Ananda Marga
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Stories and Quotes

Shrii Shrii Ánandamúrti smiling among disciples, a boy and a bearded man beside him, mountains behind
You are never alone or helpless. The force that guides the stars, guides you too.

His disciples called him Bábá. Here are the things they saw him do and heard him say, each told by someone who was there, and below them his own words.

Stories

  • The scholar · 1983

    Naranja and the excited elephants

    In 1983 a monk brought Shrii Shrii Ánandamúrti an orange seedling from Paraguay. Shrii Shrii Ánandamúrti asked its Spanish name, naranja, and where the word came from. None of the senior workers present knew; he joked that he had thought he was the only fool in the world but now had many friends. Then he explained: Sanskrit naga, elephant, and ranga, excitement, made nagaranga, because elephants rejoice at a tree full of oranges; through Urdu narangi it became Spanish naranja. He went on to link Spanish numbers and family words to Sanskrit.

    Then Bábá's mood softened and He began a long explanation. "The Saḿskrta word 'naga' means both 'elephant' and 'snake'. Here it means 'elephant'. Ranga in Saḿskrta means 'excitement'. When elephants see a green orange tree full with brightly-colored oranges, they become excited and go into jubilation. So oranges are called 'nagaranga' in Saḿskrta.

    — Dádá Haratmananda, Bábá's Love for South America

  • The scholar

    Without the papers

    During a gathering, Shrii Shrii Ánandamúrti took reports from his workers and asked each of them to name the villages of their district. Everyone began searching through their papers. He leaned forward and asked what they were doing. Why depend on papers? He remembered everything without reading or writing; why could they not do the same? One worker asked him to tell them the secret. He only asked why they did not know without charts, and smiled broadly at them all.

    During DMC, Bábá was taking reports from all the workers; I was fanning Him. Bábá asked the workers one by one the names of the villages of the district. Everyone began to look through their papers to find the answers. Suddenly Bábá leaned forward. "What are you doing?" He asked.

    — Ác. Shamitánanda Avt., 101 Bábá Stories

  • The scholar · 1950s · Jamálpur

    Books dictated by torchlight

    In the 1950s Ananda Marga was new and had no books, and Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar still worked in the railway office. After evening meditation he walked with a few disciples across the fields to the Tiger's Grave and spoke on many subjects while they wrote by the light of electric torches; Ánanda Sútram was written this way. He also dictated after dinner until two or three in the morning, and used his office lunch break to dictate and correct manuscripts.

    In the quiet nights of Jamálpur village, He would walk with some devotees through the meadow to the tiger's grave and talk about so many things. They would sit there and Bábá would speak on different subjects. Some devotees would write it down carefully. They brought with them electric torches to light up their notes in the dark surroundings. In this way Ánanda Sútram was written.

    — Ác. Sarveshvaránanda Avadhúta, My Days With Bábá

  • The scholar · 1988 · Kolkata

    The red berry of Ghana

    At a meeting in February 1988, Shrii Shrii Ánandamúrti said Ghana's economy could recover within a few years and named four resources: gold in the north, oil along the coast, palm oil and the Ghanaian sweet berry. He asked a disciple from Ghana to describe the little-known berry, which Ghanaians had used instead of sugar during the Second World War. Sugar could be produced from it, Shrii Shrii Ánandamúrti said, with more nutritional value. When a senior worker doubted which variety he meant, Shrii Shrii Ánandamúrti said at once: the red one.

    When Bábá was giving the explanation, SS dádá was in doubt regarding the variety (in fact there is another similar berry in Ghana but having blackish skin), Bábá immediately corrected him saying it was the red berry. Back in Ghana SS asked for seedlings and took them to India.

    — Istadeva, Shrii Shrii Ánandamúrti: Journey of a Mystery through African Experience

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Quotes

  • What is then the most precious thing in human life? It is devotion. If one has gotten devotion, one has gotten everything, and nothing remains unrealized.

  • Life is a spiritual sádhaná and the result of this sádhaná is to be offered at the altar of the Supreme.

  • Since the Supreme Father is with me, why should I be afraid of anyone? Why should I fear at all? There is no reason to be fearful. I have to move forward. Fearfulness is not my duty. Let the fear fear me, I will not fear.

  • You have no right to hate even a single living creature. The best you can do is only to serve.

  • Human society is one and indivisible, don’t try to divide it. Each and every individual should be looked upon as the manifestation of the Cosmic Entity.

  • Struggle is the essence of life. Yours should be a pauseless struggle against corruption, hypocrisy and animality.

  • Don’t compare life to a pool of muddy, stagnant water. Life resembles an ever-flowing spring.

