Mahtab was bor in Agarpada in Balasore district on 5 November 1899. His father was Krushna Charan Das and mother was Tohfa Bibi. As the then Zamindar of Agarpada Jagannath Mahtab was issuless, Harekrushna was adopted by Jagannath’s mother Dharni Bibi, when he was only seven ‘months old and thus became the Zamindar of Agarpada. His father Krushna Charan became the Manager of, ‘Agarpada Zamindari During his student days Mahtab was deeply influenced by Swami Vivekananda and this helped him control and manage his life. As he says, When I was a student of class three, there occurred a famine in some parts of Bhadrak Sub-division. To open a free community kitchen, Swami Purnananda of Ramakrishna Mission visited our area and stayed for few months in our house. He gave me a copy of ‘Immitation of Christ’ to read. Thereafter, Iwas attracted, towards Swami Vivekananda and Sri Ramakrishna’s ideals such as serving the poor, being courageous, renouncing luxury life which influenced me to such an extent, that, I believe, I have been walking along the ‘same path till date. During that time I read all works of Vivekananda. | understood some writings and some ‘were beyond my comprehension. Yet these writings motivated me to do public service and serve the nation. By the time I passed the matriculation exams, my mind ‘was set in the proper direction.
Inspired by Swami Vivekananda, Mahtab adopted his vision as the ideal of his own life. A sad incident of his life also led him to be inspired by Swami Vivekananda. While he was a student of Ithadrak High School, his mother died. It was beyond his imagination that his mother’s affection towards him would come to such an abrupt end. He started thinking about his mother all the time. Even after returning to Bhadrak there way no respite from this.
