Pandit Shriram Sharma Acharya: Spiritual Revolutionary of Modern Era

Most historians will agree that if a count is taken of those great spiritual leaders who ever lived in any country in last century, Pandit Shriram Sharma would be prominent among them. He deserves to be called first among spiritual leaders and the Great Rishi of modern era. He was born on September 10, 1911 in a well-off Brahmin family in village Anvalkheda near Agra (UP) in India. He used to accompany his father on his visits to rulers of princely states to deliver religious discourses on Srimad Bhagvat Purana and thus learnt Bhagvat from the core of his heart. He was initiated in Gayatri mantra by Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya when he was only eight years old & religiously followed instruction of Malviyaji to perform five malas of Gayatri Jap (chanting the mantra 540 times) regularly. At the age of fifteen, in the pre-dawn hour of the Basant parva, a great Himalayan Yogi, appeared in his vision in astral form and guided him as a spiritual Guru. This was the starting point of his spiritual journey which uplifted and inspired millions of people across the globe. His Gurudev advised him that efforts for inner self-growth and self-improvement should go hand-in-hand with acts of public service. The grace of divine soul is granted only for public good, for the growth of righteous attitudes and tendencies in humanity. Hence, it should not showered on anyone who hankers after fame or material prosperity. His Gurudev told him “Spiritual path (sreya) and material path (preya) are diametrically opposite to each other and only one of them can be followed. If the world is pleased with someone his inmost self will not be happy with him. If the inner soul is satisfied, the displeasure of the worldly people will have to be suffered. This has generally happened in the lives of all true seekers of truth. It is very very rare that the pursuit of higher ideals has been approved by relatives. More often than not, the human soul had to surrender before the worldly people, high ideals had to be given up and the old soul-suffocating routine had to be carried on.” The path of spirituality is not simple as it seems to be. When he decided to go ahead, he equally faced the music from the world. There was juncture in his life where he has to decide what should be given precedence, pressure of the family or the need of the times? At that difficult period, he heard his inner voice and decided to become indifferent to what worldly friends, neighbours and relatives said or did. “Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.” (James 4:4 Bible). Remembering those days, he once stated: “On a back look now I see that if such firmness had not been shown my life boat would have been rocked by violent jerks and capsized and I would have missed that opportunity by which, with the help of sadhana, I have been able to do good to myself as well as to the masses.” On the advice of his Guru, he left his village and hired a small house at Mathura to achieve mission of his life. In due course, he built a grand Gayatri temple near Mathura in the land were Durvasa Risi had performed sadhana. During his ten years of active participation in the freedom struggle, he came in contact with several persons and learnt useful lessons. The most important gain was to develop the attitude of a volunteer, which helped him to remain humble throughout his life. He envisaged that- “If India were to be independent and progressive in the truest sense of the words, an absolute revolution would be necessary on the cultural front too…”. He entered into the field of journalism at an early age and actively participated by writing articles on the sacrifice of freedom fighters in the Satyagraha movement in ‘Sainik’ Paper. Fellow partners nicknamed him as "Shriram Matt" (the Intoxicated) on account of his dedication and devotion. When he was wondering for money to fulfill his mission, he got clue from the speech of Madan Mohan Malviya during freedom struggle that we should beg a paisa from every man and a handful of foodgrains from every woman to spread the message of freedom movement so that they feel sense of belonging and struggle as their own struggle. He applied this formula while launching important projects of moral and social upliftment. The mantra given by Malviyaji about collecting handful of grain and ten paisa daily has worked miracle. Crores of rupees have spent through willing and volunteer contributions from lakhs of workers of the mission. Realizing the potential of inspiring literature and its relevance in the present era of intellectual evolution, he had chosen writing as the principal mode towards uprooting the evil tendencies and arousing the indwelling wisdom. He initiated the unique movement of Vichar Kranti with the very first issue of “Akhand Jyoti” in 1939. At the age of 29 years, his first book “Mein Kya Hun?” stroked as one of the most illuminating writing on practical aspect of spiritual sadhana. He wrote nearly 3500 books touching vivid aspects of life. He also translated ancient sacred Sanskrit texts for educating the masses. He has no specific time to read hence he developed the art of reading with utmost concentration while walking and enhanced speed of reading books to forty printed pages per