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Confessions, Upadesh, and Talks

出版	Akshaya Prakashan, 2008
ISBN	81886432549788188643257
URL	http://books.google.com.hk/books?id=Y1T6PgAACAAJ&hl=&source=gbs_api

註釋'From a terrorist revolutionary sentenced to a long prison term to a spiritual ascetic and teacher would seem to many to be a far cry indeed. Yet this is exactly what happened in the case of Sri Sadguru Omkar who is today a revered octogenarian Saint who has his Ashram opposite the Nandi Hills in Kolar district, wrote Sri Dharma Vira, Governor of Karnataka in 1970. Nilkantha Brahmachari ó Sadguru Omkarís former name ó was born on 4th December 1889 in Tanjore in an orthodox brahmin family. From a very young age in his high school, he was involved in national revolutionary activities. Their group in South India was closely connected with the Jugantar group of Bengal. Because of his activities, he had to take asylum in the French territory of Pondicherry. He was one of the group along with the poet Subrahmanya Bharati, who received Aurobindo Ghosh at Pondicherry on 4th April 1910. He was closely connected with the Mopla agrarian revolution in Kerala. His group published the Communist Manifesto in South even before the Communist Revolution in Russia. He was the first accused in the Ash murder case and was arrested in Kolkata by Teggart. He was in prison for more than eleven years. In jail, the transformation from a revolutionary to a spiritual Sadhaka took place as vividly described in his notes which he later collected as ëConfessions on the way towards Peaceí now being published. After coming out of the jail, he took the ìConfessionsî to Sri Aurobindo, who wrote a small foreword, the next day.

After going through a spiritual itinerary, Sadguru Omkar settled down at the lower Nandi Hills in 1930 and built up a small ashram around a dilapidated Shiva Temple ó which he called Omkareswara ó by a rivulet, the source of the river Pennar or Penganga. Slowly his name spread and visitors from all over India and abroad began to pour in.

His talks with the visitors, friends and disciples were published in two small volumes ëUpdeshí and ëSelected Talksí. These are also included in the present volume to give a proper perspective of the thoughts of Swamiji.

About his ashram at Nandi Hills Swamiji said, ëMy Ashram is a beautiful place with all the inconveniences necessary for spiritual life, but disappointing to a lover of ease and comfort.'

Sadguru Omkar passed away on 4th May 1978 in his Ashram at the Nandi Hills at the ripe old age of 89.'