Naren as a Wandering Monk

A WANDERING MONK 

Soon a tendency to embrace a wandering life, according to the traditions of monks, was most irresistibly felt by most of these young monks. Naren, in spite of his anxiety to maintain the ties of uniting the brotherhood, was himself tormented with the same desire to strike out into the unknown paths of the monks. life and to lose himself in the silence of the wild, under the wide canopy of heavens ( as per the instruction of the Master) . Naren resisted the call to flight for two years, and apart from his short visits to some neighbouring places, he practically remained at Baranagore until 1888. But he was determined to break away from the monastery to test his own strength, to gather experiences of a new life, to make himself absolutely fearless, and at the same time to force his brother-disciples to learn self-reliance and to stand alone. He therefore suddenly left Calcutta in 1888 and went to Varanasi, Ayodhya, Lucknow, Agra, Vrindaban, Hathras, and the Himalayas. At the railway station of Hathras he quite unintentionally made Sharat Chandra Gupta, the station-master, his disciple ( the 1st disciple of Narendranath), who afterwards took the name of Sadananda. Sharat Chandra, without a moment’s hesitation, left his hearth and home and followed the Swami gladly in his itinerary through the hills. For some time both were lost in the silence of the Himalayas and were almost dead to the outside world. But physical hardship and severe spiritual austerities undermined their health, and both had to come back to the Baranagore monastery after gathering manifold experiences. 

After a year the Swami again went out and visited, among other places, Ghazipur. During his stay at Ghazipur, he met the illustrious saint Pavhari Baba who had attained to great spiritual heights through hard austerities and Yogic practices. Despite the useful lessons which he was able to gather from his travels, his heart still panted for a life of absolute freedom from all external trammels. He wanted to plunge into the depths of the Himalayas to acquire through extreme forms of mental discipline a tremendous spiritual power which would enable him to carry on his Master’s mission without let or hindrance. With this end in view he broke loose at the beginning of July 1890, this time for many years, from the Baranagore monastery. Swami Akhandananda, one of his brother-disciples, who had just returned from his Tibetan travels with a fund of wonderful experiences of the life and manners of the people of the Himalayas, became his companion. At Varanasi the Swami wrote to his friend, Pramadadas Mitra, a great Sanskrit scholar, “I am going away; but I shall never come back until I can burst on society like a bomb, and make it follow me like a dog.” From the moment he left Calcutta he was happy. The solitude, the village air, the sight of new places, the meeting with new people and getting rid of old impressions and worry delighted him. When they reached the Himalayas, the splendid scenery with its waterfalls, streams, wild forests, and its serenity and quietude and, above all, its invigorating atmosphere buoyed up the spirit of the Swami, and the occasional glimpses of the eternal snows filled his heart with unspeakable emotion and joy. They wanted to go to Kedarnath and Badrikashrama, but they had to give up their idea of visiting those ancient places of pilgrimage as the road was closed by the Government on account of famine. 

By February 1891, the Swami finally became a solitary monk and began his historic wandering of two years through India. He wandered, free from any plan, constantly with the thought of God in his mind. The Swami, in the course of his pilgrimage around India, met with all sorts and conditions of men and found himself - today a despised beggar sheltered by pariahs or a brother of the oppressed identifying himself in keen sympathy with their misery, and tomorrow a guest of the princes, conversing on equal terms with Prime Ministers and Maharajas and probing the luxury of the great, and awakening care for the public weal in their torpid hearts. 

