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Ranganathananda birth centenary to be held today

Special Correspondent

KADAPA: The birth centenary of Swami Ranganathananda, the 13th president of Ramakrishna Math and Mission will be celebrated on December 14 at Ramakrishna Mission at Putlampalle here, its secretary Swami Atmavidananda said on Saturday.

Swami Ranganathananda was instrumental in affiliating Ramakrishna Samajam here to Ramakrishna Mission.

The celebrations include Vedic and Gita chanting by the monks and students of Balakshrama, guided meditation by Swami Atvidananda, reading of messages, bhajans, talks on life, work and teachings of Swami Ranganathananda and mangala harathi.

A public meeting would be held in the Ramakrishna Math city centre near Chennur bus stand here in the evening.

Swami Ranganathananda - a monk with a mission

by Swami Sunirmalananda

A great monk passed away on April 25 2005. India lost a great son. "Mother Saraswati will dance on your tongue," was the blessing of Swami Akhandananda, a direct disciple of Sri Ramakrishna, to this monk. And the blessing became true. A true disciple of Swami Shivananda of the Ramakrishna order, Swami Ranganathananda became the head of this holy order like his own guru and led a movement of spirituality from the forefront till his passing away.

"They alone live who live for others. The rest are more dead than alive," declared Swami Vivekananda. In Swami Ranganathananda one could find an example of those who lived only for others. Here was a complete personality. But such personalities arent widely known. Our print and electronic medias usually pay little attention to spiritual greatness. Yet great men never stop serving the world. Thus we had a personality, who was totally dedicated to working silently for the good of the humanity.

It was not so long ago. We were in Bangalore. Swami Ranganathananda, then in his seventies, arrived at Ramakrishna Ashrama Bangalore, to deliver a series of lectures.

With him, came a small "tiffin box", which could contain food enough for a Kindergarten child. When he arrived in Bangalore, it was late at night. He entered the Ashrama, and after exchanging greetings, sat on a bench, and ate from his little box. All along his life he suffered from digestion problems. Put in simple language, he could hardly digest anything.

Anyone else would have broken down and remained bedridden for long. But not Swami Ranganathananda. In spite of such a debilitating health problem, he was always strong and steady, and ready to serve. Even in his nineties he walked straight, with the gait of a lion.

Wherever he went, he delivered discourses on numerous topics and inspired people. And what grand lectures they were! One day he spoke on Srimad Bhagavata, a well-known Purana, for instance, in Bangalore Ashrama. In about two hours of a thrilling lecture, he taught the audience the essence of the whole of Bhagavata.

There was no place to sit in that big ashrama - thousands were listening enraptured. Such was his erudition. Apart from scholarship, his heart was always panting to serve the poor and the needy. After the lecture, someone came to talk to the Swamiji. That man said he had been suffering from severe blood pressure and other health problems because he was not receiving his pension for the past five years. Immediately, the swami phoned some official, discussed the problem, and the matter was settled then and there.

Between 1946 and 1972, Swami Ranganathananda travelled to over fifty countries of the world, alone, without much help, and totally depending on God and what chance might bring. He as the spiritual ambassador of India to the West. He pierced through the Iron Curtain, he faced the Second World War, he has seen communal violence at its worst, and he endured hardships by the hundred. How many interesting anecdotes he had!

There are interesting incidents to show how even cold countries had seekers of Vedantic knowledge, and when Swami Ranganathananda spoke, hundreds heard him with awe and wonder. It was because of his inspiration that several centres of the Ramakrishna order sprang up in different parts of the world.

Since his childhood, the Swami was a great student. Though he did not have much of secular learning, he was a miracle of God because of his immense scholarship. He was an embodiment of learning. He had studied Sanskrit and English, and Vedas, Gita, Indian and Western philosophy, comparative religion and so on, very deeply. The swami could deliver lectures in several languages and speak in many more.

A senior monk of the Ramakrishna Order, who had travelled with Swami Ranganathananda once, reported that Ranganathananda never wasted a single moment in his life. Whether it was in train or bus or flight, he would continue reading, making notes, thus utilising his time fruitfully. He had a huge collection of personal books, all of them having been read thoroughly, and highlighted with his delightful observations. He has furnished several libraries by gifting his personal books. And being a monk of the great order of Sri Ramakrishna, Ranganathananda was naturally enough a deep spiritual aspirant too.

