ANANDA MARGA TIMELINE
1922: Prabhat Sarkar was born.
1939-1940: Sarat Chandra Bose reportedly taught Tantra to his nephew Sarkar.
1945: Subhas Chandra Bose was heroicized after his alleged death.
1954: Sarkar asked his early disciples to gather; he told them that he preferred to be called Bábá.
1955: Sarkar’s founded Ananda Marga and changed his name to Shrii Shrii Ánandamúrti.
1958: Sarkar’s inspiration created a Renaissance Universal.
1959: Sarkar’s formulated PROUT (Progressive Utilization Theory).
1962: Ananda Nagar (City of Bliss), West Bengal, and a monastic order were founded.
1963-1965: ERAWS and AMURT were founded as social relief projects.
1967: The first serious slaughter of Ananda Marga followers by West Bengali Communists took place.
1969: Subhasita Samgraha (Ánandamúrti’s 214 Discourses) was completed.
1971: Sarkar was imprisoned by the Indian government.
1975-1978: Sarkar was imprisoned again by the Indian government.
1979: Sarkar embarked on a world tour.
1990: The Ananda Marga Gurukula (educational network) was established.
1990: Shrii Shrii Ánandamúrti died.
1990-2008: Acarya Shraddhananda Avadhuta succeeded Shrii Shrii Ánandamúrti.
2008: Purodhā Pramukha succeeded Acarya Shraddhananda Avadhuta.
FOUNDER/GROUP HISTORY
Prabhát Raṇjan Sarkár was born on May 21, 1922 to a lower-middle class family of Bengali immigrants in Bihar, India, at Jamalpur (now on the West Bengali/Indian border). The home was near the central Workshop of the British Raj’s Indian railway network. While its beautiful colonial estates were off-limits to town-dwellers, it employed many locals, including Prabhat’s father in the Accounts Department. Prabhat was an outstanding school student and meditative wanderer in the Kharagpur Hills. He was able to study science at Vidyasagar College (1939-1941) in Calcutta, Bengal’s capital. There he learned of South Asian socio-political affairs during World War II and before Independence from his closest maternal uncle, Sarat Chandra Bose (1889-1950), who was caring for him (Acosta 2010:1-18, 24; Acosta with Viyayananda 1994). Prabhat’s religious background was Shaivite but with a typical Bengali devotional focus on the goddess Kali. Initially, Prabhat practiced yoga modified from the tradition of Patanjali, but his wealthy uncle, Sarat Bose, introduced him to Tantra, which involves awakening divine feminine Power (Shakti) in the chakras (the body’s energy points) (Sharpe and Trompf 1981:18-19; Eliade 1970:296-359). Sarkar’s unmarried uncle was not alone in linking the secrets of Tantric power to India, and especially Bengali nationalism (cf. Taylor 2001:93-136; Strube 2022:110-220). He supported efforts of his younger brother, Subhas Chandra Bose (1897-1945), to set up the Indian National Army to help the Japanese remove the British from India (Gordon 1990:132, 162; Bose 2014). Choosing military power against Mahatma Gandhi’s strategy of non-violence (Chadha 1997:353-366), Subhas was heroicized by Bengali militants and opponents of partition, even more so since his body disappeared after an air-crash and they believed he would spectacularly return (Seth 1943; Getz 2015:104-116). Sarkar’s short literary pieces and some newspaper sub-editing show his astute awareness of national controversies, and his view of Subhas was that he was dwelling on a high spiritual plane in Tibet (Acosta 2010:17-18, 69).
