India, May 29 -- A Brazilian acharya, Jonas Masetti, who founded the Vishva Vidya Gurukulam in the country, was conferred the Padma Shri award by President Droupadi Murmu. The Vedic guru accepted the honour, wearing a white dhoti, tilak, and barefoot.

"I was not expecting this. It's a great honour... Many people in Brazil are studying Vedanta, and this is an honour not just for me but also for our family, who are striving for this tradition," he told the news agency ANI.

The guru, also known as Acharya Vishvanath, met the Prime Minister in Brazil last year after he attended the G20 Summit and witnessed his group present glimpses of the Ramayan in Sanskrit.

Born in Rio de Janeiro, Masetti said that he worked as a mechanical engineer wit...