Swami Satyanandadev by Nandita Bhattacharyya

Swami Satyanandadev

All the people of the locality got irritated with the weeping of the
child in the late night. They exclaimed with all bitterness in a half
awaken state oh why God has given this mad woman a child. She does
not even know how to take care of a baby. It seems god does not have
any reason. The child kept on crying. The mad woman pressed the child
close to her bosom and said Stop or else I would strangle you. Then
she kept the child on the road. She shouted You cry. You cry as long
as you can. Can’t you die? I want to get rid of you. Expressing all
her bitterness, she went away leaving behind the child . The helpless
child kept on weeping lying on the road alone. Suddenly there was a
sound of opening of a door. One divinely handsome saint came out of
that door with all affection in his eyes. He with a painful voice
called the servant of the house See what that mad mother has done .
She has left the child alone here on the road. Please pick the baby up
from the road. The baby was still crying. He arranged a warm bed for
the baby. The baby slept in peace. Thus the mad mother used to leave
her child like this almost everyday. She understood perhaps that there
was somebody to take care of her baby. So she used to keep her baby
near that particular door. The divine person used to take care of
that baby almost regularly. Sometimes the small child got fever and
again that same divine person used to ask his followers to pour water
on the head of the baby. He used to arrange medicine for him. Thus he
took care of the baby with all affection and brought him up.