Despite learning the complexities of proposed Indian and political solutions, Prabhat Sarkar kept his developing social ideals aside and concentrated on building a spiritual community. After initiating his first convert, Kalicharan, a threatening burley robber whom he convinced to disarm and cleanse himself in the Ganges River in 1939 (Acosta 2010:18-19), Sarkar returned home with his Intermediate Science degree in 1941. Because his family’s economic fortunes were failing during wartime, he joined the Jamalpur Railway Workshop as a junior accounting clerk. It was there that he initiated his earlier disciples into Tantra Yoga, inaugurating a secret gathering by 1954 and telling them he preferred being called endearingly as as Bábá (“The Beloved”). The following year he led the founding of Ananda Marga (Pracaraka ), which was constituted “for self-realization and the service of humanity.” He revealed his official title to be used thereafter as Shrii Shrii Ánandamúrti (“the Embodiment of Bliss”), with his followers binding themselves under him as their guru. The large acreage and expanding settlement signaled the Margis’ collective solidarity. They shared meditative practice (though initiation did not require the guru’s presence or dashan), committed themselves to a lacto-vegetarian diet and special fasting, gathered regularly at a central ashram (called Ananda Nagar), chanted mantras (including popular Baba Nam Kevalam (“only the name of the beloved”) (Abhiik 1972:28-29), engaged in new songs (from Sarkar’s prolific range of compositions), and steadily accepted Baba as the Divine among them, never to be replaced by any other. Baba’s growing fame was enhanced by healing (touching the forehead), placing disciples in trance-states, creating a monastic order in 1961) and engaging in extraordinary dashan with monks. Interpreting the times, he became more publicly assertive and readier to publish after the death of Stalin, whose demise in 1953 he was acclaimed for causing when the dictator threatened nuclear war against India (Acosta 2010:19, 24-26, 41-56, 61-65, 68, 74, 258-276).
DOCTRINES/BELIEFS
Bábá enjoys divine status among Margis. He is Shiva as the Lord of their mediation, which originated on the Ganges 7,000 years ago. And after Shiva and Krishna he is third of the three so-named Taraka Brahmas (star deities) in the three ages (yugas) since humans evolved. Therefore, apart from being the first Ananda Margi in the entire Cosmos,” he is really the “Father of All” and “Master of the Universe” (e.g., Savitanda 2003:75, 113). In a mantra the guru is none other than Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva (Abhiik 1972:22). In public affairs, Baba supernaturally opposed and requited the “worst sinner,” Indira Gandhi (the President of India who imprisoned him in 1975), averted World War III, and has prepared the West for massive social change for the good (Savitanda 2003:110-114, 126-131). This means that his collected works are treated as officially authoritative (Bengali, first attempted 1968; English, finished 2000 in 129 volumes (now in an electronic version 2001)). His life is most popularly received as hagiography (e.g., Bijayānanda 1993), his discourses are arranged like Scripture portions (e.g., Shubhamayanda 1973), and the topics of his works are organized like a concordance (e.g., Jackson 1978a).
As the living Path to “eternal blessedness” Anandamurti is held to be the ultimate guide for spiritual practice (Yoga) and the moral life. He has uttered “the Supreme Command” that the only “sure guarantee” of final “liberation” is to perform Meditation (sádhaná) twice a day, though no effect is possible without Yama (“moral discipline”) or Niyama (keeping Ananda Marga observances).” Forbiddingly, Margis “disobedience to this command is nothing but to throw oneself into the tortures animal life (by reincarnation) for cores (myriads) of years” (Sarkar 1963:x).
The yogic insights and techniques (See, RITUALS/PRACTICES) are integral to the cosmology taught by Sarkar, which combines Shaivism and the Vedic Sciptures (including the Bhagavad-Gita) primarily with the Yoga of Patanjali and the Avalute tradition of Tantrism (one of ten-to-twelve lines of Tantra centering its meditation on Lord Shiva, and a vital strand that Sarkar holds to combine all six classic types of yoga as well as Buddhist tantra, Zen, and Taoism) (Kang 1990:303).
Sarkar’s cosmology accepts that the universe is in a constant cycling process of force (a common feature of Tantrism, See, Jackson 1978b). By the 1950s, Sarkar envisioned God (Shiva) as ultimately uncontingent and pure energy (or Nirgunā), but as active Creator of the physical universe, God is Brahma issuing into two co-existing divine entities. Purusa is divine Consciousness, who is passive but influenced by the incessant activity of Prakriti, the “Cosmic Force” behind the creation, sustaining and destroying of all things we call Nature. In the interaction between the two divine entities. Purusa creates Mind, resulting in a soul/body distinction in humans, a division fundamental for Patanjali or the Sankya school of yoga in its quest to separate the two and achieve purity of soul (See, Whicher 2010). In Sarkar’s rendition, Prakriti has three “attributes” called gunas (binding strings) that manifest in the universal cyclical process in turn. These three are Sattva (sentient or conscious or our sense of ‘I’), Rajah (mutative or changing) and Tamah (static, or crude, animal, and material). The three gunas operate together in everything, “but in varying proportions,” making for differences in the cosmos, including divergent temperaments among humans. (Riepe 1961:185; 193). The constant conflict between Rajah and Tamah, however, leaves the opportunity for Sattva to link us with the cosmic Mind (mahasattva), which is the distinguishing feature of Margis on their path to Bliss as a goal of emancipation “beyond all the attributes” (Sarkar 1965:8-24).
