Shri Hit Ashram, Vrindavan, Mathura
!! Swami Hit Das Maharaj Ji Biography !!
Swami Hit Dasji was born in 1915 on the Karttik Krishna Dvitiya in a village called Nara on the banks of the Reva River in Madhya Pradesh. His father a Brahmin of the Bharadvaj gotra named Sukhdev Prasad Pathak, his mother’s name was Kamala. His given name was Vishnu Prasad Pathak.
His mother had tuberculosis and left the world only nine months after his birth. He himself said that though he was still unconscious of it, his impression was that the loss of his mother was a great disturbance which affected him long afterward.
He was brought up by his maternal grandmother as a devotee of Shiva, as devotion to Lord Shiva was predominant in that part of the country. But though everyone greeted each other with the words “Shiva Shiva,” the religious spirit was not highly evolved. People acted as they pleased in most inauspicious ways. No one uttered the name of Rama, and no one knew anything of Krishna bhakti. People were materialistic and non-vegetarian in their diet. People were opposed to the compassionate mood that is at the heart of Vaishnavism.
As such it is rather surprising that in this atmosphere he became a devotee of Krishna. Perhaps it was no accident that even in this land of Shiva, he was given the name Vishnu Prasad. At the age of ten he was sent to Bheraghat on the banks of the Narmada River for his education. He studied Sanskrit, but showed a special affinity for Hindi language and literature. Along with his love for learning, he also started to become attracted to spiritual matters.
At this time, he went with a friend to his village and met a brahmin there who had a temple with many different deities in it. It was there that he first saw Radha and Krishna and became attracted to them. In fact, he became so attracted that he asked the brahmin to please give him the murtis so that he could worship them himself. At first the pandit had reservations, “How could this mere boy worship Radha and Krishna, Lalita Ladili Lal?” But Vishnu Prasad kept coming back and would spend hours just gazing at the deities. Finally the brahmin was moved by the boy’s faith and gave him the deities.
When Vishnu Prasad asked how to serve the deities, the pandit simply said, “Surrender your life to them and always keep them with you wherever you go.” From that time on, the deities of Lalita Ladili Lal stayed with Hitdasji and to this day are served in the Hit Ashram temple.
Hitdasji credited two close friends, Narayan Rao and Kashiram, for transforming his character. He wrote, “Until I came in contact with them, I was also materialistic in my dress, my speech and my actions. I would criticize the scriptures and considered my own obstinate will to be above everything else. But through their good association, I slowly began to change.”
When he was 20, his older brother started making arrangements for his marriage, even though Hitdasji had not given his consent. But at around that time he had a dream in which Hit Harivamsh Goswami appeared to him and initiated him in the Radha mantra and then gave him a vision of the Divine Couple. He also showed him his own temple. In the dream he offered bhoga to the deity, but some of the rice spilled. When he showed disdain for the rice that had touched the ground, Radharani said, “On my path, there are neither rules nor regulations.” Then she put her hand on his head in blessing and gave him the taste for Radha and Krishna’s spring pastimes, i.e., Holi. When Hitdasji woke up, he knew he would have to go to Vrindavan.
In speaking to his own disciples also, he once said, “Even in my childhood, I would be playing with the other children and suddenly I would go into a trance. I would think, ‘Who am I? What am I doing here with these people? I don’t belong here.’ I would become completely still.” When the time came, he realized that he really belonged in Vrindavan.
He made his first trip to Vrindavan in 1936, accompanied by two friends. One of them stayed and became a vairagi Vaishnava named Vamshi Das. But he himself returned to his village and was engaged as a Hindi teacher. Nevertheless, hi s mind was absorbed in Vrindavan. In 1937, a special edition of Kalyāṇa magazine came out devoted to bhakti. In it, there was an article by Shantanu Bihari Dvivedi that made a particularly strong impression. This author later became known as Akhandananda Saraswati.
Hitdasji continued to teach, but made annual visits to Vrindavan. Finally in 1942, he handed in his resignation and left home and came to Radha and Krishna’s land for good. Though he had received initiation in a dream, he had forgotten some portions of the mantra and so in 1945 he took the śaraṇāgati mantra from Vrindavan Vallabh Goswami, and then received his own mantra from Yugal Vallabh Goswami, both descendants of Harivams Goswami.
