The charismatic monk

While January is being observed across the world as 159th birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda, Ramakrishna Mission will also be celebrating its centenary on May 1, 2022.

Swami Vivekananda had called a meeting at 3 pm at the house of Balaram Bose and set up the Ramakrishna Mission. The house of Bose is now known as Balaram Mandir. Swami Bramhananda became the first president and Swami Saradananda became the general secretary. Interestingly, Swamiji did not take any post.

During its long journey, RKM witnessed the transfer of capital from Kolkata to Delhi, the two World Wars, famine, Partition of India and is now battling to provide relief to the people suffering from the pandemic. RKM is one of the few organizations in the world that has survived for a century with the magic words being selfless service — "Freedom of the self for the good of the world."

To understand Vivekananda, it is absolutely necessary to understand his concept of inclusiveness. In the inaugural lecture of the World Parliament of Religions which was held in Chicago on September 11, 1893, Swamiji said "I am proud to belong to a religion which has taught the world both tolerance and universal acceptance…I am proud to belong to a nation which has sheltered the persecuted and the refugees of all nations of the earth." Again, on September 19, Swamiji presented his Paper on Hinduism wherein he said: "To gain this infinite universal individuality, this miserable little prison-in individuality must go."

30-year-old Swamiji gave a new concept of universal religion. He categorically said: "The Hindu may have failed to carry out all his plans, but if there is ever to be a universal religion, it must be one which will have no location in place or time; which will be infinite like the God it will preach, and whose sun will shine upon the followers of Krishna and of Christ, on saints and sinners alike; which will not be Brahminic or Buddhistic, Christian or Mohammedan, but the sum total of all these, and still have infinite space for development. It will be a religion which will have no place for persecution or intolerance in its polity, which will recognize divinity in every man and woman, and whose scope, whose whole force, will be centered in aiding humanity to realize its own true, divine nature."

After returning to India from the West in January 1897, Vivekananda delivered a lecture at the Rameswaram temple on real worship where he said: "He who sees Shiva in the poor, in the weak and in the diseased, really worships Shiva; and if he sees Shiva only in the image, his worship is but preliminary."

Within a fortnight after the setting up of RKM, Swami Akhandanandaji opened a centre to look after the orphans at Mahula village in Sargachi, Murshidabad on May 15, 1897. Forgetting his thirst and hunger, he remained busy serving the little kids who had no one to look after. He did not have money and went on begging for them. Swamiji inspired him to carry on with his work. In a letter dated July 10, 1897 from Almora to Swami Bramhananda, Swamiji mentioned Akhananandaji's work.

In a letter to Swami Ramakrishnananda, written from the United States in 1894 summer, Swamiji urged his brother monks and disciples to find a place in Baranagar and bring children belonging to the economically challenged families to give them education. Use magic lanterns and tell them what is happening in different parts of the world. He told his friend and disciple, the Raja of Khetri, to start non-formal school in his area. Vivekananda congratulated the Raja of Mysore in a letter written in 1895 after he gave some rooms in his palace to open a school for the poor. Swamiji wrote "This life is short. The vanities of the world are all transient. But they alone live who live for others, the rest are more dead and alive." In a letter to Sarala Devi Choudhurani, editor of Bharati, he remarked that India was lagging behind the West because the poor did not get education. Swami ji saw that through Western education, attempts were made to make Indian students forget their heritage and become copycats.

To give positive views, Swamiji started two magazines, Prabuddha Bharat in English and Udbodhan in Bengali, which helped individuals to sharpen their intellect and intensify their feelings.

RKM stands on three pillars — education, service and spreading Indian philosophy, particularly Vedanta, in the West.

During Swamiji's lifetime, Swami Subhananda started a hospital in Varanasi which is still continuing. Swamiji's two disciples — Swami Kalyanananda and Swami Nischoyananda — started serving people at Kankhal in Haridwar. Initially they faced stiff resistance from local monks who thought that serving people suffering from diseases cannot be a part of religion. However, their views changed later, and they welcomed the monks.

Swamiji's brother monks — Swami Abhedananda and Swami Trigunatitananda — and his disciples Prakashananda and Bodhananda went to the West to spread Vedanta. Swami Ashokananda, Nikhilananda and Prababhananda took a leading role in spreading Indian philosophy in the United States.

RKM, in the past two decades, has spent not less than Rs 1,000 crores to provide education to the tribals in Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and Northeast. Hospitals have come up in Kolkata, Lucknow, Vrindaban and Kankhal to provide healthcare facilities at the cheapest.

During the cyclones Amphan and Yaas, as also during the pandemic, steps were taken to provide relief to the affected people. RKM is the only NGO in the country which has to its credit the setting up of a bridge connecting villages to the mainland of India in the east Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh. Swami Smaranandaji, who was then the general secretary and is now the President Maharaj, had inaugurated the bridge with Chandrababu Naidu — the then Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh.

Swamiji said that only through emancipation of humans from their shortcomings like selfishness, jealousy and laziness can be removed.

It has become a fashion to quote Swamiji these days but it is unfortunate that many of those who are taking his name are yet to come out of bigotry and sectarian views which are the biggest impediments in following the life and works of Swamiji.

On his birth anniversary, it is time to come out of our narrowness, take a pledge to widen our vision and stand by those who need help.

Views expressed are personal