From this cosmological background Sarkar developed an innovative yogic psychology, with humans at the macro-level alternating in phases of extraversion (saincara) and introversion (pratisanincara), here adapting Jungian psychoanalytical theory (Joshi 2009:1). At the micro-level, metabolically or psychosomatically, the ego-soul (jiva) has to deal with fourteen types of tiny subtle entities (connected to the gunas) that ectoplasmically infiltrate atoms, genes and glands. They “transfer ideas and viruses,” whether positively, negatively, or neutrally as microvita (Sarkar 1991; Kang 2017:393; Hudson 2023:56-57). Working through this bio-psychology in diet, attitudes and meditation purges misguided cravings and keeps evil spirits at bay. At death, bad influences in one’s surviving luminous, aerial and etherial bodies will not show up (Sarkar 1994:15-16, 107-113, 121-126).
The yogic insights and techniques are also not divorced from Sarkar’s teaching about the moral and social life. Mental purity is achieved by physical cleanliness and actions: kindness to living creatures, charity, helping others, and engaging in proper action (Joshi 2009:4). Special Ananda Marga ordinances (according to Nama/Ninyama principles) include vegetarianism; avoidance of theft, corruption and debt; control against masturbation and excessive sex in marriage; general carnal desires; and a will to “accept calmly directions of other margiis” on Ananda Marga rules. While ahimsā (non-violence) is a primary general principle of behaviour, preventing monks, for instance, from ploughing (and of killing various creatures in the soil), ahimsā at a political level, as in Gandhian non-cooperative strategy, is predictably depreciated as “hypocritical” (following Subhas Bose’s view). It is “hypocritical” since for evolving nature it is integral that “brute force” is countered by “self-defense.” Therefore, it is a contextually “wrong interpretation of Ahimsa” to debar a country’s physical retaliation against an “invading force” that will bring so much evil and suffering (Sarkar 1957: 3, 6. 8-14, 23, 27, 31, 37, 45; Chadha 1997).
Sarkar is famous for framing a social solution that synthesizes Left/Communist and Right/capitalist polarities in a political program he called PROUT, or Progressive Utilization Theory. Its basics are most clearly laid out in his The Human Society (Parts I-II in two volumes: 1962-1967), and details are found in the twenty-one-part work PROUT in a Nutshell (1987-1991) (2020). In his visioning, and as an extension of cycling of great cosmic processes from Introversion into the Extraversion of our material world (see Acosta 2010:76), human socio-political affairs course in cycles. This produces recurring successive “Ages,” the four great social types or “colors” (varnas): “the warriors, the intellectuals (lawyers, doctors, etc.), merchants and the toiling masses – each have their paramountcy in turn.” This is a special version of the common “Hindu” view that souls would hopefully reincarnate upwards through the four varna qualities from labourers (shudras) to contemplatives (brahmins) over long spaces of time. But the object of PROUT is to create the space for a New Introduction to go beyond and deeper than these qualities and to forestall unwanted excesses in the social cycling by moving toward a perfect balance. This would lead to an equilibrium also between capitalist and communist, Right and Left pressures. The fourth Age of Shudra revolution, triggered in our day by Communism and Russian Bolshevism, was the time when intervention was truly necessitated. This social solution may require revolutionary action to remove seventy-four causes for socio-psychological problems in history (Naggr 1974-1975) and facilitate the needed rule of philosopher kings (sadvipras), or wise (primarily Ananda Marga). These leaders will guide the world behind the scenes rather than directly. India is being imaged here as world’s central arena for sorting out both intra-social and international tensions (Sarkar 1962-1967, Volume 1:41-86, 138-193; Volume 2:1-132; Trompf 2013:7). Generally, external human society had slowly degenerated: it evolved institutionally from physically mighty kings, who began the process by which weavers (rishis), inventors (vipras) and industrialists (vaeshyas) enslaved the majority (shudras) and “exploited such people mercilessly.” Sarkar insisted early that Ananda Marga “desires a classless society” (1955; 1963:2-5), yet he came to re-tool the Vedic basic caste (or colour) system to organize AM for its role as a revolutionary movement to rid world politics of its false binary conflicts (and, as shall see, to defend the movement from outside violent attacks).
