Last days of Shri Shri Thakur –
Buddadev Chakraborty
Being a prophet on the earth, Sri
Sri Thakur had to face lot of hurdles as he went ahead with his mission of man
making, taking man away from the clutches of complexes. He underwent stiff
challenges from his surroundings, including his immediate environment that is
his family. It was during Sri Sri Thakur’s last stage when he was kept home
exiled which made him desolate and gradually his health deteriorated. Something
highly strange and suspicious developments engulfed his vicinity and combined
with Sri Sri Thakur’s old age and failing health, forced him to leave this
earth behind. Sri Sri Thakur perhaps knew that his teachings and Satsang would
be held hostage by his immediate successors and would fall prey to the
conspiracy of a coterie of followers, who would utilize his legacy for their
self interest. Something similar to that happened when his eldest son,
popularly known as Borda(Amarendra
Nath Chakravarty)one of my grandfather, after the demise of Sri Sri Thakur,
announced to be his spiritual successor (absurd). The other two sons of Sri Sri
Thakur are: Vivek Ranjan Chakravarty,who is my grandfather(Chorda) and
Pracheta Ranjan Chakravarty also one of my grandfather (Kajalda). Borda,
however attempted to usurp all the material empire of Satsang for his own sake
and for that he ostracized two of his younger brothers and some true fellow
disciples. He slowly and systematically, with the help of some shrewd selfish
followers captured Satsang administration and started demolishing the purity of
the ideological framework that was identified with Sri Sri Thakur. Borda didn’t
like the Thakur’s teaching and principle be adored by the people as he has some
hidden agenda of becoming the new cult as “Acharyadev”, which was forcibly
applied to the then followers who had no place to stay other than Satsang
Ashram. As they were from poor family and wanted to have a secure place under
the auspices of Sri Sri Thakur; but when they realized that after Thakur’s
absence it will be difficult for them to survive with their family they started
to glorify Borda as the new Acharyadev who has got the spiritual power from
Thakur. It may be logical to bring in here that Sri Sri Thakur, as God in human
form, had other members in the family. But none of them could claim to share
his Godhood, except that each of them has purity and holiness flowing in his or
her blood which he or she would inherit by principles of heredity. Sri Sri
Thakur is Almighty God born in the form of man with flesh and blood. His
descendants will be respected. They can represent Sri Sri Thakur; but none can
replace Sri Sri Thakur. Sri Sri Thakur is the Ideal, to be followed, to be kept
at the centre of the devotee’s life.
Borda even tried to manipulate
and tampered Sri Sri Thakur’s literature to suit his position and his
objectives. He altered some texts in books which would be in favour of him
particularly where to send the Istabhrity (the offers to the Ideal) as the main
Philanthropy office where most of the disciples send their offerings. He even
started the new way of Prayer and new Mantra (the daily utterances) of
Istabhrity. As far as the prayer is concerned, in the mid sixties Sri Sri
Thakur suffered from arthritis which is a disease of joint pain, he could not
sit crossed legged for sometime. So in order to give relief, Borda curtailed
some of the stanzas of prayer. Now as Borda was doing some changes in the
philosophy of Sri Sri Thakur he made the shorter version of prayer as the new
mode of prayer and it was introduced as a regular practice for everyone to
follow. Those who did not swear by the loyalty to Borda, it was difficult for
them to survive in Satsang organization, no matter how long he or she has been
attached with Sri Sri Thakur. Ruthlessly, Satsang alienated all true devotes of
Sri Sri Thakur and those very devotees built the Satsang movement by dedicating
their lives. In the year 1971 Pujaniya Baroma, the first wife of Sri Sri Thakur
Anukulchandra, left for heavenly abode.
That is how a tradition of
successor ‘acharya’ has been built in the Satsang environment, which has built
a feudalistic culture in the Satsang. Devotion on Sri Sri Thakur has been
replaced by the loyalty to the family. Series of photographs are being placed
by the side of Sri Sri Thakur, which has only helped to distract attention from
Sri Sri Thakur. One has to send ‘acharyabhrity’ alongside ‘istabhrity’ which is
ridiculous. The ritwiks (who is the bonding person between the Thakur and a
simple man) have been allured and trained to follow his rules. By bringing
these distortions in Sri Sri Thakur’s ideology and by forcing true devotees to
desert Satsang, Satsang organization became weak. It has got fragmented into
splinter groups. Devotees in general got disoriented in seeing feud in Sri Sri
Thakur’s family. So many power centers got created in Satsang, all trying to
exploit people’s devotion on Thakur and devotees’ offering for Thakur, that is
‘ishtabhrity’.
Main Satsang, under the control
Borda went on expanding their branches, by building real estates and
constructing temples. By the end of the 1989’s there were as many as thirty
satsang centers which is termed as Satsang Vihar all over India. The time of
Borda came to an end in early ninety’s and the time for his eldest son Ashok
Chakravarty came. The same thing happened to Ashok Chakravarty but not as tough
as his father. Now ‘Sri Sri Dada’ is his new nomenclature, is not doing
anything different, continuing to manage the organization.
Deplorable fact is that these
developments brought disunity and distraction amongst the large followers of
Sri Sri Thakur. The spirit of man making and elevation of consciousness by the
process of spiritual pursuit came to remain confined to some select
conscientious devotees, who became kind of cross bearer, but minority group.
The ferocious flow of Satsang river, which promised to serve the mankind, got
reduced to multiple slender streams, struggling to keep their existence live in
otherwise highly dynamic world, ravaged by complexes and affluence. The
developmental work of Satsang in terms of mega projects and implementation of
Sri Sri Thakur’s ideology in the society has faced roadblocks due to numerous
reasons, primary among them is the in-fighting amongst the fraternity of
devotees.
No one has right to play with the
sentiment of people and exploit their belief on Sri Sri Thakur. I one of the
great grandsons of Sri Sri Thakur vehemently oppose the present scenario and
urge the people to play an active part to revolt against the present authorities
of Satsang. Satsang has evolved out of Sri Sri Thakur Anukulchandra for the
benefit of the people .The preamble says that Satsang looks after the economic
situation of the poor people, social status of the people and the integrity of
the people. But none of the above is been fulfilled by the present management
of Satsang.
Some of us have reason to believe
that Sri Sri Thakur, the seer had a preview of all these happening today. He
took steps to guard against the deviation of his ideology that was known to happen
after his physical disappearance. He made adequate provisions so that truth
prevails, his ideology remains available undistorted to people and people get
the peace, progress and prosperity. Today also nothing is escaping his vigilant
notice. He lives through his literature, his ideology and through the conducts
of his devotees. This article is an earnest appeal to people to follow the
ideology of Sri Sri Thakur in its spirit, in their own interest and follow His
dicta and literature which is approved by himself.The devotees must restrict to
the literature published before his sad demise i.e in 27th January 1969. Sri
Sri Thakur is unique, irreplaceable and devotion on him cannot be shared. We
are aware that we are passing through hard time and only Sri Sri Thakur
provides the path, the solution and the solace.
Bande Purushottamam
