Upadhyay was born in a small village (Sarayan Ujiyar) in Ballia District of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh in 1923 and did his college studies at Banaras Hindu University. Attracted by the ideals of Subash Chandra Bose, he joined the Indian independence movement during his school days and is said to have been involved in armed struggle but, after the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi in 1948, he abandoned violent politics to pursue non violence. Associating himself with Vinoba Bhave and his Bhoodan Movement, he joined "Shram Bharati", a Gandhian community, in 1951, to work alongside renowned Gandhians such as Jayaprakash Narayan, and Acharya Ramamurti. When the Sino-Indian War broke out in 1962, he moved to the Assam border and worked there as a Shanti Sainik.