Anirvan or Sri Anirvan (born Narendra Chandra Dhar (Bengali: শ্রী অনির্বান) was an Indian/Bengali/Hindu monk, writer, Vedic scholar and philosopher.He was widely known as a scholarand his principal works were a Bengali translation of Sri Aurobindo's The Life Divine and the three volume treatise Veda Mimamsa.
Early Life and Sannyas
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 age 11 had memorized the Astadhyayi of Pāṇini and the Bhagavad Gita.He was named Baroda Brahmachari after going through the sacred thread ceremony. He also won a state scholarship as a teen and completed university IA and BA degrees in Dhaka and an MA from Sanskrit College in Kolkata.
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.
Scholar and Writer
Some time after 1930, Nirvanananda changed his name to Anirvan and ceased to wear the ochre swami's robes[1]. 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 Prasanga); this book, his first, was published in two volumnes between 1948-51.
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 passed away on May 31, 1978, after a six-year illness.
As A Person
Swamiji or Rishida often came as a silent friend to very hapless people, especially women. Even when he could not offer material support, and when such help was out of the question, he stood quietly by like a pillar of strength. How he managed to turn up exactly at the moment of crisis was a measure of his yogic siddhi, something he never demonstrated. Indeed, he went so far as to mildly reprove the great scholar MM. Gopinath Kaviraj on the showmanship and "Jnanaganj" activities of the latter's guru.
Kavirajji himself was a most unassuming person, who wrote a great deal on subjects he understood very well [Vedanta, grammar] as well on those where his comprehension was uncertain [see his volumes Tantrika Siddhanta]. Rishida was never tired of emphasizing the difference between prajnanam [apprehension] and samjnanam [comprehension]. He taught the Rksamhita as an Agama and wanted and suggested/required those around him to reflect and meditate on the Siva Sutras, and on the works of some of the Kashmir Non-Dual writers. Anyway, going back to his appearing when crises were acute, one is reminded of Rabindranath's song:
Jey raatey more duvar guli bhanglo jhodey Jaani naa to tumi eley aamaro ghorey The night my door was smashed in by the storm I did not realize You had entered my home
It was exactly on such terrible nights, of the outer and inner worlds, that this invisible yogi chose to make his silent appearance besides many. The Bodhisattva Anirvan said and I quote him almost verbatim, although all his books have now passed fom my possession, "Koti jonmo japon kortey aami ulloshito."