Birthday of Swami Akhanadanandaji ;the pioneer in Relief work

The Ramakrishna Mission was established on 1 May at Balaram Bose’s house, with the support of the monastic and lay disciples of Sri Ramakrishna. And two weeks later, on 1 May, the first organized

relief work of the Ramakrishna Mission was started at Mahula, where Akhandananda began distributing

rice among the poor victims of the famine. He had to work hard for days together to carry out this work, allowing himself little time for rest. He toured the local villages, surveyed the situation there, and made a list of people who were in urgent need of rations. The beneficiaries came to the relief camp and got their share of rice. In this way he was able to provide aid to over fifty villages. Meanwhile, the swami came across some boys and girls who had no one to look aft er them. He thought of opening an orphanage for these destitute children. He sought the opinion of his leader, Swami Vivekananda, who readily agreed and wrote him an encouraging letter. The district magistrate also issued orders for all police officers of the district to send orphan boys to the swami. As the number of children increased, the ashrama had to be shifted from the relief camp at Mahula to a comparatively larger house in Shibnagar.The children were not only given food and shelter, they were also trained to develop their character, to grow as true ‘men’ and ‘women’. Together

with lessons in reading, writing, and arithmetic, they were also getting scope to develop the three

H’s—head, heart, and hand—so that they would be able to stand on their own feet aft er completion

of their education in the ashrama. They were taught beautiful prayers, which could be recited

by any person irrespective of caste, creed, or religion When Swami Vivekananda saw some of

Swami Akhandanandaji

the bright and cheerful children of the ashrama he said to Akhandananda: ‘Brother, henceforth, don’t call your ashrama an orphanage; these boys are no longer orphans.’ The boys were indeed under the care of their loving father, ‘Baba’.With the increase in its activities, the ashrama was in need of more space. In 1913 the ashrama was moved to its present premises, on the fi ft y bighas of

land acquired from Haji Maharam Ali at Sargachhi. Here, with the help of a few sincere and dedicated workers, the swami built up the ashrama with its many service activities: ‘Swami Akhandananda

planted flowering plants and fruit trees all around and made the ashrama like an ancient hermitage. Along with education, the swami concentrated on improving the agricultural and industrial activities amongst the villagers. Th e ashrama ran a full-fl edged industrial school, teaching weaving, sewing,carpentry, and sericulture, which was the pride of the locality. One room of the ashrama was allotted for a library and charitable dispensary, and another room for the shrine.’Swami Vivekananda had been a source of continual inspiration for Akhandananda. His demise left Akhandananda terribly shocked. He lost all interest for life and work. It was only after he received Swamiji’s vision that he again felt encouraged to continue with his work.

Swami Vivekananda as a wondering monk

For a time after the Master’s passing away, outwardly it appeared as if all was over;
but the seed of renunciation sown by the Master and the hankering for God-realization, that
he had generated in the young hearts, were too enduring to be easily lost in the maze of the
world. A monastery soon came into being, though in a dilapidated house, at Baranagore
with the kind munificence of Surendranath Mitra, an ardent devotee of the Master. The
young men gathered there plunged themselves in spiritual practices and scriptural studies.
Days and months passed in this way. The fire of vairagya kindled by the Master kept on
burning steadily and unabated, and Narendranath played a great part in this process. He
engaged them in talks of the days they had spent with the Master, revivifying their memories
with the ecstatic joy of those days and urging them on in their spiritual practices, even
though he himself was passing through a tornado of difficulties at his own home. When he

had settled the affairs of the family at home and put the monastery in a shape, the urge to
wander alone, depending solely on God, came upon him.
During his peregrinations he came in contact with the real India; India of the villages, the pure, simple, innocent folk, industrious yet grovelling in poverty, living in dirt and squalor, bearing their hard lot with a patience that was beyond imagination. This naked picture of penury and illiteracy pained him deeply, and stirred the very depths of his being.
A stern resolve to do something to alleviate their misery goaded him from place to place. Having failed to rouse the sympathy of the rich of the country in their cause, he thought of seeking it elsewhere. Just at this time he heard of the Parliament of Religions that was being convened at Chicago and thought it the best medium through which he could approach and rouse the interest of the people of America in the masses of India. With the aid of a few friends he crossed over to America.

Sri Ramakrishna's training of Narendranth on Vedanta

Sri Ramakrishna’s power to see through the past, present and future of an aspirant who came to him, and also his visions regarding Narendranath, had revealed to him whoNaren was and what was his mission on the earth. He verified these visions and conclusions on Naren’s third visit to Dakshineswar. Sri Ramakrishna on that occasion took him to the adjacent garden of Jadu Mallik and in the course of conversation entered into a

trance. In this state the Master touched Narendra. Narendra, in spite of his best efforts to remain unaffected by the touch, instantly lost all out-ward consciousness, as on the previous occasion. Sri Ramakrishna put him several questions when he was in that

condition and learnt many things which confirmed his visions and findings about Naren’s antecedents. Then onwards Sri Ramakrishna started training him in the path of Advaitic knowledge. But Narendra was not to submit easily. His inquiring and analytical intellect could not accept anything as true unless he experienced it himself or it stood the test of reason. So when the Master requested him — with a view to familiarise him — to read

aloud some passages from such Advaitic treatises as the Ashtavakra Samhita, he revolted saying, ‘It is blasphemous, for there is no difference between such philosophy and atheism.

