A'ca'rya Vijaya'nanda Avadhu'ta

Acarya Vijayananda Avadhuta, a senior monk of Ananda Marga Pracaraka Samgha, a renowned educationist and theoretician, passed away on 11th July, 2002 at Woodland Nursing Home, Calcutta. He had been serving the mission as a monk since its inception. A close disciple of Shrii Shrii Anandamurtijii, the founder-preceptor of Ananda Marga, Acarya Vijayanandajii had devoted himself to the work of editing and publishing numerous of books of Shrii Shrii Anandamurtijii in different languages for a long period of 35 years. He himself authored a good number of books on the life and message of Shrii Shrii Anandamurtijii as well as on various aspects of Ananda Marga philosophy. He had a long association with the education department of Ananda Marga and served as its central secretary with distinction. He played a pioneering role in spreading Shrii Shrii Anandamurtijii's ideas on neo-humanistic education to different countries of the world. He toured extensively various countries of the west and lectured on education and Ananda Marga philosophy in numerous seminars and symposia. In his passing away the Samgha and the world have lost an erudite scholar, a renowned academician, an ardent spiritual aspirant and a universally venerated soul. His funeral will took place on 14th July, 2002. Numerous followers of Marga, friends and admirers were present at Tiljala ashram to pay their last respects to the departed soul.

The book A'ma'der Vijaya'nandada' (Our Da'da' Vijaya'nanda), available at the Tiljala bookstore, contains several of the tributes included here, and in addition tributes, poems or short messages, all in Bengali, from 43 persons.

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Many have already written regarding Da'da' Vijaya'nanda's unequalled grasp of Ba'ba''s life and times and philosophy. It was my daily job for most of the last twenty-one years to help convert that knowledge into written form.

Two months before Da'da''s death, I had given him a written questionnaire related to Ba'ba''s teachings on many spiritual practices. During the last six weeks of his life, he was here in Tiljala working, in spite of a heart problem that was by then known to him, to finish the last two volumes of the definitive Bengali Prabha'ta Sam'giita series. Occupied myself with many works, I let five weeks go by without speaking to him seriously about the questionnaire.

In hindsight it may be good that I did not add to the pressures on Da'da' at that time. But since I was unaware of the seriousness of his condition, I would have to admit that it was as much due to my own inefficiency as to any consideration for him that I did not push him.

Finally, just five days before his death, I asked him if we could meet and go over the questionnaire. He promised we would do so, but said he had to go out of town to attend a wedding, and that we could meet two days later. On that two days later he said that he had a meeting to attend. I tried again two days after that -- the day before his death. He said that he had another meeting that morning and would have to go for an angiography in the evening. Shortly thereafter I saw him again. He said that the meeting had been cancelled. But because he looked tired and did not invite me to go over the questionnaire, I did not ask him about it again.

When I went to look for him the next day, I learned that he was at the hospital. And a few hours after that I learned that that perennial source of answers and inspiration was far, far beyond this mortal world.

My consolation regarding those particular questions of mine is that what was lost for the preservation of one important part of Ba'ba's legacy was gained for the preservation of another important part. Da'da' was able to finish his work on the Prabha't Sam'giita series.

In history, the loss for human knowledge will no doubt be recorded as the biggest loss in Da'da''s untimely death. But what personally haunts me now is to think that I will never again see that glint of implacable and utterly selfless determination that appeared in his eyes whenever we started on any work.

The one word that first comes to mind when I think of Da'da' Vijaya'nanda is the word "idealist". In this world there are idealists and there are realists. Da'da' Vijaya'nanda did understand the realities of the world, but he had little patience with those realities if they could not be made to conform to a higher ideal. He always set the highest ideals for himself, for others, and for his organization. Much of our work relationship involved my asking him question after question and his replying, and I remember how in answering any important question, not only on spiritual topics -- it might be a question on Indian culture, or history or any topic -- he had a way of concentrating his gaze up for a moment before answering, as if he wanted to consider any topic from the highest possible perspective.

Da'da' had little interest in leading an ordinary life, and he expected that others would not want to lead an ordinary life either. So if he was sometimes very outspoken, it was only because of his idealistic and uncompromising nature.

He told me a number of times, speaking in a fatherly way, that I was a very simple person, and that others might try to take advantage of my simplicity. But if we think of simplicity in the sense of saralata', straightforwardness, really he was a foremost example of simplicity. There are times in life when one must speak tactfully and carefully, and Da'da' could speak tactfully and carefully when the situation required it, but he was never comfortable doing so -- he always preferred to speak straight from the heart.

I first met Da'da' in 1975 and knew him then as a kind presence helping me to adjust to the then Central Office on Panditia Road, my first time in India. I first started doing substantial Publications work with him in 1981, and he then became my supervisor, either de facto or official, for most of the years until his death. My slowness for any work is famous; and though I cannot say that in all those years he never got angry with me -- for that slowness and other limitations -- I can say that if I had had to supervise someone like myself, I would certainly have gotten much more angry than Da'da' ever did.

A'ca'rya Acyuta'nanda Avadhu'ta, Translations Section, Ananda Marga Publications, Kalikata, India

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