hour. Acharya Sharma was a great devotee of Gayatri. He had successfully practiced and mastered the highest kinds of sadhanas (spiritual endeavors) of Gayatri, Savitri and Kundalini. He deciphered absolute knowledge of the philosophy and science of the Gayatri Mantra and also of entire gamut of yoga and spirituality. He worshipped God, performed jap of Gayatri as Divine Mother and meditated upon Savita as Divine Father. Never-the-less, he was well aware about the reality. He once stated: “I did, no doubt, regard Gayatri as Mother and Savita as Father for the sake of convenience of meditation but knew throughout that they are formless, astral and all-pervading. On account of this conviction I could feel that they pervaded my whole being and there was complete identity of Spirit. If I had regarded God or Gayatri Mata as specific persons a distance between us would have been maintained and I had been deprived of that feeling of complete identification.” Through his Sahastra-kundli yagya, he invited and called upon public-spirited, other-centred persons to join the movement as colleagues and dedicate themselves to selfless of society. It was in Mathura, that a comprehensive scheme was chalked out to spread the light in every village, by organising Gayatri yagya and Yug Nirman sammelans for moral, intellectual and social upliftment. A dedicated, whole time group of workers also emerged from this yagya. Bhagavad Gita says: “Whatever action a great man performs, common men follow. Whatever standards he sets by exemplary acts, all the world pursues.” He envisaged social, ethical and intellectual revolution by elevation of people’s life. The love of parijans who visited Gayatri Tapobhumi and feelings of mutual intimate relationship with them gave birth to the huge organization known as Gayatri Parivar. Lateron, on the direction of his Gurudev, he left Mathura and shifted to Haridwar where he established Shantikunj. He had completed twenty-four mahapurashcharanas of Gayatri meditation with ascetic disciplines for the welfare of mankind while sincerely transacting his familial, social and national responsibilities. He had also pioneered experiments on simple sadhanas, which could be easily pursued by the people today and had guided spiritual and intellectual refinement of millions of people. The methods of working vary in accordance with local conditions but the object is one and the same, i.e. of cleansing, of sublimating and refining thoughts and emotions. This was the foundation of Pragya Abhiyan. At the same time, he also pioneered renaissance of the science of spirituality and established the Brahmvarchas Research Centre at Shantikunj Hardwar for its creative integration with the modern sciences which stands as a live example of how ideas could be implemented and researched in the modern laboratories. By his journeys to Himalayas, he learnt that if a man becomes self-reliant, three-fourths of his problems are solved and other alternatives can be found for the remaining one fourth thus adjust him in all circumstances. He once stated: “I had to go to the Himalayas to become more introvert. The exterior life of a person is dominated by outer events but the inner life is influenced by feelings and sentiments. An illumined mind and a loving heart constitute spirituality. The rat-race for gratification of desires and amassing of material objects is materialism. Since I have dedicated my whole life to demonstrate life-affirming spirituality, while outwardly leading a normal worldly life, it became essential for me to occasionally retire into solitude with a new to nullify any influence of materialism on the exterior life. An effort was made during my agyatvas (living in solitude in an unknown place) in the Himalayas to bring the soul as close to God as possible. The most important aim was the cultivation of elevated, sublime feelings and sentiments which do not need the support of persons, resources and favourable circumstances. In whatever circumstances one may be placed, the mental make-up has to be moulded that it may be possible to visualize the deeper reality beneath the façade of superficial phenomenon. It is then that one feels immense joy and bliss and is able to see and visualize the presence of God everywhere.” His deeper involvement in Spirituality, led him to strongly believe that: “Accumulation of worldly possessions and riches is automatically reflected in a person’s nature attitude and conduct. A healthy person looks strong and beautiful. Affluent persons are full of pomp and show. Intelligence of a man is reflected in his speech, conduct and behaviour. In the same way, when spiritual treasure is amassed, its impact becomes apparent. Sadhana, is bound to result in siddhi which means extraordinary achievements. Every ordinary persons attain success by dint of their industriousness and resources but the success attained in the spiritual field is exemplary and unique and it cannot be attained by solitary efforts of an ego-centered person….It is a matter of deep meant that spirituality has been degenerated to the level of jugglery by quacks and people mistake mere conjurer’s tricks as proofs of spiritual attainments. An acrobat displays his acrobatic feats so that people may be dazzled, amazed and surprised. He thus get tumultuous applause and earns money. But none