The social Path of Bliss mediates between the opposing pleasure principles of Western (personally concentrated religious) idealism and (impersonally oriented) Communist materialism to create instead a “Neo-humanism” or “universal humanism,” coupling goodwill with beneficial material solutions, the liberation of the individual self with anti-exploitative and non-racist social organization (Sarkar 1982, 1983). The cosmic struggle between absorbent passivity and incessant activity and between polarized forces at all levels of the cosmos is resolved socially when human collectivity is fixed on to a “nuclear axis” and inwardly tuned cosmically (Sarker 1968). The stated general Ananda Marga social goal, framed just before PROUT, was the recovery of an indivisible human society. This project, to enlist worldwide thinkers and innovative practitioners to form a “Cosmic Brotherhood’ (Sarkar 1978:97-109) to help realize this divine inclination (dana prasha), is called Renaissance Universal, the most ambitious prong of Ananda Marga engagement in global improvement (Jackson 1976).
RITUALS/PRACTICES
The core devotional act of AM is a Spiritual Meeting (dhamma chakra) for Meditation or “psycho-spiritual practice” (sadhana), performed where and when members chose to practice it (mostly Sundays). In most cases it is normally enacted at a jagrity (center for meditation, often the room of a dwelling housing for monks (also loosely called an ashram) or an Ashram as a larger complex. Devotions (puja) usually begin by chanting the Mantra Baba Nam Kevalam and then singing any of Baba’s songs (prabhat samgits or “Songs of the New Dawn,” of which there are 5018 compositions) with the playing of instruments (most often drums), and performing set spiritual dances (lalita marmika). As the centerpiece of weekly practice, sadhana will normally last for about an hour, in four comfortable bodily postures (asanas) and under a monk’s or nun’s guidance, with a talk given (or relayed by media), and then food shared. Aspirants are expected to choose an acarya (monk or nun) to instruct them one-to-one at other appointed times through the six basic stages and types of meditation techniques (sahaja yoga). These are for proper breathing, for purifying the seven chakras (energy “wheels” from the base of the spine to the top of the head), and for developing the five layers (koshas) of the mind. They must be completed before high forms of meditative states (of cosmic consciousness or “super-conscious mind”) can be completed, altogether in an Eightfold Path (Sarkar 1961; Ananda Marga Manila Section 1991:65). The terminology of super-mind, interestingly, has much in common with that of the Bengali-born Sri Aurobindo (e.g., 1970), who is appreciated in Ananda Marga.
The object of Meditation is to clear to inhibiting propensities (or thousand-odd “expressions”} connected to the chakras, preparing the body, both in its externality (organs, bones, etc) and internality (fifty instincts, 100+ hormones, etc), and the layers of the mind, so that the individual soul becomes conducive to the Supreme Entity. The highest blissful attainment or liberation (moksha) through meditation is that of Brahma (i.e., participation in the Cosmic Entity or in the thought waves of the Cosmic Mind (=Purusha or Brahmacārya) (Shubhamayananda 1973:68). As part of a great cycling divine process, this integration with the Divine becomes possible when each fold (kosha) of the mind is developed (through “five ways” from the more physical to the least material), and when the clashes between vidya (clarity of knowledge) and avidya (misconceptions), and between detachment and worldly attachments, can be resolved (by negotiating the Eightfold Path of consciousness) (Sarkar 1990a; Acosta 2010:63). Food intake can affect these processes, and special time and attention is secure the right food, especially when Margis live in non-South-Asian contexts. Ananda Marga practitioners are generally vegetarian, and a simple, thought-out diet usually facilitates meditation. But Sarkar’s texts on diet (especially in the Ananda Marga Caryacarya 1987, Part 3) are detailed, warning to avoid unsuitable foods (such as garlic), prohibiting female meat and intoxicants. Ananda Nargar farming practices are designed to conform to his instructions (Sarkar 1990b). Ritual washing precedes eating; and sharing food with others highly preferred. Regular fasting is encouraged. In a month, ordinary Margis fast from sunrise to sundown twice a month under a full moon and a new moon. For monastics, it is for two additional times, eleven days after a full and new moon respectively. Annual assemblages are held at Ananda Nargar and elsewhere nationally every New Year (December 1–January 1 ) and between the end of May and the beginning of June, marking Ananda Marga’s birthday.