The combined force of spiritually and philosophical wisdom par excellence made Swami Ranganathananda a fit instrument to embark upon a mission: that of spreading the glorious message of the ancient sages of India to the world. Indias mission was his mission.

The mission of Vivekananda was his mission - that of awakening the world to spirituality. It was thus that he became the spiritual ambassador of India to the West, moving from country to country, meeting people, speaking about the glories of Vedanta, solving problems by the hundreds, and inspiring one and all to lead lives of enlightenment.

Whether it was the Vedas, Upanishads, Bhagavata, Ramayana, modern scientific knowledge, social developmental ideas, or any such subject, Swami Ranganathananda would deliver master discourses, which would touch the hearts of the listeners and inspire them to lead wonderful lives.

As a Sanskrit couplet says, vidvan sarvatra pujyate. This sage of learning and enlightenment was indeed venerated everywhere. People in far off countries like Brazil remember with gratitude the inspiration that they received from this swami as long back as 1967.

It is said that during his days as Secretary of the Ramakrishna Mission, New Delhi, stalwarts like Jawaharlal Nehru would squat on the lawns of the Missions to listen to his enthralling discourses. Swami Ranganathananda had admirers from all walks of life. It is a well-known statement that Swami Ranganathananda knew only to make friends, and never to lose any.

Apart from being a world-renowned speaker, the swami was also a great writer. Among his greatest works are the message of the Upanishads, A Pilgrim Looks at World (2 vols), Bhagvad Gita, Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, Spiritual Life of the Householder, and so on.

His books have been translated into many languages, and millions of copies have been sold out. These apart, the swami was also a great administrator. He worked as secretary and librarian at the Ramakrishna Mission Centre at Rangoon from 1939 to 1942 and thereafter as head of the Ramakrishna Math and Mission in Karachi from 1942 to 1948, then as head of New Delhi Center till 1962, was Secretary of Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture in Kolkata for several years, and headed the Hyderabad centre for 30 long years.

He was one of the members of the Board of Trustees of the Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission for over forty years. Wherever he served, he built that ashrama into a great center of learning and spirituality. New Delhi and Hyderabad centers, for instance, stand as living examples of this statement.

When India became politically free, he was in Karachi, as head of the Ramakrishna Mission centre there. Partition painfully halted the progress of the Vedanta activities in Karachi, and the Missions had to be closed down. The swamis there had to come back to India under stressful conditions.

All the same, Swami Ranganathananda managed to collect a huge quantity of rice and send it to the impoverished masses. During his lifetime, Swami Ranganathananda helped countless individuals and organisations in every way.

During his long tenure as Vice-President of the order and then as the President, Swami Ranganathananda inspired thousands of spiritual seekers to lead spiritual lives. He was a great admirer of Swami Vivekananda, and had read his 8 volume complete works at least 75 times! His disliked weakness and sorrowful faces. Even till the age of about 80 years he could be seen playing volleyball. Such was his spirit. A true sannyasin that he was, he shunned awards and accolades, though deserving much more than they wanted to give him.

Swami Ranganathananda thus embodied the ancient and eternal Indian spirit of a harmonious combination of physical vitality and mental strength, deep intellectuality and spiritual dynamism, intense practicality and profound idealism. Such persons are born not always on this earth.

India alone can produce such sons who become living demonstrations of spiritual vitality combined with down-to-earth practicality. Swami Ranganathananda, as everyone knows, was a gift of Kerala to the world, in which state he was born on 15 December 1908. He lived every moment of his 96 years on earth, breathing life into everyone he met till the end.

Revered Swami Ranganathananda belongs to the class of Saints who tries to deliver a much-needed message to humanity to restore the glory lost over the period. Swamiji is not a classroom teacher, but he is one of the Great teachers of mankind whose teachings contain the principles and philosophy, which becomes the basis of a good educational system.

Swamijis concept of education is as broad as life itself. It is not confined only to bread winning but it is more a national, as it transcends the narrowness of geographical boundaries.

Swamiji wants eradicating the poverty of masses through education. He wants the development of a strong and healthy society. Both of these are not ends in themselves but the means for a higher life, leading to spiritual blessedness.

