Ananda Marga: Difference between revisions

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On August 2, 1939 (at 8:30&nbsp;pm, on the [[full moon]] day of ''[[Shraavana|Shravani]]''<ref group=note>''[[Shraavana|Shravan]]'' is the fifth month of the [[Hindu calendar|Hindu year]], beginning in late July and ending in the third week of August. It is the month of festivals and commemorate the precedence of the sacred over all aspects of life. It is the holiest month in the year and it includes celebrating [[Nag Panchami]] on the fifth day of the bright half of the month.</ref> ''[[Purnima (day)|Purnima]]''<ref group=note>''[[Shraavana|Shravani]]'' ''[[Purnima (day)|Purnima]]'' is the [[full moon]] in the sacred month of ''[[Shraavana|Shravan]]''. On ''Shraavana Poornima'' ''[[Raksha Bandhan]]'', the festival of brothers and sisters, is celebrated .</ref>), [[Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar|P.R. Sarkar]] initiated with ''Tantrikii Diiksa'' or "Tantric initiation" Kalicharan Bandyopadhyay (after aka Kalikananda Avadhuta) into [[meditation]] at ''Kashi Mitra Gh’at'' on the bank of the river [[Bhagirathi]] in [[Kalikata]] ([[Kolkata]] aka Calcutta), [[West Bengal]], India. This was the start of Sarkar's [[Spirituality|spiritual]] teaching at the early age of 18 and many unknown [[Sadhaka]]s ("spiritual aspirants") were initiated from then up to 1955. From 1941 until the early 1950s, Sarkar [[Employment|worked]] as an accountant at the Indian railways headquarters in [[Jamalpur, Munger|Jamalpur]], Bihar, India. He [[Teacher|taught]] the techniques of ancient [[tantra]]<ref group=note>P.R. Sarkar clearly explained in his books the meaning of [[Tantra]]:  "What is ''Tantra''? The process of transforming (latent divinity) into the Supreme Divinity is known as ''Tantra sadhana''... The significance of the term ''tantra'' is 'liberation from bondage (the bondage of dullness or staticity)'. The letter ''ta'' is the seed (sound) of dulness. And the root verb ''trae'' suffixed by ''da'' becomes ''tra'', which means 'that which liberates' - so the spiritual practice which liberates the aspirant from the dullness or animality of the static force and expands the aspirant's (spiritual) self is ''Tantra sadhana''. So there cannot be any spiritual practice without ''Tantra''. {{cite book |title=Discourses on Tantra |volume=2 |author=Shrii Shrii Anandamurti (Ac. Vijayananda Avt. Editor) |city:Kolkata |publisher= AMPS-Ananda Printers |year=1994}} "''Tantra'' in itself is neither a religion nor an 'ism'. Tantra is a fundamental spiritual science. So wherever there is any spiritual practice it should be taken for granted that it stands on the ''Tantric'' cult. Where there is no spiritual practice, where people pray to God for the fulfillment of narrow worldly desires, where people’s only slogan is “Give us this and give us that” – only there do we find that Tantra is discouraged. So only those who do not understand ''Tantra'', or even after understanding ''Tantra'' do not want to do any [[spiritual practice]], oppose the [[cult]] of ''Tantra''." (Anandamurti, Shrii Shrii, 1959).</ref> [[meditation]] to a select number of his colleagues and gradually more and more people were drawn to the [[spiritual practice]]s he taught.