In Memoriam - Acharya Satya Bhushan Yogi
Dr Harsh Kumar

Acharya Satya Bhushan Yogi (Who taught in College from 1952 to 1978 and was Head of the Sanskrit-Hindi Department since 1953).
Acharya Satya Bhushan Yogi- Yogiji to all of us, died in Delhi on 27th February 2000 after about a year of indisposition. He was 81. About a month earlier he had returned from Ambala with Mrs. Raj Yogi to settle in Delhi upon her retirement in January 2000 from a senior reader's post in a college in Ambala. We were hoping that he would afford us many more years of dialogue with him, but destiny willed otherwise. Mrs.Yogi, three daughters- Vandita, Manasvini and Udaya, all on the teaching faculty of Indraprastha College and four grandchildren, survive Yogiji. 
Yogiji was born on 14 November 1917. His father, Acharya Ramdev was a close associate of Swami Shraddhanand and played a major role in the growth of the Gurukul Kangri University as its Vice-Chancellor. 
Yogiji had his early education in the traditional system of Sanskrit 
learning at the Gurukul from where he graduated with the Vedalankar degree. Later, he also earned the Shastri degree from the Punjab University. For some years he had a chequered career, which included a brief stint at Gurukul Kangri as a Professor in Comparative Religion. In 1950 he joined St. Stephen's College as a postgraduate student and came out in 1952 with a first class first in his master's in Sanskrit. A few months later, his teacher Dr. Lachhmidhar Shastri brought him back to St. Stephen's. Yogiji served on the College faculty from 1952 till his retirement in 1978. Since 1953 he was also the head of the Sanskrit-Hindi Department in the College. In 1955 he completed his master's in Hindi.
 Education in the traditional system had given Yogiji outstanding mastery over Paninian grammar and Vedic and classical Sanskrit literature. At St. Stephen's he imbibed the best of the modern system of Sanskrit studies from masters like Dr. Lachhmidhar. In College Yogiji taught honours, pass, subsidiary and master's classes in Sanskrit and pass and subsidiary classes in Hindi. He also took M.A. Sanskrit classes in Delhi University. Perhaps Yogiji was Delhi  University's first teacher to adopt Sanskrit as a medium of teaching in postgraduate classes. Every topic in every class taken by him had a mark of his scholarship and originality. Students found these fascinating and stimulating. They could not think of bunking his classes. Some  often followed him right up to his residence and the discussion would follow all the way. They also sought his guidance in creative writing and other activities. His house in College had the ambience of an 'ashram' with students engaged in vibrant discussions with the acharya, sometimes in a plantain grove in his kitchen garden and amidst rounds of tea and snacks. Yogiji was fond of cooking and quite often made his students taste his experimental dishes.
 A notable area of his expertise was homoeopathy. Every Thursday evening patients from far and near converged at his residence. Yogiji gave them medicine after a careful assessment of their symptoms and a quick shuffle through the pages of Kent's Repertory. His tiny pills cured many patients but he firmly refused remuneration for this service, for he could not brook the idea of profit from others' suffering. Nor would he ever support teachers' strike. He felt that it would amount to strike against ones' own pupils. 
 Yogiji was a prolific writer. Five of his published books are famous-Veda-Samullasa (with Vandita Yogi) - a commentary on thirteen Vedic hymns; Nighantu tatha Nirukta (with Shashi Kumar) - a Hindi rendering of Lakshman Sarup's English translation of Yaska's Nirukta. This book also includes Yogiji's own translation of chapters X and XIV of the <MI>Nirukta<D>, not translated by Lakshman Syrup. An appendix lists Yogiji's differences with Lakshman Sarup 
on many points of interpretation; Ishopanishad-bhashya - a commentary on the Ishopanishad;
Translation of chapters I and II of the <MI>Manu Smriti;Kamayani ka sashraddha manana- an in-depth interpretative study of Jayashankar Prasad's Kamayani and its sources like the Vedas, 
the Kamasutra and Kalidasa's works. These books bear the unmistakable stamp of Yogiji's erudition and originality in interpretation. Yogiji also supervised research work in Sanskrit and two of his scholars obtained their doctorates. 
 'Yogi' was his pen name to reflect his self-image as a spiritual aspirant and a poet. Indeed, poetry, both in Sanskrit and Hindi, was his first love. The Stephanian was greatly enriched by his poems, many of which were published later as collections in several volumes. His better known poetic works include Yogi Ka Virkavya,reviewed by Dr. Harivansh Rai Bacchan, an eminent poet. Dr. Bacchan was Yogiji's close friend and always accepted his invitation to come to College. His other well known works include Yogi ki Madhushala,Yogi ka So'ham Kavya, Lenin Kavya and Hariye na Himmat.Yogiji's poems are based on themes of optimism, courage, magnanimity and hard work - virtues amply in evidence in his own conduct. These books are all out-of-print. Thousands of new poems scribbled by him on bits of paper remain to be copied. For Yogiji's family the task of editing and publishing these is bound to be enormous. 
 Yogiji's legacy to St. Stephen's College, to the University of Delhi and to all those who knew him, might be summed up as a work culture with the right order of priorities and a relentless pursuit of excellence.

<< Back to the Contents