SWĀMI SRIDHARĀNANDA IS NO MORE, NAY, IS EVERMORE WITH US

SWĀMI SRIDHARĀNANDA IS NO MORE, NAY, IS EVERMORE WITH US

Swāmi Sridharānanda, disciple and personal attendant of Swāmi Virajānanda, has passed away. So I hear and feel sad about. A luminous being. A monk of remarkable erudition, jovial, humorous, affectionate and of harmonic, musical disposition. His reminiscence of his Guru is one of the best reminiscences that I have ever heard, an experience that instantly endeared him to me. Such seminal souls are becoming scarcer by the day, the lights dimming one by one as we enter into the phase of puerile pastimes, theirs being the epoch of historic churning when 'a nation, long suppressed', was finding its footing with uncertain steps in the comity of nations. To that aspirational end Swāmi Sridharānanda had contributed his mite with his engaging ministration, his final one at Sydney. 

As the Swāmi departs for his heavenly abode, I pay my last respects to him by sending from afar my humble prostration at his earthly form, now lying in state and awaiting the final rites, I believe. 

Swāmi Sridharānanda was disciple dedicated, attendant alert to his spiritual preceptor, Swāmi Virajānanda, and to the great Swāmi Shāntānanda as well when the latter was suffering from tuberculosis, a dreadful, killing, infectious disease then in the 1950s. These great sages had showered their love and benediction on the young novice and later monk which later fructified in his long life of distinguished monastic ministration. 

Sridharānandaji was frank, articulate, possessed of great diction and a keen intellect, learned, rational and insightful. He had a massive frame, a sizeable head and great bearing. Overall, a formidable figure, a mighty man, but of gentle, genial disposition. I dare say, such a monk is rare indeed in our world of modest means and mediocre mettle and to have lost one such truly means a loss to all who knew him personally and to countless others who had been in communion with him through the viewing of his speeches and discourses delivered online. 

We will miss you, Maharaj. Never, perhaps, in our lives it will be that such a one as you shall grace our lives with that lovely smile of yours full of boyish mischief writ large on your face and in that characteristic glint in your eyes. Farewell and fare you well in your onward journey en route perhaps once more to us to bless us again. Else, linger in our fondest memory freshened each day by the fragrance of your spiritual self, so true, so rare, so emblematic of the Holy Trinity who had consumed your life even as they blessed you with eternal life in return. Hari 🕉 Tat Sat!

Written by Sugata Bose

The beauty of life is that it recurs in cyclical pattern till phenomenal life itself is transcended and the absolute existence reached in Self-revelation transcending time.

Photo: Swami Sridharananda who at 100 years laid his form to temporary rest before he returns to do the bidding of his Master Sri Ramakrishna in his newer incarnation that is soon to manifest before our material eyes.