THE BUILDING OF THE JAMALPUR JAGRTI

We were able to purchase of a plot of land in the neighbourhood of Baba’s quarter.

This created a lot of activity from the opponents.

Some relatives of the persons who sold the land did not like the land going to the Marga. So they conspired, and with the help of some local anti social elements, tried to capture our land.

The leader of the conspirators was Bachhu Mandal, a known undesirable local character, always indulging in quarrels and fights and spreading terror.

Meanwhile the Margii brothers made preparation for laying the foundation of the jagrti and asked for Baba’s approval. Baba fixed up the date of foundation laying ceremony.

Every one was aware of the opposition of the thugs, and so we wanted to be well prepared and cautious. The Margiis from Bhagalpur were also invited there on that day.

The responsibility for bringing the Margiis of Bhagalpur to Jamalpur was entrustedto respected Chandranathji – my medium.

He rented a truck and took some sepoy sadhakas of the Marga and was on the way to Jamalpur with some other Margiis.

But their arrival was somewhat delayed, and meanwhile the then General Secretary along with some local Margiis reached the land where the foundation was to be laid.

As they were preparing to lay the foundation, Bacchu Mandal and his thugs attacked them with spears and axes. Just at that moment, Shrii Chandranathji reach the spot along with his sadhaka jawans (soldiers).

Seeing the attackers, Chandranathji and his men jumped from the truck and with electric speed charged the challengers. Acarya Kuldeepji engaged Bachhu Mandal in a fight and frustrating the spear attacks from him gave him some lathi blows and snatched away his spear from his hands.

The other Margii police also remembered divine Baba, gave sky rending battle cries of ‘Victory to Yogeshwar Shrii Shrii Anandamurtiji’, and sprang upon the attackers and snatched away their arms and made them run away.

After this the foundation of the jagrti was laid with due ceremony.

After this the then General Secretary and Shrii Chandranathji along with all the Margii jawans went to Baba and did their sastaunga pranam to him. Rev. Baba gave them the blessings of victory.

I regret that I was not present on this occasion as by then I had left Jamalpur.

Looking to the popularity and the constant growth of Marga, now its opponents began to oppose all its activities in a well-planned manner. Due to this several obstacles began to appear in the propagation of our ideology.

But Baba remained unaffected by all these impediments and continued to instruct all His followers that obstacles are auspicious and marks of success and should improve their speed. This is what actually happened. The more the obstacles, the greater was the momentum of pracar.

The main reasons for opposition at that stage were:

• the discarding of the traditions of keeping a tuft of hair on the head and the wearing of sacred thread
• our dislike for idol worship and opposition to Brahminical traditions in society
• our non-recognition of rivers and pilgrimage sites as sacred
• our philosophy denying the existence of heaven and hell
• our non-belief in the traditional form of worship and sacrificial ceremonies and our emphasis on casteless society building
• our non-recognition of untouchablility and our promotion of inter-caste marriages.
• our opposition to dowry and caste-marking systems
• our non-compromising attitude with corruption and other evil practices in society.

We wanted ladies to be given proper respect and status in the society and were against all types of exploitation in the society.

Opposition to our ideology increased due to the wide range of our ideological beliefs. At that time and in that part of the world these ideas were quite stormy and resulted in much controversy.