Gurusharnanand Ji

Shri Swami Gurusharnanand Ji Maharaj is counted as the fifth guru of the Sar Shabd Mission line of the Paramhans Advait Mat. Born 30 March 1940, he was named successor by the handwritten will of Shri Swami Sar Shabdanand Ji Maharaj in 1980, and led the line from June 1980 until his death on 30 August 2000, in Germany. His tenure is the one most visibly written into the fabric of Shri Nangli Sahib itself.

The name Gurusharnanand was conferred in 1972 by Shri Swami Sar Shabdanand Ji Maharaj, together with the sadhu's dress. His birth name is not given in any source consulted. The spellings Gurusharanand, Guru Sharnanand and Gursharanand all appear. He should not be confused with the unrelated contemporary Swami Gurusharanand Ji Maharaj associated with Vrindavan and Mansa Devi. They are different people in different traditions.

A twentieth-century historical figure with no classical iconography. Veneration is through photographic portraits and through the institutions built during his tenure at Shri Nangli Sahib.

He was born at House No. 4, Village Chak No. 653, Gogera Branch, Tehsil Jandhawala, District Layalpur, now in Pakistan, to Mata Vidyawanti Ji. His father died when he was about two and a half. After Partition he came to India with his mother and relatives at about the age of seven, and was handed to a relative for his upbringing; the family settled at Sadar Bazar, Gun Factory Quarters, Lucknow. The first meeting is the episode the Mission dwells on. In the last week of February 1949, Shri Swami Sar Shabdanand Ji Maharaj visited the family home at Lucknow. The boy, then in class VI, came home from school, stood before the Guru, and, as the Mission's account puts it, "at once realized that he had found his god father in him." In 1957 he surrendered fully to his guru, at the time the fourth guru was writing the second part of Shri Swarup Darshan, and was given the work of translating that Urdu text into Hindi. From 1959 he was also given charge of the Mission's monthly Hindi magazine, Gangotri. The succession came in June 1980. Shri Swami Sar Shabdanand Ji Maharaj attained mahasamadhi on Monday 9 June 1980, having declared his successor by a handwritten will entrusted to his disciple Sant Vichar Shabdanand Ji. Devotees assembled at Shri Nangli Sahib and applied a tilak of saffron to Gurusharnanand Ji's forehead in recognition of his succession to the gaddi.

His guru was Shri Swami Sar Shabdanand Ji Maharaj, the fourth guru, who named him and later named him successor. The seat passed after him to Shri Swami Dharmanand Ji Maharaj, whose own account describes him as sixth successor "by virtue of succession to Shri Swami Gurusharnanand Ji Maharaj" and records extensive touring from August 2000. The Sar Shabd Mission succession:

1. Shri Swami Advaitanand Ji Maharaj, Paramhans Dayal Ji 2. Shri Swami Swaroopanand Ji Maharaj 3. Shri Swami Nijatamanand Ji Maharaj 4. Shri Swami Sar Shabdanand Ji Maharaj, who established the Sar Shabd Mission in 1972
2. Shri Swami Gurusharnanand Ji Maharaj, named successor by handwritten will in 1980
3. Shri Swami Dharmanand Ji Maharaj 7. Shri Swami Sar Bodhanand Ji Maharaj, the present sitting sant

Where the fourth guru gave the line an institution, the fifth gave it buildings and books. Before his accession his service was editorial: the Hindi translation of his guru's Urdu Shri Swarup Darshan, charge of the monthly Gangotri from 1959, and the publishing of his guru's works, to which the Mission says he dedicated his life. From 1980, the Mission dates a programme of construction at Shri Nangli Sahib to his tenure, including the Shri Nijatam Sar Sewa Sadan colony and the 100-bed Swami Swaroopanand Charitable Hospital and Research Centre. His annual remembrance, Shri Gurusharan Samriti Diwas, falls on Bhado Shudi Ekam, a lunar date, and is observed at Shri Nijatam Sar Seva Sadan, Shri Nangli Sahib.

He belongs specifically to the Sar Shabd Mission line seated at Shri Nangli Sahib. The parallel Shri Anandpur branch of the same Advait Mat lineage, which diverges after Shri Swami Swaroopanand Ji Maharaj, recognises an entirely different succession and does not count him.