Swamiji wants an educational system, which would be Man-making, Character-building and Assimilation of Higher Ideas. Hence, investigator was impressed with his ideas and read most of books written by him.

This Monograph is a humble attempt to highlight some of his principles and bring out the message of the great Swamiji on education.

Birth and Early Life

Swami Ranganathananda was born on 15 December 1908 in Trikkur, a small village near Trissur in Kerala.

As a young boy, he once uttered some bad word, picked up at school, in front of his mother. She reprimanded him saying: “' My boy, your tongue is the abode of Vani, or Saraswati, the goddess of knowledge and wisdom. Don't soil it by using foul language against others.” These words penetrated deep into him. His speeches in later years testified to the fact that Saraswati was truly seated on his tongue.

Beginning of Monastic Life

As a young boy, he was always bubbling with energy. He later said: “Love of adventure and dislike for an easy life, and the German philosopher Nietzsche's dictum ‘live dangerously' has been with me ever since(childhood).” Even at a tender age, his keen and perceptive mind reacted to the virus of untouchability, then ubiquitous in Malabar. He made it a point to break caste distinctions. When he was about fourteen, Sri Ramakrishna entered his life through The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna and he was never the same again. Religion now became palpable. The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, which he read subsequently, further revolutionized his mind and determined the future course of his life. The spiritual fire of his soaring young soul was stoked when he was initiated by his guru, who was then in a high spiritual state in Ootacamund. The initiation also testified to an earlier mystic dream the young boy had had about his guru. His young but mature soul naturally responded to the higher call of renunciation, service and God-realization, and in 1926 he joined the Ramakrishna Order in Mysore.

The first twelve years of Maharaj's monastic life, spent at the Mysore and Bangalore ashramas, were days of hard work, study and meditation. He was involved in a host of Ashrama chores -from cooking and dishwashing to supervising the Ashrama hostel. He loved hard work. I have never known tiredness in my life, he would say later. Amidst the busy routine, he also found time to memorize the Gita and the Vivekachudamani. He would recall this whenever someone complained about being too burdened with work to make time for oneself.

Swami Ranganathananda's phenomenal mental acumen and memory were a revelation to many- even scientists. His sharp intellect and tempered devotion set him apart from the ordinary.

He avidly and intensely studied not only Indian scriptures and mythol­ogy but also those of other religions. In his intellectual journey, he traversed through the minutiae of Eastern and Western philosophies, the various branches of science, history, sociology, psychology and economics- in fact, there was no field of knowledge that he did not touch. His intellec­tual appetite was so great that even ordinary subjects received his attention, not to speak of scientific discoveries and social trends, with which he kept himself abreast till the very end. The development of his brain was complemented with his athleticism. He exercised regularly and was agile and vigorous. Even in his seventies, Maharaj could be seen playing volleyball, leaping and smashing the ball like a young man. His missionary activity reflected a wonderful blend of ancient wisdom and modern science. He had commenced addressing the prisoners on ethical and spiritual life in Mysore Jail in 1933-34, and this he continued in Bangalore, among the youth, where he moved in 1935.

After Bangalore, Swami Rangnathananda was secretary and Librarian at Ramakrishna Mission, Rangoon, Burma, from 1939 to 1942. When Rangoon had to be evacuated in the face of an impending Japanese invasion, he chose to return to India on foot along with thousands of other refugees, braving untold dangers but yet helping many on the way. During 1942-48 he headed the Mission's Karachi centre. His lectures there were very popular and were attended by all sections of society. Following the closure of the centre in the wake of the Parti­tion, he was sent to head the Ramakrishna Mission in New Delhi between 1949 and 1962. This period turned out to be the most fruitful in the centre's history. Apart from helping the victims of the Partition who were temporarily sheltered near Delhi, Maharaj built a temple, a students' library and an auditorium that used to be packed with the city's elite during his lectures. During 1962-67 he was in Calcutta as Secretary of the Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture and Director of it's School of Humanistic and Cultural Studies. His lecture in the city became very well known among the intelligentsia. Then, for twenty years to 1993, Maharaja was President of Ramakrishna Math, Hyderabad, where he founded an ashrama on land provided by the Andhra Pradesh govern­ment. There he undertook various rural development programmes and stirred the people of the city with his brilliant and profound discourses on Vedanta.

