Sri Sri Thakur Anukulchandra was born on 14 September 1888, in the village of Himaitpur, in the Pabna District of East Bengal (now Bangladesh) in Undivided India. His father was Sri Sivachandra Chakravarty (Shandilya Gotra Kanyakubja Brahmin) and his mother was Manomohini Devi. Both his parents were extremely devoted to God. His mother Manomohini Devi received Diksha (Initiation) in her dream when she was sleeping at the age of five and got the holy mantra (Satnam). Her Guru was Huzur Maharaj of Dayalbagh, Radhaswami Satsang of Agra.
From the very beginning, Sri Sri Thakur Anukulchandra was extremely devoted to his parents, and accepted his mother as his guru throughout his life. To propound and propagate his philosophy, he set up an Ashram first at Pabna (later it was named Satsang Ashram by his mother) and then atDeoghar in India in 1946. The Satsang ashram at Deoghar has now become a major attraction in Deoghar.[1][2]
When Sri Sri Thakur was old enough, mother Monomohini Devi contacted Sri Sarkar Sahib (the successor of Huzur Maharaj) of Radhaswami Satsang, Dayalbagh, Agra for the purpose of Diksha. He instructed her through letter to give the diksha herself. During Diksha, she told young Anukulchandra the Holy Name, something he had been chanting from inside her womb. The moment the name reached him, he went into a slight trance state with the name vibrating throughout his whole being; in that state he saw a figure resembling Sarkar Sahib, the very same moment Sarkar Sahib died for the eternal abode, having been blessed by the vision of the Lord of all Lords in his final moment in some other realm. Sri Sri Thakur always regarded his mother as his Guru.
In his younger years (from around 24 to 26 years old) he would do Kirtan with his followers. Sometimes during kirtan, he would go into a trance, something common with the earlier Purushottams Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa. But unlike them, he also spoke in an assortment of languages so varied and so many, that the lack of proper scribes resulted in most sayings not being written down. It was only later, when his name started spreading everywhere, that people of high educational merit started coming and they wrote down whatever they could understand and grasp amid this flurry of heavenly messages. His utterances of only 72 days were later collected and published in a book called Punyapunthi or The Holybook.
In 1946 he moved to Deoghar, where he left his mortal frame on 26 January 1969.
[edit]Philosophy and Teachings
According to Sri Sri Thakur the purpose of our life is Ishwarprapti, to attain mastery over every aspect of our life, character and everything, so we become like a dew-drop reflecting the light of the sun of our life - The Supreme Father, the Lord of all Lords. The pillars of life and growth, according to him, are Jajan , Jaajan, Ishtabhriti, Swastayani and Sadachar. The way to ensure that good souls tread the world, as he stressed, are: Diksha (Initiation), Shiksha (Education) and Vivaha (marriage) done according to the way of the natural laws of the Supreme Father. He gives detailed instruction in his books and verses as to how to conduct oneself in life.
As is seen from the lives of all previous prophets, he did not need to "set up" an organization; the organization evolved around him spontaneously as one would expect lush greenery to sprout around a source of water. Schools, charitable hospitals, engineering workshops, a publishing house, and a printing press came up. Never did he need to write a book by hand except one—Satyanusaran ("The Pursuit of Truth"), but this was only a letter to one of his disciples, Atulchandra. However, conversations of various people with Sri Sri Thakur were recorded, and his sayings were compiled. His message relating to the well-being of mankind were published in various volumes in English and Bengali. Among these compilations are:
Satyanusaran
Narir Neeti
Narie Pathe
Pather Kodi
Punyapunthi
Anushruti
Chalar Sathi
Shashvati
Pritibinayak
Adarsh Binayak
Alochana Prasanga
Deeprakshi
The Message
Vigayn Vibhuti
Katha Prasange
Nana Prasange
Vivah Vidhayana
Books on Sri Sri Thakur
[edit]
The major biographies of Sri Sri Thakur are:
Jemon Taakey Dekhi by Srinath in Bengali
Sri Sri Thakur Anukulchandra by Sri Satishchandra Jowardar
Sri Sri Thakur Anukulchandra by Sri Rabindranath Ray
Dayal Thakur by Sri Narayan Prasad[note 1]
mission
Sri Sri Thakur Anukulchandra, fulfiller the best of the recent times, descended on the earth 124 years ago in a hamlet called Himaitpur of Pabna district, now in Bangladesh. He was as normal as any child, with the same colour and size, having everything same as a normal child would have, but still he was totally a supernatural human being, above everything of this world and it was a fact proven later in his life. Once a doctor declared him dead with no sign of pulse activity. But he stood on his feet after some time and stated that he was in a different world where everything is so beautiful; where there were so many angels coming down the road and the sun was shining bright with soothing temperature. Everybody was happy. These verses make the other standing people nearby stunned and amazed thinking that he is not normal. Though Sri Sri Thakur never believed in miracles, but some of his activities made people understand as miracle.
