It is with deep feelings of humility that I have accepted the invitation to write this foreword to the work Anant Ki Or by Shri Ram Chandraji Maharaj of Shahjahanpur. When I went through the work in manuscript I felt that I was indeed ill fitted to introduce the work to the world, but since it was his earnest desire that I should however do so, I have accepted this task.

Shri Ram Chandraji Maharaj is one of the foremost, if not the foremost, of living teachers of mankind who has rather unobtrusively been training and teaching the path of recondite yoga of the most ancient times to worthy seeking souls. His great and worthy Master, Samarth Guru Shri Ram Chandraji of Fatehgarh had taught him the path of direct achievement of the highest or ultimate state, and had indeed granted him that most sublime and ultimate state of perfected yoga. The most important part of this yoga lies in the supreme function of the guru, one who has attained the highest state described as the Ultimate or Anant (Infinite or Endless). It is a pity that though philosophers do speak of the Infinite, they immediately give up the endeavour to realise It by curious escapisms of intellect quoting the Vedantic text, that from which speech returns, mind returns and senses return, “Na vag gachati no mano” or “Na tatra suryo bhati na sasankah” and so on. Indescribable, it is yet capable of being experienced through the grace of the Ultimate for verily the Divine reveals Its body “Tanum swam vivernute” to the chosen one. In the abhyasa of this yoga (raja yoga) Shri Ram Chandraji Maharaj gives an inward account of the progress of the experiences as the soul passes from one state to another. These bhumikas or stages of the Ultimate have indeed been formed for each individual ray or soul through a process of creative descent, and has formed the several knots or granthis or planes, each developing a particular law and form of its own, which has made for the bondage and sorrow. It is inevitable that a soul that has thus formed its descent should attempt to return. The awareness of the steps of the descent having been forgotten, it remains for it to seek one who not only knows the steps but has gone beyond to the Ultimate and can lead one up through Yogic Transmission from stage to stage, for there is always the serious doubt about anyone who hath ascended but little, and has been caught up in some higher knot of being that is but rotating him in that higher circle or wheel however much beyond our human state. The acute and clear vision of Shri Ram Chandra Ji shows that these knots are at once to be understood in their true nature and dissolved (Laya) and a higher form (Sarupyata), recovered and integrated (Sayujyata) and transcended. The originality of these descriptions and the method of transcendence of these knots or circle of being and the experiences of the different kinds of Ananda that had made for the descent, and now makes for the ascent, reveals a new technique unknown to earlier extant Yoga literature. We do have descriptions of the Bhumikas (Sapta-Bhumikas) and Granthis in some of the Upanishads, but we never come across the psychological proof of their nature and being and status of Jnana. Shri Ram Chandra Ji gives us an account of the thirteen Granthis and throws wonderful light on them. They are not to be cut but loosened and transcended. Going further than any, he shows higher levels of being which transcend the Jnana-Bhumikas and arise at the supreme transcendent states which are open to the human being. But at that stage the human soul would have passed beyond anything that we call human and arrive at the Ultimate Being. In and through the proper understanding through meditation (Abhyasa) one can discern the stages at which some of the mightiest saints and sages of history had arrived during their lives, and verily in oneself the blessedness that is waiting to be explored and entered into by one. Here we discern the authentic voice of a Supreme Master, whose love for man transcends anything that one knows of. In a world of inner conflicts it is easy to raise the slogans of world welfare without preparing each for the welfare, for it is ever true that the problem of the Universe is the problem of the individual. Those who speak of Sarvamukti (simultaneous universal emancipation) hardly try to achieve their own emancipation for it is verily the truth that the individual emancipation is the first step towards universal emancipation. That all could achieve emancipation at the same time and should, is a fervent hope that has hardly Divine-possibility, but everyone can achieve it in one life provided he really seeks emancipation, transformation and supramentalisation. It is easy however to avoid the effort by an ideological and sentimental intellectual subterfuge for reasons known or unknown to oneself. There is hardly any doubt that the true seekers of the Ultimate experience, and the solution of the problem of life, will find these pages of utmost help and relevance. They would be guided by the authentic words of the true Guru and seek through him the Ultimate. For it is truly said that a true Guru is difficult to get, and in the words of the Upanishad we can also reply that a true disciple is also equally difficult to find or get. We are fortunate that we have among us a true Guru in every sense of the term, who is earnest to be tried and tested, and may India be enabled to seek his help and may mankind be profited by his presence among men.

We have so many men earnest for the higher life. There are many voices and many doctrines and multitudinous aspirations. It is clear that a spiritual solution alone can be true and none who has not discovered true spirituality can really be able to help in the regeneration if not reorganisation of mankind. It is therefore clear that even in the fields of spirituality voices of lesser calibre are being heard, voices that strike the notes of pseudospirituality, such as humanism, humanitarianism and so on which are expressions of spirituality, but not spirituality itself. We have to arrive at that ‘real’ thing which is unadulterated spirituality, for the present age is a more complicated age than previous ones, requiring a complete transformation of man all over the world in all his attitudes. True unity in the world, all other co-operative enterprises, international and inter-racial can hardly touch the core of the human problem. Therefore it becomes incumbent on men of serious purpose to seek the real and ultimate stuff. It should not be said that we are merely seeking to dissolve men in the primeval and original substance and be lost or merged in it for ever. On the contrary it appears that we can hardly have universal salvation unless we regain that awareness and experience of that Ultimate state for each. This does not mean the extinguishment of the ‘ray of creation’ in the individual on his attainment of the ‘Mukti’, leaving the world poorer, and God without a ray of ‘Lila’. It is therefore with a feeling of urgency of the individual fulfilment and realisation that Shri Ram Chandra Ji has given this book to the world. May he live long to see the fulfilment of the hope of ages.

Tirupati Dr. K.C. Varadachari