At the government's urging, Maharaj gave yearly talks to trainees at the National Academy of Administration, first at Delhi in 1956 and after that at Mussoorie, for many years. He also regularly addressed cadets at the National Defence College, Delhi. Generations of administrators and bright minds destined to lead the country heard his wonderful expositions on Indian values and how they could be implemented in the administrative field. He served as a member of the Indian National Commission for cooperation with UNESCO during 1964-67. Between 1956 and 1972 he went on several world tour as an ambassa­dor of religion and Indian culture, travelling to over fifty countries in North and South America, Asia, Africa and Europe, including the then Communist states of USSR, Poland and Czechoslovakia. During these government-sponsored tours, he lectured regularly, tirelessly and brilliantly. Universities, colleges, schools, cultural institutions, clubs and small groups of interested people all receiving something solid from him. From 1973 to 1986 Maharaj undertook annual tours to the US, Europe and Australia spreading the message of Vedanta and Ramakrishna-Vivekananda. Never confined within the limits of race, language or nation, his consciousness was always international and universal. So his audiences, be they learned or ordinary, young or old, immediately connected with him. He loved and dared-to discuss the challenging contempo­rary problem in the light of eternal values and Vedantic concepts and drew appreciation from one and all from savant to servants. His national tours, which took him to all kinds of institutions were as demanding as they were enlightening. He was proficient in several languages and was instrumental in starting many new Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission centres-. He also helped and inspired other organizations and individuals to start ashrama where swami Vivekananda's practical Vedanta could be practised.

Following the policy that Swami Vivekananda laid down for the Order, Swami Ranganathananda always remained apolitical; yet statesmen and politicians of all creeds and affiliations, including rebels, came to him for sage advice. He worked for national integration at all levels, bringing politicians and administrators, industrialists and technocrats, educationists and students, scientists and professionals, doctors and lawyer, businessman and workers, and even children to believe in their country, to stop the exploitation of every kind, and to work for the amelioration of the poor and the downtrodden. Maharaj never kept any money with him; whatever money came to him was spent on charitable and social service schemes that helped humanity, either through the branch centres of the Ramakrishna Mission or other philanthropic organizations. For all his towering public stature, he was still an utterly simple, honest, humble, and loving person. During the 1943 Bengal famine, he collected and shipped 1,250 tons of rice from Karachi. He also raised over Rs 1.5 lakh for the mission's relief work among the victim's of civil strife in Bengal and Bihar, and cholera victims in Kerala.

Revered Maharaj saw that India was on the threshold of a great revival due to the advent of Sri Ramakrishna, Sri Sarada Devi and Swami Vivekananda, and he energeti­cally spread their message. He was a constant traveller and an unrelenting karma yogi of the highest order who never thought twice about foregoing food and sleep to help people selflessly. In appreciation of his noble contribution as an integrator of Humanity, he was honoured in 1985 with the first Indira Gandhi Award for National Integration.

At the Helm of the Sangha

Swami Ranganathananda was elected a trustee of the Ramakrishna Math and a member of the governing body of the Ramakrishna Mission in 1961. On 1 April 1989, he was elected a Vice President, and on 7 September 1998, he became President of the Order. It was as a Vice President that he commenced giving mantra Diksha, spiritual initiation, and over 60,000 people were formally initiated by him into spiritual life over the next sixteen years. From 1998 onward he lived at Belur Math.

All through his life, in addition to meeting his demanding schedule of travelling, lecturing, meeting people and attending to the details of administration, Maharaj found time to read and write extensively. He was a voracious reader and kept up the habit of serious study until the end of his life. All his talks and writings bear the stamp of deep thinking and scholarship. His intellectual outlook and austere habits concealed a very kind and large heart that was extremely sensitive to the sufferings of the poor and the downtrodden. He was deeply involved with the welfare of the weaker sections of society and women, and actively helped in their uplift. He was also greatly concerned about the need for conscientious political leadership. Last year he sent out two économies booklets, Vivekananda: His Call to the Nation and his own Enlightened Citizenship and Our Democracy, to all members of the newly elected Indian Parliament and Legislative Assemblies.

