Maurice Frydman (''Maurycy Frydman'' or ''Maurycy Frydman-Mor'' in Polish), aka ''Swami Bharatananda'' (20 October 1901 in

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

– 9 March 1976 in

Bombay Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial centre, financial capital and the list of cities i ...

, India), was an engineer and humanitarian who spent the later part of his life in India. He lived at the ashram of

Mahatma Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (2October 186930January 1948) was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalism, anti-colonial nationalist, and political ethics, political ethicist who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the successful Indian ...

and took an active part in India's fight for independence—notably in helping to draft a new constitution for the State of Aundh that became the Aundh Experiment. He was a

Polish Jew The history of the Jews in Poland dates back at least 1,000 years. For centuries, Poland was home to the largest and most significant Jews, Jewish community in the world. Poland was a principal center of Jewish culture, because of the long pe ...

who subsequently converted to

Hinduism Hinduism () is an Hypernymy and hyponymy, umbrella term for a range of Indian religions, Indian List of religions and spiritual traditions#Indian religions, religious and spiritual traditions (Sampradaya, ''sampradaya''s) that are unified ...

Biography

Frydman came to India in the late 1930s as a Jewish refugee from

. A successful capitalist, he was managing director of the

Mysore Mysore ( ), officially Mysuru (), is a city in the southern Indian state of Karnataka. It is the headquarters of Mysore district and Mysore division. As the traditional seat of the Wadiyar dynasty, the city functioned as the capital of the ...

State Government Electrical Factory in

Bangalore Bengaluru, also known as Bangalore (List of renamed places in India#Karnataka, its official name until 1 November 2014), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the southern States and union territories of India, Indian state of Kar ...

. Eventually he was won over by Hindu philosophy and became a

sannyasi ''Sannyasa'' (), sometimes spelled ''sanyasa'', is the fourth stage within the Hindu system of four life stages known as '' ashramas'', the first three being ''brahmacharya'' (celibate student), '' grihastha'' (householder) and '' vanaprastha ...

. Frydman was instrumental, along with Gandhi and Bhawanrao Shriniwasrao Pant Pratinidhi, the Raja of Aundh, in helping to draft the November Declaration, which handed over rule of the state of Aundh from the Raja to the residents in 1938-9. He became acquainted with one of the sons of the Raja of Aundh, and was well regarded by the Raja himself. According to the Raja's son, Apa Pant, "Frydman had great influence with my father, 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 constitution 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. It was during this process of giving self governance to the citizens of Aundh, that a question came up about the prisoners. Frydman then took on the responsibility of taking care of the prisoners in an

open prison An open prison or open jail is any jail in which the prisoners are trusted to complete sentences with minimal supervision and perimeter security and are often not locked up in their prison cells. Prisoners may be permitted to take up employmen ...

. Later this attracted the attention of the burgeoning film industry in Bombay, known these days as Bollywood. A film ''

Do Aankhen Barah Haath ''Do Aankhen Barah Haath'' () is a 1957 Indian Hindi-language drama film directed by V. Shantaram, who also starred. It is considered to be one of the classics of Hindi cinema and is based on humanistic psychology. It won a Silver Bear at the 8 ...

'' was made, based on this episode. As was typical of Frydman, when it came time for his credits, he absolutely refused to take credit (the maker, V. Shantaram, wanted to give him credit as the technical consultant, during the end credits). While in India, Frydman became a disciple of Mahatma Gandhi and lived in his ashram, where he made the

spinning wheel A spinning wheel is a device for spinning thread or yarn from fibres. It was fundamental to the textile industry prior to the Industrial Revolution. It laid the foundations for later machinery such as the spinning jenny and spinning frame, ...

that Gandhi himself used. Frydman used his engineering skill to create several new types of spinning wheels for Gandhi, which piqued his interest in finding the most efficient and economical spinning wheel for India. He was close to

Nehru Jawaharlal Nehru (14 November 1889 – 27 May 1964) was an Indian anti-colonial nationalist, secular humanist, social democrat, and statesman who was a central figure in India during the middle of the 20th century. Nehru was a prin ...