In 1946, he took the renounced order from Paramananda Dasji Maharaj. Hitdasji told the story that once he asked Paramananda which of the eight kinds of deities permitted by shastra was Radha Vallabh. Paramanandaji answered, “That is a silly question. The deity is always sat-chit-ananda, and you should never look at Radha Vallabha as being anything else but that.” That night he once again had a dream in which Radha Vallabh appeared to him and he had the direct experience of the deity’s sat-chit-ananda nature.
After taking vesh, he spent the years from 1945 to 1948 doing solitary bhajan in the summer house at Achal Bihar, and then from 1948 to 1952 did seva at Baad in Braj, which is the birthplace of Goswami Hit Harivams.
During the time he was in Vrindavan, Hit Dasji came into contact with Akhandananda Saraswatiji Maharaj, and stayed with him when he was living at the Paramahamsa Ashram, Ananda Vrindavan. It was Akhandananda Saraswati who called him “Hitji.”
Hit Das never had anything but praise for this period of his life during which he associated with Akhandananda. He said, “All the sadhakas who served Maharaj Shri and stayed with him were always happy and content. We never observed any kind of sectarian mentality in him because we were Vaishnavas. He was a guru to me, because in him we learned what the ideal form of a renunciate is like.”
Once Shri Hit Dasji said to Swami Akhandananda, “I really like Radha Krishna and their pastimes of love. I don’t like anything as much as this.” The Swamiji replied, “Let me tell you a secret. You have been engaging in the sadhana of this rasa for the past five lifetimes. It has become so deep in your unconscious that you will never be able to give it up.”
The "summer house" (bārādari) at Achal Bihar, on the Parikrama Marg in Raman Reti.
Hit Dasji tells many stories of his period living with Akhandananda Saraswati in a small book that has just been published, sab ke priya sab ke hitakārī (“Dear to everyone, everyone’s benefactor.”
One is that while living there at the Paramahamsa Ashram, Hit Dasji, who had a poetic bent, was constantly writing poetry in Braj Bhasha. But at one point he became unhappy about his work thinking that it was only a product of his mind and not the result of direct spiritual vision. He felt that it was only egoism that led him to write and that it would be better to discard his writings. He tore up his notebook and threw it into Davanala Kund.
A few days later, Akhandananda Saraswati was walking past Davanala Kund with his retinue. Apparently someone had taken the torn up notebook from the water [there was still water in Davanala Kund in those days] and scattered the pages on the road. For some reason, Akhandananda Saraswati stopped and picked up one of the pages. The writing had been done in indelible ink and so were still legible. He was able to read them and recognize them as Hit Dasji’s writing, and he said so aloud.
Later he called Hit Dasji to his room and asked him angrily why he had thrown his poems away like that. In fact, Hit Dasji had read his poems to Maharaj who had liked them. When Hit Das told Maharaj the reasons why he had done so, Akhandananda was pleased. He said, “The pleasure I got from hearing your poetry was great, but I get more hearing your humility.” He told him to give up writing poetry and concentrate on bhajan.
Though Akhandananda was a devotional Advaita sannyasi, he still placed a lot of importance on the Vedanta. So Hit Dasji was studying Vedanta also while in his company. After a year and a half, Swamiji asked Hit Das what his verdict was on Vedanta. Hit Dasji gave his answer, to which Swamiji responded, “I have never seen such dedication to Krishna’s lotus feet in anyone. You are an exclusive devotee of Radha and Krishna.”
But not long afterwards, Hit Dasji had a dream in which he saw a woman in white with a three-month baby in her arms. She said to him, “Only you can save this child.” Hit Dasji said, “Why are you lamenting over the physical body. Everyone must die. This is all Maya.” The woman answered, “I am not ignorant. I did not come here to listen to lessons on philosophy. Try to understand how I am suffering and save this child. Only you can do it.”
