लोक-पावन-भाई-जी

For a special divine purpose, you were born on September 17, 1892 (Saturday) in Shillong. Due to the blessings of the family deity, Lord Hanuman, your name was given as “Hanuman Prasad.” In your youth, your inclination toward national service and social service led you to take a vow to use pure Khadi during the Swadeshi movement. Due to your active participation in revolutionary activities, you were kept under house arrest in Shimla for 21 months. You developed close contacts with revolutionaries in Bengal, including Aurobindo Ghosh.

In 1918, you moved to Bombay, where you developed close associations with national leaders such as Lokmanya Tilak, Lala Lajpat Rai, Mahatma Gandhi, Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya, and music maestro Vishnu Digambar. Due to the affection of these figures, you were lovingly called “Bhaiji” (Brother), and this became your popular nickname.

Shri Bhaiji had no desire for personal fame. He humbly declined government honors such as “Rai Bahadur,” “Sir,” and “Bharat Ratna.” The Hindi Sahitya Sammelan, Prayagraj, honored him with the title of “Sahitya-Vachaspati” for his invaluable contributions to Hindi literature, but he never used this title with his name. Although his education was mostly familial and traditional, it was remarkable that he had mastery over multiple languages.

Due to your devotion to divine names, you had divine visions of Lord Sita-Ram in a renunciant form. You also had direct conversations with a Parsi spirit and later established contacts with divine realms. In 1927, Lord Vishnu appeared before you and instructed you to propagate Bhakti (devotion) and the divine name while remaining engaged in worldly duties.
 
With your connection to divine realms, you became part of the governing and guiding circle of spiritual saints across the world. Out of immense grace, the Lord granted you visions of Shri Ram, Shiva, Lord Krishna (the speaker of the Gita), Shri Vrajaraj Kumar, and the divine couple Shri Radha-Krishna. In 1936, at Gita Vatika, you had an audience with Devarshi Narada and Maharishi Angiras, who blessed you with teachings on divine love.
 
Your deep meditation and contemplation on Shri Krishna and Shri Radha gradually intensified your connection with the divine, immersing you in the ocean of divine bliss. With your state of divine consciousness, the divine couple Shri Radha-Krishna eternally resided in your physical form, guiding and controlling all your actions. Conversations with ancient sages like the Sanakadis (Sanaka, Sanandana, Sanatana, Sanatkumara) became a well-known fact.
Following divine inspiration, Bhaiji maintained a simple external life while living among people for 78 years. Except for a few devoted followers, no one could truly grasp his spiritual stature. Different people saw different aspects of him—some saw a scholar, some saw a devoted servant of society, some saw an affectionate guide, some saw an extraordinary editor, some saw a true saint, some saw a dedicated devotee of Vrindavan’s love tradition, and some even saw a reflection of Shri Radha’s divine heart within him.
 
It is very difficult to assess the true nature of a saint. However, Bhaiji certainly belonged to the category of saints whom Narada Muni described as having no distinction between God and his devotees—”Tasmimstajjane Bhedabhavat.”
 

His core teachings were:

  • See God in everyone.
  • Have unwavering faith in divine grace.
  • Take exclusive refuge in the divine name.
Future generations may find it hard to believe that in the faithless era of the 20th century, Bhaiji single-handedly accomplished what multiple institutions could not even imagine. The initiation of the Radhashtami Mahotsav and the unique philosophical direction of Rasadwait (the oneness of Radha and Krishna’s divine love) were his great contributions to this era.
It is impossible to count how many people advanced on the path of spiritual upliftment due to him and became eligible for the supreme divine abode. Immersed in the ocean of divine love, he concluded his earthly pastimes on March 22, 1971.
“Vande Mahapurusha Te Charanaravindam“
(Salutations to the great divine soul and his lotus feet.)
 

Hanuman Prasad Poddar – The Great Freedom Fighter

Hanuman Prasad Poddar, the founder of Gita Press, was also a revolutionary. He was part of a revolutionary organization called Anushilan Samiti. While in Kolkata, he facilitated the publication of the Bhagavad Gita under the Sahitya Samvardhan Samiti, featuring an image of Bharat Mata (Mother India) holding a sword on its cover. The British administration in Kolkata confiscated this edition.
 
In 1906, he led an agitation against the use of cow fat in cloth production and launched a movement to boycott foreign goods and foreign cloth. From an early age, he adopted the use of Khadi and Swadeshi products. In Mumbai, he mobilized young Agarwal men and established the Marwari Khadi Promotion Board.
 
He played a major role in revolutionary activities, including stealing arms shipments from Roda & Co., a weapons firm in Kolkata that imported guns, pistols, and cartridges from Germany and England. Indian revolutionaries needed weapons to fight against British rule but lacked funds. The Anushilan Samiti assigned the task of stealing arms crates to Hanuman Prasad Poddar, which he accepted gladly.
bhai-ji
On August 26, 1914, at the Kolkata port, 202 crates of weapons arrived for Roda & Co., containing 80 Mauser pistols and 46,000 cartridges. With the help of a sympathetic clerk, Shirish Chandra Mitra, Poddar managed to divert 10 crates to his house, where he distributed 41 pistols to revolutionaries in Bengal and sent 39 pistols to other provinces, including Kashi (Varanasi), Allahabad, Bihar, Punjab, and Rajasthan.
Between August 1914 and later years, these weapons were used in 45 revolutionary attacks against British officers. The Mauser pistols stolen by Poddar were traced to several revolutionary dacoities, including the Mamoorabad dacoity in Bengal.
Eventually, he was arrested on July 16, 1914, but due to a lack of evidence, he was later released. After his release, he remained deeply connected with Lokmanya Tilak, Veer Savarkar, Subhash Chandra Bose, and Mahatma Gandhi.
Even as the editor of Gita Press’ Kalyan magazine, he continued supporting revolutionary causes, hiding weapons beneath book shipments. He was also instrumental in opposing Partition and Jinnah’s demand for Pakistan.
His fearless and independent editorial voice once even criticized Jawaharlal Nehru as being anti-Hindu and questioned Mahatma Gandhi’s policies.