Hans Rām Singh Rawat, called Shrī Hans Jī Mahārāj and by various other honorifics (8 November 1900 – 19 July 1966), was an Indian religious leader. He was born in Gadh-ki-Sedhia, north-east of Haridwar in present-day Uttarakhand, India. His parents were Ranjit Singh Rawat and Kalindi Devi. He was considered a Satguru by his students who called him affectionately "Shri Maharaj ji" or just "Guru Maharaj ji." He had a daughter from his first wife Sinduri Devi, and four sons from his second wife Rajeshwari Devi, later known among followers as "Mata Ji" and "Shri Mata Ji". Life and work At the age of eight, not long after starting at the village school, Hans Rām's mother died. From that time he was raised by his aunt. As a young adult he visited many holy men in the nearby mountains and pilgrimage towns in the area now the Pakistani provinces of Sindh, Baluchistan and Punjab. He was reportedly disenchanted with these and turned to the Arya Samaj, a popular movement formed to remove caste prejudices and idolatry from Hinduism. The search for work led Hans to Lahore, the capital of the former Sikh kingdom. During this time he made his first contact with Swami Swarupanand, a guru in the lineage of Advait Mat, from Guna. In 1923, Swami Swarupanand taught Hans the techniques of Knowledge or kriyas, an experience of which Hans later said: "I was given no mantra, but experienced Knowledge. I experienced the music and light of my heart. My mind was focused within". Three years later, in 1926, Swami Swarupanand asked him to start teaching others the techniques of Knowledge, and for the subsequent 10 years Hans traveled through what is today Pakistan and northern India. A strong bond of teacher/disciple was formed between them which Swami Swarupanand reportedly referred to as follows: "I am in Hans' heart and Hans is in my heart". In 1936, Swami Swarupanand took mahasamadhi in Nangli Sahib, a village near the north town of Meerut. Reported indications from Swami Swarupanand about Hans' succession were later contested by a group of mahatmas who noted that Hans had married Sinduri Devi from a neighboring village in the district of Garwal, making him a "householder", a status that in their view as renunciates was not acceptable. After the rift, Hans was left with only a handful of people to help him continue his work. Hans