Shri Swami Swarupanand was a great Hindu saint born in Pawas, a small village near Ratnagiri, Maharashtra. His original name was Shri Ramchandra Vishnupant Godbole. His mother’s name was Rakhmabai Vishnupant Godbole.

Shri Swami Swarupanand was born on December 15, 1903. In his childhood, he was known as “Appa.”  He was very active, inquisitive, and intelligent. Since childhood, he was fond of devotional songs. His grandfather taught him different Hindu mantras. Thus, he was born and brought up in a well-cultured family. He completed his education up to 5^th standard in Pawas and Ratnagiri. Then he went to Mumbai to his elder brother. He started going to the school of Aryan Education Society. He came closer to God after studying Bhagavad Gita there. Besides spirituality, he was also interested in social service. He was also active in politics for some time.

He started a school in Pawas called Swawalambanashram. He also started educating people during festivals. Meanwhile, because of his interest in spirituality, his uncle called him to Pune where he was initiated by Sadguru Baba Maharaj Vaidya. He was the follower of Nath Sampradaya.

He participated in the freedom fight movement where he was arrested and kept in Yerawada Jail for some time. He used this time for his spiritual development.

He translated the Marathi book Dnyaneshwari, which was written by Saint Dnyaneshwar. The language used in this book was very difficult to understand for common people. So, he translated this book into simple Marathi language as Abhang Dnyaneshwari. He also translated Changdev Pasashti and Amrutanubhav into Marathi. He translated Bhagavad Gita into Marathi as Bhavartha Gita.

He wrote some new books also. All his Abhangas are collected in a book named Sanjivani Gatha. He edited a book Nityapath which is the abstract of Dnyaneshwari.

Shri Swami Swaroopanand was not well known before the publication of his book Abhang Dnyaneshwari but after that, he became very famous and people started to visit him for his blessings. People used to feel very satisfied after seeing and chatting with him.

After some years, he realized that he needs to leave this body. Therefore, he decided to take Samadhi. He decided the place and carved out a cave there. The cave was closed by the stone brought from the hills of Jyotiba in Kolhapur. He took Samadhi on August 15, 1974.

A big and beautiful temple is now built on his Samadhi. Thousands of devotees visit this temple every year and take blessings from Shri Swami Swarupanand.