''Mahapurusa'' Achyutananda Dasa (
Odia:-''ଅଚ୍ୟୁତାନନ୍ଦ ଦାସ'' ) was a 16th-century poet seer and
Vaishnava
Vaishnavism ( sa, वैष्णवसम्प्रदायः, Vaiṣṇavasampradāyaḥ) is one of the major Hindu denominations along with Shaivism, Shaktism, and Smartism. It is also called Vishnuism since it considers Vishnu as the ...
saint from
Odisha
Odisha (English: , ), formerly Orissa ( the official name until 2011), is an Indian state located in Eastern India. It is the 8th largest state by area, and the 11th largest by population. The state has the third largest population of ...
, India. He was popularly known as ''Gopala Guru''.
He was considered to have the power to see the past, present and future. He was a prolific author, and one of the group of five, that led a revolution in spirituality in Odisha by translating
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...
texts into the Odia language for common people.
He was one of the famous five friends of spirituality and literature
Panchasakha, who translated the ancient
Hindu
Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...
scriptures into Odia, for the people of
Odisha
Odisha (English: , ), formerly Orissa ( the official name until 2011), is an Indian state located in Eastern India. It is the 8th largest state by area, and the 11th largest by population. The state has the third largest population of ...
. Achyutananda Dasa was the most prolific writer of the Panchasakha and wrote numerous books, many of which could be loosely translated as the Book of Prophecies. He is known as the ''Mahapurusa'' (a Great Person) for his vast knowledge on many subjects such as spirituality, Yoga, rituals, Yantra, Tantra,
Ayurveda
Ayurveda () is an alternative medicine system with historical roots in the Indian subcontinent. The theory and practice of Ayurveda is pseudoscientific. Ayurveda is heavily practiced in India and Nepal, where around 80% of the population rep ...
, and other various shastras. His major works include ''Harivamsa'' (in Oriya), ''Kaibarta Gita'', ''Gopalanka-ogala'', ''Gurubhakti Gita'', ''Anakar-samhita'', ''Chahayalisa-patala'' etc.
Early life
As Achyutananda became a popular figure, much of his life began to become legend. He is famous for being one of the few who wrote about the social situation of his time and this is a scholarly reason many study his writings. His poetry was often cryptic about himself, and written in code or analogies. Mahapurusa Achyutananda belonged to
Gopal
Gopal may refer to:
* Gopal (caste), a social community of Odisha in India
* Gopal (Krishna), the infant/child form of Lord Krishna
* Gopal Bansa, ancient Kingdom in Nepal
* The Gopalas, an early Gaudiya Vaishnava institution
* Gandhian Organisatio ...
caste by birth.
But in later times he is said to have belonged from
Karan
Karan may refer to:
People
* Karan (given name), an Indian given name
* Karan (caste), an Indian caste
* Karan Kayastha, a community of Kayastha in Bihar, India
* Karan (surname)
Places
* Karan, Iran (disambiguation), a name for various vi ...
family.
His surname ''Dasa'' means servant of God.
Birth
Achyutananda was born in a village by the name Tilakana, where two distributaries of the
Mahanadi
The Mahanadi is a major river in East Central India. It drains an area of around and has a total length of . Mahanadi is also known for the Hirakud Dam. The river flows through the states of Chhattisgarh and Odisha and finally merged with Bay ...
, Luna (Labana Dhara) and Chitrotpala bifurcated, of Cuttack district of Odisha, during the twenty first anka (year of region) of the
Gajapati (king)
Purushottama Deva
Vira Pratapa Purushottama Deva (Odia: ବୀରପ୍ରତାପ ପୁରୁଷୋତ୍ତମ ଦେବ) was the second Gajapati emperor of Odisha who ruled from 1467 to 1497 C.E. He was the second ruler from the Suryavamsa Gajapati Empire. ...
. This is thought to be somewhere between 1480 and 1505 by different scholars. His mother was Padmavati, and his father was Dinabandhu Khuntia, and his grandfather was Gopinatha Mohanty, a scribe in the
Jagannath Temple
The Jagannath Temple is an important Hindu temple dedicated to Jagannath, a form of Vishnu - one of the trinity of supreme divinity in Hinduism. Puri is in the state of Odisha, on the eastern coast of India. The present temple was rebuilt f ...