First he visited Rajputana, the land of heroes, where he met some of the most enlightened princes of the day. While at Alwar the Swami had a very interesting discussion with Prince Mangal Singh. The Maharaja asked the Swami, “Well, I have no faith in idol worship. I cannot worship wood, earth, stone, or metal, like other people. Does this mean that I shall fare worse in the life hereafter?” The eyes of the Swami alighted on a picture of the Maharaja which was hanging on the wall. At his express desire it was passed to him. Holding it in his hand, the Swami asked, “Whose picture is this?” The Dewan answered, “It is the likeness of our Maharaja.” A moment later those present trembled with fear when they heard the Swami commanding the Dewan to spit on it. The Dewan was thunderstruck, and the eyes of all glanced in terror and awe from the Prince to the monk, from the monk to the Prince. But all the while the Swami insisted, “Spit on it! I say, spit on it!.” And the Dewan in fear and bewilderment cried out, “What! Swamiji! What are you asking me to do? This is the likeness of our Maharaja. How can I do such a thing?” “Be it so,” said the Swami, “but the Maharaja is not bodily present in this photograph. This is only a piece of paper. It does not contain his bones and flesh and blood. It does not speak or behave or move in any way as does the Maharaja. And yet all of you refuse to spit on it, because you see in this photo the shadow of the Maharaja’s form. Indeed, in spitting upon the photo, you feel that you insult your master, the Prince himself.” Turning to the Maharaja, he continued: “See, Your Highness, though this is not you in one sense, in another sense it is you. That was why your devoted servants were so perplexed when I asked them to spit upon it. It has a shadow of you; it brings you into their minds. One glance at it makes them see you in it! Therefore they look upon it with as much respect as they do upon your own person. Thus it is with the devotees who worship stone and metal images of gods and goddesses. It is because an image brings to their minds their Ishta (chosen deity), or some special form and attribute of the Divinity, and helps them to concentrate, that the devotees worship God in an image. They do not worship the stone or the metal as such. Everyone, O Maharaja, is worshipping the same one God who is the Supreme Spirit, the Soul of Pure Knowledge. And God appears to all according to their understanding and their representation of Him.” The Maharaja who had been listening attentively all this time said with folded hands: “Swamiji! I must admit that according to the light you have thrown upon image worship, I have never yet met anyone who had worshipped stone, or wood, or metal. Heretofore I did not understand its meaning. You have opened my eyes.” 

This is but one of the numerous instances to show what illuminating discourses the Swami had, in the course of his tour, with men of learning and influence, and how, with his characteristic frankness and boldness, he told all whatever he felt to be true and proper in the inmost core of his heart. But occasions were not wanting when the Swami learnt lessons of the highest wisdom even from the lowliest and the lost. One instance would suffice. Just before the Swami’s departure for the West, the Maharaja of Khetri, who had already become his initiated disciple, accompanied the Swami as far as Jaipur. On this occasion the Maharaja was being entertained one evening with music by a nautch-girl. The Swami was in his own tent when the music commenced. The Maharaja sent a message to the Swami asking him to come and join the party. The Swami sent word in return that as a Sannyasin he could not comply with such a request. The singer was deeply grieved when she heard this, and sang in reply, as it were, a song of the great Vaishnava saint, Surdas. Through the still evening air, to the accompaniment of music, the girl’s melodious voice ascended to the ears of the Swami. 

“O Lord, look not upon my evil qualities! Thy name O Lord, is Same-sightedness. One piece of iron is in the image in the temple, And another is the knife in the hand of the butcher; 

But when they touch the philosophers. stone, Both alike turn to gold. So, O Lord, look not upon my evil qualities! One drop of water is in the sacred Jumna, And another is foul in the ditch by the roadside; But when they fall into the Ganga Both alike become holy. 

So, Lord, do not look upon my evil qualities! Thy name, O Lord, is Same-sightedness.” 

The Swami was completely overwhelmed. The woman and her meaningful song at once reminded him that the same Divinity dwells in the high and the low, the rich and the poor- in the entire creation. The Swami could no longer resist the request, and took his seat in the hall of audience to meet the wishes of the Maharaja. Speaking of this incident later, the Swami said, “That incident removed the scales from my eyes. Seeing that all are indeed the manifestations of the One, I could no longer condemn anybody.” 

The Swami’s itinerancy led him through almost all the historic places of Rajputana, Bombay State, and Southern India till at last he reached Kanyakumari in all probability on 23 December 1892. No doubt, every moment of these travels of his with an open mind for several years throughout the length and breadth of India - from the dreamy poetic regions of the snow-capped Himalayas down to Kanyakumari, the last promontory of the land where the mighty ocean spreads out into infinity - were eventful. All this wandering had a great educational value for him, opening up, as it did, opportunities for original thought and observation, the most striking element in all of which was his tireless search for unity in the world of Indian ideals. Nevertheless, it was at Kanyakumari that his pilgrimage throughout his motherland, and his days and months of thought on the problem of the Indian masses bore fruit. Happy as a child is to be back with its mother, so was the Swami when he prostrated before the image of the Divine Mother in the seashore temple at Kanyakumari. After worshipping the Mother, he swam across some two furlongs of the shark-infested ocean and reached the farther of the two rocks that form the southernmost extremity of India. Over the three days he sat there, he was in a long and deep meditation. The Swami himself has told of the thoughts that moved through his mind during that period. He saw, as it were, the whole of India - her past, present, and future, her centuries of greatness and also her centuries of degradation. He saw that it was not religion that was the cause of India’s downfall but, on the contrary, the fact that her true religion, the very life and breath of her individuality, was scarcely to be found, and he knew that her only hope was a renascence of the lost spiritual culture of the ancient rishis. His mind encompassing both the roots and the ramifications of India’s problem, and his heart suffering for his country’s downtrodden, poverty-stricken masses, he “hit”, as he later wrote, “upon a plan.” 

