Sri Swami Sakshatkrtananda Saraswati joined Pujya Swami Dayananda Saraswati as a disciple in 1980. Pujya Swami Dayananda Saraswati thereafter initiated him into the order of sannyāsa in 1992. Swamiji is presently the Chief ācārya of Swami Dayananda Ashram and is the chairman of the Board of Trustees of Sri Gangadhareshwar Trust at Rishikesh. He is a renowned exponent of Vedanta and Sanskrit and our sacred lores. He has numerous followers and śiṣyas all over the world. Swami Sakshatji himself has initiated several of his students into the order of sannyās after their completing the long-term course in Vedanta conducted by the Dayananda Ashram.

This book presents an abridged version of Rishi Valmiki’s Ramayana, in his own words. It is a unique addition to our religious literature. It compresses the original 24,000 ślokas into about 1,500 ślokas, while assiduously maintaining the narrative’s continuity and its contextual integrity. At no point, has the symmetry or order of the original text been ignored in the process of abridgement.