Swami Sahajanand Saraswati was the frontmost leaders of the peasantry in Bihar. He was an ascetical Dandi sanyasi of Gazipur of India state Uttar Pradesh. He was well reagarded as a peasant leader of eastern India. His social and political activities concentrated mostly on Bihar though he was born in Uttar Pradesh (U.P.). He carried out most of his work from his ashram at Bihta,near patna in the later part of his life. Government of India had issued in honor of the memory of Swami Sahajanand Saraswati a postal stamp, and the stamp was officially released on 26th June 2000 by Ram Vilas Paswan, the-then Minister of Communications, Government of India.

In a Jujhoutia Bhumihar Brahmin family, Swami Sahajananad Saraswati was born in 1889. This last of six sons was named Naurang Rai. When he was a child, his mother died and was raised by an aunt. His father, Beni Rai, was principally a cultivator, even though a Brahmin. But he was very much divorced from Brahminical priestly functions even he did not know the gayatri mantras. The Rai family held a small zamindari,from which the income had satisfied during Sahajanand`s grandfathers` time. Naurang did very well both in the primary grades and in the German Mission high school where he studied English. Even from a very early age, sings of magnificence and incredulity of established populist religious practices could be seen.

Swami Sahajanand Saraswati started questioning the institution of people, who were taking `guru- mantra` from false religious individuals. He wanted to find real spiritual solacement by studying religious texts deeply and by abdicating the world. His family had him married to a child bride in order to prevent him from doing this. In 1905 or early 1906, earlier the marriage could establish, his wife died.

In his way to sanyas(renunciation of the world) it was the last restrain, which have been removed. Naurang Rai was inducted into holy orders and conversantly took the name of Swami Sahajanand Saraswati, in 1907. he could not appear for the matriculation examination because of this espousal to sanyas. But this dedicated man spent the rest of his life, in studying religion, politics and social affairs. All these helped him to be radical.

Swami Sahajanand Saraswati came into limelight with His first participation from the primary casteist Bhumihar platform. Slowly, Sahajanand got involved in nationalist Congress politics and later in peasant movements. Even in order to get involved deeply into the peasant movement, Sahajanand went through political schooling under Gandhi, in the Indian National Congress. Sahajanand commenced off as a devoted Gandhian in Congress. He was an admirer of Gandhi`s fusion of tradition, religion and politics. By 1920, as directed by Gandhi, he threw himself into the nationalist movement.

In 1934, Swami Sahajanand Saraswati encountered many cases where, in spite of the great earthquake destruction in Bihar, it was revealed to him that the people were suffering to be less on account of the earthquake than as the result of the cruelty of the landlords in rent collection. Overtaken with grief , Sahajanand found no way of confronting this situation, he went to meet Gandhi, at the camp in Patna, to ask for advice.

But the relation with Gandhi had broken off. After this, Sahajanand though continued to be a member of the Congress but kept himself out of party politics. He fully turned to give his broadest energies into mobilising the peasants. He egressed as the foremost `kisan leader` by the end of the decade, in India. At different times while organising the peasants, with his political impulsiveness he became close to different individuals, parties and groups.

In order to form the All-India Kisan Sabha, he joined his hands with the Congress Socialists. After that along with Subhas Chandra Bose, he initiated in organising the Anti-Compromise Conference against the British and the Congress. During the second world war, he has worked with the CPI. At long last, he broke from them, to form an `independent` Kisan Sabha. Throughout all these political and social involvement, Sahajanand remained essentially a non-party man, whose loyalty was only to the peasants. `By standards of speech and action, he was unsurpassed` and became the most articulate spokesman and forthright leader for those peasants.

Swami Sahajanand Saraswati was ascertained to improve the peasants condition. With that objective in mind, he pursued the issue with coerce and energy. For this effort he was almost universally loved by the peasants. And he was almost evenly both respected and feared by the landlords. This militant fomenter attempted to organise the peasants massively to achieve change by divulging the condition of agrarian society to them. For this he endlessly organized countless meetings and rallies and in his own irreproducible forthright manner addressed the mass.

This Dandi Sanyasi was a powerful speaker speaking the language of the peasants. In the course of action, this staff became the symbol of peasant resistance. They blazon out of "Danda Mera Zindabad" (Long live my staff), was thus taken to mean "Long live the danda (lathi) of the Kisans" and it was made the arcanum of the Bihar peasant movement. And the obvious response by the masses of peasants was "Swamiji ki Jai" (Victory to Swamiji), "Kaise Logey Malguzari, Latth Hamara Zindabad" (How will you collect rent as long as our sticks are powerful?) became the battle cry of the peasants.

In this manner a common communication was achieved. And this took place immensely by the fact that Sahajanand was a Swami and this earned him a awful charisma. When landlords raised the question as to how a sanyasi (mendicant) was taking part in semantic role problems of the poor, Sahajanand quoted the scriptures at them:

"Prayen deva munayah swavimukti kama Maunam charanti vijane na pararthnsihthah Naitan vihaya kripnan vimumuksha eko Nanyattwadasya sharanam bhramato nupashye"

This means `Mendicants are selfish, living away from society, they try for their own salvation without caring for others. I cannot do that, I do not want my own salvation apart from that of the many destitutes. I will stay with them, live with them and die with them`.

Swami Sahajanand Saraswati, the charismatic sanyasi rebel can be said to laid down the foundations of kisan organisation in Bihar. And bit by bit, built it up into a monumental movement. The movement spread it`s root to other parts of India and altered it to such an extent from which a move was initiated to bring about reform in the zamindari system, eventually ended up by destroying the system itself. Sahajanand died on 26 June 1950, while still the battle for this was being fought in the legislature and the courts.

At Neyamatpur, Gaya(Bihar), Swamiji has established an ashram which later became the centre of freedom struggle in Bihar. In 1927, according to an account Yadav peasants appealed Sahajanand to assist them in their struggles against the Bhumihar Brahmin zamindars of Masaurhi. The beginning of the most powerful peasant movement in India, the Bihar provincial Kisan Sabha, geared up with this.

This fascinating personality, Swami Sahajanand Saraswati had immense social significance for which he was able to found a massive organisation.