We are so many sannyasins wandering about and teaching the people metaphysics.it is all madness. Did not our Gurudeva use to say, "An empty stomach is no good for religion." "That those poor people are leading the life of brutes is simply due to ignorance. We have for all ages been sucking their blood and trampling them under foot. “Suppose some disinterested sannyasins, bent on doing good to others, go from village to village, disseminating education, and seeking in various ways to better the condition of all down to the Chandala, through oral teaching, and by means of maps, cameras, globes, and other accessories – can’t that bring forth good in time? All these plans I cannot write out in this short letter. The long and short of it is - if the mountain does not come to Mohammed, Mohammed must go to the mountain. The poor are too poor to come to schools, - and they will gain nothing by reading poetry and all that sort of thing. We as a nation have lost our individuality, and that is the cause of all mischief in India. We have to give back to the nation its lost individuality and raise the masses. The Hindu, the Mohammedan, the Christian, all have trampled them under foot. Again, the force to raise them must come from inside, that is, from the orthodox Hindus. In every country the evils exist not with, but against religion. Religion therefore is not to blame, but men. 

To effect this, the first thing we need is men, and the next is funds. And that is why, in the presence of the Maharaja of Mysore, the Swami burst forth into an eloquent description of what was prompting him to go the West.1 He told the Maharaja that he intended to go to America to ask the West for the means to ameliorate the material condition of India and to take to it in exchange the gospel of Vedanta. The Swami again spoke of the same mission when he met by chance two of his brother-disciples, Swamis Brahmananda and Turiyananda, at the Abu Road train station. To them he said with a pathetic appeal, “I have travelled all over India. But alas, it was agony to me, my brothers, to see with my own eyes the terrible poverty and misery of the masses, and I could not restrain my tears! It is now my firm conviction that it is futile to preach religion amongst them without first trying to remove their poverty and their suffering. It is for this reason - to find more means for the salvation of the poor of India - that I am now going to America.” Of this meeting with the Swami at the above station, Swami Turiyananda said later on, “I vividly remember some remarks made by Swamiji at that time. The accents and deep pathos with which they were uttered still ring in my ears. He said, “Haribhai, I am still unable to understand anything of your so-called religion.” Then with an expression of deep sorrow in his countenance and an intense emotion shaking his body, he placed his hand on his heart and added: “But my heart has expanded very much, and I have learnt to feel. Believe me, I feel intensely indeed.’ His voice was choked with feeling; he could say no more. For a time, profound silence reigned and tears rolled down his cheeks.” In telling of this incident Swami Turiyananda was also overcome with deep emotion. With a heavy sigh he said, “Can you imagine what passed through my mind on hearing the Swami speak thus - “Are not these,” I thought, “the very words and feelings of Buddha?” “I could clearly perceive that the sufferings of humanity were pulsating in the heart of Swamiji - his heart was a huge cauldron in which the sufferings of mankind were being made into a healing balm. Nobody could understand Vivekananda unless he saw at least a fraction of the volcanic feelings which were in him.” 

The Swami next journeyed from Kanyakumari to Rameswaram during the last days of 1892, and from there to Madras at the beginning of 1893. From the day of his arrival there he was besieged with numerous visitors and he seemed to be on the road to public recognition. It was in Madras that the message of the Master gained a ready acceptance, and a brilliant group of enthusiastic young men became his ardent adherents. It was here that his intention to attend the Parliament of Religions took a definite shape. During the months of March and April, 1893, the disciples of the Swami took active steps to raise requisite funds for this purpose. But before leaving for America, the Swami had to visit Khetri at the earnest importunities of the Maharaja, his disciple. It was at the court of the Maharaja of Khetri

(Maharaja Ajit Singh Bahadur (1861–1901) was a ruler of the Indian princely state of Khetri between 1870-1901. He was a close friend and disciple of Swami Vivekananda. Ajit Singh is known for his monetary support he provided to Vivekananda, and encouraging him to speak at the Parliament of the World's Religions at Chicago in 1893.

