PRESIDENT IN PAIN ... MAHARAJ PASSES AWAY

Long ago Swami Premeshananda had made this epic observation that each and every abbot of the Belur Math, that is, the President of the Ramakrishna Order or the President Maharaj, is the embodiment of Sri Ramakrishna in much the same way as every year's image of Mother Durga is the representation of the Universal Mother. In keeping with this statement which was veritably an utterance profound, it is now common tradition to look upon the President Maharaj as Ramakrishna-incarnate or, as some would like to rationalize it down, the highest representation of the Master on earth. President Maharaj is, thus, the living form of Thakur, his will made flesh, his spirit infused into the corporeal frame of a realized soul of the highest order, the instrument of the Divine.

And, today, he suffers. Swami Atmasthananda, the 15th President of the Ramakrishna Order, disciple of Swami Vijnanananda who was a direct disciple of Sri Ramakrishna, is battling with life. As the nonagenarian sage suffers in his intensive care unit bed and hangs on to physical life on our behalf through the slender means of a ventilator, we may only pray for his recovery if Thakur so wills it, or else, pray that he should be relieved of pain. On the 15th of this month he visited Belur Math to bestow sannyas to aspirants who had become eligible and returned the following day with the rigours of the exertion. Chest and urinary infection followed and the 97 year old monk took upon himself the karmic onslaught of initiation into monasticism of these blessed ones even as the latter have, by his supreme sacrifice, been directed towards God-realization. One is reminded of Dadhichi Muni (the sage Dadhichi) who had sacrificed his bones for the making of the 'vajra' (the divine thunder weapon) of Indra (king of the gods) with which he proposed to kill the demons who were usurping power and creating chaos in the ordered world of the gods. Today, Atmasthanandaji has been a living testimony to this ancient tale of India as he has set up on their spiritual feet so many of the future sages of the Ramakrishna Order in a gesture of supreme sacrifice. Who would have ever imagined that the Swami, bed-ridden totally for over a year with so many ailments besetting him, would venture to engage himself perhaps for the last time to give initiation to would-be monks? Verily, it may be said that Swami Atmasthananda has attained to the fullness of his being as he has drained the last vestiges of his spiritual power into the blossoming buds of his monastic brotherhood. Now, his work is over it seems as he lingers on in his terrestrial existence to exhaust the traces of his good karma that cling to him as so much benediction for fallen humanity. And, through this all, he suffers! He suffers for us just as the Master did in his final illness at Kashipur. Let us pray for the assuaging of his pain and may he feel comforted that we shall not let him down! We shall continue to strive to usher in the age of truth and enlightenment which, verily, is the mission of the Master and which our beloved President Maharaj has ever held so close to his heart and given his everything to realise.

A final thought. Dear devotees, let us all join hands in serving the Mission which is so dear to our President Maharaj and, in so doing, we shall offer our sincere salutations at his hallowed feet. May he, who has given us so much peace throughout his blessed life, find perennial peace in Thakur! Om!

P.S. This essay was written on 28 April, 2016. Today is 18 June, 2017 and President Maharaj is no more. Or, shall we say, he has come ever so close to us in the sanctum sanctorum of our very hearts? Jai Ramakrishna!