LIFE OF ASIMANANDA SARASWATI

Short life of Swamiji By Subhojit Samanto

In this world fraught with struggle of life, we are visited upon by great men and women, who show us the way through their own misery. One such stalwart was Swami Asimananda Saraswati. It is wrong to say he was for he is still there, in struggling lives to show the path of salvation. He was in this world but not of it.

He came to this world on 15th February 1904. His parents, father Jugal Kishore Chakroborty and mother Srimati Rajani Devi were no less great on their own accord. He was an offspring of penance. His grandfather Sri Nilkantha Chakroborty was a man whose utterance was never known to be false, such was his greatness.

His birthplace Ramchandrapur is a village situated in the Purulia district of West Bengal in India. A small village, where no man was known to go hungry nor any woman without a covering for her modesty, Mother Nature had endowed with her bounties. People were honest and God fearing.

The place, which later was to become his hermitage, was a dense forest. In this place was a crematory ground, covered by giant trees. Amongst their branches dead bodies were left hanging if the cremation could not be done on the same day. One among these trees was the first place where young Annada got the glimpse of the world; he would later become a part of. Sitting beneath that tree he saw the world which was far away from his present world of carefree childhood days. A world of sages and sannayasins, a world where happiness lay in misery partaken from others.
Not only was this boy filled with spiritual enlightenment, he was as fearless as anyone much greater in age and experience. He knew not the fear of any man or that of any spirit. His fearlessness brought in him a rebellion against the British rulers who had colonised India. In the year 1911, 12th December whole of India was celebrating George the fifths visit to India. They sang:

Victory victory to George the fifth
Victory to India’s lord.  

He who is born free can never accept the chains of slavery, and young Annada rebelled. He refused to sing and the pain in his tender heart said:

Who chopped the fingers off weavers’ hands,
For them shall I sing victory?
Not till I shall live!
For what are you so joyous?
For what do you sing?
Why is this village in a festive mood?
George the fifth is the emperor!
What is it to my country?
My country ruled by the English!
Don’t say that please.
My country shall be ruled by,
Those who are of this soil.
Today I am not joyous
Today I am mourning.
Mother said they are not our friends
Till the time I live
I won’t sing their victory.

His rebellious nature was his company from his childhood. His motherlands slavery and insult set his young mind on fire and from then on he could not find any peace. At the age of 10years, the financial misfortunes, through which they had lost almost everything, he learnt- “the loss of meaningless wealth never harms the mind, it rather does well.”

His mother left for her heavenly abode when he was 12yrs old. After this he left his village for the town of Burdawan to complete his studies. There he met the mad and the insane, who through sublimely and through signs helped him to his greatness.
Here he met a great woman sage, who reminded her “People are suffering everywhere and you are keeping quite? Is this your penance and austerity? You have to set fire in every direction. Every falsehood and injustice has to be burnt down to ashes.”
A fire did indeed leap in his heart and in his life. Like a dry twig this tender life caught fire for want of freedom. This fire while pushing him ahead burnt away his ego and poor character. He swept the streets, worked in a temple cleaning utensils. He heard a voice saying “whatever work lies in front of you do it, there is no indignity in work.”

Nani Gopal Bandopadhay, professor in Raj College Burdawan, influenced Annada’s way of thinking through his unbounded love and spiritual guidance. From he got Sri Sir Bijoy Krishna Goswami’s photograph and biography, which pushed him further on his spiritual path. While staying at Nani Gopal’s place he met revolutionaries who were fighting for India’s freedom. Nani Babu said “Annada weakeness is not religion; no one can ever attain religion in slavery. You have to free yourself; you have to free your soul. You have to save three hundred thirty million people living in exploitation. In their service, true devotion to God is possible. Love your motherland-give up yourself to your country. You will attain this whole creation.
Annada realised politics and religion have to be united. When the foundation of politics is based upon the ideals of religion a true welfare society is formed.

Heading the call of his birthplace he came back to Ramchandrapur. In January 1918 he laid the foundation of his hermitage in the form of a library in a mud house. In 1921 he built his first primary school to spread education. He began working towards the development of the agricultural sector. He could not turn a deaf ear to the call of Burdawan. On Nani babu’s request he passed the matriculation examination with flying colours. He achieved letter marks in four subjects and got an overall first division.
In 1925 he left Burdawan and came back to Ramchandrapur to answer the call of Rishi NibaranChandra. From 1925 till 1927 he worked to raise the political consciousness of the village folks.
In March 1928 he organised a big political meeting in his new founded hermitage. This was the first political meeting of manbhum district. This meeting was chaired by Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose. This meeting was attended by revolutionaries and leading political figures from Bengal and other parts of India. A resolution for bringing Manbhum district into the Bengal province was passed in this meeting. Netaji changed the name of the hermitage to “manbhum workers association”

To suppress this movement, on the charges of treason, the hermitage was totally wrecked by the British Government. Annada Kumar was sent to imprisonment. This was the time when Indian freedom movement had gained its momentum.