Swami Vivekananda and Ajit Singh had a very intimate and cordial relationship. Vivekananda first visited Ajit Singh as a wandering monk in 1891. As a state-guest, Swamiji spent two and a half months at Khetri. Influenced by Vivekananda's ideas, he became his disciple. Later when Vivekananda decided to sail to the West to talk at the Parliament of the World's Religions in Chicago at 1893, Ajit Singh provided him the financial aid and got him the ticket for the ship to America from Bombay. It was under Ajit Singh's request, that Swamiji assumed his monastic name Vivekananda in preference to Sacchidanandaami, at the Maharaja’s request, assumed the name of Vivekananda by which he was to be known in future. He sailed from Bombay on May 31, 1893.a memorable day for India.

Naren took the path of realisation of God

It was the abiding confidence of Sri Ramakrishna in the integrity of Naren’s  character as also the Master’s selfless love for him that conquered his powerful heart.

 With the

(Naren at Cossipore Garden in 1886) growing intimacy with the Master, Naren’s  tendency to resist lessened and eventually led to complete self-surrender. Afterwards Naren often said, “Sri Ramakrishna was the only person who, ever since he had met me, believed in me uniformly throughout - even my mother and brothers did not do so. It was his unflinching trust and love for me that bound me to him for ever. He alone knew how to love another.” With the ever increasing desire for illumination, the studies for the Law examination became a torment to Narendra Nath. His buoyant imagination which had already caught fire from the flame of his Master’s spiritual life now refused to be satisfied with worldly aspirations. His soul wanted freedom from the galling fetters of existence. Very often, for the relaxation of his mental tension, he would run away from the stifling atmosphere of his home and take shelter at the feet of the Master in the holy temple-garden of Dakshineswar. The inner aspirations of Naren’s soul were fully visible to the spiritually illumined vision of Sri Ramakrishna, who with infinite love and patience began to train him. Naren, his gifted disciple, was also astute enough to rise to his lofty teaching, and with his brilliant intellect and fiery enthusiasm was able to follow in life whatever practical suggestion and words of wisdom fell from the lips of the Master. He was also the readiest among the disciples in arriving at the true spirit of the Master’s pregnant gospel. One instance will suffice. One day, some time during the year 1884, Sri Ramakrishna was seated in his room at Dakshineswar surrounded by his disciples. The conversation drifted to the Vaishnava religion. The Master gave the gist of the belief of some of its followers and finished saying, “This religion enjoins upon its followers the practice of three things: relish for the name of God, compassion for all living creatures and service to the Vaishnavas - the devotees of the Lord.” Hardly had he uttered these words when he fell into Samadhi. After a while he came to a semi-conscious state of mind and said to himself: “Compassion for creatures! Compassion for 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, recognizing him to be the veritable manifestation of God!”  

Everyone present there, no doubt, heard those words of Sri Ramakrishna, but none but Naren could gauge their meaning. When Naren left the room he said to others, “What a strange light have I discovered in those wonderful words of the Master! How beautifully has he reconciled the ideal of Bhakti (devotion) with the knowledge the Vedanta (non-dualism). I have understood from these words of wisdom that the ideal of Vedanta lived by the recluse outside the pale of society can be practised even from hearth and home and applied to all our daily schemes of life. Whatever may be the vocation of a man, let him understand and realize that it is God alone who has manifested Himself as the world and created beings. He is both immanent and transcendent. It is He who had become all diverse creatures, objects of our love, and yet He is beyond all these. Such realization of Divinity in humanity leaves no room for egotism. By realizing it, a man cannot have any jealousy or “pity” for any other being. Service of man, knowing him to be the manifestation of God, purifies the heart; and, in no time, such an aspirant realizes himself as part and parcel of God - Existence-Knowledge-Bliss Absolute. However, if it be the will of the Lord, 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, the wise and the fool, the rich and the poor, the Brahmin and the pariah.” In the fullness of time this high-souled desire of Narendra Nath came to be fulfilled to the letter and spirit. He proclaimed unto humanity this splendid ideal of service, based on knowledge, which he received as a sacred legacy from his Master in the serene peace of Dakshineswar. It was in the middle of 1885 that Sri Ramakrishna showed the first symptom of throat trouble which ultimately ended in the fatal cancer. He was at first lodged in a house at Shyampukur for treatment and afterwards removed to a garden-house at Cossipore. The Master, knowing that he was approaching the end of his mortal existence, was eager to kindle in the heart of his chief disciples a burning desire for the realization of God. He not only imparted his spiritual instructions to his disciples, but he gave them likewise the stimulus and the strength to follow those teachings. His own life, the force of his utterances, the ease with which he entered into the highest Samadhi and his constant communion with the Divine - all these were a source of perennial inspiration to these young souls. 

