GAHANANANDA 1

Some monks were on their way to the Ramakrishna Mission Ashrama at Sarisha by car. En route the car broke down. A monk alighted from the car and quietly walked off beyond the green meadows by the wayside. After a couple of hours the car was repaired and the monks went in search of the aforesaid monk.There they found him seated unperturbed under a tree discoursing with some villagers about spiritual life. This monk was none other than Swami Gahananandaji Maharaj who later became the venerable 14th President of the Ramakrishna Order.

Swami Gahanananda was born Nareshranjan Roychoudhury on October 4, 1916, on the auspicious Durgashtami Day to Sukhamayi Devi and Rajkrishna Roychoudhury in a village called Pahadpur in Sylhet in the then undivided Bengal. They were four brothers--Rakeshranjan, Sureshranjan, Bireshranjan and Nareshranjan.

Naresh studied till Class 8 in Comilla and up to Class 10 in Narayanganj. Even as a boy he evinced a keen interest in Ramakrishna-Vivekananda literature and was inspired by the glowing lives of a few monks of the Ramakrishna Order. Two of his cousins, Ketakiranjan (later Swami Prabhananda-Senior) and Pramodranjan (Brahmachari Pramod) left indelible impressions of renunciation and service on his sensitive mind which led him eventually into the self-same path.

Ketaki Maharaj had immersed himself in the service of the tribal people of Khasiya and Jayanthia hills.Excessive exertion ruined his health and he finally returned to Pahadpur where he succumbed to his illness prematurely at the age of only 38. Nareshranjan served the dying swami with utmost devotion.

After class hours Nareshranjan was in the habit of visiting his brother's shop at Tantania.It was called ' Swadeshi Shilpa Bhandar'. On the day of its inauguration it was Naresh who handed out the first cash memo to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. 

Naresh was privileged to hear Miss Josephine Macleod at the Albert Hall during the birth centenary celebrations of Sri Ramakrishna.Around this time he also was blessed with the "darshan" of Swami Abhedananda at Mechhuabazar.

Probably in 1938 Nareshranjan visited Belur Math and Dakshineswar for the first time. In his own words," I went to Belur Math on Vijaya Dasami day.Thakur's new temple was still under construction.From Belur Math we proceeded to Dakshineswar. I could not meet Swami Vijnanananda or other senior monks of the Order."

Naresh could no longer oversee his brother's business as his mind became increasingly absorbed in the thought of ameliorating the suffering of the afflicted, the poor, the sick and the downtrodden. Soon his brother became aware of the fact that he was frequenting the Advaita Ashrama at Wellington Lane. He told him, " If you wish to become a monk,then become a monk of calibre."

Adapted by Sugata Bose from Swami Gahanananda, a Belur Math publication, 16 November, 2007.