Swami Vireshwarananda, 10th President of the Ramakrishna Order. A disciple of Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi, Vireshwaranandaji was the longest serving President after the first President Swami Brahmananda. He initiated 80,000 disciples and often invoked the youth to take up service in the Armed Forces for the defence of the motherland. A dynamo of spiritual power, Prabhu Maharaj as he was known to intimates, had at the age of five seen Swami Vivekananda in 1897 in Madras although he could not quite recall the incident in later life. He used to joke about it saying that although he did not remember having seen Swamiji, surely Swamiji must have seen him. This valiant soul, the endearing spiritual guide to so many lay and monastic disciples, compatriot to spiritual stalwarts and brother disciples like Swamis Abhayananda (Bharat Maharaj), Nityaswarupananda, Madhavananda and Dayananda, battled the dreaded cancer in his last years in an exemplary manner and eventually laid aside his mortal coil in 1985.
I still recall the crowd that had gathered on the day of his funeral at Belur Math. Around noon the crowd in its bid to catch a last glimpse of the departed Sangha Guru became unmanageable. Thousands thronged the lawns of Belur Math and stood on their heels to get a glimpse while dozens climbed the staircase of Swamiji's house to do the same. The upper storey was jam packed and so was the staircase. The crowd gathered up there so surged forward to catch a glimpse of the bedecked holy form of the departed saint that at one point it seemed to me that the railing of the staircase of Swamiji's house would give way under the piling pressure causing a catastrophe. However, things were alright in the end and the proceedings went off smoothly. The events of that momentous day have remained etched in my memory and so have so many other scenes linked to the great Swami in his final years on earth when I had the privilege of meeting him.
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