Swami Prajnanpad

Svâmi Prajnânpad is a contemporary Indian master (1891-1974) whose teaching, rooted in the oldest Indian tradition, sheds light in an entirely new way on the path of those who aspire to know the truth.

Trained in scientific disciplines, Svâmi Prajnânpad reconciles science and tradition, materialist and spiritual approaches. Svâmiji, in a concern for practical efficiency, constantly refers to experimentation, rejects all recourse to any authority whatsoever, but does not hesitate to use all the methods that enable the disciple to free himself from his emotional blockages.

 

Svâmi Prajnanpad never wrote a book or gave a lecture; he gave individual talks to a small number of people (including nine French people). He answered their letters. Some of his talks were recorded.

 

For all those who approached him he radiated love and intelligence. Here is what he said about his condition:

 

"In the life of the world one always grasps a particular object. But what happens when you feel and realise that there is nothing to grasp? There is a complete disappearance of worldly awareness, and when this feeling crystallises, one feels: "everything is mine, everything belongs to me". Awakening is nothing but that. "

 

 

Interview 5/8/1966.

 

 

"You feel: what I had to do I did, what I had to obtain I obtained, what I had to give I gave" Interview 25/1/1963.

 

Book the formulas of swami Prajnanpad with the comments of Arnaud DESJARDINS

 

Biography of Svami Prajnanpad

 

 

Yogeshvar Chatterjee was born on February 8, 1891 in Chinsura, about fifty kilometres from Calcutta, into a very poor Brahmin family. He studied brilliantly with an interest in the physical sciences. He discovered Freud's writings in the 1920s in the library of the University of Benares where he taught. He found a Niralamba Svami teacher in 1922. He agreed to marry at his brother's insistence, but three months before the birth of his daughter, he resigned from the University and left for the Himalayas to become a monk.

 

Biography written by Daniel Roumanoff 

 

His brother came to fetch him and he resumed his place at the University. In September 1930, on the death of his master, he moved to the Channa ashram. In the meantime he had found a sense of fulfilment that could not be disturbed. He is known to a small number of Indian disciples. Daniel Roumanoff met him in 1959. Svamiji made two visits to France, one in 1966 in Bourg La Reine with Arnaud and Denise Desjardins, another in 1973 in Normandy invited by Daniel and Colette Roumanoff. He died on 24 September 1974.

 

 

Quotes (from letters or interviews)

 

"First of all, look with lucidity at what is, what you are, here and now: for this, you must be convinced that comparison and value judgements are absolutely unfounded. Nothing is right or wrong and you are therefore what you are, here and now."

 

"Everything is neutral, everything is absolute, everything is as it is. It is you who make it appear good or bad, pleasant or painful.

 

"He who does not see himself does not stop talking about others. He spends his time spotting and despising faults and weaknesses in others that are actually hidden and repressed in himself."

 

"First accept yourself. When you do not accept yourself and imagine yourself to be someone else, a conflict arises between who you think you are and who you really are."

 

"You are responsible for your happiness. You alone and no one else."