After regaining his freedom he immersed himself into the disobedience movement. Spiritually enlightened, endowed with physical strength and with iron nerves he became a leading figure of the region leading the freedom movement. He became powerful enough to warrant the attention of then joint magistrate Mr. Taylor and Mr. Churchur.  Along with a platoon of Pathan soldiers, they came upon his hermitage. They whipped him till he vomited blood and the kicked his fallen body. To compound their barbaric treatment they tied him to the tail of a galloping horse and let him dragged till they thought he was dead. His body was left in a pond, from where he was saved by the Santhals (local tribe) inhabiting the regions. He who was protected by the lord himself knows no suffering of the body. His divine protection whose work he was doing never failed him. He spent about a month recovering from his wounds. There he was arrested and sent to imprisonment for two years.

In 1931 the Gandhi-Irwin Pact came into force and all political prisoners were freed. All political movements came to a halt. He came back to his hermitage, with all his heart and soul started to work towards its development.

6th June 1932, he married only daughter of Shri Jagat Bandhu Goswami, Sailabala Devi. Amongst hundreds of hurdles he again rebuilt his hermitage, along with a school. On 1st January 1935 he opened his school. He started politically rallying the whole district, which he led himself. In 1936 he headed the District Congress Workers Committee, later he headed the regional Congress Workers Committee and the Nikhil Bharat Congress Committee. India’s freedom movement was even fiercer than ever before. He found no respite from work. When he was fatigued his inner voice led him forward.

In 1936 Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose left congress and formed his own Forward Block. Annada got involved in Forward Block. Netaji visited purulia in the same year and they toured the whole region. Along with Annada he visited the whole of the district. While returning a man fell in front of their car. They picked up the man and found him to be blind. Netaji pained from this asked Annada “Can’t anything be done for these people”, and was born the idea which later took the shape of Netaji Eye Hospital in Ramchandrapur, which gave thousands of people their sight back.

From 1941 Annada’s life took a different turn. He came to Dhanbad to celebrate annual birth anniversary celebration of Sri Sri Bijoy Krishna Goswami. On 13th March he came to meet his eternal master Kiranchand Darbeshji, at Sri Kitish Chattopadhay’s house. He was the same sage who had visited him in his dreams and guided him through his struggles. While taking his leave Annada bowed down and touched Darbeshji’s feet. At that moment his whole body was electrified, the power raised a storm in Annada’s mind and soul. His whole self went into an ecstasy. The very next day he was initiated.

After reaching purulia he received his first letter from his Guruji. He wrote “to find your ultimate destination the threefold path of Karma, Gyan and Yoga is necessary. According to your nature you have to work towards your salvation. In the centre has to be devotion and appreciation. Without these they only result in material gains not God. Through your japa (meditation) you will get a titanic willpower, whatever you resolve will come true.

Blessed Drabeshji visited the hermitage during the annual birth celebration of Gosaiji (Sri Sri Bijoy Krishna Goswami). He felt as if he had spent so much time in that hermitage even thought that was his first visit in his mortal body. After that he pointed to a place and said to dig it up. There was a fireplace where austerities are performed by sages. This fire never needed to be lighted. He asked the place to be kept covered up. After the celebrations finished he left saying this hermitage will truly serve humanity. Here onwards a religious monthly by the name of “Mandir” was published. “Sangathan” was meant to cater to the political side and “Mandir” the spiritual side. He also said from now on your life will be spiritual instead of political. The confluence of religion and politics in your life will serve this nation for a long time to come; it will show people a new way. Darbeshji founded the Bijoy Krishna Relief society.

Upon the insistence of Darbeshji, Annada took his sannaysa in Allahabad in 1947, the year India won independence, and he renounced this material life forever. Even then he got no respite from the work he had chosen, he continued to serve the people he so dearly loved through his work. Be it social upliftment or spiritual enlightenment he continued to serve humanity with a new found zeal.

In 6th November 1957 he went on foot to Brindaban and in 5th November 1961 he went on foot to Puri, spreading the name of God along the way. In 1954 he went on foot to navadwip, Gosaiji’s birthplace Shantipur and Advaitaprabhu’s place Babla.

In 1957 on his day of birth he dedicated a week to the blind named “All India Blind Welfare Week”. As the day passed the hermitage was filling up with devotees. But he who is born has to meet his final destination. He stood there to embrace his final companion death.

“What was left undone
I will come again to finish
Again will I play on this soil
I will bring to life a cremation ground.”

He left his mortal body on 13th August 1968 in Ramchandrapur ashram. In his own words-“I am not my body. I am not my body, mind, intellect or ego. What do I care if this remains or goes? I am part of that supersoul, I am his reflection.”

On this occasion of his birth anniversary we celebrate this auspicious occasion, imbibing his own words-

“Have you come to celebrate my birth? You will truly celebrate my birth when you win over death and embrace it. Amongst every soul find a reflection of your own soul. Let the new beginning if you soul take the path of devotion. In every condition let you be one with the indestructible soul. Only then will you win over death and it will cease to exist. Only then will your eternal soul blossom. God bless you.”