Durga Charan Mohanty

Durga Charan Mohanty Biography

Durga Charan Mohanty was a spiritual writer from Odisha. For his contributions towards the development of Odia language and literature, he has been awarded with Odia Sahitya Akademi Award in 1958. He was a disciple of Swami Nigamananda (Nigamananda Paramahansa), who translated many of his Bengali books to Odia language. He also authored many books in Odia language. He also served as the secretary of Nilachala Saraswata Sangha, a religious organization that was founded by Swami Nigamananda Paramahans exclusively for his household devotees in Odisha.

Durga Charan Mohanty was born in the year 1912 in Biratunga, Odisha. He was born into a high class Zamindar family. He got attracted to the spirituality of Swami Nigamananda after reading his books, Yogiguru and Premikaguru from a public library. He started worshiping the portrait of Swami Nigamananda and also regarded him as his spiritual master. In search of his master, he finally met him at Nilachala Kutir Puri in 1930. He was only 17 years old then, who was doing his school studies. He believed Swami Nigamananda to be an avatar of god and idolized him.

He started frequently visiting his guru, and also made notes on what he told and preached. Nilachala Vani and Nigama Upadesh are among those books, which dealt with guru’s teachings. He was initiated as disciple of Swami Nigamananda on 5 June 1934 at the age of 21. Later he dedicated his whole life to spirituality and served god and his guru as well. He played a magnificent role in establishing over a 100 ashrams of Nigamananda across Odisha. He passed away on 7 December 1985 at Biratunga.

Published: July 18, 2018

Updated: July 18, 2018