When he woke up, he was mystified by the dream and tried to find out its meaning. He told it to a friend who interpreted it as follows: “The woman is Bhakti Devi herself. The baby is Bhava, because Bhakti is the mother of Bhava. You are an exclusive devotee of Radha Vallabha, but here you are spending your time studying Vedanta, so your love is being weakened by the culture of knowledge. So Bhakti Devi is pleading with you to not let your spirit of love come under threat.”
His mother had tuberculosis and left the world only nine months after his birth. He himself said that though he was still unconscious of it, his impression was that the loss of his mother was a great disturbance which affected him long afterward.
He was brought up by his maternal grandmother as a devotee of Shiva, as devotion to Lord Shiva was predominant in that part of the country. But though everyone greeted each other with the words “Shiva Shiva,” the religious spirit was not highly evolved. People acted as they pleased in most inauspicious ways. No one uttered the name of Rama, and no one knew anything of Krishna bhakti. People were materialistic and non-vegetarian in their diet. People were opposed to the compassionate mood that is at the heart of Vaishnavism.
As such it is rather surprising that in this atmosphere he became a devotee of Krishna. Perhaps it was no accident that even in this land of Shiva, he was given the name Vishnu Prasad. At the age of ten he was sent to Bheraghat on the banks of the Narmada River for his education. He studied Sanskrit, but showed a special affinity for Hindi language and literature. Along with his love for learning, he also started to become attracted to spiritual matters.
At this time, he went with a friend to his village and met a brahmin there who had a temple with many different deities in it. It was there that he first saw Radha and Krishna and became attracted to them. In fact, he became so attracted that he asked the brahmin to please give him the murtis so that he could worship them himself. At first the pandit had reservations, “How could this mere boy worship Radha and Krishna, Lalita Ladili Lal?” But Vishnu Prasad kept coming back and would spend hours just gazing at the deities. Finally the brahmin was moved by the boy’s faith and gave him the deities.
When Vishnu Prasad asked how to serve the deities, the pandit simply said, “Surrender your life to them and always keep them with you wherever you go.” From that time on, the deities of Lalita Ladili Lal stayed with Hitdasji and to this day are served in the Hit Ashram temple.
Hitdasji credited two close friends, Narayan Rao and Kashiram, for transforming his character. He wrote, “Until I came in contact with them, I was also materialistic in my dress, my speech and my actions. I would criticize the scriptures and considered my own obstinate will to be above everything else. But through their good association, I slowly began to change.”
When he was 20, his older brother started making arrangements for his marriage, even though Hitdasji had not given his consent. But at around that time he had a dream in which Hit Harivamsh Goswami appeared to him and initiated him in the Radha mantra and then gave him a vision of the Divine Couple. He also showed him his own temple. In the dream he offered bhoga to the deity, but some of the rice spilled. When he showed disdain for the rice that had touched the ground, Radharani said, “On my path, there are neither rules nor regulations.” Then she put her hand on his head in blessing and gave him the taste for Radha and Krishna’s spring pastimes, i.e., Holi. When Hitdasji woke up, he knew he would have to go to Vrindavan.
In speaking to his own disciples also, he once said, “Even in my childhood, I would be playing with the other children and suddenly I would go into a trance. I would think, ‘Who am I? What am I doing here with these people? I don’t belong here.’ I would become completely still.” When the time came, he realized that he really belonged in Vrindavan.
He made his first trip to Vrindavan in 1936, accompanied by two friends. One of them stayed and became a vairagi Vaishnava named Vamshi Das. But he himself returned to his village and was engaged as a Hindi teacher. Nevertheless, hi s mind was absorbed in Vrindavan. In 1937, a special edition of Kalyāṇa magazine came out devoted to bhakti. In it, there was an article by Shantanu Bihari Dvivedi that made a particularly strong impression. This author later became known as Akhandananda Saraswati.
Hitdasji continued to teach, but made annual visits to Vrindavan. Finally in 1942, he handed in his resignation and left home and came to Radha and Krishna’s land for good. Though he had received initiation in a dream, he had forgotten some portions of the mantra and so in 1945 he took the śaraṇāgati mantra from Vrindavan Vallabh Goswami, and then received his own mantra from Yugal Vallabh Goswami, both descendants of Harivams Goswami.
