Further reading: Padmanabh S. Jaini, The Jaina Path
of Purification (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1990); Her-
mann Jacobi, trans., Jaina Sutras, Sacred Books of the
East Series, vols. 22 and 45 (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass,
1964); K. C. Lalwanti, Sudharma Svami’s Bhagavati
Sutra: Prakrit Text with English Translation and Notes
Based on the Commentary of Abhayadeva Suri (Calcutta:
Jain Bhagwan, 1980); Jogendra Chandra Sikdar, Studies
in the Bhagawatisutra (Muzaffarpur: Research Institute
of Prakrit, Jainology and Ahimsa, 1964).
Anirvan, Sri (1896–1978) Baul and Samkhya
author and guru
Sri Anirvan was an important scholar and writer
of commentaries on traditional Hindu sacred
texts, a practicing BAUL, and a spiritual seeker who
espoused the SAMKHYA philosophy of Hinduism.
The future guru was born Narendra Chandra
Dhar on July 8, 1896, in Mymensingh, East Ben-
gal (now Bangladesh). His parents, Raj Chandra
Dhar and Sushila Devi, were cultured, pious
middle-class Hindus of the Kayastha caste. Poor
but deeply committed to spiritual values, they
provided Narendra with an environment of love
and harmony. He learned PANINI’s SANSKRIT gram-
mar at an early age and daily recited chapters
from the BHAGAVAD GITA. At the age of seven, he
had a vision of an exquisitely beautiful young
girl, whose image became for him a symbol of a
mystery to be addressed. This image was a benign
influence that deeply influenced his SADHANA
(spiritual path) and became a presiding deity of
his life. Later he recognized in this vision the
Divine Mother, born of perfect wisdom, the Uma
Haimavati of the Kenopanishad.
At age nine, in a state of SAMADHI (blissful con-
sciousness), he experienced the boundless Void
and saw the sky (AKASHA) with its myriad stars enter
into him. The akasha became his symbol of free-
dom and detachment; his meditation on it became
part of his teaching. At age 16, upon completion
of his secondary education, he left Mymensingh
to live in Assam with his family’s guru, Swami
Nigamananda, who was building a new ashram
near Jorhat. Narendra worked on the building site
until he was awarded a state scholarship to study
Sanskrit and Indian philosophy. He specialized in
study of the VEDAS and stood first in the University
of Calcutta (Kolkata) Sanskrit examinations at
both the bachelor’s and the master’s levels.
At age 22, having completed his studies, Nar-
endra returned to the ashram, where his guru
initiated him into sannyas (renunciation) and
gave him the name Nirvanananda. In 1920, at age
34, he left the ashram after serving as teacher and
administrator. He changed his name to Anirvan to
signify that he was no longer bound by the vows
of sannyas. He spent the next 12 years travel-
ing widely in the Himalayas in quiet retreat and
MEDITATION.
In 1944 he began living in a house near
Almora, Uttar Pradesh, where he began to trans-
late Sri AUROBINDO’S The Life Divine from English
to Bengali and began to write his own commen-
taries on the Vedas. Here he met a Swiss woman,
Lizelle Reymond, who became his pupil and
biographer. Her work became his line of transmis-
sion to the West, and they remained in intimate
contact for the rest of his life.
Living in Almora, Shillong, and finally Cal-
cutta, Anirvan continued to write and to give
lectures on the UPANISHADS to small groups of dis-
ciples. Bedridden after a fall in 1971, he remained
in the care of two disciples in Calcutta. He con-
tinued to be a quiet seeker with a spiritual jour-
ney based on the teachings of PATANJALI and the
SAMKHYA philosophy of Hinduism. He identified
himself as a BAUL, although he did not belong to
a formal organization of Bauls. He especially liked
the freedom of spiritual expression taught by the
Bauls and some of his writing is collected as “Let-
ters from a Baul.”
His statement of his mission was clear: “My
ambition is not very great. It is to live a life rich in
impressions, luminous to the end; to leave behind
a few books embodying my life-long search for
Truth, and a few souls who have caught fire. MyK 38 Anirvan, Sri