, Puri. He was born after his mother prayed at the pillar in front of the Jagannath Temple, and his father had a dream that the divine bird
Garuda
Garuda (Sanskrit: ; Pāli: ; Vedic Sanskrit: गरुळ Garuḷa) is a Hindu demigod and divine creature mentioned in the Hindu, Buddhist and Jain faiths. He is primarily depicted as the mount (''vahana'') of the Hindu god Vishnu. Garuda ...
brought him a child. In legend he is believed to be an incarnation of Garuda. He left his samadhi at Nemalo village at Cuttack. His predecessors are Mahanta Gagananda Gosain, Mahanta Nigamananda Gosain and others
Education
Achyutananda had a formal education in Puri. It is agreed by most texts that, like many contemporaries, he met Shri
Chaitanya Mahaprabhu
Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (; born Vishvambhar Mishra) was a 15th-century Indian saint who is considered to be the combined avatar of Radha and Krishna by his disciples and various scriptures. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's mode of worshipping Krish ...
in his youth, and took mantra initiation from him. It is important to differentiate that he was an Utkaliya Vaishnava (ancient Odisha school of Vaishnavism, Jagannatha Temple tradition), not a
Gaudiya Vaishnavism
Gaudiya Vaishnavism (), also known as Chaitanya Vaishnavism, is a Vaishnava Hindu religious movement inspired by Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (1486–1534) in India. "Gaudiya" refers to the Gaura or Gauḍa region of Bengal, with Vaishnavism meani ...
(which means Bengali Vaishnavism). He became the youngest of the Panchasakha.
Panchasakha
Achyutānanda was part of the famous
Panchasakha ('five friends'), who lived between 1450 and 1550 CE. The contemporaneous five saints – Achyutānanda Dasa,
Sisu Ananta Dasa,
Jasobanta Dasa,
Jagannātha Dasa, and
Balarāma Dasa - shaped
Vaiṣṇava philosophy, spiritualism and literature of
Odisha
Odisha (English: , ), formerly Orissa ( the official name until 2011), is an Indian state located in Eastern India. It is the 8th largest state by area, and the 11th largest by population. The state has the third largest population of ...
.
Two important factors set the Panchasakhas apart from other Indian Hindu Saints. They were the first to take the Hindu
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...
texts into the reach of the common people, by translating them into the local language (
Odia). This was first done by
Sāralā Dasa's translation of the ''
Mahābhārata'' in the mid-15th century, followed by Balarama Dasa's ''Jagamohana
Ramayana
The ''Rāmāyana'' (; sa, रामायणम्, ) is a Sanskrit literature, Sanskrit Indian epic poetry, epic composed over a period of nearly a millennium, with scholars' estimates for the earliest stage of the text ranging from the 8th ...
'', Jagannath Dasa's ''
Bhagavata Purana
The ''Bhagavata Purana'' ( sa, भागवतपुराण; ), also known as the ''Srimad Bhagavatam'', ''Srimad Bhagavata Mahapurana'' or simply ''Bhagavata'', is one of Hinduism's eighteen great Puranas (''Mahapuranas''). Composed in S ...
'', and Achyutananda Dasa's ''
Harivamsa''. The second aspect is their form of
Odia Vaiṣṇavism, traditionally called ''Utkaliya Vaishnavism'', which sees God as the "Sunya Purusa" and the nature of the soul as being able to merge into the Absolute.
Some authors, such as N.N. Vasu, have depicted Odia Vaishnavism as 'Buddhist-Vaishnavism', since it does not accept
Ramanuja
Ramanuja ( Middle Tamil: Rāmāṉujam; Classical Sanskrit: Rāmanuja; 1017 CE – 1137 CE; ; ), also known as Ramanujacharya, was an Indian Hindu philosopher, guru and a social reformer. He is noted to be one of the most important exponents ...
