Peace at last. What a protracted suffering for the redemption of suffering humanity! Veritably the soul of sacrifice even unto the very end. Most revered Srimat Swami Atmasthanandaji Maharaj (15th President, Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission) has folded his earthly vesture and set it aside. He is on his ethereal journey, a tired child seeking rest on the lap of the Mother. His departure time was 5:30 p.m., 18 June, 2017.
Born Satyakrishna Bhattacharya at Sabajpur in erstwhile East Bengal in May, 1919, disciple of Sri Ramakrishna's direct disciple Swami Vijnanananda, Swami Atmasthananda was one of the all-time luminaries of the Order notwithstanding the fact that he grew to be the President of the Order. With his demise an era ends as the last of the titans of the Order has seemingly passed away.
Atmasthanandaji was the witness to the consecration of the New Temple of Sri Ramakrishna at Belur Math in 1937 and had met and served several direct disciples of the Master, having been almost comically beaten by a stick by Kedar Baba (Swami Achalananda) into submission to becoming a monk at the age of 22 thereby relinquishing further academic pursuit at the post-graduate level.
The boy Satyakrishna used to play marbles at his Sabajpur ancestral house with Swami Akhandananda, a direct disciple of Sri Ramakrishna. Anecdotes like this keeping flooding the corridors of my mind. There is so much to say and so little may yet be said now as we line up to pay our last respects this night and the morrow to follow whereupon his mortal remains will be consigned to the flames beside the Ganga at the sacred cremation site of Belur Math. My last reverence to this early spiritual mentor of mine with a final prostration (pranam) at his hallowed feet.
Born Satyakrishna Bhattacharya at Sabajpur in erstwhile East Bengal in May, 1919, disciple of Sri Ramakrishna's direct disciple Swami Vijnanananda, Swami Atmasthananda was one of the all-time luminaries of the Order notwithstanding the fact that he grew to be the President of the Order. With his demise an era ends as the last of the titans of the Order has seemingly passed away.
Atmasthanandaji was the witness to the consecration of the New Temple of Sri Ramakrishna at Belur Math in 1937 and had met and served several direct disciples of the Master, having been almost comically beaten by a stick by Kedar Baba (Swami Achalananda) into submission to becoming a monk at the age of 22 thereby relinquishing further academic pursuit at the post-graduate level.
The boy Satyakrishna used to play marbles at his Sabajpur ancestral house with Swami Akhandananda, a direct disciple of Sri Ramakrishna. Anecdotes like this keeping flooding the corridors of my mind. There is so much to say and so little may yet be said now as we line up to pay our last respects this night and the morrow to follow whereupon his mortal remains will be consigned to the flames beside the Ganga at the sacred cremation site of Belur Math. My last reverence to this early spiritual mentor of mine with a final prostration (pranam) at his hallowed feet.
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