Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar

Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar was born on May 21, 1921, in Jamalpur, Bihar, into a Bengali family originating from Bamunpara in Burdwan, Bengal. Displaying extraordinary spiritual illumination and encyclopedic intellectual recall from his youth, Sarkar studied at Vidyasagar College in Calcutta before working as an accountant at the railway headquarters in Jamalpur.

In 1955, Sarkar founded 'Ananda Marga' (The Path of Bliss), a socio-spiritual movement dedicated to the dual motto of 'Self-realization and service to humanity' (Atma-moksartham jagaddhitaya ca). In 1959, he propounded PROUT (Progressive Utilization Theory)—a revolutionary socio-economic model that advocates economic democracy, decentralized local self-reliance, ecological stewardship, and maximum utilization of physical, mental, and spiritual resources, rejecting both dogmatic capitalism and authoritarian communism.

From 1982 until his departure in 1990, Sarkar achieved an unprecedented creative feat by composing 5,018 devotional and philosophical songs—known as 'Prabhat Samgiita'—primarily in Bengali, blending classical Indian ragas, Bengali folk melodies, and spiritual mysticism. Authoring over 250 volumes spanning linguistics, philology, history, education, and medicine, Sarkar passed away in Kolkata on October 21, 1990. His socio-spiritual movement operates schools, disaster relief teams (AMURT), and meditation centers in over 130 countries.