ONE DAY IN 1969, a small group of disciples got together with the idea of writing a biography of their guru, Shrii Shrii Anandamurti, whom they affectionately called Baba. When they sat down and started writing, however, they realized how little they really knew about his life. So they decided to approach him and request him to write his autobiography. At first Baba refused, protesting that he had no time for such things. But after repeated supplica tions, he finally acquiesced to their pleas. The next day, at the regular Sunday gathering, the same disciples were surprised when Baba announced that he had finished his autobiography. "Do you want to see it?" he asked. His curious devotees looked at one another, wondering how he could have possibly finished it so quickly, even at the tremendous speed with which the master customarily worked. Baba called them over to his cot and handed them a sheet of paper. On it they found a single sentence written out in longhand: "I was a mystery, I am a mystery, and I shall always remain a mystery."
This was typical of Anandamurti, who throughout his life insisted on staying out of the public eye so that he could concentrate on his work-the establish-ment of a global mission for spiritual elevation and social change. In his earlier years, he would often say that he did not want a cult of personality but rather a cult of ideology; true to his word, he took great pains to deflect the attention of his followers from the guru worship that had become so deeply rooted over more than seventy centuries of Indian cultural history. Indeed, he was a spiritual master unlike any who had gone before him on the Indian subcontinent, as much a social revolutionary as a spiritual guru. He did not allow his disciples to simply enjoy his company while they practiced meditation in a search for spiritual enlightenment. He entrusted to them a social mission, and he would not allow anything to distract them from that mission, not even their under-standable fascination with his own person.
How then does one begin to reveal the mystery of who he was, when he went to such pains to conceal himself? The obvious answer is that one does not. Anandamurti left no testament of his inner experience, no hints at what lay behind the gaze that so enchanted his disciples, no real way of knowing who he was, other than through discovering who we ourselves truly are. What he did leave, however, was his imprint on the lives of so many thousands of people, the impact of which still continues to reverberate throughout our planet. This biography, then, is the story of Anandamurti as seen through the eyes of those who knew him his disciples, family, friends, and colleagues in the hope that through that open window the reader may be able to catch a glimpse of the man standing behind it.
In one of his messages to his disciples, Anandamurti said, "I have merged myself in my mission; if you wish to know me, then serve my mission." Indeed, it is in many ways impossible to separate Anandamurti from his missionary endeavors and the ideology he left behind. His life was a reflection of his ideol ogy, and there is no better example of the ideological principles meant to guide human beings in their lives than the life of the spiritual master who embodied those principles. I would go so far as to claim that the inverse of his oft-repeated message is equally true: If you want to know the mission, then try to know the life of the master who embodied its spirit with every breath he took.
A note of thanks:
The information contained in this book was primarily drawn from the oral histories of Anandamurti's colleagues, friends, family, and disciples, as well as from various written sources published during and after his lifetime. Most of it has been recast in narrative form, interspersed here and there with passages quoted directly from the interviews. I would like to thank all of the several thousand people, too numerous to thank individually, who sat patiently for these interviews and shared their reminiscences. Some of what they shared was personal and for that reason was kept out of this book. Other material was left out for lack of space, but all of it has been faithfully preserved for future generations. I hope they are aware of the incalculable value of their contribu-tion and how much it is appreciated.
While Paramahansa Yogananda may have been better known, Anandamurti was arguably the twentieth century's most compelling and controversial spiritual figure, Considered by some to be a social revolutionary with secret intentions of overthrowing the Indian government and by others to be a powerful Tantric with supernatural powers, Anandamurti kept himself scrupulously hidden from the public eye throughout his lifetime. His only interaction with the public was through Ananda Marga, the spiritual and service organization he founded in 1955, and its thousands of orange-robed monks who by the late 1960s had become so ubiquitous in Northern India that they began drawing daily mention in the press and literature of the time, While Ananda Marga gained great notoriety, Anandamurti himself remained a mysterious figure in India until his death in 1990.
Based on the oral histories of his disciples, colleagues, and family, Anandamurti: The Jamalpur Years unveils a remarkable portrait of this often misunderstood saint and social thinker. Rather than being an academic study of one man's life, Anandamurti is primarily a collection of devotional and mystical stories set in a biographical framework that provides the reader with a portal into the magical world of Indian mysticism, yoga, and Tantra.
"A fascinating story. Devashish has risen to the challenge of capturing this extraordinary life with grace and eloquence. I highly recommend it."
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