The Man

When we look at this vast world and at ourselves we find two groups of people on a broad-based classification. While the section of people that forms the majority remains content or busy trying to fend for themselves and engrossed with their little joys and sorrows, comforts and interests, there are others who try to carve out a niche for themselves. They are the people we stand up in long lines to vote for; whose art or music or acting we enjoy and watch; whose speeches or songs we listen to and whose poetry we read. They are the leaders in their respective fields: rich or famous or powerful or all at once.

A successful man in whatever field he may be in—politics, arts, music, acting, scientific researches—is the most admired man today, the only criterion being how much money or popularity he has earned or how much influence he wields over the masses or how much power he enjoys. But there is a handful still, beyond these obvious two classes of the ordinary majority and extraordinary minority, and whose birth in this world is few and far between and often centuries apart from each other. They are characterized by their conspicuous and overwhelming obsession with the welfare and well-being of others, however queer it may sound. They are not without individual aspirations and ambition but even there, they so strikingly differ from the rest, the sole aim and interest of their lives being the interest of others. Through this website it is our humble endeavor to introduce you to one such man whose life and activity have been tuned by a single purpose—to wean man from the clutches of his own passions and lead him into a life of light and bliss. A man who never bothered about personal milestones despite being endowed with uncommon excellence in any and every field that he chose to tread.

Such a person was born in a remote riverine village of North-Eastern Bengal, a province of the undivided British India (now part of independent Bangladesh) on 14th September, in the year 1888 (Bhadra 30, 1295 of Bengali Calendar), in the household of the Chakravarties—a traditional Bengali Brahmin family. The village—Himaitpur—represented the perfect picture of a stagnant, degenerated social life of Bengal or Indian countryside of the period. Taking advantage of its remoteness that made it difficult for the administration to have a strong hold over the law and order, these villages became happy hunting ground for freebooters, goons, thieves, rapists and all sorts of criminals. In the backdrop of such a scenario, took place the birth of the first of the children of Sivachandra and Manomohini Devi. And the baby came out with such a glowing light that the boatmen on nearby Padma thought the house caught fire and they rushed with bucket loads of water to douse the flame only to discover themselves befooled. The boy, christened Anukulchandra, grew up normally in his native environment among his parents, younger siblings, and his childhood and boyhood friends but with uncanny interests and abilities. His interests were myriad; his inquisitiveness, deep.