor / guru Dr. Rajendra Swamiji for providing knowledge base for the physically and mentally challenged children, the following institutions are established.

• Polytechnic for Physically Challenged – first of its kind in India where an attempt is made to bring the differently-abled, hearing impaired and visually impaired into the mainstream of technical education with special gadgets, which will facilitate their learning.
• Schools for special children at Bengaluru and Mysuru, viz. ‘SAHANA’, to infuse confidence and skill required by these children to lead a normal life with the people in the society.

Akshara Dasoha
The philosophy of Veerashaivism strongly believes in ‘Dasoha’, i.e., “Giving to the needy”. True to its philosophy, His Holiness is striving hard to practice this every moment in his life.

• 82 schools covering 10,000 children of Yelandur Taluk (backward taluk of Chamarajanagar district) is provided with free Mid-day meals every day, under Akshara Dasoha scheme.
• Nearly 10,000 children are provided with Mid-day meals in other 3 locations at Chamarajanagar, Ramapur and Shivapur centres.
• More than 5,000 students are fed every day free of cost in the free hostels run by the math under the aegis of the Math.

Mass marriages
Wedding ceremonies are a costly affair, especially in India. Majority of the parents face lot of difficulties in conducting weddings of their daughters. Economically poor people suffer more. Understanding the condition of such families, His Holiness has shouldered the responsibility of facilitating 200 marriages through the annual ‘Mass Marriage’ programme during the annual jatra mahtosav. All wedding arrangements are provided free of cost for 200 couples. Also the Math organizes monthly ‘Mass Marriage’ programme at Suttur.

Health Services
The JSS Medical Trust was established under the guidance of His Holiness, with an objective of providing healthcare facilities to the rural masses and economically poorer sections of the society.

• A 1,600 bedded Hospital in Mysuru is serving as a teaching Hospital to the JSS Medical College, Mysuru
• A Dental Hospital with all modern facilities is funcioning in Mysuru, which can treat 800 patients every day.
• The math also runs a Ayurvedic Hospital at Mysuru and a Naturopathy Hospital at Coimbatore.
• The Primary Healthcare Centres (PHCs) at Suttur and Hadinaru villages in Nanjangud taluk are managed by the trust under Arogya Bandhu Yojana.
• The trust, in collaboration with Narayana Hrudalaya, Bengaluru (a household name for heartcare), Bharath Cancer Hospital, Mysuru and Vikram Hospital, Mysuru, has adopted Suttur village to make it a model health village.
• Tele-medicine programme has been implemented in one of the backward district of southern Karnataka.

Agri-based services to the farming community
A lot of emphasis has been given to improve the lifestyle of the farming community. With a view to usher in technological advancement in agricultural sector, Krishi Vignan Kendra has been established, in association with ICAR. The ICAR-KVK has implemented several new techniques like Vemiculture soil testing and online field demonstrations under SGSY, a programme at a cost of Rs. 15 crore, with the assistance of Govt. of India and Govt. of Karnataka, with the following objectives:

• Identify 400 villages for seed production locally
• 20 seed processing units at different districts.
• 50 Horticulture Nurseries and 20 Chawki rearing centres have been established across the state under SGSY, implemented in two phases.

His Holiness Sri Deshikendra Swaimiji, has been striving hard to restore the treasure of Indian culture & art. Parallely efforts are also made to pass on these treasures to the succeeding generations, by encouraging the younger generations to inculcate interest in our art & culture, through various initiatives.

Art and Culture

• To propagate the Vachanas of Basava and other religious leaders, a Sharana Sahitya Parishat is established in Bengaluru, with district units.
• A Sangeetha Sabha for promoting music and culture.
• A Kala Mantapa to promote various forms of art has been opened.
• To meet the cultural needs of society, a community centre is functionin in Bengaluru and Delhi.
• The JSS Urban Haat, started in Mysuru is promoting artisans and nurturing the taste for artefacts, among the younger generations.

• H H Dalailama, Spiritual leader â Buddism, Tibetan settlement in India, New Delhi
• Himalayan Institute of Yogic Sciences, Dehradun – H H Sri Swami Rama
• Prajapita Brahma Kumari Eshwari Vishwa Vidyanilaya, Mount Abu – H H Brahma Kumari Janaki Dadiji
• Art of Living, Bengaluru – Sri Sri Ravishankar Guruji
• Sri Akshardham â Gandinagar, Gujarat – H.H Narayan Swami Temple
• H H Acharya Maha Prajnaji, Surat
• Sri Ni. Pra. Swa. Shivakumaraswamiji of Siddaganga Math, Tumkur, Karnataka
• Sri Siddeshwara Swamiji of Gnana Yogashrama, Vijayapura Dist. (earlier Bijapur), Karnataka
• Jagadguru Sri Shivamurthy Shivacharya Mahaswamiji of Sirigere Math, Taralabalu, Karnataka
• Padmashree Sri Dr. D Veerendra Heggade of Dharmastala, South Canara, Karnataka
• Sri Vishwesha Threertha Sri Padangalavaru of Pejavar Math, Udupi, Karnataka
• Jagadguru Sri Balagangadharanatha Mahaswamigalavaru of Adichunchanagiri Math, Mandya District, Karnataka
• Sri Sri Ganapathi Sachidananda Mahaswamji of Sri Avadootha Datta Peetam, Sachidananda Ashram, Mysuru, Karnataka
• Sri Charukeerthi Bhattaraka Mahaswamigalavaru of Shravanabelagola, Hassan District, Karnataka