Life History of Jagadguru Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj
The Supreme Spiritual Master of the world, the Descension of Divine Love, the undisputed authority of Vedic religion and the reconciler of all spiritual doctrines, Jagadguru Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj truly was the personified form of divine love who came to this earth in 1922 and left for the divine abode in 2013. His natural scholarliness inspires trust in even the greatest intellectuals, while his tremendous love, causeless grace and endless compassion melts the hearts and inspires devotional love in all who came near him. His satsang is divinely exhilarating and unbelievably joyous.
Every association with him was like being in the company of your dearest friend who is urging you every moment, both from within and without, to go closer and closer to God...
Childhood
Jagadguru Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj (lovingly addressed as Shri Maharaj Ji by all) appeared on this earth in October 1922 on the auspicious full moon night of Shart Purnima in Mangarh, a tiny village in Northern India. His mother Bhagvati Devi and father Lalita Prasad Tripathi named their child Ram Kripalu. From childhood he showed signs of divinity and was a most precocious student. According to the custom of the times, his parents got him married to Padma Devi, the daughter of a learned scholar hailing from the nearby village of Leelapur in 1933. Despite being married, Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj often left home for long intervals.
Early Education
Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj at the age of 16 years
In 1937 Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj went to Indore (Mahu) where he sat the intermediate examinations for Ayurveda at Ashtang Ayurvedic College. In 1942, Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj returned to Indore and completed a poetry examination and received the degree Kavyatirtha. In 1943, Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj received the degree of Ayurveda Acharya from Delhi Vidyapeeth and Sahitya Acharya (Master of Literature) from Calcutta Vidyapeeth in 1944. Both these degrees were awarded to him in Indore. Due to his exceptional ability, Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj completed the equivalent of many years of study in Indore in just two and a half years. The most remarkable aspect of his recitation is that he never studied scripture. In addition, all this study was taking place while he was giving a constant stream of four day, fifteen day, one month and even four month akhanda (non-stop) sankirtan programs.
In the Jungles of Sharbhang
In 1938, at the age of sixteen, Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj retreated into the dense
forests near Sharbhang Ashram in Chitrakoot and then to the forests near Vanshivat,
Vrindavan. During this period, he remained deeply engrossed in the intense divine
love of Shri Radha Krishna. Whosoever saw him in this state of trance was astonished
and felt that he was an embodiment of love and bliss. Nobody would have thought
that within him lay an unfathomable and immeasurably vast ocean of knowledge and
wisdom.
Completely immersed in the ecstatic bliss of divine love, he would forget to pay attention to his own physical state and to the world around him, remaining unconscious for hours on end. Sometimes he would burst into unrestrained laughter or sometimes break into a roaring cry. Being unmindful, he would often go without food and water for days. Tears flowed freely from his eyes. While he wandered the forests in this state of trance, sometimes his clothing would become caught in thorny bushes and sometimes he would trip over a rock and fall.
After approximately two years of moving about in this state, Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj was eventually discovered by some, and for the benefit of mankind, he agreed to go with them. Thus began his need to conceal and control the bliss of divine love he was experiencing in order to propagate the bhakti of Shri Krishna to the people of the world.
