Sri Mohanananda Brahmachari Maharaj, almost universally addressed as Maharaj, was a major spiritual force in India and abroad for over six decades from 1937 till 1999.
He took birth on 17 December 1904 in the town of Midnapore in Bengal province. His parents, a devout Brahmin couple, Binayani Devi and Hemachandra Bandopadhaya were devotees and disciples of Sri Balananda Brahmachari, a great saint who had taken up residence in the temple town of Deoghar in Bihar province. Sri Manamohan, as he was then named, passed his Entrance Examination in 1920 from Dhanbad English High School. Thereafter, he joined the Scottish Church College in Calcutta for his graduate studies and stayed in the Ogilvie Hostel. His classmates later remembered him for his pleasant yet indrawn personality, and for his touch of artistic sophistication which he brought to every task. Later on, it became apparent that Sri Manamohan had developed a great attraction for the divine life during this time and had begun practicing various austerities as well as studying several religious thought leaders such as Swami Vivekananda and Sri Aurobindo. He had also collected detailed information about the religious practices followed at Deoghar Ashram from his family. Finally, he left the hostel on September 9, 1921 and travelled to the Deoghar ashram of Sri Balananda Brahmachari...
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Very early in his life, Sri Mohanananda Brahmachari had learned that music and songs were very effective instruments available for arousing divine consciousness in the human spirit. He was deeply attracted by the lyrics and music of Rabindranath Tagore during his college days and he also witnessed the ability of the saint, Ramdas Babaji Maharaj, to bring ecstasy to massed crowds through his Kirtan.
Having the gift of a sweet and melodious voice himself, Sri Maharaj regularly performed Kirtan at Deoghar Ashram and even his Guru was moved by his music. Sri Maharaj was thoroughly eclectic in his choice of lyrics. Apart from his own numerous compositions, Sri Maharaj liberally drew upon the works of Nanak, Brahmananda, Vidyapati, Surdas and other classical devotional compositions, as well as from the works of modern poets, most notably of Rabindranath as well as Girish Chandra, Atul Prasad and others. However, he did not hesitate to modify either the lyrics or the tune in order to create the maximum impact in the minds of the listeners. His audience, however, did not always know the lyrics. Finally, Sri Gobinda Prasad Ghose, a disciple of Sri Balananda Brahmachari, undertook the task of collating the Kirtan lyrics through laborious transcription, and published the volume in July 1955. Pleased with the effort, Sri Maharaj named this volume Amrita Lahari or Waves of Nectar. Subsequently, a second volume was also published under the name Sudha Sagar or Sea of Nectar, bestowed by Sri Maharaj. Later on, the two volumes were merged into a single entity under the initial name of Amrita Lahari, and the combined volume has undergone many editions with an ever expanding inventory of songs.