At the Cossipore garden Sri Ramakrishna was practically alone with his young disciples. Having given up their homes for the time at the urgent desire of Naren, they dedicated themselves in loving and devoted service to the Master. Naren was to them a constant source of inspiration. During their leisure periods, he would gather them together, and the time was spent in study, music, conversation, and discussions of the divine traits of their Master’s character. Naren was the leader in every respect. 

As the end of the Master came nearer, Narendra Nath’s passionate desire for the realization of God increased and intensified. The Master would often send Naren and other disciples to meditate; and Naren, in the intensity of his meditations, became blessed with many rare spiritual experiences. The Master had already initiated him into various paths of spiritual discipline and was preparing him to be the head of the group of young monks who were to consecrate their lives in the near future to carrying out his mission. One day the Master expressly commissioned him to look after the young devotees, saying, “I leave them to your care. See that they practise spiritual exercises even after my passing away and that they do not return home.” Another day, in preparation for the prospective monastic life, the Master commanded the young boys to beg their food from door to door as monks do. The food which they collected in this manner was cooked in the garden and offered to the Master, who was overjoyed. The Master knew that soon these young boys would put on the ochre robe of renunciation and go forth in quest of God, begging what food was necessary from householders. The Master himself initiated them as monks - thus fulfilling their heart’s desire. 

Now we come to the greatest moment of Naren’s sadhana, the very crest and glory of his spiritual realizations. Naren was pining for a vision of the Absolute. He prayed to feel Divinity. To lose the “I” in the vastness of Consciousness which is beyond thought - was Narendra  Nath’s intense desire. Long did he pray to Sri Ramakrishna for this realization. One evening, however, it came unexpectedly. As he was meditating, he lost all body-consciousness and his mind plunged into the superconscious state. It was a state of Nirvikalpa Samadhi. 

Referring to this incident Sri Ramakrishna said afterwards, .I have prayed that the Divine Mother may keep this realization of the Absolute veiled from Naren. There is much work to be done by him. But this veil is so very thin that it may give way at any time.. It was because of Naren’s intense desire to realize the Absolute Brahman that Sri Ramakrishna decided to give that experience to him. But the Master had no intention of permitting him to stay there, since much work was waiting for Narendra Nath. Three or four days before his passing away, Sri Ramakrishna called Naren near and actually commissioned him for future work. It was on August 16, 1886, that Sri Ramakrishna passed away leaving his disciples in deep gloom. After the death of the Master, Naren began to organize these disciples into a monastic brotherhood. He went to the homes of those boys who had resumed their studies, and, by a whirlwind of enthusiasm, tried to induce them to return to Baranagore where the first monastery of the Ramakrishna Order was started. Once at the monastery, they could not resist the spiritual impetus of Naren’s  songs and thrilling conversations. One by one the young disciples joined together and ultimately banded themselves into a holy brotherhood under the inspiring leadership of Narendra Nath. The boys were now in the midst of extreme privations. They were so determined in their desire to follow the injunctions of the Master that, forgetting sleep, they spent night after night in prayer and spiritual exercises. Naren always spurred them on to burning renunciation and intense devotion. Hours were also consumed in the study of philosophy, both Eastern and Western, to intensify their struggle for the realization of the highest Truth. All who came within the sphere of their influence were also caught up in their spirit of God-intoxication. With the delight of a martyr these monks practised the severest of spiritual austerities, and the world had no meaning for them at that time. Some time during this period they performed the sacred Viraja ceremony and formally took the vows of lifelong celibacy and poverty, dedicating their lives to the realization of God. The old names were changed for new ones to complete their severance from their earlier life and its associations. 

