The 14th and the 15th Presidents of the Ramakrishna Order, Srimat Swami Gahananandaji Maharaj (facing right) and Srimat Swami Atmasthanandaji Maharaj (facing left). These two stalwarts of the Order have given shape in many a way to what we now know as the Ramakrishna Movement.
Gahananandaji, disciple of Srimat Swami Virajanandaji Maharaj who was the 6th President of the Order and a disciple himself of Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi, had served as the able assistant to another illustrious member of the Ramakrishna Order, Srimat Swami Dayanandaji Maharaj who had founded the Ramakrishna Mission Seva Pratishthan. Dayanandaji was a disciple of Holy Mother too and a brilliant student who after a stay of several years in the United States of America had returned with the mission of eliminating undue infant mortality. Comparing the death rates in USA and in India, he was mortified and resolved to do away with this scourge in India once and for all. He then pioneered a movement of maternity care promising to the Mission authorities that he would bear the burden of his life-care mission throughout his life. When his elder brother Shrimat Swami Madhavanandaji Maharaj, the 9th President of the Order attained mahasamadhi, the Mission authorities approached Swami Dayanandaji to assume the presidency of the Order but he humbly declined the offer remembering his earlier promise to the Order about looking after the Ramakrishna Mission Seva Pratishthan for his whole life. Such was the sacrifice these stalwarts of old made with effortless ease and it was at the feet of this sage that Swami Gahananandaji (Naresh Maharaj) learnt the art and science of running the Misison's maternity care unit.
Times were changing, Dayanandaji was growing old and he increasingly began depending on his able assistant in running the hospital till he relinquished responsibility of being Secretary in 1963 and handed over charge to the young and dynamic Gahanananda. For the next 22 years Gahananandaji guided the course of the hospital and with the blessings of his mentor built up a 550 bed general hospital. He had served the Seva Pratishthan from 1958 to 1985 and this was his active life's seminal contribution to the Order and to suffering humanity. Later, as Vice-President and then President of the Order, Gahananandaji initiated over 142,000 aspirants with the sacred mantra and changed the course of the lives of this vast body of disciples towards the highest end of human life, God-realization. His inspirational life serves even today as a beacon for us all who have seen him and have been blessed by him as we navigate through the turbulent sea of life.
SWAMI ATMASTHANANDA
Atmasthanandaji, our beloved President Maharaj, who is ailing and is now in a most critical state in Ramakrishna Mission Seva Pratishthan, is the other titan of the order of recent times. Born in Sabajpur in erstwhile East Bengal in 1919, he came over to Calcutta to do his university studies when he was caught in the wondrous web of the peerless Paramahamsa and after initiation from Shrimat Swami Vijananandaji Maharaj, the 4th President of the Order and a direct disciple of Sri Ramakrishna, he joined the Order at the behest of Kedar Baba (Swami Achalananda). Soon he was afforded the opportunity to serve the then President of the Order, Swami Virajanandaji as his personal attendant. He received his brahmacharya and sannyas vows from him.
Atmasthanandaji, commonly called Satyakrishna Maharaj, initially served at the headquarters of the Ramakrishna Order at Belur Math, the branch centre of Deoghar Vidyapith and in the Mayavati Advaita Ashrama. He remained in the holy company of Swami Virajananda for several years at the Shyamla Tal Ashrama as well. Thereafter, in 1952 he was posted to Ramakrishna Mission Ranchi TB Sanatorium as Assistant Secretary. In 1958 he was transferred by the Mission authorities to Rangoon Sevashrama where he had to take up charge as Secretary. Such was the dexterity in work of Swami Atmasthananda that soon the Sevasharma became unarguably the finest hospital in Burma. However, with the advent of military rule in Burma, the hospital was brought under the control of the forces and Swami Atmasthananda bid adieu to Burma.
He returned home in 1965 and was posted to Rajkot the following year as administrative head of the centre. His most glorious contribution here was the building up of the beautiful Ramakrishna Temple of Rajkot Ashrama. Elected trustee of Ramakrishna Math and member of the Governing Body of Ramakrishna Mission in 1973, Swami Atmasthananda became an integral part of the administration of the twin organisation. In 1975 he was promoted to the rank of Assistant Secretary of Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission. Soon he was given the charge of Relief Operations of the organisation and made its Secretary. It is said that it was he who organised the entire relief system of the Mission into a highly efficient modern scientific system which could deliver help in times of natural calamity with speed and energy adequate to the exigencies of the times.
Thereafter, General Secretary in 1992, Vice President in 1997 and President of the Ramakrishna Order in 2007 following the mahasamadhi of Swami Gahanananda, Swami Atmasthananda held sway over Mission matters till yesterday when at 5.30 p.m. he breathed his last at Ramakrishna Mission Seva Pratishthan, Kolkata. His mortal coil will remain in state at Belur Math overnight and will be cremated today at the sacred cremation site in the Math overlooking the Ganga. Millions have been left orphaned by this tragic loss to humanity, no less the Prime Minister for whom the departed soul has over five decades been spiritual counsellor and guide. Our prostrations at the lotus feet of Swami Atmasthananda. Jai Ramakrishna! Jai Ma!
No comments:
Post a Comment