August 22, 2024
Author: Sohini R. Chaudhuri
Country: India
Photo credit: Belur Math media gallery
SUMMARY
The legacy of twin organizations, Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission, which identify themselves as non-political, non-sectarian spiritual organizations, dedicated to serve man, without discriminating against anyone on the basis of caste, religion or race, continues. Since the last decade of the nineteenth century, disciples of Sri Ramakrishna, one of the most revered spiritual leaders of the world, have been relentlessly offering selfless service for the upliftment of the downtrodden and overall betterment of the society. Here’s a brief history of how Sri Ramakrishna disseminated his teachings to his disciples who later established the Mission with the blessings of their Holy Mother. On 11 September 1893 at the World’s Parliament of Religions held in Chicago, USA Swamiji addressed his audience as, “Sisters and brothers of America” and ushered a new era rooted in the universal brotherhood in a world which was divided by wars and racial discrimination. I believe the ideals of these organizations and their contribution to the society serving millions of people for more than 125 years perfectly epitomize the essence of SDG 17 - Partnerships for the goals.
BACKGROUND
The Rising Sun:
In the nineteenth century India was a British colony, shrouded in the dense fog of superstition, blind faith and bigotry. Exploitation in the hands of foreign rulers kept the illiterate countrymen helplessly repressed under the eternal darkness of colonial reign. After a long bleak winter, Spring of 1836 blessed Khudiram Chattopadhyay and his wife Chandramani Devi with a baby boy, Gadadhar, whom the world would later know as Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, on an auspicious day in the month of February at dawn. The family were poor and devout Brahmins, residing in a small village, Kamarpukur, located about sixty miles northwest of Kolkata, (erstwhile Calcutta, the glamorous capital city of British India). Sixteen years later, Gadadhar’s eldest brother, Ramkumar Chattopadhyay brought him to Calcutta in the quest of livelihood as a Hindu priest. Meanwhile, in 1855, Rani Rashmoni (rani is Bengali for queen), the wife of a prosperous Bengali zamindar, built a temple at Dakshineswar, sprawling across a vast expanse of land along the banks of the holy river Ganga. She appointed the Chattopadhyay brothers as priests in her temple. Following the sudden death of Ramkumar, Gadadhar took charge of Dakshineswar Kali temple as the head priest. Soon the temple became one of the most revered shrines of the country and Gadadhar became everyone’s beloved Thakur Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa (thakur is the Bengali word for God and Paramahamsa is the Sanskrit word for the enlightened/ supreme soul).
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Harmony among world religions:
Hinduism underwent significant revival through his spiritual teachings, replacing the cobweb of ritualistic grandeur and ceremonial extravagance with the ideals of austerity deeply rooted in the Upanishadic doctrines. He delegated his bunch of disciples with the duty of social service along with the attainment of spiritual practices. He underlined the responsibility of monks and spiritual leaders to show light to the deprived and the downtrodden instead of only dedicating their lives in life-long meditation and sadhana atop the mountains, isolated from human existence. While observing years of stringent spiritual practices and remaining in a state of divine ecstasy, Sri Ramakrishna explored other faiths, such as, Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, Sikhism, in his eternal quest of realizing God. He summarized his realization in a simple phrase, Yato mat, tato path, meaning “As many faiths, so many paths” in English. Despite the differences, paths of all faiths led to the one ultimate truth. Another paradigmatic shift he inculcated among his disciples was the doctrine, “Service to man is service to God” - “Shiva Jnane Jiva Seva”, “to serve Jiva as Shiva” (jiva meaning mortals and shiva is a form of God).
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Swami Vivekananda:
People started swarming like honeybees to Dakshineswar to experience Paramahamsa’s sublime nectar. He attracted people of all caste, creed and background. Both the established family men and the young, educated boys became his ardent devotees and spread his message. After Sri Ramakrishna left his mortal body in 1886, sixteen of his young disciples became monks and took the formal vows of Sannyasa and new names. The most popular name among them was Swami Vivekananda.
