Shri Paramhans Hansdevji Avadhoot
Shri Paramhans Hansdevji Avadhoot was born ca. 1836 in a village on a hill with a river flowing close by in Punjab. He was about 123 years of age when he left his body on April 17, 1960. He had gone into seclusion 15 days before in his room at Kailash Pahad Ashram – stopped eating and then stopped even drinking water and last three days he even stopped drinking water.
Due to his childhood days spent on hill and near river his choice of Ashram locations included the Hill or the River. He had many disciples located from the East - Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand to West – Gujarat, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and North – Punjab to South – Karnataka, Tamilnadu.
He had a towering personality, pink in the face like Rose Petals, tall and one could make out he was a realised soul.
Whoever had come in contact with the Holy Saint cannot forget his smiling countenance, radiant with affectionate love, and the greetings and blessings with the famous words coined by him - “Om1 Harihar2.”
Shri Hansdevji Ki Aarti
Shri Hansdevji Ki Aarti
Shri Hansdevji always used the words "Om Harihar" as Greetings when a visitor came,
at the beginning & ending of a Discourse, or before starting or after completing a Meal
and if somebody expired he used to say “Harihar ho gaye” after hearing the news.
¹ OM is the name of God or the Supreme, the primordial sound that addresses Brahman.
Therefore the OM, as a direct invocation of the Supreme, makes all other invocations,
blessings or statements potent and effective.
² HARIHAR is an invocation of Vishnu and Shiva, the two primary aspects of Brahman in
manifestation. Vishnu is the Divine aspect of sustaining the Manifestation, which is Duality;
Shiva is the aspect of dissolving the Manifestation (Duality) in the Non-duality of the
Unmanifest (Avyakta).
HARIHAR, therefore, represents the unity of the play between the Vyakta and the Avyakta,
the non-duality of Vishnu and Shiva.
