Maurice Frydman

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Maurice Frydman, aka Swami Bharatananda (born 1900, Poland - died 1976, India), was a Polish atheist by birth, an engineer, and a humanitarian who spent the later part of his life in India.

He also founded the Polish-Indian Library.

He came to India in the late 1930s as refugee from Warsaw. While in India, he lived in Mahatma Gandhi’s ashram, where he made the spinning wheel that Gandhi himself used until the end of his life ^[1]. He was also close to Nehru, and was also associated with Sri Ramana Maharshi^[2], and J. Krishnamurti for some time ^[3].

He played a role in the development of modern democracy in India. In the 1930s he became acquainted with one of the sons of the Raja of Aundh, and was well-regarded by the Raja himself. "Now Frydman had great influence with my father," the son later recalled, "and on his seventy-fifth birthday he said, 'Raja Saheb, why don't you go and make a declaration to Mahatma Gandhi that you are giving all power to the people because it will help in the freedom struggle.'"

As a sympathiser with the Indian independence movement, the Raja accepted this idea. Frydman wrote a draft declaration, and the Raja and his son, Apa Pant, travelled to see Gandhi in Wardha, where the Mahatma drew up a new consitution for the state. The constitution, which gave full responsible government to the people of Aundh, was adopted on 21 January 1939. This "Aundh Experiment" was a rare event in pre-independence India, where the rulers of princely states were generally reluctant to give up their power. After some initial hesitation among the populace of the state it proved to be very successful, lasting until the merger of the princely states into India in 1948.^[4]

Frydman edited and translated Nisargadatta Maharaj's tape-recorded conversations into the English-language book I Am That, published in 1973.

A disciple and a friend to Advaita guru, Nisargadatta Maharaj, who considered him a Jnani, Maurice Frydman died in 1976 in India, with Sri Nisargadatta by his bedside ^[5].

[edit] Further Reading

• I Am That, Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, Transcribed and edited by Maurice Frydman. Chetana Publishing, Bombay[35], 1973. ISBN 0-89386-022-0.

[edit] References