Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s spiritual guru Swami Dayanand Saraswati passed away at his ashram in Sheeshamjhadi after a prolonged illness. He was 87. Swami Dayanand breathed his last late on Wednesday, said his close aide and trustee of Dayanand Ashram, Shantatmanand Saraswati.

He had been brought back to the ashram on Wednesday morning after ten days of treatment at the Jolly Grant Himalayan Hospital, where his condition had begun to decline steadily, he said.

The spiritual guru had been ailing for a long time due to a liver-related problem.  Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is in New York for a brief trip, has mourned the death of Swami Dayanand.

“Swami Dayanand Saraswati ji’s demise is a personal loss. I pray that his soul attains eternal peace,” Modi wrote on Twitter. “My thoughts are with the countless people inspired by Dayanand Saraswati ji. He was a powerhouse of knowledge, spirituality & service,” Modi tweeted soon after he landed in New York on Thursday.

On September 11, Modi had travelled to Rishikesh to meet Swami Dayanand to enquire about his health.

Swami Dayanand will be ceremonially buried inside the ashram premises on Friday. Shantatmanand Saraswati said the revered guru will be offered “bhoosamadhi” at a spot facing the Ganga River within his Sheeshamjhadi ashram between 8 am and 10 am on Friday.

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat and Governor Krishna Kant Paul besides a host of seers visited the ashram on Thursday to pay their last respects to the spiritual guru by placing floral wreaths on his embalmed body kept in a glass case.

Chief of spiritual organisation Shantikunj Pranav Pandya also paid floral tributes to the Swami describing him as a great scholar of the Vedanta and ancient Sanskrit texts.

Pandya said he had been showered with fatherly love by the spiritual guru for the last 30 years.