Monastic Disciples of Sri Ramakrishna
Swami Abhedananda was one of those rare souls who gathered around the magnetic personality of Sri Ramakrishna at Dakshineswar and afterwards became instrumental in the fulfilment of his divine mission. The name by which the Swami was known before his taking orders was Kaliprasad Chandra, he was born on 2 October 1866, in an enlightened family at Ahiritola in Calcutta.
‘Latu is the greatest miracle of Sri Ramakrishna’, Swamiji once said with reference to Swami Adbhutananda. ‘Having absolutely no education, he has attained to the highest wisdom simply at the touch of the Master.’
Swami Advaitananda in his pre-monastic days was known as Gopal Chandra Ghosh. He was the oldest of the monastic disciples of Sri Ramakrishna, being older than even the Master by a few years. Besides, as there were two Gopals, Sri Ramakrishna would address Swami Advaitananda as ‘aged Gopal’ while others would call him Gopalda or Gopal the elder brother.
Swami Akhandananda, or Gangadhar Ghatak, as he was called in his pre-monastic life, was born on 30 September 1864, in Calcutta. Even from his boyhood he was of a deeply religious turn of mind and had extremely orthodox habits.
One day Sri Ramakrishna saw a vision which threw his whole body into a shiver. He saw that the Divine Mother pointed out to him a boy as being his son. How could he have a son? The very idea was death to him!
Swami Niranjanananda was one of those few disciples whom Sri Ramakrishna termed as Nityasiddhas or Ishwarakotis —that is, souls who are perfect from their very birth and are not caught by Maya at any time. With particular reference to Niranjanananda, the Master once said that he was born with the characteristics of Rama inherent in him.
Sri Ramakrishna used to refer to half a dozen among his disciples as Ishwarakotis (divine and ever free); and to this select group belonged Swami Premananda. Talent and greatness, like cream, do not always float on the top; oftentimes they lie hidden like gems in the dark caves of the sea. And though the aroma of this saint of angelic beauty and sweetness did not travel beyond a small circle of devotees and acquaintances, yet he occupies a place of great eminence among the children of Sri Ramakrishna.
Even while Swamiji (Swami Vivekananda) was in the midst of his arduous labours in the West, he realized that more important work was awaiting him in India. When the great leader returned to the motherland and made his triumphal tour from Colombo to Almora, it was in the city of Madras that he first intimated to eager listeners his plan of campaign.
One day at Dakshineswar Sri Ramakrishna in a state of ecstasy sat on the lap of a young man and said afterwards, ‘I was testing how much weight he could bear.’ The young man was none other than Sharat Chandra, and the burden he had to bear in later life as the Secretary of the Ramakrishna Math and Mission required superhuman strength.
Swami Shivananda, more popularly known as Mahapurush Maharaj, was a personality of great force, rich in distinctive colour and individual quality. His leonine stature and dauntless vigour, his stolid indifference to praise or blame, his spontaneous moods and his profound serenity in times of storm and stress, invested with a singular appropriateness his monastic name which recalls the classical attributes of the great god Shiva.
The early name of Swami Subodhananda was Subodh Chandra Ghosh. He was born in Calcutta on 8 November 1867 and belonged to the family of Shankar Ghosh, who owned the famous Kali temple at Kalitala (Thanthania), Calcutta. His father was a very pious man and fond of religious books; his mother also was of a very religious disposition.
The family name of Swami Trigunatitananda was Sarada Prasanna Mitra. He was born in an aristocratic family of 24 Parganas on 30 January 1865. His parents believed that Sarada was born to them through the grace of the Divine Mother Durga, and therefore they named the child after Her.
Each disciple of Sri Ramakrishna was great in his own way. Each had superb qualities which dazzled those who witnessed them. Swami Turiyananda was a blazing fire of renunciation. To be near him was to feel the warmth of his highly developed spiritual personality.
Swami Vijnanananda, before he took orders, was known by the name of Hariprasanna Chattopadhyaya. He was born on 30 October 1868, in a respectable family of Belgharia, which is within a couple of miles of Dakshineswar. When studying in the first or second class of a High school, Hariprasanna saw Sri Ramakrishna at Dewan Govinda Mukherji’s house.
At the time when Sri Ramakrishna was attracting devotees— old and young—to the temple-garden at Dakshineswar, a young man in his teens, belonging to a neighbouring family, used to visit the garden of Rani Rasmani. He had read of Sri Ramakrishna in the literature of the Brahmo Samaj; but his aristocracy and rural prejudice stood in the way of any personal acquaintance.