Baranagar to Alambazar

After the death of Ramakrishna in 1886, it took certain time for the devotees to settle their mind for their future course  of action.But soon they formed a monastery in Baranagar, began to live there to take a monastic life.
Naren resisted the call to flight for two years. Apart from short visits he remained at  Baranagar until 1888.Then he left suddenly not alone. At first with a companion . During two and half years he always returned if he was recalled by his brethren or by some unforeseen event. Then he was seized by the sacred madness to escape; the longing suppressed for five years burst all bounds. In 1891, alone, without a companion , without a fixed name, staff and bowl in hand, as an unknown beggar, he was swallowed up for years in the immensity of India.   In 1892 the monastery was shiftd from Batanagar to Alambazar, a plcce nearer to Dakshineswar temple. For a fairly long time before and after that time , the brotherhood had no knowledge of the whereabouts of their leader Narendranath, till they were thrilled to learn that their itinerant brother had crossed the seas and burst upon the American society in the wake of the Chicago Parliament of  Religious as Swami Vivekananda, the cyclonic monk of India. .On the right side of the  road to Lochan Gosh's Ghat from Alambazar, there was The house Chattopadhyas supported by big pillars. The main gate of the house was situated on the small lane on the east side.After entering through the main gate one finds, on the north and south, there were two small veranda  In front of it thete was a courtyard. After that there was a long hall with three doors facing  westwards. From the hall on the north, a stair  ran over to upstairs. On he first floor in the south  -east corner there were two verandas  the floor of which were covered by red, blue, coloured octate marvel stones, .At the back of the eastern veranda stands a long big room with three doors ended with a small room.At the southern veranda there was the bath room with wooden piecesThere was also a courtyard in the inside portion of the house.  There were days at Baranagar Math when we had nothing to eat. Leaves of the Bimba creeper boiled, salt and rice - this was  our dietfor months. Come what would, we were indifferent. We were being carried on in a strong tide of religious practices and meditation.

Pic-Top; Standing- (left to right) swamis Shivananda, Ramamkrishnananda, Vivekananda, andPremananda, deben Majumdar and Mahendranath Gupta M, Swami Trigunatitananda, Mustaphi (maternal uncle of Deben Majumdar), Sitting (left to right) swamis Niranjanananda, saradananda, Brahmananda, And abhedananda.

English: Alambazar Math, ��1896 (farewell to Swami Abhedananda leaving for the US) (from left) standing: Swamis Adbhutananda, Yogananda, Abhedananda, Trigunatitananda, Turiyananda, Nirmalananda, and Niranjanananda;
sitting: Swamis Subodhananda, Brahmananda (on chair), and Akhandananda

Swami Saradananda

His first Sojourn outside the Baranagar monastery was at Puri, the sea-side holy city of Jagannah. After a time he came back, and went out again to spend a considerable time in various sacred places in Noethern India. Through Banaras, and Ayodhya he proceeded to Hrishikesh, where, absorbed in spiritual practice, he stayed on for some months leading the traditional life of Hindu monks. In the summer of 1890, he climbed up the Himalayas to visit Kedarnath, Tunganath, Badrinarayan, and in July came down to Almora, where within a month he met Swami Vivekananda. With the latter he again went to Hrishikesh through the Garwal state. Then after spending some time in Meerat and Delhi with Swami Vivekananda, he went down to Banaras, visiting on the way holy places like Mathura, Vrindaban and Prayag (Allahabad). After another period of intense spiritual practice in the holy city of Banaras, he had an attack of blood dysentery, which eventually brought him back to the Baranagar monastery in Sept 1891. On recovery, he went to Jayrambati to pay his respect to the spiritual consort of Sri Ramakrishna, known to the devotees as Holy Mother.
In 1892 the monastery was shifted from Baranagar to Alambaza, a place nearer to Dakshineswar Temple.r

          

Devotees at Baranagar Math (contd-1)