, and was associated with Sri

Ramana Maharshi Ramana Maharshi (; ; 30 December 1879 – 14 April 1950) was an Indian Hindu Sage (philosophy), sage and ''jivanmukta'' (liberated being). He was born Venkataraman Iyer, but is mostly known by the name Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi. He was b ...

and

Jiddu Krishnamurti Jiddu Krishnamurti ( ; 11 May 1895 – 17 February 1986) was an Indian Philosophy, philosopher, speaker, writer, and Spirituality, spiritual figure. Adopted by members of the Theosophy, Theosophical tradition as a child, he was raised to fill ...

. A longtime friend to Advaita guru Nisargadatta Maharaj, who considered him a Jnani, Maurice Frydman died in 1977 in India, with Sri Nisargadatta by his bedside.Sri Nisargadatta Biography
/ref> Frydman edited and translated Nisargadatta Maharaj's tape-recorded conversations into the English-language book ''

I Am That ''I Am That'' is a compilation of talks on Shiva Advaita (Nonduality (spirituality), Nondualism) philosophy by Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, a Hindu spiritual teacher who lived in Mumbai. The English translation of the book from the original Marathi- ...

'', published in 1973. ''I Am That'' includes an appendix written by Frydman titled ' Nisarga Yoga' which briefly describes this form of

yoga Yoga (UK: , US: ; 'yoga' ; ) is a group of physical, mental, and spiritual practices or disciplines that originated with its own philosophy in ancient India, aimed at controlling body and mind to attain various salvation goals, as pra ...

. Frydman helped Wanda Dynowska, a Polish theosophist who came to India in the 1930s, to establish a Polish-Indian Library (Biblioteka Polsko-Indyjska). The library holds a collection of books aimed "to show India to Poland and Poland to India", containing translations from Indian languages to Polish and from Polish to English. During the 2nd World War he helped with the transfer of Polish orphans from Siberia, displaced there by the Soviets after their annexation of Eastern Poland to

Siberia Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...

in 1939-1941. They were moved from Siberia via Iran (with the Polish army of Gen.

Władysław Anders Władysław Albert Anders (11 August 1892 – 12 May 1970) was a Polish military officer and politician, and prominent member of the Polish government-in-exile in London. Born in Krośniewice-Błonie, then part of the Russian Empire, he serv ...

) mainly to India, Kenya and New Zealand. After 1959 he helped Wanda Dynowska with Tibetan refugees in India.

References

Bibliography

*Allen, Charles; Dwivedi, Sharada. ''Lives of the Indian Princes''. London: Century Publishing (1984). . *Alter, Joseph S. ''Gandhi's Body''. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2000. . * Kenneth Ballhatchet, and David D. Taylor. ''Changing South Asia''. Published for the Centre of South Asian Studies in the School of Oriental & African Studies, University of London, by Asian Research Service, 1984. *Frydman, Maurice. ''Gandhiji, His Life and Work''. Bombay: Karnatak Publishing House, 1944. *Frydman, Maurice. ''I Am That, Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj''. Chetana Publishing, Bombay, 1973. . *Frydman, Maurice. ''The World Federation and the Indian National Congress''. Aundh Publishing Trust, 1944. *Gandhi, Mahatma. ''The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi'' "A Discussion with Maurice Frydman", p. 32

*Pant, Apa. ''An Unusual Raja: Mahatma Gandhi and the Aundh Experiment''. Sangam Books, 1989. . *Rothermund, Indira. ''The Aundh Experiment: A Gandhian Grass-roots Democracy''. Somaiya, 1983. .

External links

David Godman, ''remembering Sri nisargadatta Maharaj pt.1''

InnerDirections, ''Biography of Maurice Frydman''

Namrupa Issue 10 Volume 05, November 2009, ''Maurice Frydman''

{{DEFAULTSORT:Frydman, Maurice Indian independence activists 1901 births 1976 deaths 20th-century Polish Jews Converts to Hinduism from Judaism Polish Hindus Advaitin philosophers Hindu mystics Polish emigrants to India Nonduality teachers

Biography

See also

References

Bibliography

External links