The divine person is none other than Swami Satyananda Dev---the
preceptor of my parents. His devotees call him Thakur.
The chief value of his life was love. He loved everybody. He loved not
only the human beings, his was the love for the animals as well as for
the trees also.
Once a stray cat was roaming on the street pining. Hearing the cat
weeping as soon as Thakur came out of the temple the cat looked at
thakur with a strange look and took shelter in her feet. Thakur
immediately asked his followers what makes the cat weep? The followers
fumbled and said Thakur her kittens have been shifted because they
were creating problems for us. The face of the Thakur turned grimed.
He sat on his Asan(seat) and said go and find them out. Until and
unless you can not find those kittens I will not eat my food. Saying
these words he sat like a stone on his Asan till the kittens were
found.
He often said let me suffer all the sorrows of all the people in this
world. During the femine of 50s he opened langars in the ashram to
serve the daridranarayana. He ran this langars begging from the
others. He believed in Atmono mokshorthang jagadvtaya cha. Whoever
came to him in the Ashram he always said in a loving voice Prasad peye
jabe. (Have the Prasad before leaving). He always bore good will for
everybody even for the person who tried to harm him. This can be
illustrated from an incident. One neighbour of Suri Ashram was not
some how happy with the Ashram. He always spoke against the Ashram.
Once suddenly the house of that man caught fire. People started
shouting Fire fire. Thakur immediately instructed his followers in a
firm voice go and extinguish the fire. The devotees ran with bucketful
of water. Those who did not find buckets ran with their lottas(
)full of water. They all were shouting Hari Ramakrishna and threw
water in the fire. Thus they with the help of local people could
control the fire. And surprisingly enough the very next day the person
came and surrendered himself at the Ashram. t
Satyananda Dev was born in Lalbazar, Kolkata in a pious Brahmin
family. His father was Sri Mahendranath Mukhopadhyaya who was the then
Police Commissioner in Kolkata. He was out and out an honest person as
well as a dutiful officer. Once Basumati a famous daily of Bengal in
those days while writing about him referred to an incident which
seemed quite interesting. A boy in a house was reading now a days
lions are not available in Bengal. The father of the boy came out from
the next room and asked what did you read …lions are not available in
Bengal any more … you go to Lalbazar and you will find a lion there.
His name is Mahenranath Mukhopadhyaya… He was a gem of a man. He never
indulged in any unfair things. He was all for Satya --- The truth. And
that was the reason he named his four sons and two daughters as
Satyasadhan, Satyabrata, , Satyaniranjan, Satyabati and Satyashila.
The second son in Satyabrata of Sri Mahendranath Mukhopadhyaya has
been known as Thakur Satyananda Dev. The mother of Thakur Smt.
Kashishari Devi was also a very pious and religious lady. She at the
instance of Fakir Bilayet Ali observed hard penance at a burning ghat
of Birbhum for quite sometime. Fakir Bilayet was known as a Sidhapurus
in Birbhum district of West Bengal. He was in fact a Sufi Fakir.
People used to call him Gosai Thakur too. He guided Thakur’s mother
to perform her penance. The Fakir followed the Hindu way of penance
while guiding her. Kasisari Devi had the darshan of Ma Bhavatarini in
amabosya the newmoon day.And she got the blessings of the almighty
Mother. The Mother told her that Kashsishvari Devi would have a son
who would be a great saint. Thus Thkur was born in the year 1902. The
day was 24th February at 1.50am. Swami Abhedanada initiated him.
Swami Abhedanada wanted Thkur to take over the charge of the temple at
Darjeeling. But Thakur’s parents did not let him go there Instead they
requested Abhed Swami to allow his son to be at home and practice his
religion Accordingly he performed all the religious rites and penance
in the attic of the house at Kashipur and then in the house of Suri.
He did not sleep in those days .. He used to take a little food like
little quantity of milk, banana, boiled brinjal and ground nuts.
Though he was initiated by Swami Avedanandaji, he got his sannyas from
the Mother Bhabatarini. Herself.And it was the almighty Mother who
gave him the name Satyananda. Later Satyanada’s parents, brothers,
sisters and some other relatives took diksha from him.
He appeared in public as a sannyasi in Suri first in the year 1939.
Thakur established his Ashram at Suri in the house given by his
father. There gathered 100 sannyasis and Sannyasinis very soon. They
all together led their lives full of hard penance. They took food
just to live- that too without sugar, salt and spices. Thakur
instructed them to spend at least 6 hours a day in Jap( chanting the
name of god) and meditation. But he was never away from the suffering
masses. He taught his devotees to undertake Seva(service to People).
The Sannyasi along with their Sadhan Bhajan used to serve people who
were in need in many ways. In fact they started their service to the
community by establishing a small school for the children. Thakur
himself developed a curricululum for the students. India was under
British rule in those days. Thakur was totally against the history
forged by the British. He debunked the history which taught one to be
the slave of the system prevailing. He replaced the existing history
books with the books of biographies of the great Indians. Instead of
dry geography he taught the students geography with the help of good
travelogues. He made provisions in the curriculum so that the students
can learn maths, Dharma Shiksha, science and literature. His focus was
in fact in character building. He did not like to use any ugly words.
His was the opinion that one’s language is the expression of one’s
mind. So those who are mean inside use mean language.
Gradually he installed the foundation stone of a college in Saithia.
The college was named after Swami Avedananda. The college is still
thereand it has completed its silver jubilee. He always wanted the
young generation to come up with confidence and good wills for
everybody. He did not want them to be careerist only. His message to
the youth was if we decide to achieve something great who can stop us.
If we have confidence within us nothing can stop us. So what we need
is self realisation and self confidence. Along with these two we must
have the tenacity. Remember there is a source of eternal strength
within you. You can do anything and everything if you can make use of
your inner strength. Be like a banyan tree so that people can get
shelter in your shadow. He encouraged them to go abroad in order to
enhance their understanding and knowledge. But he wished them to serve
their motherland India. Thus he emphasized on patriotism also.
There is a special niche for the women folk in the mind of Swami
Satyanada. He said This is the era of the Mothers--- Women. A band of
Sanniasinis were there from the very beginning of the Ashram. He
adopted Archana Puri as his manas Kannya. There was one more
Sannyasini in Gita puri who was of equal importance. Thakur used to
call them Sarasvati and Laxmi respectively. All the Sannyasinis were
called as Ma (These women folk enjoyed all the facilities of observing
religious rites and penance like that of the men folk of the ashrama.
But at the same time no sannyasi wasallowed to enter the area where
these mother lived. Everybody associated with the Ashram called them
Ma. . Everyday Thakur sat with his devotees and interacted with them;
he answered the queries of the devotees. The preceptor and the
devotees discussed on many issues related to religion, philosophy
sitting together everyday. The Sannyasinis also joined those
discussion at per with the Sannyasis. Archana Ma used to present songs
in her divine voice. The others also joined her sometimes.
Thakur’s deity was a mother image in Bhavatarini. He also installed a
mother’s image called Trinayani in the Asram. Bhavatarini was his
mothere whereasTrinayanee Ma was her daughter. Trinayanee Ma in fact
sprang from Thakur’s imagination. Thakur always gave special
importance to female education. Some of the Ma-s joined the ashram
when they were 10/12 years of age. Most of them did not have the
opportunity to go to schools because in those days girls seldom went
to school. Naturally Thakur had to teach them. Thakur groomed these
small girls in his own way. They wrote songs, poetry. Some of them
translated the scriptures into Bengali from the original which were
written in Sanskrit. Thakur made sufficient space for them so that
they could grow with all their abundance.
These Ma-s used to take care of the Gopalji who is one of the major
deities worshipped in the ashram still now. Some of his followers
called him Ma also.

Thakur wrote a good number of books. His major works are on World
philosophy, World Ethics, World Psychology along with other books. He
wrote thousands of song and poems.. He composed dramas for the
children of the schools of the Ashram which was staged by the children
of the Asharam and was appreciated. The songs composed by Thakur are
time and again. Joto more ganer katha/ se je tore mantra gatha.
Whatever words I uttered in my song are the hymns addressed to you
Ma.. Satyanada Dev had a deep love for Sangeet. He himself was quite
well versed in the classical music. He even composed Thumri on Ma
Bhabatarini. Nachata kali dulari... He composed divine tunes of the
songs also. Ustad Allauddin Khan, Ravisankar Pandit Omkarnath Thakur,
Ustad Bade Gulam Ali Khan, Faiaz Khan often came to the cultural
programme organized by the Ashram. Thakur was a great Sangeet lover.
He himself knew how to sing. He often sang kirtan and other songs.
Whenever he visited the ashram of Batika a remote village of Birbhum
he often went out with the small children along the village road
singing kirtan. He had a deep love for the villages. He always tried
to be with the people of the villages promote the