NOTE: I wasn't exactly sure where to place this, until I decided to use the "I am a Hindu" section. Only in that it is information on an early example of Hinduism brought to the United States (in this case a form of Gaudiya Vaishnavism predating Prabhupada by 50 years) as Krishna Bhakti movement which attracted a few thousands members in the USA. I doubt any of them are still living. But in my research, I did locate a "Sree Krishna Samaj" group in Tulsa Oklahoma which may have roots to this Guru, but I am not positive. There were offshoots even into the 1980's for sure.
Namaste
I found it (information).
A while back, in a posting, I noted that I recalled a book in my possession from the early 1900’s that was entitled “Shree Krishna”, and was an example of early introduction of Hinduism into the United States from a Guru who came from India that predated Prabhupada and other such religious examples of Indian Gurus of the 1940’s, 50’s and (in the example of Prabhupad) 1960’s.
I literally have volumes and volumes of books on Hinduism from decades past, which I keep secure from fire etc. in a secure storage. Some books, for example Ramayanas, I keep in my house, but others I keep in this storage. As I mentioned in this posting, I recalled a book with a blue cover hardbound from pre-World War I. I haven’t had a chance to locate this book in my collection, but now it doesn’t matter since tonight I discovered the very book while simply doing a search on “Hinduism” (incredible, that is all I entered in the search).
The book indeed was a blue covered hardbound, printed in 1904. The entire title of the book was “Sree Krishna The Lord of Love”. It was authored by Baba Premanand Bharati. You can still find copies of this book to purchase on the internet, sometimes in its original condition, or sometimes copies of the original print (like photo copies).
He advocated that the “conclusion of Vishnu worship is meditation on gopa-rupah or specific form of Krishna”.
I researched this Guru on the internet, here is some of the information I found:
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Surendranath Mukerji (died 1914) better known by his religious name -Baba Premanand Bharati- was among the first Hindu teachers to come to America, arriving around 1902 from Bengal. He was a student of Swami Brahmanand Bharati and a follower of the Krishna Consciousness Movement (ultimately more well known thanks to 'Hare Krishna' movement of the '70's) and founded the "Krishna Samaj" (now defunct).
Bharati, the nephew of a prominent Bengali judge, formed the Krishna Samaj in N.Y.C. and lectured to popular audiences in other eastern cities. He eventually moved to L.A. where a temple was constructed and he had his greatest following. In 1909 he returned to India where, with a few of his American disciples, he opened a mission in Calcutta. The mission failed for lack of financial support and he & his followers returned to America. He died in Calcutta in 1914. The temple dissolved in America soon after Bharati's death.
In the years immediately after his death, Bharati was attacked by people opposed to the growth of Hinduism in America, such as Elizabeth A. Reed, whose study of Bharati and the other early gurus was a significant factor in building public support for the Asian Exclusion Act passed in 1917. The strength and devotion of Bharati's disciples, however, kept his memory alive over the years.
In the 30's, members of the Order of Loving Service (a California mystical group) dedicated the book "Square" as follows: " To Baba Premanand Bharati, who by his love, patience, and continued watchfulness has led me out of darkness into Light, out of out of weariness into Rest, out of confusion into Understanding, out of continuous striving into Perfect Peace."
In the 70's, members of AUM Temple of Universal Truth (founded in the 20's) were reprinting Bharati's writings in their periodical and selling pictures of "Our Beloved Baba Bharati".
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Further research, I found the following:
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Bharati, Baba Premanand
(d. 1914)
Pioneer Hindu leader in the United States
Baba Premanand Bharati was among the small group of Hindu leaders who entered the United States in the decades after the World’s Parliament of Religions in 1893. He founded the Krishna Samaj in New York City soon after the start of the new century.
Born Surendranath Mukerji in India, Bharatiled a life prior to his arrival in the United Statesin 1902 that is little known. He was a devotee of Krishna and followed a form of Vaishnavite BHAKTI YOGA similar to that popularized in the1970s by the INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY FOR KRISHNA CONSCIOUSNESS. He advocated the repetition of the Hare Krishna mantra as a means of gaining release from the wheel of reincarnation and gaining enlightenment. Bharati first worked in New York City, where he organized the Krishna Samaj. He lectured along the East Coast for several years and then moved to Los Angeles, where he built a temple and developed a youthful and loyal following. After only a few years, in 1909, he returned to India, where he died in 1914, still a relatively young man. In the years after his death, Bharati was condemned by American nativists such as Elizabeth Reed, who were mobilizing public support for the Asian Exclusion Act, which passed in 1917. At about that time the Krishna Samaj was shut down. However, Bharati’s followers later formed several other organizations with similar missions, including the Order of Loving Service, active only in the1930s, and the AUM Temple of Universal Truth ,which continued to operate into the 1980s, reprinting Bharati’s writings in their periodicals and circulating his picture a half-century after his death.
