Anirvan

Anirvan (1896-1978) ascetic and writer, was born on 8 July 1896 in mymensingh. His father gave him the name 'Narendranath Dhar' first and renamed 'Baroda Brahmachari' after being invested with the sacred thread. After becoming an ascetic, he took the name 'Swami Nirvanananda Saraswati'. He assumed the name Anirvan after moving to a Himalayan forest to meditate.

Narendra passed the Entrance Examination from Mymensingh City School and IA and BA from Dhaka. He completed his MA in the Vedas and Mimangsa Shastras from Sanskrit College, Kolkata. He also studied Buddhism while staying at Benares and Sarnath. He was a linguist and proficient in several languages, including French.

From 1918-30, Anirvan served as the director of Swami Nigamananda Paramahansa's Kokilamukh Assam-Bangiya Saraswat Monastery, acharya of the saint's school, and editor of the monthly magazine Aryyadarpan. He wrote a number of books to propagate the Hindu religion and moral education, including Shiksa, Pravachan, Gitanuvachan, Vedanta Jijnasa, Vedamimangsa, and Upanisat Prasanga. He also translated The Life Divine by aurobindo ghosh into Bangla. He got the Rabindra Award for his book Vedamimangsa.

Even though Anirvan was a saint, he had studied different subjects including Marxism and the progress of nuclear science. His diverse interests included knowledge of gardening too. He published numerous articles on these subjects in different journals. Kaveri and Kajari are two of his poetic books that attempt to explain the vedas. Anirvan described himself as a simple baul and preached the ideals of humanity. He believed that all human beings are moving towards one universal religion of humanism. He died on 31 May 1978. [Nandadulal Banik]