  • Knowing oneself is the real knowledge; serving all with the ideation of Náráyańa, the real action, and the vow to please Parama Puruśa the real devotion.

  • You all know that Parama Puruśa is very close to you. He is so near that nothing can be nearer.

  • Morality is the foundation of Sádhaná (spiritual practice). It must, however, be remembered that morality or good conduct is not the culminating point of the spiritual march.

  • Do all your works unitedly. No work is hard for you, no work is difficult. Move forward easily and smilingly, solving all the problems of the world. Your victory is assured.

  • Remember that your service does not oblige the Supreme, rather you are obliged because you have such a chance to serve the Supreme in the form of living beings.

  • All the beings of this universe are the kith and kin of one another. No one is despicable. All are equally respectable and entitled to equal love and affection.

  • We must not forget, even for a single moment, that the entire animate world is a vast joint family. Nature has not assigned any portion of this property to any particular individual.

  • The most valuable treasures on the path of human progress are honesty, simplicity and spiritedness.

  • Book knowledge that cannot be utilized in life has no value.

  • The devotional sentiment is the highest and most valuable treasure of humanity.

  • The goal of sádhaná [spiritual practice] is the all-round elevation of human beings. Spiritual practices do not teach renunciation of the world, they teach only the proper utilization of the subtle and crude potentialities.

  • Everywhere you are with Parama Puruśa, and never in this universe, nowhere in this universe, are you alone. So you are never helpless.

  • If you want to please a mother, simply serve her children and the mother will be pleased.

  • Why should the love and affection of developed human minds be restricted to human beings only? Why should it not include all living beings, including plant life?

  • Social life must take morality as its starting point – it must take inspiration from morality.

  • As long as people sleep, their fortune also sleeps. When they awake and think to rise up, their fortune also begins to awaken. The moment they sit up, their fortune also rises; and as soon as they start moving, their fortune also advances.

  • In my opinion, real education means proper, adequate knowledge and the power of understanding. In other words, education should impart an awareness of who I am and what I ought to do.

  • Your only qualification is that you are the affectionate progeny of the Supreme Progenitor. You are His object of affection. Even if you forget Him He won’t forget you.

  • Persistent endeavour and practical cult are essential to reach the goal. Hence, in sádhaná one should remember two essential factors: constant awareness of one’s goal, and persistent endeavour to attain that goal.

  • Every jiiva, every living being, is the child of Immortality. You have been born in eternity and you are moving towards immortality. Therefore there is no need to be afraid, despondent, or sorry in any condition.

  • Forget whatever you were in the past, or whatever you did in the past, and from this auspicious moment on dedicate yourself to the service of humanity.

  • This love should include all plants, birds, animals etc., because everything has life, everything has feeling. We should think that others feel as I feel, and this feeling should include plants, animals and inanimate objects.

  • If one person rolls in affluence, in most cases others will be deprived of even their minimum requirements. The failure to recognize the needs of others is itself a disease.

  • You should live such a benevolent life and do such glorious deeds that when you leave this world, smiles will blossom on your face while the people mourn your departure with copious tears.

  • Educated are those who have learnt much, remembered much and made use of their learning in practical life.

  • To love Parama Puruśa and the creation is the only Dharma of spiritual aspirants.

  • The mind has infinite potentialities and controlling these infinite potentialities is sádhaná.

  • The Father’s love is for all, so nobody is helpless. Nobody is shelterless. And nobody’s future is sealed forever.

  • The entire human society is anxiously waiting for you, for your service. You will have to shoulder a great responsibility for the suffering humanity.

  • The universe does not consist only of humans; other animals, other creatures, other plants, also have the right to live.

  • With the very extinction of honesty, civilization too will not survive; the long sádhaná of the human race will go in vain, and all intellectual achievements will become meaningless.

  • It is the youth, and the youth only, who have the vigour to bring about the necessary change.

  • Modern, educated people must be liberated from all sources of dogma and petty isms. They should reject the worn out shackles of the past and welcome the new, crimson dawn with an open mind.

  • If you think that He is near, then He is not only near, He is more near. He is much closer than you can ever imagine.

  • Remember that victory does not come by itself. Victory has to be invited and welcomed with sweat, the warmth of the blood and the fiery flames of hard labour.

  • You have achieved the human frame. You must make it meaningful by your sádhaná, service and sacrifice.

  • Where animality ends, humanity begins, where humanity ends, divinity begins.

  • Where there is no logic, where there is no support of intellectuality, where there is no debate and free discussion, but there is only a severe imposition forcing people to accept something, there is dogma.

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