Ramakrishna Das

Babaji Maharaj (Sri Ramakrishna Das) is an adorable name among all those in Orissa, whose lives have been influenced by The Mother and Sri Aurobindo.

This great personality was born on 14th August,1908,  in the village Rairpur of Jagatsinghpur district in Orissa as the youngest child of  Sri Krushna Chandra Routray and Smt. Jumpha Devi.

Even from his childhood he  had a very strong inclination towards spiritual life. He started reading the spiritual literatures and great epics like Ramayan, Mahabharat and others at the age of nine and was deeply touched by the life of the devotee Raghu Behera who could realise the Divine through Nama Japa (repeating the Name of the Divine with faith, reliance and aspiration). He himself started the Nama Japa even from that age and decided to dedicate his life in the pursuit of a divine life.

At the age of sixteen he joined the state services in the settlement office at Cuttack. As was the practice of the time, his parents insisted upon him to get married. To escape from this pressure he got himself shifted to Ranchi, Bihar. Finally he quit his job and came to Ayodhya in the year 1928 in search of a spiritual guide (Guru). He was accepted as a disciple by the famous sadhu Sri Mouni Baba Ramasarandas Maharaj who was the disciple of the great Yogi Sri Raghunathdasji.

He was deeply involved in the rigorous sadhana at Ayodhya when he came in contact with the literatures of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother. This was to bring a complete change in him as he became conscious of the aim of his life. With the permission of The Mother, he joined the Ashram at Pondicherry on 2nd February, 1945.

He recognised The Mother and Sri Aurobindo as the Divine incarnated and followed the sadhana of transformation with a great fervor. He prayed to The Mother that all may be conscious of this wonderful opportunity of serving the Divine upon earth and his prayer was answered by Her in the form of response from Orissa.

His able collaborator was Sri Prapatti, a professor from Orissa, who joined him in the year 1954 and through their joint effort of prayer and aspiration, added a new chapter in the spiritual history of Orissa.

This great spiritual personality left his body on 8th November, 1998.