Shriram Sharma  Shriram Sharma (20 September 1911– 2 June 1990) was a social reformer, a philosopher, and founder of "All World Gayatri Pariwar", which has its headquarters at Shantikunj, Haridwar, India. He is known as Pandit Shriram Sharma Acharya by the members of the Gayatri Pariwar. He pioneered the revival of spirituality and creative integration of the modern and ancient sciences and religion. Pandit Shriram Sharma Acharya was born on 20 September 1911, to Pandit Roop Kishore Sharma and Mata Daan Kunwari Devi in Aanwalkheda village, near Agra in Uttar Pradesh, India.. His father Roop Kishore Sharma was a scholar of the Bhagavata Purana (also known as the Srimad Bhagavatam) and he traveled widely to give religious discourses on the Bhagavatam. Roop Kishore was also the classmate and close associate of Indian educationist, Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya who founded the Banaras Hindu University. Later, when Shriram became eight years of age, Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya solemnized Shriram's sacred thread ceremony (Yagyopaveet) and initiated him in the "Gayatri Mantra". Shriram completed his elementary education from the primary school in his village, and his father taught him Sanskrit Grammar on the basis of "Laghu Kaumudi" and "Sidhanta Kaumudi". Traveling with his father, as the latter visited various Princes and Maharajahs, and listening to his father impart religious discourses in their courts, Shriram achieved proficiency in the Bhagavata Purana too. Shriram visited the Himalayas four times for higher spiritual attainments and took active part in Indian freedom movement and was sent to jail three times. In 1943, he married Bhagavati Devi Sharma, who assisted her husband in running the Gayatri Parivar and took over its running upon his death in 1990. According to Shriram Sharma when he was fifteen years of age, he had an encounter with Sri Sarveshwarananda, a Yogi who resided in an astral body. Describing this encounter Shriram writes:  Fellow freedom fighters nicknamed him "Matta" (the Intoxicated, obsessed, completely devoted to the idea of a Free India) on account of his dedication and devotion.