WEB DESK
Thousands of people from across Bangladesh and India congregated at Hemayetpur, Pabna in Bangladesh to celebrate the 135th birth anniversary of the spiritual leader Shri Anukulchandra Thakur on Saturday. The three day programme for the celebration of the birth anniversary started on Saturday at his birth place in Hemayetpur, Pabna with the devotees chanting bhajans, discourses on the life of ‘Thakurjee’ and other rituals at the temple built on his birthplace. The ‘Satsang’ Ashram founded by Shri Anukulchandra Thakur, known as Thkaurjee has millions of devotees spread across the globe.
The event to celebrate the birth anniversary of the founder of the ‘Satsang Ashram’ was formally inaugurated by the local Member of Parliament Golam Faruk Khandakar Prince. Speaking on the occasion MP Khandakar Prince said that Shri Anukulchnadra Thakur was a great spiritual leader of the country who continued to guide millions of people across the world in their spiritual life even today. Local Mayor, officials of the Pabna district administration and several other dignitaries took part in the event.
Members of the spiritual movement demanded that the land belonging to Shri Anukulchandra Thakur Ashram be restored to the organisation. It was taken over by the then Pakistan government after 1947. Shri Anukulchandra Thakur had left Pabna for India in 1946 and subsequently after the partition the land belonging to the ‘Satsang Ashram’ was taken over by the government of Pakistan and converted into a mental hospital which exists till today.
Spiritual guru and social reformer Shri Anukulchandra Thakur was born in Hemayetpur, Pabna in 1888. .He started a spiritual movement that emphasised the unity of all religions and faiths. He preached about humanism and the importance of concentrating the spiritual energy of human individuals to attain divinity in word and deed. He set up institutions for the education of girls and scientific research in the area. Some of the great leaders of the freedom movement like Deshabandhu Chittaranjan Das counted him as their guru. Mahatma Gandhi also met him when he visited Pabna.