Once a Nepali boy whom Sri Anirvan knew, tasted something new and in delight he exclaimed,"It tastes so sweet." Sri Anirvan took pleasure in his joy, and remembered the words.
The day before he left his body, Sri Anirvan wrote in "Aditi", the journal he was writing at the time,:
(Translated from Original Bengali by Sudipta Munsi)
"A cruel truth is that even the Maheshwar or the Great Lord has to be the bhakta or enjoyer. As on one hand that enjoyment is the poison turning the throat blue, on the other hand it is the ambrosia of Uma's body. There is no way of rejecting either of these. One who is able to enjoy both is verily Maheshwar or the Great Lord.
Maheshwar is verily the true enjoyer, for He alone is the humorist. To him good and bad, pleasure and pain, all "taste so sweet."
This is verily what is Brahmaswad - the taste of Brahman or tasting by Brahman, whatever you may call it.
The intense heat of May - "It is so sweet." The unbearable intestinal pain - even that "tastes so sweet."
The unuttered mantra of the whole day is this, "It tastes so sweet, it tastes so sweet." "Om Madhu, Om Madhu, Om Madhu."
My self-consciousness is "Madhu" or "Honey" - let it be pleasurable or painful, whatever.
While in the body I am counting out pain like taxes, that too is honey.
One day I will not need to count it out any more - even that is honey.
"Om Madhu, Om Madhu, Om Madhu.
"I am Madhucchanda."
Sri Anirvan (Bengali: শ্রী অনির্বান Sri Anirvan) (July 8, 1896–May 31, 1978) born Narendra Chandra Dhar (Bengali: নরেন্দ্রচন্দ্র ধর) was an Indian / Bengali, writer, Vedic scholar and philosopher. He was widely known as a scholar and his principal works were a Bengali translation of Sri Aurobindo's The Life Divine and the three volume treatise Veda Mimamsa. Sri Anivan visited Pondicherry and had The Mother's darshan in the year 1967.
Sri Anirvan was born on July 8, 1896 in the town of Mymensingh, then a part of British India and now in Bangladesh. His birth name was Narendrachandra Dhar. He was the son of Rajchandra Dhar, a doctor, and Sushila Devi. He was a spiritually and intellectually inclined child, who by the age of 11 had memorized the Astadhyayi of Pānini and the Bhagavad Gita. He was named Varada Brahmachari after going through the sacred thread ceremony. He also won a state scholarship as a teen and completed university IA and BA degrees at the University of Dhaka and an MA from the Sanskrit College of the University of Calcutta. At 16, he joined the Assam Bangiya Saraswata Math ashram, located in the village of Kokilamukh near Jorhat in Assam. He was a disciple of the ashram's founder, Paramahansa Srimat Swami Nigamananda Saraswati Dev, who initiated him into sannyas. Anirvan's new monastic name was Nirvanananda Saraswati. He taught at the ashram school and edited its monthly magazine Aryyadarpan. In fact, the Aryadarpan still retains the following Sanskrit epigram, in the Rathoddhata metre, that Sri Anirvan (then Srimat Varada Brahmachari) wrote: arya-sastra-gahanartha-dipakascetas-timiravaravarakah/ dyotayan vijayatam vipascitam arcisa hrdayam aryadarpanah
Some time after 1930, Nirvanananda changed his name to Anirvan and ceased to wear the ochre Swami's robes. He travelled widely in North India, eventually returning to Assam and establishing an ashram in Kamakhya near Guwahati. However, he continued to travel. In the 1940s, he lived in Lohaghat and Almora. Madame Lizelle Reymond documented some of this period in My Life with a Brahmin Family (1958) and To Live Within (1971). During this time, Sri Anirvan translated Sri Aurobindo's The Life Divine into Bengali as Divya Jeevan; this book, his first, was published in two volumes between 1948 and 1951.
In 1953, Sri Anirvan moved to Shillong in Assam. His reputation as a Vedic scholar grew; and he wrote both in Bengali (chiefly) and in English ( he was also fluent in French) on various aspects of Hindu philosophy (particularly Samkhya, the Upanishads, the Gita and Vedanta) and the parallels between Rigvedic, Puranic, Tantric and Buddhist thought. His magnum opus, Veda Mimamsa, was published in three volumes in 1961, 1965 and 1970. This work won him the Rabindra award. Though Sri Anirvan was a saint, he studied different subjects such as Marxism, nuclear science and gardening; yet he called himself a simple baul. Sri Anirvan made his final move, to Kolkata, in 1965. He died on May 31, 1978, after a six-year illness.
Download books
Aditi (Bengali: অন্তর্যোগ). Kolkata: Sri Gautam Dharmapal, Haimavati Prakashani Trust.
Anirvan Aloya Patanjala Yoga-Prasanga; Edited & Translated by Sudipta Munsi; Calcutta: Prachi Publications. (Bengali). Published 2006.
Antaryoga (Bengali: অন্তর্যোগ). Kolkata: Haimavati Prakashani Trust, 1997 (Bengali year 1404), 3rd edition.
Aranyak (Bengali: অারণ্যক). Writings as Editor of Nagamananda Ashram magazine. Halishar: Assam Bangyiya Saraswat Math.
Bichitra (Bengali: বিচিত্রা). Kolkata: Smt Ramaa Choudhury, Haimavati-Anirban Trust, 1993.
Buddhi Yoga Of The Gita And Other essays.(Original in English.) Biblia Impex Pvt. Ltd. 1991, Madras, Samata Books.
