This universe is a layered structure. So is any monastic order. The difference lies in the reference point alone, the terminus being the same for both. In the universal case one starts from the grossest layer of dense matter where tamas prevails whereas in the case of a monastic order the reference point is in a far more subtle region of rajas and sattwa. The Order of the Master in a like manner is layered from the outermost fringes of the fumbling novice to the sanctum sanctorum where the Master is seated in His perennial grandeur, eternal resplendence. There the Order is one with Him with the Apostles in direct communion with their Lord. From the alpha to the omega of the Order is one constant progression of closer and closer identification with the Master till identity is realized. Swami Vivekananda had famously given utterance to the fact that the Order is the Master's vast body. So true it is for the Master represented the gamut of human spiritual aspirations and the Order is potentially the sum total of such aspirations. Right now it is the nucleus of the spiritual consciousness of the world and the disciples of Vivekananda testify that the Swami had said that it is to remain so for 1500 years since the advent of the Master ( Ramakrishna ). Miss Josephine MacLeod had said 900 years though. Be that as it may, the fact remains that the Order of the Master will continue to play a pivotal role in shaping the spiritual consciousness of the world for a long long time to come.
This prophecy of Vivekananda must and will fulfil but it ought not to allow any to lapse into a false sense of security and its concomitant evil, a lack of spiritual commitment or missionary zeal. Things do not fulfil of themselves. They have to be fulfilled by hard labour, a labour of love, a love that wells up from the spiritual springs embedded in the heart of the devotee where the sovereign Lord dwells. It is the gravest injustice to the Master's Cause to lapse into spiritual passivity as this is completely in contradistinction to what the great Swami Vivekananda preached and practised throughout his life and what in consequence leonine monks like Ketaki Maharaj ( Swami Prabhananda Senior ), Swami Kalyanananda, Swami Nishchayananda and a galaxy of other illumined monks of the Order have followed and lived with their lives' blood. Atamano mokshartham jagaddhitayacha ( for the liberation of the Self and world-welfare )---this is the motto of the Ramakrishna Order as enunciated by Swami Vivekananda. In other words, for the perception of the eternally liberated state of the Self and for the spiritual regeneration of humankind the monks and lay devotees of the Order are enjoined to live their lives. But the catholic spirit of the Mission embraces all of humanity and it therefore is a spiritual imperative of the Order to look after the material well-being of the poor and the downtrodden teeming millions who barely suffer the terrestrial existence the privileged few enjoy as life. It will not do to philosophize their misery off for they are our very selves, our flesh and blood, our sisters and brothers, our objects of adoration, the very God we worship, the Master and the Mother incarnate. If any of us chooses to neglect them, to abandon them in their devastated physical states, then he makes the gravest error for he knows not that all around is the Master in His myriad guises seeking our service in His terrestrial play. To refuse help to these suffering millions while piling up millions in our coffers for our ''own ones'' is not only inhuman but is anti-human and augurs not well for the offending soul. For what you sow returns to you as the fruit of your action. The law of Karma is inviolable and it is therefore meet that one acts in accordance with humanistic impulses and not selfish propensities. The masses have suffered for ages and continue to suffer so not because Thakur wills it so but because we the privileged few choose in our conceited ' omniscience ' to devise false philosophy to convince our rotting conscience against adopting effective measures to stem the rot in human society whose worst symptom is the abject poverty of the multitude.
Time it is therefore that we stop quoting Ramakrishna-Vivekananda and the lot to suit our nefarious selfishness and read correctly into the meaning and significance of their lives. That Thakur's work never stops for money is the slogan of devotee dear. I wish that such devoted ones peruse through the life of Swamiji and his brothers in the Baranagar Math days and thereafter, Holy Mother's plight in getting two square meals a day and the Almora fainting of Swamiji from starvation for days when a Muslim fakir saved his life by feeding him a ' kankri '. All through Swamiji's life he was frustrated at the lack of charitable spirit both in the West as well as in his homeland India till he burst out saying, " So long as the millions live in hunger and ignorance I hold every man a traitor who having been educated at their expense pays not the least heed to them." This was Vivekananda, a dynamic monk, a prophet, a patriot, a citizen of the world, nay, the entire universe, the flute in the hands of Ramakrishna with which He played His vesper song, the symphony of the Soul. Never for once did the Swami make such abject excuses for his inability to alleviate the misery of the masses as the Will of the Master. Rather his leonine heart bled with the bleeding hearts of the millions in sympathy with them, nay, out of love for these divinities who had none to look forward to for help, whom even it seemed that God had forsaken. Swamiji lived and died for them and we wish to live lives of ease and comfort by stealing the very basis of subsistence from our brothers ? Reflect dear devotees, these are our very selves who we let suffer, our own ones who we let die, our sisters and brothers !
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