In 1946, he took the renounced order from Paramananda Dasji Maharaj. Hitdasji told the story that once he asked Paramananda which of the eight kinds of deities permitted by shastra was Radha Vallabh. Paramanandaji answered, “That is a silly question. The deity is always sat-chit-ananda, and you should never look at Radha Vallabha as being anything else but that.” That night he once again had a dream in which Radha Vallabh appeared to him and he had the direct experience of the deity’s sat-chit-ananda nature.
After taking vesh, he spent the years from 1945 to 1948 doing solitary bhajan in the summer house at Achal Bihar, and then from 1948 to 1952 did seva at Baad in Braj, which is the birthplace of Goswami Hit Harivams.
During the time he was in Vrindavan, Hit Dasji came into contact with Akhandananda Saraswatiji Maharaj, and stayed with him when he was living at the Paramahamsa Ashram, Ananda Vrindavan. It was Akhandananda Saraswati who called him “Hitji.”
Hit Das never had anything but praise for this period of his life during which he associated with Akhandananda. He said, “All the sadhakas who served Maharaj Shri and stayed with him were always happy and content. We never observed any kind of sectarian mentality in him because we were Vaishnavas. He was a guru to me, because in him we learned what the ideal form of a renunciate is like.”
Once Shri Hit Dasji said to Swami Akhandananda, “I really like Radha Krishna and their pastimes of love. I don’t like anything as much as this.” The Swamiji replied, “Let me tell you a secret. You have been engaging in the sadhana of this rasa for the past five lifetimes. It has become so deep in your unconscious that you will never be able to give it up.”
The "summer house" (bārādari) at Achal Bihar, on the Parikrama Marg in Raman Reti.
Hit Dasji tells many stories of his period living with Akhandananda Saraswati in a small book that has just been published, sab ke priya sab ke hitakārī (“Dear to everyone, everyone’s benefactor.”
One is that while living there at the Paramahamsa Ashram, Hit Dasji, who had a poetic bent, was constantly writing poetry in Braj Bhasha. But at one point he became unhappy about his work thinking that it was only a product of his mind and not the result of direct spiritual vision. He felt that it was only egoism that led him to write and that it would be better to discard his writings. He tore up his notebook and threw it into Davanala Kund.
A few days later, Akhandananda Saraswati was walking past Davanala Kund with his retinue. Apparently someone had taken the torn up notebook from the water [there was still water in Davanala Kund in those days] and scattered the pages on the road. For some reason, Akhandananda Saraswati stopped and picked up one of the pages. The writing had been done in indelible ink and so were still legible. He was able to read them and recognize them as Hit Dasji’s writing, and he said so aloud.
Later he called Hit Dasji to his room and asked him angrily why he had thrown his poems away like that. In fact, Hit Dasji had read his poems to Maharaj who had liked them. When Hit Das told Maharaj the reasons why he had done so, Akhandananda was pleased. He said, “The pleasure I got from hearing your poetry was great, but I get more hearing your humility.” He told him to give up writing poetry and concentrate on bhajan.
Though Akhandananda was a devotional Advaita sannyasi, he still placed a lot of importance on the Vedanta. So Hit Dasji was studying Vedanta also while in his company. After a year and a half, Swamiji asked Hit Das what his verdict was on Vedanta. Hit Dasji gave his answer, to which Swamiji responded, “I have never seen such dedication to Krishna’s lotus feet in anyone. You are an exclusive devotee of Radha and Krishna.”
But not long afterwards, Hit Dasji had a dream in which he saw a woman in white with a three-month baby in her arms. She said to him, “Only you can save this child.” Hit Dasji said, “Why are you lamenting over the physical body. Everyone must die. This is all Maya.” The woman answered, “I am not ignorant. I did not come here to listen to lessons on philosophy. Try to understand how I am suffering and save this child. Only you can do it.”
When he woke up, he was mystified by the dream and tried to find out its meaning. He told it to a friend who interpreted it as follows: “The woman is Bhakti Devi herself. The baby is Bhava, because Bhakti is the mother of Bhava. You are an exclusive devotee of Radha Vallabha, but here you are spending your time studying Vedanta, so your love is being weakened by the culture of knowledge. So Bhakti Devi is pleading with you to not let your spirit of love come under threat.”
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