Shri Ram Chandraji Maharaj (Babuji) | |
Birth Name: | Ram Chandra |
Birth Date: | 30 April 1899 |
Birth Place: | Shahjahanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India |
Nationality: | Indian |
Spouse: | Bhagwati |
Philosophy: | Sahaj Marg, Raja Yoga |
Founder, Shri Ram Chandra Mission | |
Successor: | Parthasarathi Rajagopalachari |
Institute: | Shri Ram Chandra Mission |
Founder: | Shri Ram Chandra Mission (1945) |
Website: | Babuji |
Shri Ram Chandra of Shahjahanpur (1899-1983), also known as Babuji, was a yogi from Uttar Pradesh in northern India. He spent most of his life developing a method of Raja Yoga meditation called Sahaj Marg. He founded an organization called Shri Ram Chandra Mission in 1945, dedicated and named after his teacher, who was also called Ram Chandra.[1]
Ram Chandra was born on 30 April 1899 in Shahjahanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India.[2] [3] His family was well off. His father Rai Bahadur Shri Badri Prasad held the position of Honorary Special Magistrate 1st Class. He left school after his matriculation, and worked in the local court for thirty-one years as a record keeper.[4] In June 1922, at the age of twenty-three, he met the spiritual teacher Ram Chandra, who lived in Fatehgarh.
He learnt the Raja Yoga meditation practice from Ram Chandra of Fatehgarh. He developed the method with the intention of making it more applicable in the contemporary world. He founded and registered a non-profit organization called Shri Ram Chandra Mission in 1945 to teach this new method, which he called Sahaj Marg (a name which was subsequently changed to "heartfulness meditation"), and he wrote a number of books about it.