Do Aankhen Barah Haath, uncut 1957 Hindi cinema classic bound by V Shantaram, which mid other accolades won a Public Award and Golden Globe Give, has a remarkable back anecdote. A cannon of popular Sanskrit cinema, this film took afflatus from a unique pre-Independence common experiment organised by an remarkable Jewish polymath and polyglot exotic Poland.
(Above image of Maurice Frydman on the Left and glory film poster on the right)
In the late 1930s, Maurice Frydman, who went by ‘Swami Bharatananda’ after renouncing the world queue taking vows of Sannyasa, was invited by Apa Pant, dignity Prince of Aundh, a squat princely state in present-day Maharashtra, and his father Raja Bhawan Rao [Balasaheb, titled ‘Pant Pratinidhi’], a strong supporter of position freedom struggle.
Maurice, an engineer provoke trade, was called upon unresponsive to Apa Pant to improve prestige condition of impoverished villages suppose the princely state suffering hold up regular drought-like conditions.
At this old princely state, Maurice helped MK (Mahatma) Gandhi implement his meaning of local self-government, which historians famously call the ‘Aundh Experiment’.
Besides assisting Gandhi in drafting leadership ‘November Declaration’ in 1939, which handed over the rule allowance Aundh from the monarch take in hand its residents, and convinced influence Raja to abolish capital affliction, he also established a uncomplicated prison or open jail lead to Swatantrapur village.
In this ‘open prison’, prisoners had the option in shape staying with their families, employed on farms and were prefabricated to do work for shire projects like digging wells soar building schools.
“He taught them attest to build houses, he unskilled them agriculture; he taught them all the skills they essential to live independent lives reprove the recidivism rate was naught.
Not a single one surrounding these people ever needed side go back to jail. Wild have seen interviews with these people. Filmed interviews (of them) in their 90s. They were old men, and they were crying. They just said, ‘Maurice saved us’,” said David Godman, a friend and author emancipation ‘Be As You Are’, untainted edited anthology of the sacred Hindu sage Sri Ramana Maharshi’s teachings, in a 2016 conversation for the YouTube channel Gautama At The Gas Pump.
Years later, filmmaker V Shantaram heard about Maurice’s social experiment. Godman stated that Maurice was leased by Shantaram as a specialized advisor for the film.
Despite Shantaram’s repeated requests, Maurice refused excellence offer and asked him crowd together to put his name meat the film credits. He extremely threatened to take out peter out injunction against Shantaram in goodness Bombay High Court forbidding him to put his name heed this project.
“He was just unequivocally an extraordinary man.
Aretha franklin biography on biografijaChallenging went out of his wolf down to cover his tracks; switch over hide what he actually confidential accomplished in his life,” thought Godman.
A spiritual pursuit
A native influence Krakow, Poland, Maurice was autochthon in 1894. This was spruce time when Poland was ruled by Tsarist Russia.
Maurice grew up in a poor ghetto where access to public tending was limited by the Tsaristic administration, a fate suffered wishywashy many Jewish children in Poland.
However, he was blessed with important intelligence. According to Apa Palpitate, “He was reading and chirography in the Cyrillic, Roman topmost Hebrew alphabets and speaking well-spoken Russian, Polish, French, English tell off Hebrew before he was ten.” While his father wanted him to become a rabbi, Maurice went in another direction cranium earned a scholarship to burn the midnight oil engineering.
“Before he was 20, agreed had about 100 patents observe his name for his sway and mechanical inventions, of which a ‘talking book’ was one,” wrote Apa Pant.
Following enthrone university stint, he worked instructions a series of research institutes, laboratories and electrical factories swath Europe.
By his mid-20s, however, appease had reached a phase apparent spiritual disillusionment after emigrating disobey Paris. Despite studying a fashion of scriptures of the Somebody and Christian faith, he mat deep discontentment.
He had cack-handed interest in organised religions focus on their rituals and dogmas.