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Swami Vivekananda travelled across the length and breadth of India and witnessed the state of abject, misery and suffering of his poverty-stricken countrymen. He identified poverty, hunger and illiteracy to be the main causes behind India’s weak standing and consequent failure to seek freedom from the British rulers. According to him, the first and foremost task in the path of uplifting the oppressed was to install a sense of self-worth, self-respect and confidence in themselves. It was during his travels he felt the urgent need to establish an organization firmly based on the ideals of his master’s teaching to help the masses. He had received specific instructions from his guru (spiritual leader) Sri Ramakrishna to set up a new monastic order to serve the poor. On 11 September 1893 at the World’s Parliament of Religions held in Chicago, USA Swamiji addressed his audience as, “Sisters and brothers of America” and ushered a new era rooted in a sense of universal brotherhood in a world which was divided by wars and racial discrimination. Soon people of the western world hailed the young boy as the “orator by divine right”. Newspapers published articles on his immense popularity as an Indian monk spreading the knowledge of Vedanta and creating ripples across USA and London. In 1894 Swamiji formed the Vedanta Society of New York. Its web page stated, “Vedanta teaches that humanity’s real nature is divine, that the true object of human life is to unfold and manifest this divinity. Based on the Vedas, the ancient scriptures of India, Vedanta accepts all the religions of the world and reveres the great prophets, teachers and sons of God, because it recognizes the same divine inspiration in all. Vedanta is a way of living and realizing. It gives full freedom to each individual to evolve morally and spiritually according to his or her own faith and conviction. It offers different spiritual paths according to the nature of each individual.”
Ramakrishna Math and Mission
After three and a half years he returned to Calcutta and started working towards setting up an organization in the name of his guru in the service of man. Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission, the twin organizations, quoting from their website, “have set in motion a non-sectarian, universal spiritual movement which has been silently working for more than a hundred years to catalyze the spiritual regeneration of humanity. The ideology of Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission consists of the eternal principles of Vedanta as lived and experienced by Sri Ramakrishna and expounded by Swami Vivekananda. This ideology has three characteristics: it is modern in the sense that the ancient principles of Vedanta have been expressed in the modern idiom; it is universal, that is, it is meant for the whole humanity; it is practical in the sense that its principles can be applied in day-to-day life to solve the problems of life.” Serving millions of people through various means, from giving flood relief, free medical aid to setting up rehabilitation centers, from organizing tree plantation to value education workshops for children and youth development programs, Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission have been relentlessly contributing towards the attainment of 2030 Agenda and sustainable goal development even before the UN coined the term! There are fifteen Vedanta Society centers in the U.S. each operating as an official branch of the Ramakrishna Order. According to data collected till 1 June 2024, the Ramakrishna Math and the Ramakrishna Mission have 282 branch centers all over the world.
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The spiritual consort of Sri Ramakrishna:
Worshipped as the Holy Mother, Sri Maa Sarada was the wife of Sri Ramakrishna. She embraced all disciples, irrespective of their caste, creed, religion and even sinful deeds, with love and compassion in an age of religious orthodoxy and conservative restrictions for women. Defying superstition, she not only taught herself how to read and write but also took interest in the activities of the school for girls that Swami Vivekananda’s foreign disciple Sister Nivedita set up in Calcutta. “On account of her immaculate purity, extraordinary forbearance, selfless service, unconditional love, wisdom and spiritual illumination, Swami Vivekananda regarded Sri Sarada Devi as the ideal for women in the modern age. He believed that with the advent of the Holy Mother, the spiritual awakening of women in modern times had begun.”
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The 17th President and the legacy:
Swami Gautamanandaji Maharaj is the 17th President of the twin organizations - the Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission. Born in 1929 in Bengaluru, he received spiritual guidance from Swami Yatiswaranandaji Maharaj at the Bengaluru branch of the Ramakrishna Math in early 1950s. After taking vows of asceticism, his first major task was to promote education and all-round development among the tribal population at Ramakrishna Mission Sohra center, a remote village located in the Meghalaya region.
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In 1966 he returned to Belur Math where Swami Vireshwaranandaji Maharaj, the 10th President of the twin organizations, gave him sannyasa diksha and the name ‘Swami Gautamananda’. Since then he contributed tirelessly to the betterment of humankind and travelled extensively for the same. And the legacy continues. “...worldwide, non-political, non-sectarian spiritual organisations which have been engaged in various forms of humanitarian, social service activities for more than a century. Inspired by the ideals of renunciation and service, the monks and lay devotees of the Math and Mission serve millions of men, women and children, without any distinction of caste, religion or race, because they see the living God in them.”
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REFERENCES
From Belur Math media gallery:
From Dakshineswar Kali temple website:
From Vedanta Society website:
From Vedanta Society website:
From Belur Math media gallery:
From Sri Sri Matri Mandir & Ramakrishna Mission Sarada Sevashrama, Joyrambati website:
From Belur Math media gallery:
From Belur Math media gallery:
Information taken from the following websites:
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