In the year 1932, with the aim of providing proper health care to pregnant women and infants, a unique institution was founded by the untiring efforts of Revered Swami Dayanandaji Maharaj in a small tin shed, ' Shishu Mangal Pratishthan '. Swami Gahanananda was now transferred to this maternity hospital. Here were spent the next 27 years of Naresh Maharaj's life, as the Assistant Secretary for the first 5 years and then as the Secretary for the next 22 years. Many years ago Sri Ramakrishna had articulated his golden principle of ' Shiva-jnaney jiva-seva ' and Swamiji had in a flash discovered in it the grand formulation of Practical Vedanta which in later years he immortalized as ' Atmano mokshartham jagadhhitayacha ' and made it the motto of the Ramakrishna Math and the Ramakrishna Mission. Gahananandaji now in the thick of it, learning the intricacies of Karma Yoga, Seva Yoga, Practical Vedanta, Work as Worship, call it what you may. Swamiji had experienced the misery of India in his travels through the length and breadth of the land and vowed to raise Her, this Motherland of ours, to Her pristine position in the comity of nations. Here in this hospital, Swami Gahanananda came across such misery of disease, death and suffering that it became for him a veritable schooling in the ideals of modern monasticism as laid down by Swamiji, his golden principles of ' Renunciation and Service '. India met him at his doorstep in the hospital in all her naked necessities and the monk in meeting such needs of his Mother evolved into the sage whose mercy in a'fer years knew no bounds.
From 1958 to 1963 Swami Gahanananda was the Assistant Secretary of Shishu Mangal Pratishthan. Thereafter, he was appointed the Secretary of the hospital and during this period dating from 1963 to 1985 he brought about profound changes in the hospital such that from a small maternity and child-care medical facility it became a large 550 bed general hospital renamed ' The Ramamkrishna Mission Seva Pratishthan '. Naresh Maharaj's vision and untiring labour brought about this transformation largely. Today, another 50 beds have been added and a modern annexe building called ' The Adhish Chandra Memorial Building ' which Gahananandaji in his last year on earth inaugurated before seeking final rest in his celestial abode.
Thakur, it seems, had chosen Gahananandaji for a singular mission, to serve him in the sick and the diseased. Following Swamiji's vision, Maharaj also built up Seva Pratishthan gradually into a premier medical facility of the city, a full-fledged general hospital from its initial hesitant beginnings as a maternity and child-care unit. Difficulties were many that he had to overcome, monetary as well as administrative, especially staff turbulence at times, but through it all, the inspiration of Thakur-Ma-Swamiji and the venerable Swami Dayanandaji carried him along in his endeavour to reach out to more and more of the suffering mass of humanity in the city. The departments of Medicine, Surgery, Gynaecology, Neurology and a few others came into being one by one.
Gahananandaji felt that the Seva Pratishthan could be a premier medical institution only if it provided, along with medical treatment to patients, university education to would-be doctors and nurses, and research facilties to advanced medical students. The fruition of his vision was the birth of the ' Vivekananda Institute of Medical Sciences '. Besides this, a high quality Nurses' Training Course and several Paramedical Courses came into being. Each of these endeavours have over time grown from their humble beginnings into institutions of repute.
Gahananandaji also organized services such as the treatment of the poor ailing people in remote villages using the Mobile Medical Unit, Eye Operation Camps, Relief Work during the Gangasagar Mela, and, at a most critical period in the sub-continent's history, treatment to countless refugees who crossed over to West Bengal during the Bangladesh War.
Adapted by Sugata Bose from Swami Gahanananda, a Belur Math publication, 16 November, 2007.
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