Companions in Solitude

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Pandit Shriram Sharma Acharya, a pioneer of spiritual renaissance was born on 20th September 1911, in Anwalkheda, Agra District. He scrupulously carried out the biddings of his Guru, a great Himalayan Yogi, when he was fifteen years of age.

He took part in the struggle for independence as a volunteer, went to jail a number of times and embarked upon the task of social and moral upliftment through spiritual means in 1935 with the blessings of Mahatma Gandhi.

A sage, a visionary and a reformer, the Acharya initiated 100 points Yug Nirman Yojna, lived a disciplined life of devout austerity, visited the Himalayas several times and attained spiritual eminence.

The Gayatri Pariwar fraternity; Shantikunj Ashram- an academy for moral and spiritual awakening; Brahmavarchas Research Institute- which strives to synthesize science with spirituality and over 3000 social reform centres (Shakti-peeths) are his greatest contributions to the modern world.

He translated the entire Vedic Vangmaya and accopmplished a feat of writing more than 3000 books on all aspects of life.

The Acharya, Great devotee of Gayatri lived an ideal life for 80 years and voluntarily shed his physical sheath on Gayatri Jayanti, 2nd June 1990.

It was my good luck or perhaps it was just a chance that I had the privilege to be associated with an able and accomplished Master (Guru) and to work under his guidance and patronage throughout my life. His kindness began to be showered upon me from the age of 15. From my side, I sincerely and steadfastly tried to be a worthy disciple of this Great Master. All my activities physical as well as emotional were placed at his feet and I decided to play as a mere puppet in his hands. This has been an ongoing process. It would be better to describe all my actions as the acts of a puppet in the hands of a Master Puppeteer.

My Gurudev's divine appearance in astral form took place as soon as I completed my 15th year of age and entered the 16th. Firstly, I was asked to kindle an Akhand Deep (sacred lamp kept uninterruptedly burning on cow's milk fat) and sitting before it to chant 24 lakh Gayatri mantras every year and perform a Yagya there after. This process of yearly Purashcharan was to be continued for 24 years, living only on bread of barley and cow's buttermilk. This command was strictly followed in letter as well as spirit. Thereafter a series of constructive activities like writing, lecturing, organizing and publicity were carried on for ten years in order to arouse religious awakening amongst the masses. As a result, four thousand branches of Gayatri Pariwar came into being.

It gives me a deep sense of joy to write the foreword to this book, which is an English version of Param Pujya Gurudev's deeply moving literary and mystical travelogue in Hindi: Sunsan Ke Sahachar.

This free rendering in English has been done by my friend Shivashankaran, as a token of his tribute to and reverence for the Yug Rishi Pandit Shriram Sharma Acharya. On behalf of this Mission and on my own behalf I express our deep gratitude to Sri Shivashankaran for his labour of love towards making available to the English knowing public one of the most enchanting, inspiring, exhilarating and uplifting works of the Seer-Sage.

In today's dismal world conditions, with all-pervading darkness, degeneration, dehumanization, perversity and naked vulgarity (all-round retrogression), many a sensitive person would very much wish to get away from it all and seek peace in some remote recesses of the high Himalayas or in the still deeps of the oceans. But howsoever high, far or deep we might flee from this world of strife, struggle, hate, cruelty, perversity and falsehood, there can be no rest or respite for any of us until we have clearly understood and squarely faced and surmounted the problems and challenges that the forces of Darkness have thrown up before us. The truth is that so long as we refuse to inwardly change and transcend and transmute our petty ego- centred selves and rise into the Light of Unifying Awareness, Within and Above, mere change of locale would not help.