A large number of Swami Ranganatha­nanda's lectures have been published in book form, notable among which are: The Message of the Upanishads, Universal Message of the Bhagavad Gita (three volumes), The Central Theme of Srimad Bhagavatam, The Message of the Brihadaranyaka Upanisad, Eternal Values for a Changing Society (four volumes), A Pilgrim Looks at the World (two volumes), Vedanta and the Future of Mankind, Responsibilities of Public Administrator, Enlightened Citizenship and Our Democracy, and Spiritual Life of the Householder. His 600 audiotape and 50 videotapes on various spiritual topics and cultural themes, including scriptural talks, discourses on Sri Ramakrishna, Sri Sarada Devi, Swami Vivekananda and Vedanta, and lectures on science and religion, are a great source of inspiration. His lectures and talks were in simple and beautiful language, and so are his books. He used to himself edit and proofread his books – a habit he never gave up despite his failing health.

Mahasamadhi

Swami Ranganathananda entered Mahasamadhi on 25 April 2005 at 3:51 pm.

Remembering the great legacy of Swami Ranganathananda of the Ramakrishna Mission on his birth anniversary.

Kerala is called ‘God's Own Country' for more than one reason. It is a land of ethereal natural beauty. It is also divine because of the great men and women who tread the land – from Adi Shankara to Sri Narayana Guru to Swami Chinmayananda to Mata Amritananda Mayi Amma. Swami Ranganathananda belonged to that pantheon of great sages and savants.

All great men are born with a mission. They are called Karana Janm – born with a purpose. Swamiji was born as Shankaran Kutty in a village near Thrissur on 15 December 1908. He had said in an interview that as a young man he was like many others of his age, ‘good at sporting and swimming', but ‘not so good at studies'. He was religious, and often visited temples. He used to dream of realising Shiva.

His life-transforming moment came in the form of a book at the age of 14. The book was ‘The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna', a famous book written by Swami Nikhilananda. It must be providence because it was almost impossible for such a book to land up in the hands of a village lad. Reading the life and message of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, a mystic from Bengal who inspired many great saints including Swami Vivekananda, touched a profound chord with the young Shankaran Kutty and led to an inner revolution. It was like the ‘bursting of a bombshell within the mind', Swamiji tells of that experience.

At 17, Shankaran Kutty decided to join the Ramakrishna order and landed up at the Ramakrishna Mission in Mysuru in 1926. His initial duties at the Mysuru Ashram included washing utensils and cleaning up the place. In a few years' time, he was given Deeksha – formal initiation into the Order in 1933 by Swami Shivananda, who was a direct disciple of Sri Ramakrishna. Thus was born the great scholar-teacher Swami Ranganathananda, who served the Mission for 72 years and rose to become its President, until he attained Maha Samadhi on 25 April 2005.

I had the great fortune of interacting with him briefly when he was heading the Mission in Hyderabad during the 1970s and 80s. He was a great scholar and teacher. He was a widely travelled monk. Like revered Adi Shankara, this monk from Kerala too traversed across the length and breadth of Bharat. He established the mission in Rangoon in Burma and headed it at Karachi in Pakistan, worked in Bengaluru and Hyderabad before finally settling down at the Belur Math in Bengal.

Swami Ranganathanandaji was one of the greatest teachers of Vedanta during his time. Incidentally, the other great Vedanta scholar of that period was also from Kerala – Swami Chinmayananda. The two monks have been instrumental in carrying the message of Sanatana Dharma and Bhagavad Gita into the lives and homes of the upper echelons of the society, usually westernised and disconnected from our Dharma. Swami Ranganathanandaji authored a number of books, most important of them being the ones like ‘Eternal Values for a Changing Society' and ‘Science and Religion'.

In his book “The Charm and the Power of the Gita” Swamiji gives a man-making and nation-building orientation to the Gita. He says “In the past, people mostly read the Gita as a pious act, and for peace of mind. We never realized that this is a book of intense practicality. We never understood the practical application of Gita's teachings. If we had done so, we would not have had the thousand years of foreign invasions, internal caste conflicts, feudal oppression and mass poverty. We never took the Gita seriously, but now we have to. We need a philosophy that can help us build a new welfare society, based on human dignity, freedom and equality. This new orientation, this practical orientation was given to the Gita for the first time in the modern age by Swami Vivekananda'.

