Ananda Marga, the Path of Bliss, is the philosophy that was propunded by Shrii_Shrii_Anandamurti of India. It is also the name of the organization that was formed to carry out the mission of bringing about a universal blissful society.
There have been Ananda Marga activities in Davis since the early '70's, soon after the arrival in the United States of an acharya (teacher).
A tenet of the socio-spiritual philosophy of Ananda Marga is that everyone in the world is to move along the path of spirituality.
The founder at birth was named Prabhat Rainjan Sarkar. Just before the founding he came to be called Baba, 'the Dear One,' by his followers and Anandamurti, 'the Embodiment of Bliss.' He had first initiated someone into spiritual practice when he was a student. A notorious criminal had come up behind him at night on the bank of a river in a cremation ground with a knife to rob him. The criminal was caused to fundamentally change his ways and became radically reformed. Prabhat had left home to futher his education, but returned home to work and support his family after his father died.
At work in offices of the Indian Railroad he gathered some spiritual followers that at first he kept unknown to each other. His following greatly expanded after he had the followers regularly meet together, he introduced the name Ananda Marga and the organization was founded in early 1955.
Baba avoided a cult of personality and emphasized the work of the Ananda Marga organization. The practice was not traditional, because it called for the elevation of society, not just the individual spiritual aspirant.
Initially arising largely from a Hindu culture, Ananda Marga rejected idol worship and customs such as casteism and negative social status of widows.
Shrii Shrii Anandamurti let Ananda Marga carry on the work when he unexpectedly left his body in 1990.
August 11, 2011
New classes will be starting in Woodland in about two weeks hosted by Boddhisattva. Se Habla Espanol. Details will be forthcoming.
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