ORGANIZATION/LEADERSHIP
Upon the founding of the Pracaraka Samgha in 1955, the Ananda Marga Central Headquarters were set up within Ananda Nagar (the wooded and hilly, 560-acre Ashram complex near Baglata, Purulia District, West Bengal). Today the formal central office lies there, surrounded by the main monastic training centre (Praskikhan Math); educational institutions run by the Ananda Marga Gurukula or Board of Education, including a tertiary Ananda Marga College (affiliated with West Bengal’s state university at Purulia called Sidho Kanho Birsha), an AM Teachers College, secondary and primary schools; a hospital; an orphanage, a kindergarten and a children’s home (for girls and boys) and various hostels; and sites for eco-friendly farm production, nutritional science, small industry and road building, most of these developed during the 1980s (Dharmavedaranda 1998: 20-21; cf. Sarkar 1990b; Shraddhananda 1990). While all these are displayed in a beautiful setting; the working office (handling many international transactions) is located near the the Kolkata airport. The supreme leaders, first Acarya Shraddhananda Avadhuta (1919–2008), chosen by Sarkar, and at present Purodha Pramukha Dada Jii, have remained in Ananda Nargar, with other highly attained monastics, who can be deployed for service where deemed necessary. These are mostly teachers in the central monastic training center who have achieved high levels of meditative training.
With the founding of the Ananda Marga monastic order (ashrams), the movement is more strictly divided between ordinary followers (Margii), who live in families and are only committed to part-time involvement, and monks (Sannyasii), who are skilled solely in the training center, dressing in distinctive red robes (and often turbans). Ranks on the ascending stages of monastic life start from the beginning levels of junior Tattvick, studying over one year each in Pranambhik Yoga; senior Tattvick, studying one year of Sadharan Yoga; junior Acharya, studying one year of Sahaja Yoga; senior Archarya, studying three years of Vishesha Yoga, with the goal (of a few) to become Avadhuta, mastering Kapalik Sadhana, and more rarely to become Purodha. The most common name of a leader is Acharya (Teacher) or more endearingly Dada (Brother), with some highly committed non-monastics honoured with the Acharya title. The possibility that remarkable shifts toward Supreme Consciousness can occur in meditation, and that attaining Kapalik Sadhana can occur without going through prior stages, is acknowledged (Dharmavedananda 1998:164). From among the higher adepts at meditation is expected good leadership material. which can include missionary postings across South Asia or around the world. At the perimeters of sectors, members venturing to distant locations (such as a country like Papua New Guinea) will run “programs” to introduce Ananda Marga and to cultivate new adherents who will then link to a sector’s networking.
Monks are in the minority and have to be sustained by the wider AM community. Select devout lay Margiis or spiritual aspirants (sadhakas) or full-time workers (avdhoots) will allow themselves to be put the service of monks at home or abroad. A general stress in Anada Marga is the link between service to humanity and the contemplative life in which women are also called to play a prominent role, with some as nuns (Sarkar 1994).
Sarkar has greater international fame for his writings on social theory, and while he wrote originally against the Indian caste system and has disparaged class and gender distinction, he has been an exponent of a firm role that social orders play in the movement. Sadvipras are at the centre of governance, ideally being drawn from the monks. This authoritarian and ranked aspect arguably derives from the rightist influence of Chandra Bose on the young Sarkar. These “philosopher-kings” are the only truly “classless men” and the best guides in the rational use of revolutionary physical force if that happens to be “the only channel left to bring about good change” (Bhaktaviirya 1977:6), with Ananda Marga as a world-wide organization most worthy for having “clearly written down” social directives.
The World for Ananda Marga is divided into nine sectors (basically mission fields): 1. Delhi (=India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka); 2. Hong Kong (=PR China, Taiwan, Korea, Japan; 3. Manila (=Philippines); 4. Suva (=Australia, New Zealand, Pacific Islands); 5. New York (=USA and Canada); 6. Berlin (=Europe); 7. Georgetown [Guyana] (=South America); 8. Nairobi (=Africa); 9. Cairo (Middle Eastern countries). There are headquarters for countries in each sector (so that, for example, Melbourne holds the national office for Australia). Ananda Marga now claims a presence in over one hundred different nations, and provides humanitarian relief for the needy through the Ananda Marga Universal Relief Team (AMURT) in most countries where it is present. The current number of its adherents exceeds 1,000,000; around one third of these reside in India, where up to 1,000 of the 1,200 AM schools and most outlets for the Education, Relief and Welfare Section (ERAWS) operate. The Central or Camp Office for overall coordination and administration is in Kolkata, West Bengal, India, although the international headquarters of PROUT as a socio-political organization is in Copenhagen, Denmark.