Swamiji became the Vice President of the Ramakrishna Mission in 1988 and its 14th President in 1998. In the last more than a century, the Mission has done yeomanly service to mankind by way of both spiritual education as well as social service. It runs countless schools, hospitals and temples across the world. It serves the poor and the underprivileged in India's remotest corners like the North East of India through countless charitable activities.

The Ramakrishna Mission was established by Swami Vivekananda in 1897 with the motto of ‘Atmano Mokshaartham – Jagat Hitaya cha' meaning ‘For self-evolution and universal well-being'. Thousands of learned saintly monks man the Mission even today with this singular objective.

There was an unpalatable phase in the Mission's history during the 1980s. When a Marxist Government in West Bengal tried to take control of an institution run by the Mission using some staff protests as an excuse, the Mission leadership took an unusual step of approaching the courts with a plea that they were not a Hindu institution and hence ought to be granted minority status. Although it was initially seen as a tactical retreat to protect the institution from falling into the hands of the Marxist government, matters deteriorated as the case progressed. Lawyers representing the Mission went to the extent of claiming that even Swami Vivekananda had discarded Hinduism towards the end of his life, and hence the Mission may no longer be treated as a Hindu charity.

The Mission's arguments found favour with the Kolkata HC but created a deep schism among the disciples and well-wishers. Finally, matters came to rest when the Supreme Court bench headed by Js. M N Venkatachalaiah disapproved of the Mission's argument and declared on July 2, 1995, that neither Sri Ramakrishna nor Swami Vivekananda had founded an independent, non-Hindu religion. It was during this phase of turbulence that Swami Ranganathananda had to steer the Mission, which he did with commendable maturity.

Swamiji's emphasis was on Dharma, which he interpreted as eternal moral and ethical values for the society. He saw in it the core binding force of the society. He detested the usage of Dharma Nirapekshta for secularism in India. ‘How can any nation progress without Dharma', he would question. It should be Mata Nirapekshtainstead, he used to insist.

Swamiji lived a life of self-effacement. The message he imbibed in early childhood from Sri Ramakrishna's life – ‘God in Man' – remained his guiding principle for life. Swamiji never aspired to any recognition for himself. He was chosen by the Indian government for the Padma Vibhushan award in 2000. He declined it as it was conferred on him in his individual capacity and not for the Mission. He, however, accepted the Indira Gandhi Award for National Integration in 1987 and the Gandhi Peace Prize in February 1999 as both were conferred on the Ramakrishna Mission.

On his birth anniversary, I pay my humble homage to the noble soul.

Swami (Sanskrit: स्वामी svāmī [sʋaːmiː]; sometimes abbreviated sw.) in Hinduism is an honorific title given to a male or female ascetic who has chosen the path of renunciation (sanyāsa),[1] or has been initiated into a religious monastic order of Vaishnavas.[2] It is used either before or after the subjects name (usually an adopted religious name).

The meaning of the Sanskrit root of the word swami is "[he who is] one with his self" (swa stands for "self"),[3] and can roughly be translated as "he/she who knows and is master of himself/herself".[1] The term is often attributed to someone who has achieved mastery of a particular yogic system or demonstrated profound devotion (bhakti) to one or more Hindu gods.[1] The Oxford English Dictionary gives the etymology as:[4]

Hindi svāmī master, lord, prince, used by Hindus as a term of respectful address, < Sanskrit svāmin in same senses, also the idol or temple of a god.

As a direct form of address, or as a stand-in for a swamis name, it is often rendered Swamiji (also Swami-ji or Swami Ji).

In modern Gaudiya Vaishnavism, Swami is also one of the 108 names for a sannyasi given in Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvatis Gaudiya Kanthahara, along with Goswami, also traditionally used as an honorific title.[5]

Swami is also the surname of the Bairagi caste in Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, and Rajasthan. In Bengali, the word (pronounced [ˈʃami]), while carrying its original meaning, also has the meaning of "husband" in another context. The word also means "husband" in Malay, in which it is spelled suami,[6] and in Khmer, Assamese and Odiya. The Thai word for "husband", sami (สามี) or swami (สวามี), and the Tagalog word for "spouse", asawa, are cognate words.[citation needed]