Further reading:
Baba Premanand Bharati,
AmericanLectures (Calcutta: Indo-American Press, n.d.); ———,
Shree Krishna (New York: Krishna Samaj, n.d.); Eliza-beth A. Reed,
Hinduism in Europe and America (NewYork: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1914).
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I also discovered he had a magazine. His periodical was The Light of India, which ran between 1906 and 1912.
Then I found the following information:
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Born in 1868, his first name was Surendranath Mukerji, and his name changed to Baba Bharati when he was initiated later on, (after a spell of association with certain Bengali intellectuals) into the lineage of Lokanatha Brahmacari, a Bengali Yogi, by Lokanatha’s disciple Brahmananda Bharati. His initiation wasn’t within a Gaudiya Vaishnava lineage but a Sankarite lineage outside of the Vaishnava lines, but to receive some sanyasi status had in the past been a common practise for Vaishnavas to receive ritualistic intiation into Sannyasa by the Sankarite order anyway. It was common for such to be still sanyasi and yet differ doctrinally with Sankaracarya, esepcially if they became more inclined to devotional bhakti traditions, some of which even contained a number of Sankarites. Chaitanya had done the same.
Baba Bharati gradually became influenced by the Gaudiya tradition of Jagadbandhu Sundar Hari. Jagadbandhu was seen in his branch of the Krishna Chaitanya tree as a dual embodiment of Chaitanya and one of his closest associates Nityananda, and embodying their energy and becoming famous as their incarnation of their fused aspect, he started his own branch of the Gaudiya tradition, a branch which is flourishing, with its temples and traditions, texts and saints. Inspired by this tradition after a certain spiritual awakening in seeing a drama centred on Chaitanya performed with much devotion someplace in Bengal, he desired to spread such love of God in the west establishing his Krishna Samaj after his arrival in New York in 1902. Lecturing in various American cities on the traditions of Chaitanya and its practical applications in the west, he came to establish himself for a while in Los Angeles, California, where he had constructed a Krishna temple to accommodate the devotion of his many followers there. Returning to India in 1907 with some of his disciples from the west, he opened a mission in Calcutta, which failed for financial support and folded in around 1910 prompting him and some of his followers to head back towards America. He returned back to India in 1911, after stopping over in England on the way, and passed away, quitting the mortal coil in Calcutta in 1914. Soon afterwards, his mission in America crumbled in his wake, due to religious and national predujices, of that nature which went behind the Asain Exclusion Act of 1917, as well as the difficulties of various followers. Save for places here and there, its infrastructure crumbled, but his real mission trickled alive, hidden, unknown for many years except in the hearts of individuals who had once had contact with him and those who contacted his light through his writings and the inner golden spirit of Gauranga that they revealed. Of course the great souls of Gauranga’s golden glow pass on and remain in the minds and hearts of those they had contact with either through lecture, discipleship or plain inspiration with contact with teachings read and perused. Thus in the 1930s we hear of a group, a mystical group named the Order of Loving Service, from California, who dedicated one of their mystical revelations in the form of a book named The Square to Baba Premananda, who they saw as their guru and prime teacher. A group named the Aum Temple of Universal Truth, founded in the 1920s promoted his teachings in the 1970s publishing them in their periodical, along with his picture, to which they had devotion towards.
Besides his writings in his periodical there was the books. Sri Krishna-The Lord of Love which is an exposition on Gaudiya Vaishnava theology and published in 1904 was the main. His other book, a testament to the utilisation of the co-creative story weave in the service of Krishna in modern times, is a novel addressing the Indian negativity within Kipling’s Kim, named Jim, published in 1910-11, which was also a serial in his periodical too. A frequent contributor to Baba’s periodical was Rose Reinhardt Anthon who was also a semi famous figure in the esoetric literary fields of the day and a much devoted disciple of the movement. Another interesting person associated with this group was Elsa Barker, a female American novelist, short story writer and poet, whose spiritual and seance like contact with a dead person called Letters from A Living Dead Man were pretty much famous in their time. In regards to Rose Anthon, Somewhere there is an account of her life, which was unfortunately not available at the time of writing. But she edited and published a book on Indian stories and tales of wisdom, Stories of India: moral, mystical, spiritual and romantic (1906). storiesindiamor00housgoog Other contributors to the periodical were a Vishvarupa Chaturvedi, Julian Hawthorne (of that clan of the Nathanael Hawthorn story realm) and Adelia Bee Adams. This periodical is hard to obtain too. There are many mysteries, but one thing is clear is that people were involved in the dissemination of Baba’s Krishna Chaitanya wisdom, a wisdom which is even attended to today. This Baba has left a trail for those who wish to study his teachings and acts more thoroughly, which is fortunately happening due to even later sparks of inspiration. The Baba was also attended by a Krishnananda Dasa, a sadhu initiated by a Barha Babaji, of whose life also not much is known. Baba Premananda was a source of inspiration for Tolstoy with whom he had read his book Krishna the Lord of Love.
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I hope you found this information interesting.
Om Namah Sivaya
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