Swami Sahajanand Saraswati, son of Beni Ray, was born in 1889 at village Devagram in Gazipur district of Uttar Pradesh. His original name was Navarang Ray. He studied in schools of Gazipur and Hindu Philosophy in Varanasi as he was exceptionally intelligent and studious. He wrote a number of books and many books have been written by other scholars about him. He was a gallant freedom fighter and champion of the Indian peasantry.
Swami Sahajanand Saraswati played a chivalrous and significant part during the Non-Cooperation Movement, 1920-21 in the Shahabad region in general and in the present district of Buxar in particular. Consequently, on 2 January 1922, he was rounded up at Gazipur immediately after his return from the Ahmedabad session of Congress. As he was elected as the President of the Gazipur District Congress Committee at that time. Swamiji was sentenced to suffer one year’s rigorous imprisonment. He was inflicted with physical torture behind bars and frequently transferred from one prison to another jail of Gazipur to Varanasi, Faizabad, and lastly Lucknow prison.
From 1924 to 1928 activities of Sahajanand were centered on the propagation of Khadi. He established a Khadi weaving center at his Simri Ashram in the Buxar district. In 1927, he founded Sitaram Ashram at Bihta and soon became the champion of Kisan's cause under the organization of Bihar Kisan Sabha. He died on 26 June 1950 at Muzaffarpur.