Robindranath Bhattacharya was born in Habibpur on May 27, 1907, the tenth child of Sri Haripada Bhattacharya, a respected priest, astrologer, and healer.

He had divined the special destiny of his tenth child, and used to call him affectionately "Sannyasi Thakur”
(Lord monk).

His mother, Nabin Kali Bhattacharya, was a virtuous and tender-hearted woman, who imbued her son with qualities of extraordinary compassion and tenderness.

The great soul, later to be known affectionately as Baba to his spiritual children, showed an extraordinary spiritual destiny from his most tender years.

From the age of two, Robi would sit calmly in the family's meditation room. By age four and a half, the young boy had already memorized all the thousands of puja mantras of Hinduism by simply hearing his father, Sri Haripada Bhattacharya, recite them a few times. Under the guidance of his father, he grew up to be well-versed in all the world scriptures and branches of spiritual knowledge—Vedas, Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita, Bible, Qu'ran, etc., as well as astrology, astronomy, palmistry, tantra, and various systems of yoga.

At age twelve, Robinarayan took initiation in the path of jñana yoga from the renowned master Sri Bijoy Krishna Chattopadhyaya after visiting him a couple of times in the company of his brother Pareshnath and a brother-in-law, both disciples of his.

A disciple of Trailinga Swami of Benares, Bijoy Krishna Chattopadhyaya was known as “Howrah Thakur” because he lived in the Howrah suburb of Kolkata.