of these feats fulfill the purpose of doing any public good. It is simply a means to earn a livelihood.” He candidly admitted that feeling of dedication and surrender is the central theme of the story of his life. He followed two principles atmavat sarvabhutesu (seeing one’s own Atman in all forms of life) and vasudhaiva kutumbakam (to consider oneself as member of one integrated global family). There had been several occasions in his life when the adversaries had left no stones unturned to harm him. But, he continuously pursued his aim with single-minded concentration. He always believed in the importance of upasana, sadhana and aradhana and emphasized that for spiritual progress, coordination of upasana, sadhana and aradhana is equally important. He clearly told that mechanical adoration which is secondary has been wrongly considered to be upasana (worship). Explaining the importance and philosophy of upasana, which is the first essential pre-requisite for spiritual upliftment, his Gurudev once told to him: “God cannot dance to your tune. You will have to become his devotee and act according to His will. If you are able to do so, you will become identical with God…. God does not fulfil the wishes of the Sadhak. A Sadhak has to surrender himself to God and fulfil His Will. A drop of water merges into and becomes one with the ocean. The ocean does not become a drop. This is the philosophy of upasana. If a person wants to do upasana, he has to sit near God, do his will and become His follower.” He narrated his experience with Upasana: “In my upasana, actions, rituals were not of primary significance. It was suffused with emotional zeal, devotion and faith…. ” At the same time, he was clearly in the view that amongst upasana, sadhana and aradhana, sadhana is the most important. The rituals of upasana (worship) can be performed by anybody just as he does his other routine chores. But, nothing more remains to be done if a person has reformed himself by sadhana. Piety, benevolence, doing good to others, falls within the purview of aradhana. He advised that the only reason which causes disappointment in the field of religious worship, which has defamed spirituality and made of ridiculous, is to consider formal rituals as everything and to pay no attention to the inner cleansing and refinement. He was in opinion that it is the radiant personality of the devotee that infuses life in sadhana and mere performance of rituals is nothing but a pastime. People must transform their thoughts, character and attitudes in the light of the Indwelling Spirit which is a must for spiritual progress. The most important work of his life was to make direct and indirect visible and invisible efforts to change the present milieu. He didnot directly by constructive, reformative work and indirectly by invisible spiritual influence which was done and the entire energy was mobilized to attain this objective. He had great love towards all: “If one could delve deep into my inner being, encased in this physical frame, he will find nothing but a gushing fount of limitless love and compassion for all creation. I have relished only one flavor- that of Love. I have amassed only one treasure- that of inexhaustible Love. I see and feel the same Spirit that dwells in me, indwelling all. However, I find myself spirituality related in a very special bond of kinship with those who have been living and working with me for the fulfilment of the Divine Mission bequeathed to me by my Gurudev.” While explaining aim of the life, he once stated: “We are more deeply and pitiably entangled in transitory and meaningless worldly pleasures and attractions than the small children are in playing with toys and paper boats. The grown-ups admonish the children for their lack of foresight and for spending their valuable time in fun and frolic, instead of attending to studies. But who will admonish the gown-ups who, like puppets, dance to the pull-strings of sensual pleasures, instead of upliftment of the soul? The children could be convinced of snow not being silver. But who will convince the grown-ups that the aim of life is not sensual pleasures or gratifications of desires but self-realization?” His last message shows his belongingness and love towards his parijans. He said: “The light of which I have been an instrument and medium will not extinguish with my withdrawal from the physical realm. I assure all my parijans that I will continue living and working with them at shantikunj and elsewhere in my astral-causal body as a concrete presence and guide, help and inspire them in their efforts to lead humanity into the Golden Era of Truth, Light and Immortality. I will finally merge into the Blissful Luminous causal self at the end of this century, after humanity has taken decisive leap into the cosmic consciousness and attained the light of New Era of spiritual Unity, Harmony and Peace….” Life and death as relativities of thought only. Vedanta points out that God is the only Reality; all creation or separate existence is maya or illusion. Great Saints are not limited to physical body or to this planet, but, at God’s wish is fulfilling a special mission for the earth which he certainly fulfilled. Truly, he was spiritual revolutionary who enlightened millions of people across the world and will always inspire generations…