ISSUES/CHALLENGES
Ananda Marga has been widely reckoned as too deviant in its Indian setting. It has prompted vehement, often violent popular Hindu opposition for its “heretical” non-recognition of sacred rivers and places, disregard for the brahmanical priesthood, discouragement of prayers, dislike of idols, and rejection of heavens and hells. PROUT has irritated both sides of politics in being anti-Communist and disparaging material wealth (Naggr 1974:54-64. 69). Promulgating its independent social programs put Ananda Marga at odds with the Indian government’s adoption of Five-Year National development plans projected by the Congress Party under Indira Gandhi’s presidency (1966-1977). The movement has been adversely tagged in the world press as a violent movement, especially in the 1960s and 1970s, initially because it reacted in kind in 1967 against West Bengali Communist groups’ slaughter of members (including chief agricultural scientist Dada Asiimananda), assaults on their property, and charges of conspiracy (Kumar 2016). Paradoxically most Communists ally with brahmin-led Hindu revivalists in the quest to prevent upsetting social order (Walker 2000:40-41). By Gandhi’s use of Emergency Laws in 1975 to curb rising opposition to her governance, Margis were banned from government jobs and Anadamurti was imprisoned (Lewis 2011:254; Prakash 2021). After India’s Central Bureau of Intelligence (CBI) had arrested him for a time in in 1971, an Ananda Marga “militant wing,” the Vishwa Shangi Sena (VSS), was formed. It coordinated more and more violent protests in key Indian cities, tarnishing Ananda Marga’s reputation as a peaceful reform movement (Singh 1977; cf. Sen et al. 1982), even though most Ananda Marga defensive actions had their justifications (Crovetto 2008; 2011a).
In India, Ananda Marga has long been dogged by accusations that India’s Railway Minister, Lali Mishra, was assassinated by Ananda Marga in 1975, and three Margis were eventually convicted in 2024. In Sydney, Australia, the so-called “Hilton bombing” (a plot allegedly intended to kill Indian Prime Minister Moraji Desai at the 1978 Commonwealth Heads of the Government, because he kept Sarkar imprisoned) resulted instead in the deaths of two waste collectors and left Ananda Marga followers as likely culprits. Police infiltration in the following year to prove Ananda Marga culpability in conspiring to murder a local neo-Nazi leader back-fired and was shown to be a frame-up. By 1990, prime suspect Tim Anderson, former-Ananda Marga anti-hegemonic ideologue, was jailed for ordering the Hilton bombing, but acquitted the following year, when evidence by a jailed Margi confessing over the planting o the bomb was found unconvincing (Sharpe and Trompf 1981:24-27; Anderson 1985; Alister 1997:189-98; Landers 2016). Even if the tide turned and justice shown not to have been served, suspicion has kept following Anderson and following Ananda Marga to this day. In the context of these allegations, various books by Sarkar were abbreviated and rendered politically less volatile, Anderson being active in the work (yet cf. Mayadhishananda 1989; Krtashivananda 1989).
In the wake of these troubles (and some subsequent ones, including the 1982 Bijon Setu mob killing of sixteen Margi sadhus for alleged child-stealing in West Bengal, and a schism by the more rhetorically neo-Humanistic and consciously gender-balanced Ananda Seva [Blissful Service] Mission in the 2010s), Ananda Marga has strengthened in India and consolidated worldwide (cf., e.g., Panda 2022:48; Crovetto 2011b). Due to the rigour of its practices and complexity of its thought, the attractiveness of its challenge is met by attrition because of impatience; but AM now presents itself confidently as primarily focused on spirituality, social service, and promoting peaceful change. Recently comparative studies treat it positively beside other new “creative spiritual movements” (Hudson 2022; cf. Narasingha 2012).
REFERENCES**
** For Oral Testimonies, special thanks to Acharya Bikashananda Avadhuta (West Bengal); Dada Snigdhánanda (Brazil), Dada Maya Tita (USA), and Dada Saomnyakrishananda (Australia), with Prof. Dilip Basu (USA) and Christopher Hallett (Australia).
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Publication Date:
7 August 2024