Many people visited "Satsang Ashram" both in Bangladesh and in India and would said after seeing the activities as the most interesting and innovative place to make "Human Being" a perfect man in all round activities. In fact Sri Sri Thakur had no intention of making any "ashram" rather he would say this is the actual way to live and let other to grow with you. The process of life and growth in association with the surrounding was stated as "Being and Becoming". During the course of time, "Satsang Ashram" groomed out of love and labour, that Sri Sri Thakur rendered for the people and a cluster of his followers joined with him.
In that perspective, we the devotees of Sri Sri Thakur Anukulchandra in USA, having origin in different countries, viz India, Bangladesh, United States Of America and Canada, have decided to come to a common platform from where we can start doing some work in the line of ideas and principles laid down by our beloved Lord.
Actually Sri Sri Thakur's activities were started in this land of opportunities way back in early seventies of twentieth century by an American Ritwik, famous in Satsang world, as Ray Archer Hauserman. He traveled extensively many Eastern Coast and Mideast areas to propagate Sri Sri Thakur's ideology, in a very unfavourable condition, where people socially, mentally were so down fallen that no body would give any attention to those teachings. Overcoming those conditions and hard days, many people got initiated through him, having their local Ashrams in Glencove, Long Island of New York City. Slowly many people came and due to old age he couldn't travel and then people got scattered in search of livelihood. But once the movement started automatically it got fuelled by His Blessings after 1999 as once again it got rejuvenated and many Gurubhais came in contact with each other and once again performing Sittings or"Adhivesans"frequently thereby getting new people in contact and initiated.
We have already celebrated the 112th birth anniversary of Sri Sri Thakur in Montreal, Canada in September 1999 and Lansdale, Pennsylvania, USA in November 1999. In December 2000, we celebrated 113th anniversary once again in Lansdale,USA. Recently on 20th May 2001, we observed an Adhivesan or sitting in our local Prayer Centre in Lansdale where approximately more than forty people attended. Disciples as far as Maryland and Atlantic City came to be blessed by his holy Satsang.Sri Sri Thakur's disciples are scattered in the states of Virginia, Maryland, New Jersy, Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, Georgia, California, Idaho, Michigan, Arkansas and many more states in USA and at Montreal, Toronto, Hamilton, Calgary, Ottawa in Canada. In the mean time six persons got initiated and still we are in infant stage. By his holy grace we have developed a full-fledged Website in the name of our beloved Lord aswww.srisrithakuranukulchandra.com. The site has attracted the view of sizeable cross section of people and we are able to connect to many inquisitive persons through e-mails. We plan to make that site a hub of literary contact worldwide.
Our forthcoming activities will be to strengthen and develop us socially, economically, personally and mentally by propagating his teachings, philosophy and ideology across the globe, so that not even an individual be unacquainted with the name of Sri Sri Thakur Anukulchandra.
May Sri Sri Thakur bless us, one and all, thereby getting strength to eradicate evil and strengthen the wave of peace and prosperity.
Jaiguru
Bande Purusottamam (Adorations to Fulfiller the Best).
Dipangshu K Maitra
