Sar Shabdanand Ji

Shri Swami Sar Shabdanand Ji Maharaj is counted as the fourth guru of the Sar Shabd Mission line of the Paramhans Advait Mat. He established the Sar Shabd Mission on 21 January 1972, on Basant Panchami, and it is from him that the Mission takes both its name and its institutional form. He attained mahasamadhi on Monday 9 June 1980.

He was born Bhakt Desraj Ji. The name Sar Shabdanand was given to him by Shri Swami Swaroopanand Ji Maharaj at Bhakhrewali Ashram, with the explanation, as the Mission records it, that "since you compose and sing the devotional songs very well, you are given the name of Sar Shabdanand because it gives the message of seeking perfect bliss in the Holy Word, which is the essence, in true sense." The spelling Sar Shabda Nand also appears in the Mission's own pages.

A twentieth-century historical figure with no classical iconography. Veneration is through photographic portraits, through his bhajans, and through Shri Sar Samadhi Mandir at Shri Nangli Sahib.

He was born in the village of Bhakhrewali, Chak No. 136, in the canal colonies of what is now Pakistani Punjab, near Gojra and Sangla Hill. His father was Shri Kanshi Ram; an elder brother, Shri Sohan Lal Ji, and a sister, Dhandevi, are named. He was schooled at Bhakhrewali from the age of five and then at Gunna Gojra, and began but did not finish accountancy training at Sangla Hind Mandi. The Mission's account describes him as drawn to composing and singing devotional songs rather than to secular study, and records family opposition to that life. His entry into the lineage came in two stages. In 1925, during a missionary visit by Shri Swami Nijatamanand Ji Maharaj to Malpur Gojra, he had his first darshan and received the sacred word. He was later formally initiated and named by Shri Swami Swaroopanand Ji Maharaj at Bhakhrewali Ashram, before a gathering the Mission numbers at roughly three hundred ascetics and two thousand devotees. The best-documented episode of his last year is the handwritten will of 1980. Before his death he declared his successor in his own hand, naming Shri Swami Gurusharnanand Ji Maharaj, and the will was handed to his disciple Sant Vichar Shabdanand Ji. In June 1980 devotees marked the succession by applying a saffron tilak to Gurusharnanand Ji's forehead. No text or facsimile of the will has been published.

He received the sacred word from Shri Swami Nijatamanand Ji Maharaj (third guru) and was initiated and named by Shri Swami Swaroopanand Ji Maharaj (second guru). He had earlier, in 1972, bestowed the sadhu's dress and the name on Shri Swami Gurusharnanand Ji Maharaj, whom he named as his successor in 1980. The Sar Shabd Mission succession:

1. Shri Swami Advaitanand Ji Maharaj, Paramhans Dayal Ji 2. Shri Swami Swaroopanand Ji Maharaj 3. Shri Swami Nijatamanand Ji Maharaj 4. Shri Swami Sar Shabdanand Ji Maharaj, who established the Sar Shabd Mission in 1972
2. Shri Swami Gurusharnanand Ji Maharaj, named successor by handwritten will in 1980
3. Shri Swami Dharmanand Ji Maharaj 7. Shri Swami Sar Bodhanand Ji Maharaj, the present sitting sant

He is the figure who turned a guru line into an institution. The Sar Shabd Mission, founded 21 January 1972, gave the Nangli Sahib line a named body, a set of ashrams and a structure that has carried it since. The Mission characterises his work under the heads of self-realisation, character building, unconditional love towards the Satguru, and selfless service to society. He is credited with the book Shri Swarup Darshan, the one claim here corroborated outside the Mission's own site: Wikipedia's article on Swami Swarupanand cites it as published by Sar Shabd Mission, New Delhi, in 1998. That is an edition date, not a date of composition, since he died in 1980. He is also remembered throughout as a composer and singer of bhajans, which is the stated reason for his name. Places associated with him span the Partition divide. In pre-Partition Punjab: Bhakhrewali and its ashram, Malpur Gojra, Gunna Gojra, Sangla Hind Mandi, Salaarwala. In India: Shri Sar Samadhi Mandir and Shri Akhand Dham Dharamshala at Shri Nangli Sahib, Meerut; Shri Adwait Swarup Ashram at Rajouri Garden and Anand Parbat in New Delhi; Basti Nau, Nijatam Nagar, Jalandhar; Gobind Nagar, Kanpur; Tibbad, Gurdaspur; and the Sar Shabd Mission Seva Kendra at Bagiyal More, Kathua, Jammu and Kashmir. Kaithal and Tikamgarh also appear on the Mission's list of centres. Two observances mark him, both on lunar dates rather than fixed Gregorian ones: Shri Sar Jayanti, his birth anniversary, on Papankusha (Ashwin Shudhi) Ekadashi, and his Nirvan Diwas, Shri Sar Samriti Diwas, on Jeysth Badi Ekadashi. Both are observed at Shri Sar Samadhi Mandir, Shri Nangli Sahib.

A difference of framing between two institutions at the same sacred site is worth noting plainly. The Sar Shabd Mission presents him as the fourth guru of a succession. The separate Shri Nangli Sahib Darbar Trust, which occupies the same site, lists both him and Shri Swami Nijatamanand Ji Maharaj among more than 177 "saints-disciples" of Nangli Sahib, rather than as gurus in a line. That is a difference in how two bodies describe the same figures, not a documented dispute, and this platform records it as such.