BACK TO RAMAKRISHNA ... 6
Swami Achyutananda, a marvellous monk, pleasing personality and a lovely spiritual presence coupled with an exceptional erudition in the Bhakti Shastras (Hindu scriptural texts on devotion), overall an inspiring figure suffused with love for the Holy Trinity of Thakur-Ma-Swamiji, remains a leading light of the Ramakrishna order, one of the the youngest and brightest spiritual orders of significance in the world. Those who have been fortunate enough to listen to his discourses are blessed indeed. Those who have not, may watch him come alive on his recorded discourses available on YouTube.
It is these luminous beings like Swami Achyutananda that keep the flame of Ramakrishna, often flickering in the material breeze, from getting extinguished. They provide the spiritual basis of the Order laid down by the Master himself in his Dakshineshwar days and later nourished to greater fullness by the Holy Mother, Swamiji, Raja Maharaj and the other fifteen direct disciples including Tulsi Maharaj, that dynamic apostle of the Master to the South. The Order has thrived on the secure foundation laid by these leading lights of the Age and continues to do so even today, courtesy the representative grace of such seminal figures as Swami Achyutananda.
The Master had in no uncertain terms stressed repeatedly, and tirelessly so, that the soul of spirituality lay in the renunciation of 'woman and gold', a translation of what he in his vernacular Bengali had said, 'kamini-kanchan'. This in today's context of worldwide women's liberation could very well be misconstrued as the Master's sexist approach to the problem of self-restraint but need not be thus misread for he showed utmost worshipful reverence to all women, including his own wife who has testified to this effect unequivocally, and he beheld all women as embodiment of his Divine Mother Adyashakti Kali. However, women who tend to feel offended at this warning of the Master must remember that the instruction for men and not for women who he exhorted to keep at arm's length from all men in order to pursue pure spirituality. The soul of the Master's spiritual emphasis, nonetheless, lay in the aspirant's absolute renunciation of 'woman and gold', should he have monastic pretensions, and qualified renunciation in case he wished to lead the householder devotee's life.
It is in the purity of living that spiritual energy is generated in the system and this is how the Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission have transformed themselves gradually into a powerhouse of spirituality and a massive centre for world welfare. The Master's Mission stands on the foundation of this spiritual purity which no commercial contamination or political hobnobbing can undo, even if they seem to be carrying course for the while. The Mission is secure on its rock-like foundation laid down by Swamiji and will not be long swayed from course in its mountainous detour carrying the concourse with it. It is a large order and aberrations are bound to be form time to time hither and thither but the central message of the Master has not been lost and the Mission will survive temporary lapses to lead humanity unto the sunlit path of freedom.
But the Mission must always be on its guard and must heed complaints coming from the lay public as to its dealings and dispensations. Such feedback, perhaps mostly puerile and unworthy of rumination, nonetheless, if heeded, will keep the Mission on track and in resonant sympathy with the multitude who it represents.
Swamiji had laid down this Order and had laid down his life for it. These are words we are often reminded of in lectures delivered by the monastics of the Order but this intense suffering of a lifetime which Swamiji had endured must every moment be remembered by the monks of the Order as well. Only then will Swamiji's suffering translate into fruitful world welfare. Otherwise, it will have a restrictive field of operation and people outside of its ambit will scarce benefit from Swamiji's life-giving message. [ The pun in the word 'life-giving' must not be disregarded. ]
Here we must revert to Ramakrishna, and what better way to do so than to seek guidance from revered souls like Swami Achyutananada who have found the Master in the midst of their hearts and can relay to us his broader message. These fresh fountains of spiritual fruition, these holy waters of the Himalayan heights, these living-free souls in constant communion with the Core Consciousness - yes, these seminal ones must be approached in the spirit of the Kathopanishad that enjoins aspirants to 'arise, awake and approach the great ones who have realised the Truth, having trodden the razor's edge of a path that is arduous of access'. These silent witnesses of the Eternal Witness must be made to speak and deliver unto us their experiences of the Master and the Mother and, so, deliver us from 'ignorance and sin'. And in such a homecoming will be our journey 'back to Ramakrishna'.
Written by Sugata Bose
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