Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar

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Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar (May 21, 1921-October 21, 1990) was an Indian philosopher, social revolutionary, poet and linguist. Above all this, however, he is usually remembered for his role as one of the foremost spiritual teachers of Tantra and Yoga of the twentieth century; the founding figure behind Ananda Marga, he is often known by his spiritual name, Shrii Shrii Anandamurti and was affectionately referred to as Baba by his disciples.

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[edit] Early life

P. R. Sarkar was born on a full moon day, likely on 21 May 1921, in the small town of Jamalpur, Bihar, India. Although known as a bright child in his youth, he showed few signs of the mystical and largely controversial life that lay ahead of him, aside from the fact that even at a very young age, many of his family members recall seeing him perform long meditations in the middle of the night.

In 1939 Sarkar left Jamalpur for Calcutta to attend Vidyasagar College of the University of Calcutta. It was here that Sarkar initiated his first disciple onto the path of (right-handed) Tantra Yoga, a criminal by the name of Kalicharan who reformed his life on the spiritual path and became known later as Kalikananda.

For the next sixteen years of his life, Sarkar continued to lead a normal family life, working as an accountant for the railways in his hometown of Jamalpur, while secretly teaching many the spiritual practices of Tantra Yoga.

[edit] Ananda Marga

In 1955, at the behest of his followers, Sarkar founded Ananda Marga ("The Path of Bliss" in Sanskrit), a socio-spiritual organization with a two-part mission that Sarkar stated as "self-realization and service to all." Sarkar's ideas are steeped in the ancient spiritual tradition of India, combining traditional Hindu spirituality, Tantra, the quadri-divisional concepts of the Varna (Vipra, Kshatriya, Vaishya, Shudra), possibly building on the earlier cyclical historical ideas of Sri Aurobindo. In addition to yogic practices and purity of thought and deed, Sarkar attached great importance to social service as a means of liberation. Sarkar considered it necessary for the social arrangements to support the inner development of human beings and rejected both Capitalism and Communism as appropriate social structures for humanity to move forward to the golden age of a spiritual way of life.

Sarkar soon trained many monks and nuns to go out across India and later the world to impart his teachings. Even as his organization grew, Sarkar refused to leave his job in Jamalpur until 1966, when he finally retired and moved to Ananda Nagar in West Bengal to dedicate all his time to being the President of Ananda Marga.

[edit] Controversy

From Ananda Marga’s inception, the movement and Sarkar himself became the target of much criticism, particularly from the orthodox Hindu community. Sarkar demanded that all practitioners of Ananda Marga meditation renounce the caste system, and this caused a large backlash among some people in the Hindu community. This, however, was only the beginning of Sarkar’s problems.

In 1959, Sarkar propounded the Progressive Utilization Theory (PROUT), a socio-economic theory that stood directly against the Communist Party (Marxist), a political party that held sway in West Bengal at the time. Ideologically speaking, it is difficult to say which is more diametrically opposed to PROUT: Communism or Capitalism. However, the Communist Party, which sought support among the same poor communities that Sarkar targeted, were more threatened. Because of this, much of Sarkar’s life was plagued by persecution and controversy.

In 1971, many of Ananda Marga's monks and nuns were attacked or killed, possibly by Marxist mobs, but Sarkar was charged with responsibility for their deaths. He was arrested and thrown in jail on charges of abetment to murder. Kept in jail for several years under poor conditions, Sarkar maintained his innocence all the while. His followers, meanwhile, claimed that he was only imprisoned for his spiritual and social teachings; for his stand against the corruption in the Indian government.

From the beginning of his imprisonment, Sarkar complained of the alleged torture of several of his monks, but on February 12, 1973, Sarkar himself became the target of an assassination attempt, surviving a massive poisoning. Complaining of ill health that day, a doctor was brought in and administered Sarkar the poison on the pretense that it was medicine. For the next three days Sarkar suffered the poisoning, dropping in and out of consciousness; when he finally awoke, Sarkar was nearly blind and extremely physically weak. Sarkar remained physically incapacitated from the poisoning for several more years, and suffered ill health stemming from the event for the remainder of his life.

Sarkar demanded a proper judicial inquiry into the incident but was refused. Seeing no alternative, Sarkar started a long protest fast. Subsisting on only half a cup of buttermilk twice a day, Sarkar fasted from April 1, 1973 for the next five and a half years until his ultimate release from prison in 1978.

On July 4, 1975, Ananda Marga and Proutist Universal, along with many other opposition organizations to Indira Gandhi’s government, were banned in India. Many monks, nuns, and members of Ananda Marga were thrown in jail, many claiming to have been tortured. During this Emergency Period, Sarkar was found guilty and was sentenced to life in prison.

In 1977, the Emergency Period ended and Indira Gandhi lost the elections. The Congress Party having lost power, Sarkar was granted a re-trial, this time found innocent on all counts. It was only until he was released on August 3, 1978, that Sarkar broke his fast, drinking some orange juice given to him by his elder sister.

[edit] Post-Imprisonment

Subsequent to his release from prison, Sarkar was in poor health, but remained active in promoting his mission. He began writing on a range of topics and composing inspirational songs, and built a worldwide organization to spread the ideas of Ananda Marga.

On October 21, 1990, Sarkar died at his residence in Calcutta after a series of heart attacks.

[edit] Works

Although Sarkar spent only seventeen years of his life working full-time for his organizations (1966-1971 & 1978-1990), he left behind a vast legacy, including over 250 books written on a wide variety of topics.

He is primarily known as the spiritual teacher behind Ananda Marga, but Sarkar wrote over 1500 pages on his economic PROUT theory, with several thousand more pages dedicated to linguistics and the study of languages, including but not limited to Shabda Cayanika ("A Collection of Words" in Bengali), an unfinished, twenty-six volume dictated encyclopedia on the Bengali language. Beyond this he wrote books on sociology, agriculture, history, literature, medicine, cosmology, and philosophy, also notably inventing the philosophy of Neo-Humanism in 1982 and the scientific theory of Microvita in 1986.

But perhaps more than all this, his most dramatic achievement was his Prabhat Sangeet (Songs of the New Dawn). Having started composing songs in 1982, Sarkar completed the composition of 5018 songs in multiple languages by the time of his death only eight years later.

[edit] Disciples

One of his best known disciples is Ravi Batra, an internationally recognised economist and best selling author living and teaching in Dallas, Texas. In his works, Batra has relied heavily on Sarkar's "Social Cycle Theory" and "PROUT", a theory of sustainable and equitable economics. Other disciples include the nuns and monks of Ananda Marga that propagate his teaching.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  • P.R. Sarkar (1984), Human Society . Vols. I and II. (Ananda Marga Publications, Calcutta, India).
  • Sri Aurobindo (1970), The Human Cycle, The Ideal of Human Unity, War and Self-Determination, (Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust), ISBN 81-7058-281-4 (hardcover), ISBN 81-7058-014-5 (paperback)
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