Though for a time Sarat Chandra returned home reluctantly, yet as soon as the monastery started he began to visit it off and on and spend long hours in the company of his comrades, absorbed in spiritual practice or about the talks about the life and teachings of the Master. Apprehending that his son Sarat was tending to be a recluse, and failing to turn his mind towards wildly life by arguments, Sart's father Girish Chandra, took the extreme step of cutting off all contacts of his son with his fellow disciples by locking him up in a room. Unruffled Sarat Chandra accepted the unenviable solitary confinement in his own house, and fully utilised his loneliness in focussing his mind on his spiritual objective. However, one day when one of his sympathetic younger brothers furtively unlocked the room. sarat Chandra silently walked out of the house and went straight to the Baranagar monastery. Shortly after this, he and some of his brother disciples assembled in the village home of Baburam ( later Swami Premananda), and there, inspired by their leader Narendranath's exhortation during a night-long vigil round a sacred fire, they took the solemn vow of Sannyasa, that is, monasticism for life.
Thus, step by step and without any fuss, sarat Chandra forged ahead on the path chalked out for Hindu monks. A period of austere monastic life in the Baranagar monastery  followed. Without  paying any heed to the meagre allowance of food and dress that the slender resources of the monastery provided for these educated middleclass youths, they braced themselves up for the arduous task of realizing the divine. No other concern could stand in the way of their one-pointed spiritual endeavour. Meditation, hymns,prayers, scriptural study and discussion on religious topics were all absorbed most of their time and energy.
On one auspicious day in the Baranagar monostery they performed the prescribed sacred rite known as Viraja Homa and thus ceremonially joined the traditional Hindu monastic life was virtually started by Sri Ramakrishna during his last days in Cossipore garden house, and was reinforced by their solemn vows in the village home of Baburam under the inspiration of Narendranath, it was from this day that they commenced a new life as sanctioned by Hindu religious texts.From this day Sarat Chandra came to be known as Swami Saradananda.Like other Sradananda was seized by a passion of leading a wandering monk. (Parivrajak).            

Devotees after the death of Ramakrishna

Sri Ramkrishna's illness lasting for about a year proved to be a signal, as it were, for his picked, young disciples to tear themselves away from their home life and be eventually banded together into an incipient holy brotherhood after their pre-eminent leader Narendranath. They came obviously to nurse their beloved Guru, but stayed on to be drilled into monastic life. It was in the Cossipore Garden House that one day Sarat Chandra with most of his comrades received from Sri Ramakrishna the och re cloth, the distinct garb of a Hindu monk.It was under the instruction of their Master that they began to beg their food like a Sannyasin in order to practise complete resignation to Providence as well as to purge their minds of deep-rooted egoistic tendencies. 
In this way the lofty aim of realizing God was rooted deeply in their minds. The world and its humdrum affairs had no attraction to them. and this state of their minds became more intense after the Master passed away in  Aug 1886. Soon after that, a monastery was started for them in a rented house  at Baranagar, not far from Cossipore Garden House.

( Standing ,left-tright, Swamis Sivananda, Ramakrishnananda, Vivekananda, Premananda, Deben Majumdar, Mahendranath Gupta, ,M, Trigunatitananda, Mustaphi; Sitting left to right, Niranjananda, Saradananda, Brahmananda, Abhedananda.)Ramakrishna Math, Baranagar is the place famous for long Spiritual practice by the great Apostles of Sri Ramakrishna Deva and known as the nucleus of Ramakrishna Sangha. Swami Vivekananda and his 14 (fourteen) brother disciples lived here in a dilapidated abandoned garden house from 1886-1892 and started the First Monastery of Ramakrishna Order. The way of their passing those days renouncing the world in every sense, delving deep in meditation amid severe austerity and penance for long five-years (1886-1892), is an inspiration to the mankind. The great ideal for unselfish ‘Love and Service’ to the society as manifested by Sri Ramakrishna, was kindled in this place by these youth disciples. Swami Vivekananda set out for His historical ‘Bharat Parikrama’ in the year 1889 from Baranagar Math hired at a rent of Rs. 10/- only pm , not far from the garden house. 

Baranagar Math — 1886-1892)

Baranagar Math is the First Monastery of Ramakrishna Order.
In the spiritual history of the world Baranagar Math is the only example where apostles of the Incarnation of God practised unprecedented Spiritual Discipline, Meditation and Austerities in such a congregation at one place.
Baranagar Math is that very place from where Swami Vivekananda set out for His historical Bharat Parikrama in 1889.
The way Swamiji and his brother-disciples lived in the Baranagar Monastery, their days of unparalleled austerity, their spiritual practices, renunciation and dispassion will remain written in letters of gold in the history of Ramakrishna Order. All these formed the cornerstone of the Order and the Baranagar Math was built on this solid foundation.
The love with which Sri Ramakrishna initially united these young speakers of God together, strengthened into fraternity here. Under the leadership of Swamiji, as the monks came by steps to appreciate the catholicity of Sri Ramakrishana’s ideas, they gradually prepared themselves for the liberation of their own and welfare of the world around. This readiness in the face of much strong opposition and their evergreen alertness resulted in their all-round growth– spiritual, mental and intellectual.
All these intense austere life at Baranagar Math was accompanied by concern for the entire world at large. The realization and teachings of Sri Ramakrishna, the avatar of this age, are as deep as the ocean and infinite as the sky. The inmates of the Math had, by then, realized that the advent of Sri Ramakrishna was not for the sake of India alone, but for entire humanity.

