Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar - Biography

Biography

Sarkar was born during the full moon of the Indian month of Vaeshakh (Buddha Purnima), on 21 May 1921 (at 6:07 in the morning) to Lakshmi Narayan Sarkar, a homeopathic doctor of considerable renown. His family hailed from Bamunpara (Brahmanpara), Burdwan District in West Bengal. Sarkar was known as an exceptionally bright child in his youth, practicing meditation by himself at an early age and displaying great knowledge of various languages and various topics; knowledge which was reportedly not gained in school, reading books, nor listening to teachers or any other outer source.

In 1939 Sarkar left Jamalpur for Kolkata to attend Vidyasagar College of the University of Calcutta. During his time in Kolkata, he stayed at the house of his maternal uncle, Sarat Chandra Bose, brother of Indian social activist Subhash Chandra Bose, one of the most prominent leaders in the Indian independence movement. Sarkar had to quit his studies in order to support his family after the death of his father, and from 1944 until the early 1950s, Sarkar worked as an accountant at the Indian railways headquarters in Jamalpur, Bihar. He taught the techniques of ancient Tantra meditation to a select number of his colleagues and gradually more and more people were drawn to the spiritual practices he taught.

In 1955, Sarkar founded Ananda Marga (the Path of Bliss), a socio-spiritual movement with a two-part mission that Sarkar stated as "self-realization and service to all". His system of spiritual practice has been described as a practical synthesis of Vedic and Tantric philosophies. Sarkar's ideas are collected in the series of books called “Subháśita Samgraha”, which form part of the philosophical scriptures of Ananda Marga ideology. Sarkar's ideas are steeped in the ancient spiritual tradition of humanity, considerably developed in India, yet revitalized by him with new meaning and universal approach.

During the latter part of his life his main residence was in Lake Gardens in Kolkata, West Bengal. He also spent much time, especially early on, in the all-round development community he founded based on his PROUT theory at Anandanagar. Ananda Marga opened regional offices in various countries, including the USA in 1969, and by 1973 had established approximately 100 local centers teaching yogic and social philosophies, with several thousand members, some living communally in the ashrams.

In 1971, Sarkar was imprisoned in India for the alleged murder of Ananda Marga sect members. Between 1975–1978, followers of Ananda Marga were involved in terrorist acts, on Indian and foreign soil, undertaken to free Sarkar from imprisonment. In 1975, Ananda Marga was banned in India after the Indian government declared a state of emergency. On 13 February 1978, an explosion outside Hilton Hotel in Sydney left three people dead and six injured. A member of Ananda Marga accepted responsibility for it in 1989 and was convicted in the same year. Sarkar was released from prison in 1978 after a retrial found him not guilty of the alleged offenses placed upon him and his followers largely ceased terrorist activities.

After release from prison, in late 1978 and 1979, he went on a world tour to meet disciples in various countries around the world, including Switzerland, Germany, France, Scandinavia, the Middle East, Thailand, Taiwan, Jamaica and Venezuela. He was banned from entering the USA by the State Department, as a result of his problems with the Indian government, and instead met his American disciples in Jamaica in 1979. Just before he died on 21 October 1990, he founded Ananda Marga Gurukula on 7 September 1990, an educational network to preserve and develop his legacy through research, teaching and service.