Dakshinamurti (Bengali: দক্ষিণামূর্তি). 1969. Sreerampore, Hooghly: Sri Rabindranath Bandyopadhyay,.
Divya Jeevan (Translation Into Bengali Of “The Life Divine” by Sri Aurobindo. দিব্য জীবন প্রসঙ্গ).Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram (Originally published 1948-51).
Divya Jeevan Prasanga (Bengali: দিব্য জীবন প্রসঙ্গ). Kolkata: Sri Aurobindo Pathamandir, 2000 (fourth edition). (Originally published 1958).
Gayatri Mandala Volumes 1-6. (Bengali). Undated.
Gitanuvachan (Bengali: গীতানুবচন). Vol I - 1968, Vol II - 1969, Vol III – 1970. Sreerampore, Hooghly: Sri Rabindranath Bandyopadhyay.
Inner Yoga (English) Translated by Simanta Narayan Chatterjee from “Antar Yoga.” New Delhi: Voice of India.
Kaveri (Collection Of Poems) (Bengali: কাবেরী).1976. Kolkata: Sri Aurobindo Pathamandir
Lecture On the Immortality Of the Body in Sri Aurobindo's Yoga (Bengali:).1970. Kolkata: Sri Aurobindo Pathamandir
Letters From A Baul, Life Within Life. (original in English). 1983. Kolkata: Sri Aurobindo Pathamandir.
Pather Katha (Bengali). Published 2008.
Pather Sathi (Bengali: পথের সাথী). Halishar: Srimat Swami Jnananada Saraswati, Assam Bangyiya Saraswat Math, 1980. (Three volumes). Kolkata: Haimavati Anirvan Trust.
Patralekha (Bengali: পত্রলেখা). Vol I - 1968, Vol II - 1969, Sreerampore, Hooghly: Ritambhara. Vol III – 1980, Kolkata: Haimavati Anirvan Trust.
Patram Pushpam. 1982. Kolkata: Haimavati Prakashani Trust.
Prashnottari (Bengali: প্রশ্নোত্তরী). 1973. Sreerampore, Hooghly: Sri Rabindranath Bandyopadhyay. Halishar: Srimat Swami Jnananada Saraswati, Assam Bangyiya Saraswat Math, 2001 (Bengali year 1408), 2nd edition.
Pravachan (Bengali: প্রবচন). Vol I - 1962, Vol II - 1963, Vol III – 1966, Vol I - 1961, Vol IV – 1973. Sreerampore, Hooghly: Sri Rabindranath Bandyopadhyay. Later - Halishar: Srimat Swami Jnananada Saraswati, Assam Bangyiya Saraswat Math, 2002 (Bengali year 1409).
Pururava (Bengali). Published 1989.
Sahitya Prasanga (Bengali: সাহিত্য প্রসঙ্গ). 1980. Kolkata: Haimavati Prakashani Trust
Shiksha (Bengali: শিক্ষা). Vol I - 1962, Vol II – 1974. Assam Bangyiya Saraswat Math.
Snehashish (Bengali: স্নেহাশীষ). Vol I - 1971, Vol II - 1971, Vol III – 1972. Sreerampore, Hooghly: Ritambhara.
Upanishad Prasanga - Commentary on Aitareya Upanishad (Bengali: উপনিষৎ প্রসঙ্গ : ঐতরেয় উপনিষদ্). 1969. Burdwan University.
Upanishad Prasanga - Commentary on Ishopanishad (Bengali: উপনিষৎ প্রসঙ্গ : ঈশোপনিষদ্). 1967. Burdwan University.
Upanishad Prasanga – Commentary on Katha Upanishad — (Bengali: উপনিষৎ প্রসঙ্গ : কেনোপনিষদ্). 2009. Kolkata:
Upanishad Prasanga – Commentary on Kaushitaki Upanishad — (Bengali: উপনিষৎ প্রসঙ্গ : কেনোপনিষদ্). 2009. Kolkata:
Upanishad Prasanga – Commentary on Kenopanishad — (Bengali: উপনিষৎ প্রসঙ্গ : কেনোপনিষদ্). 1969. Kolkata: Haimavati Prakashani Trust
Upanishad Prasanga – Commentary on Mandukya Upanishad — (Bengali: উপনিষৎ প্রসঙ্গ : কেনোপনিষদ্). 2009. Kolkata:
Upanishad Prasanga – Commentary on Taittireya Upanishad — (Bengali: উপনিষৎ প্রসঙ্গ : কেনোপনিষদ্). 2009. Kolkata:
Uttarayan (Bengali: উত্তরায়ন). Kolkata: Smt Ramaa Choudhury, Haimavati-Anirban Trust, 1995.
Vedamimamsa (Bengali: বেদ মীমাংসা). Vol I - 1961, Vol II - 1965, Vol III - 1970. Winner of Rabindra Puraskar award. Kolkata: Government Sanskrit College.
Vedanta Jijnasa (Bengali: বেদান্ত জিজ্ঞাসা). Sreerampore, Hooghly: Sri Rabindranath Bandyopadhyay, 1965 (Bengali year 1372).
Yogasamanvaya Prasanga (Bengali: যোগসমন্বয় প্রসঙ্গ). 1967. Kolkata: Sri Aurobindo Pathamandir.
Home
Seekers
Yogis
Share your feedback. Help us improve. Or ask a question.