Who Was Swami Pranavananda And Why Should You Be Knowing About Him?

In 1984, Prof Ninian Smart (1927-2001), an authority in religious studies in the Western academia, co-authored along with Hindu monk Swami Purananada, a biography of a Bengali monk who had attained samadhi in 1941. That monk was Swami Pranavananda - founder of Bharat Sevashram Sangha (BSS). His life was short, but an intense period of 45 years.

In the1980s, Purananda, a direct disciple of Pranavananda, brought Smart the draft of the biography of his guru that he had written. It outlined the life and teachings of Pranavananda. Smart took this material as a ‘general basis’ and started working on it using other sources like the biography written by Swami Vedananda, etc. The result is the book, which is currently under review. The special emphasis of Smart was “on giving a sense of the actual fabric of the Hinduism in which the acharya was himself so important a strand”.

First brought out in 1984 (George Allen & Unwin), the book has been republished by Routledge as a part of a series on Indians under the British. The book also sets the Hindutva movement in its historical, spiritual and civilisational contexts.

Born as Binod in 1896, Pranavananda was given a special initiation by Baba Gambhirananda Maharaj of Gorakhpur on the new moon day of October 1913. In 1924, he was given complete monk-hood by Swami Govindananda Giri. In terms of spirituality, “he was a master of nirvikalpa samadhi - the deepest image-less trance in which the mystic attains unity with the formless Brahman”. He was equally aware of the need for Hindu unity and passionately worked towards achieving it. He simultaneously countered the Islamist aggression and social stagnation in the Hindu society. When Ninian Smart discusses the enlightenment (full moon day of Magha 1916), he reveals his own in-depth understanding of Hinduism:

Bharat Sevashram Sangha (BSS), which he created, combined inner sadhana seamlessly with national resurgence and social emancipation. Already the great scientist Acharya P C Roy had seen and appreciated the organising abilities of Pranavananda during the cyclone and famine relief. As chairman of the Famine Relief Committee, P C Roy marvelled that “hundreds of workers he recruited in no time” and “the management of a competent leader that made the famine relief successful”.

Dharma Rashtra

The book is important for two reasons. One: it brings out vividly the life of an extraordinary nation builder and a unique spiritual leader. Two, it shows the exceptional insights Ninian Smart one of the internationally acclaimed scholar of world religions showed in studying Hindutva movement – refreshingly different from the run-of-the-mill Hindu-phobic academics like Wendy Doniger and Christopher Jaffrelot etc, outside India and our own home grown anti-Hindus like Romila Thapar and D N Jha.

Prophet of a New Hindu Age: The Life and Times of Acharya Pranavananda: Volume 19 (Routledge Library Editions: British in India), 2017; Ninian Smart and Swami Purnananda; Kindle edition: Rs 1,452.55