Swami Yogiraj Nanak Chand was born on 08 October 1927 into a middle class family in a small village of Northern India , in Fatehpur District. Just before his birth, his mother saw Guru Nanak Dev in a dream. When she narrated her dream to her relatives, they suggested that if she conceived a son, she should name him Nanak. He was born into a family which practiced traditional, ritualistic worship of Hindu deities at all religious functions, yet there was little or no actual spiritual grounding. However, even as a child, Nanak's curiosity was insatiable. At the age of 5, on visiting a temple, he pestered his father to tell him whether God actually resided inside the statue and, if so, why did he not speak.

At the age of 21, he left his home in search of the illusory God, about whom everyone spoke, but whom he could not ‘‘see'' anywhere. After a prolonged and fruitless quest in many holy cities of India, such as Ayodhya, Chitrakoot, Rishikesh and meeting many popular saints and seers, he came to the conclusion that though there were many preachers of religion but very few could show the true path. He, then, started introspecting , waiting for some divine insight or realization and wandered alone looking for a clue or ray of light. One day, after a hard and arduous climb to the top of a mountain in Srinagar, in Kashmir, he reached a temple and saw the rising sun in all its morning glory/ majesty. He closed his eyes and prayed that one day he should similarly view the glory of god within himself. Then he returned to the city trying to lead an ordinary life, doing embroidery work in Kashmir, at which he excelled, being a perfectionist. He even won a gold medal at the State Competition.

However, within him the same search and restlessness for the unknown and unseen persisted. He had his first realization later, when he visited Kada to pay his respects at the shrine of Baba Maluk Das, a saint poet belonging to the 16th Century A.D. who lived for 108 years, a life span covering the reigns of four Mughal Emperors from Akbar to Aurangzeb. He lit incense at the ‘‘samadhi'' and sat down on a rock, closing his eyes. There, for the first time, he realized what his true vocation and mission in life would be, namely, to guide people to take the self beyond the self, from mortality to immortality through meditation.

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