's
Viśiṣṭādvaita philosophy (11th century), nor does it adhere to orthodox
Gaudiya Vaishnavism
Gaudiya Vaishnavism (), also known as Chaitanya Vaishnavism, is a Vaishnava Hindu religious movement inspired by Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (1486–1534) in India. "Gaudiya" refers to the Gaura or Gauḍa region of Bengal, with Vaishnavism meani ...
created in the 16th century Bengal. Other scholars, such as Prabhat Mukerjee, have denied these claims supporting the different varieties of Vaishnava philosophy. Scholars debate the influence of the Panchasakha from the original Vaishnava Agama (
Pancharatra
''Pancharatra'' ( IAST: ''Pāñcarātra'') was a religious movement in Hinduism that originated in late 3rd-century BCE around the ideas of Narayana and the various avatars of Vishnu as their central deities.[Natha
Nath, also called Natha, are a Shaiva sub-tradition within Hinduism in India and Nepal. A medieval movement, it combined ideas from Buddhism, Shaivism and Yoga traditions in India.][Jagannatha
Jagannath ( or, ଜଗନ୍ନାଥ, lit=Lord of the Universe, Jagannātha; formerly en, Juggernaut) is a deity worshipped in regional Hindu traditions in India and Bangladesh as part of a triad along with his brother Balabhadra, and sister ...]
as the
Buddha
Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism.
According to Buddhist tradition, he was born in L ...
, though the Panchasakhas saw
Jagannatha
Jagannath ( or, ଜଗନ୍ନାଥ, lit=Lord of the Universe, Jagannātha; formerly en, Juggernaut) is a deity worshipped in regional Hindu traditions in India and Bangladesh as part of a triad along with his brother Balabhadra, and sister ...
as an incarnation of
Vishnu
Vishnu ( ; , ), also known as Narayana and Hari, is one of the principal deities of Hinduism. He is the supreme being within Vaishnavism, one of the major traditions within contemporary Hinduism.
Vishnu is known as "The Preserver" withi ...
as seen in the
Dasāvatara image on the main mantel of the
Jagannatha Temple.
Utkaliya Vaishnavism
''Utkaliya Vaishnavism'' (sometimes called Odia Vaishnavism in modern literature) developed into its present state, in the 15th century. According to the Panchasakhas, Lord Jagannath is the "Purna-Brahma", and all the avatars of Vishnu emanate from Him, and also enter into Him at the end. Jagannatha was the chief god of the devotional sect. The chief ideal of the Panchasakhas was that as a bhakta they would be faithful, humble, learned, selfless, active, benevolent and affectionate. The Panchasakhas were against the caste system; they considered all beings as one. They translated the Sanskrit Classics into local language, Odia. Anyone could become a Vaishnava, even Muslims.
At the time of Shri Chaitanya, his followers who came from Nadia, called later as
Gaudiya, considered themselves greater or superior to the Utkaliya Vaishnavas and disregarded them. So there was a cold war between them. Because of the animosity between the sects, Shri Chaitanya conferred the title of 'Atibadi' (the greatest one) on
Jagannatha Dasa. The conflict of these two groups is evident in the ''Barana Charita Gita'' of Achyutananda and ''Jagannatha Charitamruta'' of Dibakara Dasa, and even in modern-day derogatory language of the Gaudiya Vaishnavas towards the Utkaliya Vaishnavas.
Philosophical ideology of Achyutananda
Sunya Purusa
''nāhi tāhāra rūpa varṇa, adṛsha avarṇa tā cinha.''
''tāhāku brahmā boli kahi, śūnya brahmhati se bolāi.''
It has no shape, no colour,
It is invisible and without a name
This Brahman is called Sunya Brahman.
Achyutananda (and the other four saints) believed in a concept of God (
Vishnu
Vishnu ( ; , ), also known as Narayana and Hari, is one of the principal deities of Hinduism. He is the supreme being within Vaishnavism, one of the major traditions within contemporary Hinduism.
Vishnu is known as "The Preserver" withi ...
