V

This chapter deals with Sahajanand’s life after the Bhumihar Brahmin Mahasabha held at Balia. He had been touched by the behaviour of Bhumihars vis-a-vis Maithil, Kanyakubja and Sarjupari Brahmins. He decided to prove that Bhumihars are as good as any other Brahmins. To that end, he along with some of his sannyasi friends launched massive field studies and proved that Bhumihars have matrimonial relations with all others Brahmins, and at certain places they were also engaged in Purohiti work. He settled down at a village called Kotwa Narayanpur in eastern Uttar Pradesh. Once again a new chapter of his life began as he started reading both Hindi and English newspapers published from Patna. Thus slowly but surely, he was drawn to the political movement under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi.

II

In this chapter, Sahajanand writes about his education at the middle and secondary stage. Because of his studious nature, he developed very close relations with his teachers. He came out with flying colours in the middle-school examination, earning a scholarship which helped him in further studies. In the year 1906, he made an unsuccessful attempt to become a sannyasi. He was married after he had passed his middle-school examination, but his wife died soon. People around him were expecting him to do excellently in his matriculation examination. But his heart thirsted for Sannyas. Sahajanand left home when his family members tried to get him married again and went to the Aparnath Math at Kashi. He became a sannyasi at the age of eighteen.

VI

This chapter deals with the major events in Sahajanand’s life during 1920–7. In 1920, he met Gandhi at Patna and became involved in the freedom struggle. He attended the Nagpur Congress and plunged into the Non-cooperation Movement. He was imprisoned and spent time in various jails. It was also during this period that other Brahmins challenged Bhumihars to perform all rituals on their own. Swami accepted that challenge and prompted Bhumihars to take up Purohiti work. He also wrote a voluminous work called Karma Kalap in Hindi to facilitate this, and founded the Sitaram Ashram to promote Sanskrit learning among Bhumihar boys in 1927. He started a journal called Lokasangraha but handed it over to his co-worker Yamuna Karjee to pursue a new venture.

IX

This chapter is an addendum to Sahajanand’s main narrative which ended with imprisonment in April 1940. He actually wrote this part during 1946 to make his narrative up to date. He differed with the Congress decision to launch the Quit India Movement in August 1942 as he felt the situation had radically changed with Hitler’s attack on the Soviet Union. The world in general and India in particular was faced with the prospect of the fascist menace. It was during this phase that most of the political parties emerged from the Kisan Sabha and the Communist Party of India tried to take over the All India Kisan Sabha. Sahajanand became very critical of the political party system and reiterated his final decision never to join any political party. His narrative ends with a reference to the Dumraon struggle against the Dumraon Raja.

VII

This section deals with the foundation of the Western Patna Kisan Sabha, which was formally launched during 1928. Subsequently Sahajanand helped get the Bhumihar Brahmin Mahasabha dissolved. Once again, he plunged into the freedom struggle and was imprisoned. He decided to keep himself aloof both from freedom movement and the Kisan Sabha on account of the hypocrisy of the some of the jailed freedom fighters. However, attempts on the part of zamindars to raise a fake Kisan Sabha and the so-called United Party provoked him to revive the existing Kisan Sabha as a militant organization. What gave further boost to his anti-zamindari approach was their atrocious behaviour towards peasants in the wake of the Bihar Earthquake of 1934. The section ends with a brief description of his final call to end the Zamindari system.

III

At the behest of his guru, Sahajanand went back to his village, where he was pressed by his family and well-wishers to give up the life of a sannyasi. Though he faced all kinds of pressures and persuasions he stood his ground. Subsequently, he and a friend go on a pilgrimage covering distant places such as Chitrakoot, Manegaon, Onkareshwar, Indore, Ujjain, Mathura. Ultimately, only Sahajanand reached Kedar and Badridham and returned to Kashi via Rishikesh and Haridwar. The chapter contains a brief description of all the trials and tribulations the two friends suffer in the course of such a long and tedious journey. But all these efforts ultimately turn out to be in vain as they could neither find the perfect yogi nor God. In 1909, Sahajanand settled down at Kashi to pursue shastric studies.

I

Sahajanand was born on Mahashivaratri in 1889 in the village Deva, Ghazipur district, Uttar Pradesh, in a middle-class peasant family of Jhujhautiya Brahmins who had migrated from Bundelkhand. Young Sahajanand (called Navrang Rai in his childhood) turned out to be precocious child. This chapter deals with his primary school education, refers to his early spiritual proclivity which was further ignited by his co-villager Harinarayan Pandey. It was from Pandey that he learnt all kinds of rituals and other religious ceremonies which he started practising at a very young age. In spite of all this attraction towards religion, he retained his rationality—a trait which he retained throughout his life. The chapter also discusses the socio-economic aspects of eastern Uttar Pradesh.

IV

This part of Sahajanand’s autobiography deals with the period 1909–14, during which he primarily studied different aspects of Hinduism, viz., grammar, Mimamsa Vedant, Navya Nyaya, Prachin Nyaya, learning from the best teachers at Kashi and Mithila. It was during the same period that he became a Dandiswami. This section also describes to his visit to different places in Gujarat. He was greatly disappointed with the amoral approach of the sannyasis there. Out of disgust he came back to Kashi to immerse himself in shastric studies. But a new chapter of his life opened when he participated in the conference of the Bhumihar Brahmin Mahasabha during 1914. It led him to engage in social work instead of leading the quiet life of a sannyasi working for his own personal salvation.

VIII

This deals with one of the most memorable parts of Sahajanand’s life story. With the formation of the All India Kisan Sabha in 1936, Sahajanand emerged as the topmost peasant leader, and in the process he made a serious attempt to build the Kisan Sabha as an independent and militant organization. With the formation of the Congress Ministry in 1937 and their anti-peasant policy, he held many demonstrations against the Bihar Government. He led the Anti-Compromise Conference in 1940 with the support of Subhas Chandra Bose. In the process, he also tried to work out the consolidation of the left, but to no avail. All this led to his imprisonment in April 1940. He was released from jail in March 1942. Towards the end, Sahajanand makes it clear that he stands for social, political, and economic revolution.