Swami Ranganathananda (15 December 1908 – 25 April 2005) was a Hindu swami of the Ramakrishna Math order. He served as the 13th president of the Ramakrishna Math and Mission.[1]

Biography

Swami Ranganathananda, (pre-monastic name Shankaran Kutty), was born on 15 December 1908 in a village called Trikkur near Trichur, in Kerala to Neelakanta Sastry and Lakshmikutty Amma .[2] As a teenager, he was attracted by the teachings of Swami Vivekananda and Ramakrishna and joined the Mysore centre of Ramakrishna Order as a Brahmachari in 1926.[2][3] He served the Mysore Centre for 9 years and was under Swami Siddheswarananda and another 3 years under him in the Bangalore centre. He was initiated as a Sannyasi (monk) in 1933, on the 70th anniversary of Vivekanandas birth by Shivananda, a direct disciple of Ramakrishna. Between 1939 and 1942, he served as the secretary and librarian at the Rangoon branch of Ramakrishna Mission. In 1942, during the Second World War, when Japan bombed Burma (Myanmar today) and the centre had to be wound up, Swami Ranganathananda came back to Dhaka preferring the land route trekking along with thousands of other refugees, although more comfortable alternatives were available.

He then served as the president of the Karachi centre of Math from 1942 to 1948 until the partition of India, after which the mission found it difficult to continue its activities at Karachi.[4][5] At Karachi, L.K. Advani came in contact with him and listened to his discourses on the Bhagavad Gita.[5] Advani said that Ranganathananda was a "great influence" during his formative years. According to Advani, at Karachi, Mohammed Ali Jinnah had once listened to Swami Ranganathanandas lecture on Islam and Prophet Mohammed and remarked, "Now I know how a true Muslim should be."[4][6]

From 1949 to 1962, he served as a secretary at the Delhi centre. Then from 1962 to 1967, he served as the Secretary of the Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture, Kolkata, director of School of Humanistic & Cultural studies, editor of missions monthly. The swami became president of the Hyderabad branch in 1973, where he developed the Vivekananda Vani School of Languages, a temple, and a library.[7] He was elected to the post of vice-president of Ramakrishna Math and Mission in 1988.[2][7] In 1998 he was elected as the president of the mission.[8]

Swami Ranganathananda was chosen by the Indian government for Padma Vibhushan award in 2000. He declined the Padma Vibhushan as it was conferred on him in his individual capacity and not for the Mission. He accepted the Indira Gandhi Award for National Integration in 1987 and the Gandhi Peace Prize in February 1999 as both were conferred on the Ramakrishna Mission.[2][9][10]

Since his residence in Bangalore in the 1930s, Swami Ranganathananda has been a popular teacher and lecturer on Indian spiritual culture. By the mid-1950s he was known within India as an authority on practical Vedanta.[2] Since the 1960s he made nearly annual lecture tours to Western Europe, the United States, Australia, and Singapore. He also lectured in Iran and in the Soviet Union.[2] Ranganathananda is noted for this contributions that bridges science and Vedantic spirituality.[2][11][12]

Swami Ranganathananda was regarded a great scholar and teacher.[10][13][14] He has authored over 50 books. The Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan has published around twenty-nine of these books.[10] His famous book includes Eternal Values for a Changing Society and commentaries on the messages of the Bhagavad Gita and Upanishads.[13][15] He was known as a good orator.[15] His weekly classes and public lectures were popular among the followers. Ganapathy, a correspondent of The Hindu writes that "In all his lectures, Swami Ranganathananda had stressed on the philosophy of eternal religion, a practical Vedanta, which teaches universal acceptance". He conducted moral and religious classes for the prisoners in the Bangalore and Mysore jails. In Delhi, Ranganathananda organised social services at hospitals and worked for the relief of leprosy patients.[13] Indian prime minister, Manmohan Singh described Swamis Ranganathananda and Vivekananda as "leaders with a modern mind and scientific temper."[16]

Swami Ranganathananda lived the last days of his life in the headquarters of the Ramakrishna Mission at Belur in West Bengal. He died at the Woodlands Medical Centre, Kolkata, at 3:51 p.m. on Monday, 25 April 2005, owing to cardiac arrest. He was 96. His body was kept for darshan at Belur Math (near Kolkata) on that day, then was cremated the next day. India Post released a postage stamp in the denomination of Rs 5 to commemorate the 100th birth anniversary of Swami Ranganathananda, during December 2008 at Kolkata.[17][18]

His life and work has been documented in many biographies, including the one in Malayalam by D. Vijayamohan.[19][20]

Quotations

"Are you growing spiritually? Can you love others? Can you feel oneness with others? Have you peace within yourself? and do you radiate it around you? That is called spiritual growth, which is stimulated by meditation inwardly, and by work done in a spirit of service outwardly."