) as
Sunya (emptiness, void, zero) called Sunya Purusa and/or Sunya Brahman. This sunya signifies a transcendental principle that eludes the conceptual nexus applied to human thinking as described in the
Upanishads
The Upanishads (; sa, उपनिषद् ) are late Vedic Sanskrit texts that supplied the basis of later Hindu philosophy.Wendy Doniger (1990), ''Textual Sources for the Study of Hinduism'', 1st Edition, University of Chicago Press, , ...
. Achyutananda's culminating work is called the ''Sunya Samhita'' where he discusses this philosophy in depth.
''śūnyara ākāra viira śūnyara vicāra, śūnye thāi dekha vīra e sacarācara.''
''dekha e sacarācara śūnyare prakāsha, śūnyu ude hoicanti śūnyare vilāse.''
Oh vira look at the sunya
By placing yourself in sunya,
And meditate on mahasunya,
Sunya itself is the form,
Ground of all discriminating knowledge.
Look at the whole world from the pedestal of sunya;
You will find everything manifested in the sunya,
Everything arises out of sunya and
Everything flourishes in the Sunya Brahman.
The philosophy sees Sunya as being full or whole (''purna''), and this view of Brahman is sometimes called the ''Purna Sunya'' (the full/complete void). The Panchasakhas project the deity
Jagannatha
Jagannath ( or, ଜଗନ୍ନାଥ, lit=Lord of the Universe, Jagannātha; formerly en, Juggernaut) is a deity worshipped in regional Hindu traditions in India and Bangladesh as part of a triad along with his brother Balabhadra, and sister ...
as the embodiment of the Sunya Purusa. Achyutananda uses a classical (pre-
Ramanuja
Ramanuja ( Middle Tamil: Rāmāṉujam; Classical Sanskrit: Rāmanuja; 1017 CE – 1137 CE; ; ), also known as Ramanujacharya, was an Indian Hindu philosopher, guru and a social reformer. He is noted to be one of the most important exponents ...
) concept of
Vaishnavism
Vaishnavism ( sa, वैष्णवसम्प्रदायः, Vaiṣṇavasampradāyaḥ) is one of the major Hindu denominations along with Shaivism, Shaktism, and Smartism. It is also called Vishnuism since it considers Vishnu as the ...
that uses both form, and formless aspects of god. This is seen in his statement from the ''Gurubhakti Gita'' :
''dui je deṇāre pakṣī uḍikari jāi, dui je cakṣure sehi saṃsāre khelai.''
''eka je na thile kaṇā dui gale anḍha, eṇukari nirguṇa saguṇa sehi bheda.''
A bird can only fly with both wings. It can have a perfect vision with both the eyes.
In the absence of one, it becomes one-eyed, and in the absence of both, it is totally blind.
Thus like two eyes Nirguna od perceived as formlessnd Saguna od perceived with formare chained together.
Jnana-mishra bhakti-marga
The Panchasakhas were Vaishnavas by thought. But they differed from Chaitanya's path of devotion and preached ''Jnana-mishra bhakti'' or Devotion with mix of Wisdom. Chaitanya's path of devotion was known as Raganuga Bhakti Marga (brought to Odisha in 1509), which says all one needs is love (devotion) to reach God. The Panchasakhas believed that one needs a combination of love (bhakti) and wisdom (Jnana) to reach God. With one's knowledge, if one shows one's pure love (bhakti), one can definitely reach the Sunyatma. The Panchasakhas therefore promoted a Vaishnavism that involved study of scriptures, yoga, rituals, and devotion.
Pinda-Brahmanda Tattwa
The concept of the Piṇḍa-Brahmāṇḍa is that the body (Piṇḍa) is a replica of the Universe (Brahmāṇḍa), or microcosm is a reflection of the macrocosm. Many of the yogic teachings of Achyutananda are based on this core concept. His teachings are filled with references to outer locations existing as energies in the body.