There is no greater sin in the world than to think myself identical with the Creator. . . The sages who wrote such things must have been insane.’ Sri Ramakrishna was amused at this outspoken comment of his disciple. He argued with him that no one could place a limitation on God, that he should be such and such and not anything else, but to no purpose. Narendra continued to criticize such ideas for some time more. One day Sri Ramakrishna, having failed to convince his disciple by argument about the truth of Advaitic realizations, touched him in an ecstatic mood. There was an immediate change in the disciple’s vision. He saw with his eyes open that there was nothing else in the univers but God. He kept his vision to himself to see how long it would last. When he went home and sat for food he saw that the plate, the food, the server, all was God; on the streets the cab, the horse and himself, he found were made of the same stuff. This experience continued for some days and with it came to him the conviction about the truths of Advaita philosophy, which no amount of argument could have been able to bring. That was the mode of Sri Ramakrishna’s teaching.

Sri Ramakrishna was, however, careful to enlarge the disciple’s vision regarding

other faiths and paths. Even the path considered most indecent and vulgar, Sri Ramakrishna

said, was a path if there was a real and intense longing for God. One day while Narendra

was condemning certain practices of some sects Sri Ramakrishna gently told him, ‘My boy,

a mansion has many entrances. Some of them no doubt are dirty like the scavenger’s

entrance to a house. It is really desirable to enter the house by the front door.’ Naren

thereafter was never seen to condemn any sect. By these gentle methods Sri Ramakrishna

helped to wipe out bigotry and puritanism from the disciple’s mind.

It was never the procedure with Sri Ramakrishna to force his own views on the

disciples. He allowed them to grow naturally, helping them in their own path. Naren once

felt it difficult to go beyond the body idea and approached the Master for the remedy. How

the Master helped Naren to overcome this impediment we shall learn from Narendranath

himself: ‘On another occasion I felt great difficulty in totally forgetting my body during

meditation and concentrating the mind wholly on the ideal. I went to him for counsel, and

he gave me the very instruction which he himself had received from Totapuri while practising

Samadhi at the time of his Vedantic Sadhana. He sharply pressed between my two

eyebrows with his finger nail and said, “Now concentrate your mind on this painful sensation!”

As a result I found I could concentrate easily on that sensation as long as I liked,

and during that period I completely forgot the consciousness of the other parts of my body,

not to speak of their causing any distraction in the way of my meditation.’

Narendra with his keen intellect, weighed the Master’s words in a balance, as it

were, criticized and tested them before accepting them. At the same time he could go deep

into their meaning. We shall narrate a solitary instance which has a pertinent bearing on our

theme. One day Sri Ramakrishna was discussing the tenets of the Vaishnavas. He

recounted them to his devotees: relish for the name of God, compassion for all living

creatures and service to the devotees of God. He related at some length what the meaning

of the first tenet was, but coming to speak about compassion he was thrown into Samadhi.

Returning to a semi-conscious state he said to himself, ‘Compassion to creatures! Compassion

to creatures! Thou fool. An insignificant worm crawling on earth, thou to show

compassion to others! Who art thou to show compassion! No it cannot be. It is not compassion

for others but rather service to man, recognising him to be the veritable manifestation

of God.’

Coming out of the room, Naren said to his young friends, ‘I have discovered a

strange light in those wonderful words of the Master. How beautifully has he reconciled the

ideal of Bhakti with the knowledge of the Vedanta, generally interpreted as hard, austere

and inimical to human sentiments and emotions! What a grand, natural and sweet

synthesis!’ For a long time did he explain the meaning of those words and in the end said,

‘If it is the will of God, the day will soon come when I shall proclaim this grand truth

before the world at large. I shall make it the common property of all’. Thus did the Master

prepare his disciple for the propagation of Vedanta.

Celebrating 150th Birth Anniversary of Swami Vivekananda

Born in Calcutta on January 12, 1863, Swami Vivekananda was the chief disciple of Sri Ramakrishna. He was a marvellous blend of all excellences. Eager to know if God is true and perceptible, he was guided to Sri Ramakrishna who assured him from his personal realization that God is the only Reality and can be communed with. Questioning the Master at every step and accepting nothing without rigorous proof, he was able to be in tune with the Infinite. After the Master's passing away he took upon himself the great mission of propagating the truth of oneness, the universality of being, the harmony of religions, and the glory of the Atman. He put India on the spiritual map of the world by his famous addresses at the Parliment of Religions held in Chicago in 1893.

He made Vedanta popular in the West, and in India he established the twin organizations, the Ramakrishna Math and the Ramakrishna Mission, in 1897, to train those who had renounced the world in search of God and to integrate the activities of individuals who chose to serve fellow men and women unselfishly. His brilliant speeches and writings constitute a rich legacy for all who care for the higher values of life.