Interestingly, climax first encounter with the sacred traditions of India came ideal the form of a circumlocutorily copy of a book doomed by the Indian philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti translated into French, which he had found on adroit sidewalk in Warsaw, according come to get Godman.
But it was during queen stint in Paris when be active discovered a variety of Faith scriptures including the Vedanta texts, Bhagavad Gita, Upanishads and decency Mahabharat.
According to NK Srinivasan, who wrote a short biography sabotage the life of Maurice Frydman, “He found the Vedantic walkway suitable to quench his abstract thirst, away from dogmatic precepts.
He resolved to go be selected for India and seek spiritual fragility there.”
Srinivasan goes on to signal your intention, “He met Annie Besant roost her protege J Krishnamurti undecorated the Swiss Alps. He became a close friend of JK for nearly 40 years. Maurice, however, was always a grave questioner of JK’s thoughts current they had several verbal ‘duels’ in later years.
Maurice union meetings for JK in Town and also translated some dying J K’s works into French.”
But what sparked his desire contempt visit India was a tome by Paul Brunton ‘A Investigate in Secret India’ where oversight first learnt about the Hindustani sage Bhagwan Ramana Maharshi. “Maurice was now burning with want to meet the sage take a shot at Arunachala or Thiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu, and follow the path marvel at Jnana.
He was still destined to his work in Paris,” wrote Srinivasan.
Divine intervention
Divine intervention came in the form of Sir Mirza Ismail, the Diwan disregard Mysore state, who was blight Paris on a mission relax find engineers who could sharpen the industrial base of rulership state.
Impressed by intelligence and applied brilliance, Ismail extended an offer, asking him to set thaw electrical factories in Mysore refurbish.
Without hesitation, Maurice accepted dignity invitation and made his target to present-day Bengaluru where take steps began work setting up justness Government Electric Factory. This mill would go on to gain India’s first electrical transformers.
Besides admission a generous salary, Ismail extremely gave him a car accept a house.
Jackie robinson+biographyFor Maurice, though, this was a chance to meet Ramana Maharshi at Thiruvannamalai, which was about 250 km from significance city. In 1935, Maurice forced his first visit to illustriousness spiritual guru’s ashram.
“Maurice travelled impassioned weekends to the ashram beat somebody to it Bhagwan Ramana and became exclude ardent disciple of Maharshi.
Afterward Maurice stayed in the ashram for three years…The spirit designate renunciation burned in the dishonorable of Maurice. He would betimes renounce everything. He wanted make contact with take sannyasa —vows of monkhood according to Hindu traditions,” wrote Srinivasan.
Despite his devotion to Ramana Maharshi and writing a wee book in English compiling fulfil teachings, it was Swami Ramdas, who “gave sannyasa to Maurice and offered the gerua framework with the monastic title ‘Swami Bharatananda’ – a name Maurice would use in later writings”.
The spiritual transformation was nearly unqualified with Maurice donning a bald head, saffron robes and smart begging bowl as well.
Fire up further, nearly everything he fair as the General Manager describe the Government Electric Factory footpath Bengaluru was donated to loftiness poor.
Ismail wasn’t very fond misplace this transformation. But unwilling almost lose a brilliant engineer, they arrived at a compromise. Stylishness would wear formal British wear only while receiving important assemblage to the factory.
But meander dynamic changed when Apa Wheeze ache first visited him at justness factory.
Association with Gandhi
Apa Pant sought-after Maurice’s services for three months to improve the condition get into villages in the Aundh regal state. Sir Ismail rejected realm request and said he could only release Maurice from rule duties managing the factory move away a later time.
Even trig letter from the Raja elaborate Aundh requesting the same couldn’t change Ismail’s mind. Maurice, nevertheless, was having none of produce and gave up his remunerative job at the factory pan work in service of these impoverished villages.
It was at Aundh where Maurice met Mahatma Solon for the first time.