“As many faiths, so many paths” – the fundamental realisation of Sri Ramakrishna, the Guru of Swami Vivekananda, which was practised by the apostles at Baranagar Math through observing the teachings of Buddha, Mohammad, Jesus Christ and other Religious great personalities. Swami Vivekananda preached the Universal Religion and propagated the great message of harmony and equal validity of all the religious faiths. Sri Ramakrishna realised the ultimate truth from varied religions through His spiritual practices in His life time.. 

(VOL II) Naren's passion for spiritual attainment

As the end of the Master came nearer, Narendra Nath’s passionate desire for the realization of God increased and intensified. The Master would often send Naren and other disciples to meditate; and Naren, in the intensity of his meditations, became blessed with many rare spiritual experiences. The Master had already initiated him into various paths of spiritual discipline and was preparing him to be the head of the group of young monks who were to consecrate their lives in the near future to carrying out his mission. One day the Master expressly commissioned him to look after the young devotees, saying, “I leave them to your care. See that they practise spiritual exercises even after my passing away and that they do not return home.” Another day, in preparation for the prospective monastic life, the Master commanded the young boys to beg their food from door to door as monks do. The food which they collected in this manner was cooked in the garden and offered to the Master, who was overjoyed. The Master knew that soon these young boys would put on the ochre robe of renunciation and go forth in quest of God, begging what food was necessary from householders. The Master himself initiated them as monks - thus fulfilling their heart’s desire. 

Now we come to the greatest moment of Naren’s sadhana, the very crest and glory of his spiritual realizations. Naren was pining for a vision of the Absolute. He prayed to feel Divinity. To lose the “I” in the vastness of Consciousness which is beyond thought - was Narendra  Nath’s intense desire. Long did he pray to Sri Ramakrishna for this realization. One evening, however, it came unexpectedly. As he was meditating, he lost all body-consciousness and his mind plunged into the superconscious state. It was a state of Nirvikalpa Samadhi. 

Referring to this incident Sri Ramakrishna said afterwards, .I have prayed that the Divine Mother may keep this realization of the Absolute veiled from Naren. There is much work to be done by him. But this veil is so very thin that it may give way at any time.. It was because of Naren’s intense desire to realize the Absolute Brahman that Sri Ramakrishna decided to give that experience to him. But the Master had no intention of permitting him to stay there, since much work was waiting for Narendra Nath. Three or four days before his passing away, Sri Ramakrishna called Naren near and actually commissioned him for future work. It was on August 16, 1886, that Sri Ramakrishna passed away leaving his disciples in deep gloom. After the death of the Master, Naren began to organize these disciples into a monastic brotherhood. He went to the homes of those boys who had resumed their studies, and, by a whirlwind of enthusiasm, tried to induce them to return to Baranagore where the first monastery of the Ramakrishna Order was started. Once at the monastery, they could not resist the spiritual impetus of Naren’s  songs and thrilling conversations. One by one the young disciples joined together and ultimately banded themselves into a holy brotherhood under the inspiring leadership of Narendra Nath. The boys were now in the midst of extreme privations. They were so determined in their desire to follow the injunctions of the Master that, forgetting sleep, they spent night after night in prayer and spiritual exercises. Naren always spurred them on to burning renunciation and intense devotion. Hours were also consumed in the study of philosophy, both Eastern and Western, to intensify their struggle for the realization of the highest Truth. All who came within the sphere of their influence were also caught up in their spirit of God-intoxication. With the delight of a martyr these monks practiced the severest of spiritual austerities, and the world had no meaning for them at that time. Some time during this period they performed the sacred Viraja ceremony and formally took the vows of lifelong celibacy and poverty, dedicating their lives to the realization of God. The old names were changed for new ones to complete their severance from their earlier life and its associations.