The Beginning of a New Era

And with this realization began another era. Already a number of young men accumulated round him attracted by a heavenly aura in his personality. With the passing of years his personality unfurled into a vivid variety of colors and scents drawing thousands in its irrevocable appeal. He motivated youths into forming troupes and with drums, cymbals and other instruments they started singing ecstatic devotional songs known as kirtan. He himself composed songs for the kirtans, set tunes and took part in the singing. The singers danced and jumped in ecstasy and exuberance as the songs picked up from slow tempo to high buoyant peaks and again slowed down. Anukulchandra himself danced and sang and would become the central figure around whom all sang and danced as if enchanted. His movements and rhythms were ineffably beautiful and captivating. Unable to repel the enchanting effects of such exalting music that reached unprecedented heights and continued for hours, many plunged into it like insects into fire.

Sree Sree Thakur (Standing third from the Left) with father Revered Shivchandra
Chakravarty (sitting third from the left in the middle row) and some devotees.

Absorbed wholly into the kirtan Anukulchandra would fall down losing all consciousness of the world around and in that state his body would sometimes spring to some distance or in quick succession amazingly accomplish most complex yogic movements as if his body was nothing more than a ball of flesh with hardly any bone in it. Then began in that transcendental state or Samadhi a thing hardly ever witnessed by human eyes. He would speak out in a variety of languages—of them a few unknown—on a variety of topics including who he really was and revealing things of the highest philosophical importance to the utter amazement of the onlookers and would come back to normalcy after some time. Sometimes his sayings would be directly addressed to someone in the crowd or would be an indirect answer to some question lurking in the minds of those standing agape at the happenings. Though this era of kirtan and Samadhi did not last more than a few years, Anukulchandra, by then addressed as Sree Sree Thakur (to be addressed so here also henceforth) by his followers with reverence, was able to lift the general mental plane of Himaitpur and adjoining areas where women feared going out to the river or pond alone even in daylight and skirmishes, rape, robbery and theft were the order of the day, to one of elevating interest and engagement. Enchanting Kirtan easily lifts the mind to a higher plane and it becomes easier to mold it.

Sree Sree Thakur (middle) in 'Trance' supported by Aswini Kumar Biswas (right). Kishorimohan Das (left).