Sri Sri Thakura
Life History
From a grieving boy in Kutabpur to the founder of Nilachala Saraswata Sangha.
This account is retold from the biography of Sri Sri Thakura published by Nilachala Saraswata Sangha, Puri.
- 1880
Childhood in Kutabpur
Paramahansa Swami Nigamananda Saraswati Dev was born in 1880 to a virtuous Brahmin couple at Kutabpur, in Nadia district (now in Bangladesh). His father was Bhubanmohan Chattopadhyaya and his mother was Yogendra Mohini. He was named Nalinikanta.
As a boy he won the admiration of people for his extraordinary fearlessness, intelligence and forthrightness. He was respectful, and leadership came naturally to him.
Loss and doubt
His mother died young after a brief illness. Nalinikanta was studying away from the village and could not see her again. He learned that, just before she died, she had entrusted him to Jaganmata, the Cosmic Mother.
He took her words literally and prayed with a single heart for the Mother to appear. No vision came, not even in dreams. His faith broke. He came to believe that death is the end of everything, and he resolved that religion, for him, could only mean doing good to others, and that his one duty was to lead a disciplined and virtuous life.
As the eldest son, he was married to Sudhansubala. After completing his studies at the Dhaka Survey School, he worked in various places, but his independent spirit made him change jobs often.
An unexpected sign
While serving as supervisor of the Narayanapur estate, he was working late one night when he saw the shadowy figure of Sudhansubala standing silently at his table. She was supposed to be away at Kutabpur. The figure stayed only a few moments.
Disturbed, he hurried to his village the next day and learned that Sudhansubala had died an hour before he saw her. The image appeared to him several more times in quick succession. He could no longer believe that death is the end. He resolved to reach his wife in the other world at any cost.
The search for truth
He wanted to understand life and death. His questions took him to the Theosophical Society at Adyar, Chennai, where he was able to speak with Sudhansubala through a medium. But he could not see her, and he was not satisfied.
The members told him that knowledge of life and death belongs to the Hindu yogis. On his search for a true yogi he met Swami Purnananda, a learned renunciate, who told him that all women are only partial manifestations of Mahamaya, the Cosmic Mother. If he attained Her, he would attain his wife as well. The Swami advised him to seek a Sadguru.
The mantra in the dream
One night he saw in a dream a sadhu with a brilliant aura. When he woke, the sadhu was standing beside his bed. The sadhu handed him a bilwa leaf with a mantra written on it and vanished. No one he consulted could read the mantra or explain what to do with it.
Directed in a dream, he went to the great Tantrik guru Bamakshepa at Tarapeeth in Birbhum, West Bengal. Bama was delighted to see the unique Veeja Mantra of Goddess Tara that Nalinikanta had received, and accepted him as a disciple. Within a month he mastered the secrets of Tantra sadhana.
A question that changed everything
As a sign of perfected practice, Tara, the Mahashakti, appeared to him in the form of Sudhansubala and granted him the boon of seeing Her in that form whenever he wished. But the form could not be embraced. It appeared from within him and dissolved back into him.
He wondered: if Mahashakti arises from me alone, then who am I? Bamakshepa advised him to seek the knowledge of Advaita from a Vedantic guru.
Sannyas and the name Nigamananda
At the holy place of Pushkar in Rajasthan, he became a disciple of Srimat Swami Satchidananda Saraswati. He recognised him at once as the sadhu who had given him the Tara mantra in the dream.
The Swami initiated him into sannyas (renunciation) and named him Nigamananda, in recognition of his sound and ready grasp of Vedic (nigama) knowledge (jnana).
Yoga and Nirbikalpa Samadhi
On his guru's advice, he set out to experience the Vedic truth directly through yoga. Led by providence, he found his yogi guru Sumeru Dasji in the dense, inaccessible forests near the holy place of Parasuram in north-eastern India.
Under Yogiraj Sumeru Dasji's guidance he completed his yoga sadhana and attained Nirbikalpa Samadhi, non-dual existence and complete identification with the Supreme Soul. He returned from that state with the answer to his question, “Who am I?”
- 1905
The path of love
He was then initiated into Prema, or Bhava sadhana, the mystery of loving God, by Gauri Ma, a woman sadhu of rare spiritual merit. She taught him that the Supreme Soul is both transcendent and playfully active in the universe.
Thus Nigamananda became perfect in Tantra, Jnana, Yoga and Prema, the four ways of Sanatana Dharma to the highest goal. At the Kumbha Mela at Ujjain in 1905, before a great gathering of sadhus and renunciates under the auspices of the then Shankaracharya of the Sringeri Matha, Swami Satchidananda Saraswati conferred on him the title Paramahansa.
- 1908
Sharing the bliss
Soon he felt an irresistible urge to share his overflowing bliss with suffering people, and he entered society to awaken a spiritually inert people. He first sought to draw the attention of educated people to the value of Sanatana Dharma.
He wrote five books: Brahmacharya Sadhana, Yogi Guru, Jnani Guru, Tantrik Guru and Premika Guru. In 1908 he edited and published a reformist periodical, Arya Darpan, which became the voice of Sanatana Dharma.
Generally reticent, he shunned publicity and public platforms. He preferred to speak to small groups of sincere devotees and guide them inwardly.
- 1934
Bhakta Sammilani and the Sangha
He established the tradition of Bhakta Sammilani, the annual congregation of devotees, so that household devotees and renunciates could meet, commune and proceed together on the spiritual path.
Living a secluded life in Puri, mostly absorbed in Brahma-bhava, he was inspired to establish Nilachala Saraswata Sangha there in 1934. He directed his few householder disciples to come together under it and live the ideals he had set.
- 1935
Mahasamadhi
Swami Nigamananda Saraswati Dev left his body through yogic kriya and attained mahasamadhi, eternal union with the Supreme Soul, on 29 November 1935 in Kolkata.
He had told his followers, “I exist for eternity and will exist so forever. And I shall keep guiding you even after I leave this body, exactly as I am guiding you at present.”