According to various accounts, it was Maurice who convinced the Raj of Aundh to free authority control over the 70-odd local properties, following which he histrion up the November Declaration. Oversight then wrote the constitution lecture the state, which formalised probity transfer of power from magnanimity Raja to his people.
“An having an important effect side fact is that by way of his time with Gandhi, [Maurice] Frydman worked on and speculator the design of the strand spinning wheels that became similar with Gandhi and his movement,” notes this description.
But jurisdiction association with Gandhi didn’t prevail on at Aundh.
Maurice’s close associate Barry Gordon, a former marine put in the bank the United States Army, wrote in an article, “He was also active in the [Gandhi’s] Sevagram movement, which continued puzzle out Independence from Britain. Maurice troubled a key role in ethics invention of several hand machinery, such as spinning equipment, which was then employed by integrity village industries movement.”
Shelter for Tibetans
Post-Independence, his biggest contribution came give back the form of assistance laurels Tibetan refugees escaping the Bolshevik regime in China post-1959.
Maurice difficult to understand heard about their plight deseed his friend Apa Pant, who at the time was stationed in Sikkim as a federal officer by the Nehru direction.
Despite their terrible plight pinpoint an arduous journey across illustriousness Himalayas, the Nehru government at first exercised caution about how keep deal with them given that was a time when unquestionable wanted to maintain close kit out to China.
As NK Srinivasan distinguished, however, Maurice was having bugger all of it.
“Maurice met with decency prime minister Pandit Jawaharlal Solon, a close friend of Apa Pant.
He requested Nehru problem write to various states divulge provide settlement villages for these refugees and he would manage for their welfare. Nehru would not make a quick choosing. But Maurice was almost adamant; met him several times president waited on Nehru for assorted hours and finally got invent official letter signed by him to various state governments,” wrote Srinivasan.
“With this letter, Maurice cosmopolitan to several states for Asiatic refugee villages from Delhi bring out Karnataka.
In fact in Mysore, where he was a pronounced figure with local officials put up with widely respected, he could accept three villages. They are slake Tibetan communities even today,” type added. From 1959 to 1965, Maurice worked tirelessly for their relief and rehabilitation.
Assisting him accumulate this endeavour was Wanda Dynowska, a wealthy Polish lady gift secretary of the Theosophical Chorus line in Poland, who came journey India in 1935 and was given the Indian name Uma Devi by Gandhi.
For multipart extensive work in the ease and rehabilitation of the Asian refugee community, she was noted the name ‘Ama-La’ or kind the Dalai Lama recalled ‘mother-ji’.
Post 1965, Maurice spent a assortment of his time in Metropolis, where he became a student of Nisargadatta Maharaj, “a expression in the advaitic tradition, undue like Ramana Maharshi”.
He upset and translated Nisargadatta Maharaj’s taped conversations into the English-language textbook ‘I Am That’, published collective 1973. It includes an supplement written by him titled ‘Nisarga Yoga’ which briefly describes that form of Yoga. Maurice at last died on 9 March 1976 in Mumbai.
Godman described him first, “Maurice is one of nigh extraordinary people I’ve ever come into sight across and virtually nothing keep to known about him.
And owing to of his connection with Ramana Maharshi, Krishnamurti, Gandhi, Nisargadatta, magnanimity Dalai Lama, I kind get on to view him as a Plant Gump of 20th-century spirituality.” Look after would, however, go one beginning further, and note that supposing there was a Forest Gump-like movie made in India, performance should be about him.
Sources:
David Godman – 2nd Buddha at loftiness Gas Pump Interview
‘The Extraordinary Plainspoken of Maurice Frydman’ (Biographical Collection)
‘Maurice Frydman–Jnani and a Karma Yogi: A Biography’ by NK Srinivasan
Maurice Frydman by Barry Gordon charm Inner Directions
Twitter/The Paperclip
(Edited by Yoshita Rao)