The Life of Shriman-Maharaj Balananda Brahmachari- From the Bengali Original by the Late Shri Hemchandra Bandyopadhyay

Email

Whatsapp

Facebook

Pinterest

Twitter

Copy link

The Life of Shriman-Maharaj Balananda Brahmachari (Original n Bengali) dwells on one of Vedic India's true/authentic representative monk, who starting his life in Avantika (modern Ujjain), left his widowed mother at the age of nine, chose to take to the life of Sannyasin.

Learning his first lessons in spirituality from such Masters as the venerable Brahmanandaji Maharaj and Gaurishankar Maharaj, be perfected them through exercises in Hathayoga and Rajayoga. In developing into a perfect yogi thus he relied upon peregrinations that were prolonged, frequent and exhausting. With the help of (Late) Ramcharan Basu, he finally settled in Deoghar and founded the great Karnibad Ashrama, which now bears his name, among his many distinguished disciples, both lay and monk, is Shri Shri Mohanananda Brahmachari, the present head of the said Ashrama.

The book in seventeen chapters covers this amazing Life of a dedicated monk, who personified all the virtues of Vedic India, and sought to exorcize the demons that have been assaulting them.

The additional features of the book include Glossary, Appendix (on Religious Sites and Persons in India. and, of course, an Index). It is hoped that the book will not only satisfy the curiosity of the uneducated in religious matters but also help them get initiated/committed as true Hindus.

Dr. Sauri P. Bhattacharya, M.A. (Calcutta, India), M.A. Ph.D. (Columbia, Mo., USA), born near Calcutta, W. Bengal, 1931; has been an academic ever since 1959-60, with teaching stints in Khargpur and Midnapore Colleges in India, and University of Missouri. Columbia, and Southeastern Oklahoma State University, Durant, Ok., USA. In addition he has been a visiting Professor (NEH Fellow) at Harvard University. After retiring as Emertus Professor of Political Science from the SOSU, he has been engaged, in writing on current domestic and international issues affecting India, for newsweeklies in the USA: translations of literary pieces from French into Bengali, awaiting publication. He knows several languages including French, German, Russian, Spanish & Sanskrit. His latest. The Life of Balananda Brahmachari is his edited translation of Hemchandra Bandyopadhyay's Bengali version, which required him to dig into his knowledge of the three languages viz., Bengali, Sanskrit and English

The opportunity to come into contact with a great man from the world of religion, howsoever indirectly, is very hard not to seize. So when a close disciple-associate of Maharaj Mohanananda Brahmachari requested the undersigned that he translate into English a Bengali version of the life of Balananda Brahmachari written by (the late) Hemchandra Bandyopadhyay, he could not possibly say no although he demurred a little at first. The initial lack of enthusiasm was due to the fact that his life's orientation was not toward religion, that his life did not obviously revolve around the saswata (perpetual) religion that Hinduism seems to be nor he knew much about Sriman-Maharaj Balananda Brahmachari, one of Vedic Hinduism's greatest preachers and exemplars, whose Life in Bengali that he was requested to translate into English. But the translator eventually agreed wondering if Maharaj Mohanananda Brahmachari himself might not be the one who wished it done by him.

Nonetheless it is with a great deal of misgiving that the translator went about undertaking this work some six or seven months ago. His primary misgivings other than the one he mentioned at the very outset relate to his own expertise as linguist. In doing this work, knowledge, verging on mastery, of three languages- Bengali, Sanskrit and English-is absolutely necessary. He is convinced that his knowledge in all three is less than complete. Besides, the job of translation requires not simply knowledge of the languages but also the understanding of the ideas, the moods, and the culture of the original writer, who by the way happened to be the father of the present head of the Karnibad Ashram, and of his subject, the illustrious holy man-Sriman Maharaj Balananda Brahmachari, which he does not have. The translator therefore readily admits he scarcely fits the job description reserved for a translator. One great Frenchman talking about it said with evident witticism, a little risqué also particularly in these times :

"La traduction est comme la femme. Lorsqu'elle est belle, elle n'est pas fidèle; lorsque'elle est fidèle elle n'est pas belle."

To paraphrase it, without making explicit the risqué part: one should be careful to remember that if it is too close of the original there is a strong possibility that it would look stilted and even wooden; if on the other hand it strays too far out it could be dismissed as the work of a story-teller.

In doing the job, then, there is obvious need for not only circumspection, but humility also. Consideration of boldly editing some passages from the original also must enter into it, because the Bengali author of this Life originally writing in installments for magazines of his time repeated some of the statements that he might have already made in previously published pages. Also, the original biographer was not unfortunately around when it was time to put all of these writings together in the form of a book.