Sabda Brahman
The concept of the Sabda Brahman is that God created the universe as sound, and that all things have sound vibration as their essence. The writings of Achyutananda are filled with mantras and esoteric concepts about sounds and their effects on consciousness. For example, in Achyutananda's ''Rama Rasa Boli'', the demon Ravanna is said to have meditated on the sound "Sleem" while focusing on the ten other sacred sounds (yoga-dasakhyara) to please Goddess Sita. Even more esoteric is this verse from the ''Sunya Rahasa'' where one can see the interwoven nature of internal yogic theory and sound found in Achyutananda's writings:
Oh Jnanins: utter the name of Hari odbr />
May be you are the eldest or the youngest.
Piercing six chakras blooms the lotus
Near the ethereal void of air
Between the Sutala and Rasatala
The bee abides at the zenith of the void
One is not a servant of the Lord just because they have a rosary
Unless he utters the name of Krisna in his inner heart;
The Name is the seed, rosary its robe
Rosary is of no use if God's name is mindlessly uttered
The three cords are the three triadic streams
Make your oblations there
Ayudhya, Dwarika, and the city of Gopa
This knowledge is memorised by every soul.[Shunya Rahasa, Canto 3, Verses 1–3, translated by Chaini, p.43]
References
Notes
*Chaini, Ratnakar. ''Achyutananda Das''.
Sahitya Akademi
The Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, is an organisation dedicated to the promotion of literature in the languages of India. Founded on 12 March 1954, it is supported by, though independent of, the Indian government. Its of ...
, Calcutta, 1998.
*Mansingha, Mayadhar. ''History of Oriya literature''. Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi,1962.
*Patnaik, Tandra. ''Sunya Purusa''. Utkal Studies in Philosophy XII.
Utkal University,
Bubhaneswar in association with D.K. Printworld (P) Ltd., New Delhi, 2005.
*Mishra, Ramprasad. ''Sahajayana: A Study of Tantric Buddhism''. Punthi Pustak, Calcutta, 1991.
*Mukherjee, Prabhat. ''History of Medieval Vaishnavism in Orissa''.
Asian Educational Services
Asian Educational Services (AES) is a New Delhi, India-based publishing house that specialises in antiquarian reprints of books that were originally published between the 17th and early 20th centuries. Founded by Jagdish Lall Jetley in 1973, the ...
, New Delhi, 1981.
*Sri Sri Mahapurusa Siddha Ashram. ''Glimpse of a Yogi; Sri Sri Mahapurusa Achyutananda Das''. Sri Sri Mahapurusa Achyutananda Trust, Sri Ram Nagar, Puri, Odisha, India, 1998.
''The History of Orissa: An Introduction'' from ''Pages from the history of India and the sub-continent (South Asian History)'' a non-commercial web project*Das, Alekh Prasad. ''Jibanara Daka; an autobiography'', 1994; published by Sri Lalita Prakasani, Bhubaneswar. Won Odisha
Sahitya Academy Award
The Sahitya Akademi Award is a literary honour in India, which the Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, annually confers on writers of the most outstanding books of literary merit published in any of the 22 languages of the ...
for autobiography in 2000.
*http://www.sai.uni-heidelberg.de/abt/IND/publikation/biborissa/biborissa.htm :The library of the South Asian Institute (SAI), University of Heidelberg, has some references and recollections of the original works of Sri Achyutananda Das. An "Orissan Project" was undertaken some decades ago, funded by the German Research Council, as a part of the studies of the South Asian cultures. A number of references can be found in this library.
External links
* http://www.garoiashram.org/english/index-eng.html#
* https://web.archive.org/web/20071105091526/http://www.sriachyuta.org/
* https://web.archive.org/web/20081019042242/http://www.trahiachyuta.com/sri.htm
* https://web.archive.org/web/20110716184243/https://tagmeme.com/orissa/pothis.html
{{Authority control
Vaishnavism
16th-century Indian philosophers
Indian male poets
Bhakti movement
Indian astrologers
16th-century astrologers
Poets from Odisha
Odia-language writers
Odia-language poets
16th-century Hindu religious leaders
Hindu poets
16th-century Indian poets
Scholars from Odisha
Odissi music composers
Odia Hindu saints
Shudra Hindu saints
Vaishnava saints