THE FIRST OPPOSITION

Along with the propagation and expansion of the ideology of the Marga, opposition also began.

The first wave of opposition began with the family of Bindeshwariji himself. In a way, opposition was also helpful, as Baba had once said “There is propagation of ideology even when people oppose or spread anti feelings”.

I have also felt that the propagation of our ideology has advanced hand in hand with its opposition.

As the opposition has increased so has the popularity of the Marga.

Opposition creates a curiosity to know the Marga and those who contacted Margii brothers to know about it, generally ended up by becoming Margiis themselves.

After Bindeshwariji, his younger nephew also took initiation. By watching a change in the outlook of these two, the wife and daughters, of Bindeshwariji also took initiation. After initiation and due to the practice of sadhana all of them became vegetarians.

The elder brother of Bindeshwariji, Shrii Puneet Narain Singhji did not like this development and hence the beginning of opposition. Shri Puneet Narain Singhji failed to under stand why it was necessary to adopt vegetarianism for any religious activity.

Bindeshwariji belonged to a big and well-to-do joint family and the whole family right from a child to the old men was non-vegetarian.

Therefore when a part of the family became vegetarian, it was not liked by the rest, and Shrii Puneet Narain Singhji began the opposition to begin with in mild sarcastic tones. He usually conversed in Angika. He would use mild, civilized but satirical phrases against the Marga, Margiis and Marga Guru in his Angika language. His satires were light but had deep cuts. So far only Mithilii language was famous for its double edged sweet satires but after hearing Puneet Baba one had to believe that Angika was not lagging behind in this respect. In fact it appeared superior.

Whenever I would send someone who wanted to take initiation to Jamalpur and he came searching for Bindeshwariji’s house, Puneet Baba would make an effort to dissuade him or confuse him but somehow every-time he did not succeed and mostly people would go ahead with their resolve to take initiation. Such gentlemen would mention to me their encounter with Puneet Baba after they returned from Jamalpur and the younger brother of Bindeshwariji also mentioned this to me. Puneet Baba would on many occasions cut very civilized jokes about sadhana when he would talk with me. One day in this context I told him that he was doing a fine job in Jamalpur for the Marga. He enquired as to how. I replied that when he tried to dissuade someone from taking sadhana, he was in fact testing his sincerity, and when he takes initiation in spite of this criticism of the Marga, the new sadhakas would really establish themselves firmly in spirituality and sadhana. Due to his failures in his effort to dissuade people from the Marga he created a small opposition group which would indulge in free criticism of Marga and Margiis everywhere. During this period when Bindeshwariji returned from Bhagalpur DMC in absolutely abnormal condition, the eldest brother Shrii Rameshwar Prasad Singh also became openly against Ananda Marga along with Puneet Baba. But as the opposition and the critics increased so the growth of the Marga also increased simultaneously.

OPPOSITION TO ANANDA MARGA

Due to the spread of the Marga and the growth of its popularity; seeing the way in which Baba was being respected and liked; and seeing His non availability due to his busy schedule, some of the neighbours and colleagues of Baba began to envy and oppose him for no rhyme or reason. But their opposition was restricted to only verbal caustic comments. In the meanwhile a journalist of Jamalpur took initiation. He was the reporter of a Hindi magazine.

In the beginning he was all praise for the Marga and its process of meditation, but when he was asked to be strict about his moral code, he began to lose interest in sadhana. He gradually severed his ties with Marga. Not only that, he also began to express his negative feelings through his dispatches in that Hindi paper. On this account the Margiis of Muzaffarpur filed a case against him and the paper wherein these things were published. These days Baba was putting all emphasis on sadhana and the following of the moral code. All the disciples were therefore busy with these activities. When the news of opposition reached Baba, He said, “The higher your objective the greater will be the obstacles in the way. Obstacles are auspicious signals and denote success. Sadhana really means struggle. You will, therefore, not be afraid of obstacles, but thinking that the realization of the objectives is near, will face them with enthusiasm and caution. Keeping a peaceful mind all the time, march ahead keeping your objective in front of you – victory is surely yours. “ Thus the obstacles that started with the pracar continue to be with us all the time as if pracar and obstacles were twins. The opposition continued to grow along with the growth of the Marga. In the meanwhile the Margiis thought of having our own jagrti or ashram in Jamalpur. Therefore all the Margiis collectively placed their proposal before Baba and He kindly gave His approval. Some enthusiastic brothers even prepared a plan of construction. THE BUILDING OF THE JAMALPUR JAGRTI Now we were on the lookout for some land in the neighbourhood of Baba’s quarter. Finally the efforts of the Margiis resulted in the purchase of a plot of land. This resulted in a great fillip in the activity of the opponents. Some relatives of the persons who sold the land did not like that the land should pass into the possession of the Marga. They therefore conspired and with the help of some anti social elements in the locality wanted to capture our land. The leader of the conspirators was one person called Bachhu Mandal, who was known undesirable character of the locality, 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; the fact that we did not believe in the traditional form of worship and sacrificial ceremonies and our emphasis on casteless society building. In addition there was our non-recognition of untouchablility and our promotion of inter-caste marriages. We were also opposed to dowry and caste-marking systems and did not compromise 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 rang of our ideological beliefs. At that time and in that part of the world these ideas were quite stormy and resulted in much controversy.