"I am not alone in the world. . .We belong to a world. . .The vast world is around us. We cannot do without it. We cannot become human without a human world around us. How much we owe to the world of other human beings around us!"[21]

"Efficiency and energy comes from emotion, not from intellectual knowledge, which can only direct that emotional energy. But the real impulse comes from emotion. It makes you work at your best."[22]

"So, work hard; perform all duties; develop yourself; then come and surrender to the highest. Do a whole days honest work, then sit and meditate; then resign yourself to God. Otherwise, that meditation has no meaning or value. Meditation at the end of a lazy day has no meaning; but the same at the end of an active day, filled with good deeds, has meaning, and is rewarding."[23]

"How can we find joy in work? By working for oneself? No; it is not possible to find that continuous joy in work through selfish motivations. Frustration and ennui are the end of all selfish motivations. Frustrations and nervous breakdowns are the end of a self-centred life. The first advice of modern psychiatry to such people is to get out of this prison of self-centredness, and to find a genuine interest in other people. Everyone has to learn the lesson some day that, the best way to be happy is to strive to make others happy. So wherever you find frustration, you will always discover that the person concerned had been too self-centred, and the only hope for him is through learning to take interest in other people, to find joy in the joy of other people. This is the royal path that makes for health, for strength, for efficiency. This great truth—universal and human—we should apply to the world and to our life in it."[24]

The great new mantra today is "Work" and Hard Work; along with Hard Work, intelligent work co-operative teamwork. All great undertakings are product of teamwork. We can meet the challenge of freedom only when we have learnt this character-efficiency involved in teamwork, and intelligent hard work. This is the philosophy which we have to learn consciously, not unconsciously, somehow stumbling into it.[25]

Work from ego point of view is all tension. But behind ego, there is an infinite spiritual dimension. When that is realised even a little, then extra work wont make one feel that it is heavy. Even ordinary experiences will tell you: Whenever there is love in the heart, the worker doesnt feel heavy. When there is no love in the heart, even a little work makes one feel very heavy. As soon as you have love for a particular cause, you can do anything; do hard work, but have a spirit of detachment based on a larger love.

Work is no work at all. It is a question of agency and attachment. When these two are not there, work ceases to be work, it becomes a play, it becomes spontaneous, and it becomes natural. When you become thoroughly detached, then all that tension goes away. You are working, but you dont feel that you are working. What a beautiful idea!"[26]

Work is drudgery; Sri Krishna will not allow that attitude. There is joy in work also. Do not abandon work; go on doing work; but, mentally renouncing all actions. It is a wonderful state of mind-working, and yet not working.

Those who work, work with a zest and with joy and in work, learn calmness and the serenity of the human mind and heart; what a wonderful joy it is to work in such a way!

When science insists on studying things from the point of view of the objects themselves by eliminating the personal equation, it is in effect, emphasising the sakshi-bhava or sakshi point of view (witness attitude); for, the limited and circumscribed vision of the ego gives place to the unlimited and universal vision of the sakshi, by the practice of scientific or intellectual detachment.[27]

The endeavours and conclusions of the sense-bound intellect can not be the last word in man's search for truth. An intellectual approach to truth will end only in agnosticism; and often in cynicism. But the whole being of man seeks to experience truth, to realise it. … This rising above rationalism to direct experience and realisation, this growth of man from the sensate to the super-sensual dimension, is the special message of Indian spiritual tradition.[28]

Mysticism, studied seriously, challenges basic tenets of Western Cultures: a) the primacy of reason and intellect; b) the separate, individual nature of man; c) the linear organisation of time. Great mystics, like our own great scientists, envision the world as being larger than those tenets, as transcending our traditional views.[29]