disciples of Ramakrishna who were both Swamis and Presidents of the Order

S. BrahmanandaS.ShivanandaS. AkhandanandaS.Vijnanananda

 RAKHAL – SWAMI BRAHMANANDA (1863 - 1922) When Swami Vivekananda founded what would later become the Ramakrishna Order and Mission, he immediately entrusted Swami Brahmananda with responsibility of running it—Swami Brahmananda thus became the first President of the Order from 1899 to 1922. A collection entitled The Eternal Companion brings together the memories of those who knew him.

TARAK – SWAMI SHIVÂNANDA (1854 - 1934)  President of the Order from 1922 to 1934. He was 26 years of age when he met Ramakrishna.

GANGADHAR – SWAMI AKHANDÂNANDA (1866 - 1937) He met Ramakrishna in 1894 and subsequently led the Mission’s first social and humanitarian project, in 1897. He succeeded Swami Shivananda as President of the Order from 1934 to 1936.

HARI PRASANA – SWAMI VIJNANANANDA (1868 - 1938) President of the Order from 1936 to 1938 and the last direct disciple of Ramakrishna to exercise this function. 

 

disciples of Ramakrishna who were Swamis

S.Adbhutananda S.Subhodananda S.Trigunatitananda S.Turiyananda S.Ramakrishnananda S.Abhedananda S.Advaïtananda S.Yogananda S.Premananda S.Saradananda

LATU – SWAMI ADBHUTANANDA (? – 1920) An illiterate from a very poor family and orphaned at an early age, Swami Adbhutananda nevertheless developed out of his simplicity a wisdom that enlightened all around him. Though he served Ramakrishna, was a monk and was furthermore esteemed by his fellow monks for his wisdom, Swami Adbhutananda always refused to join the Order or its Management Board. He spent the last eight years of his life in Benares-Varanasi.

SWAMI SUBHODANANDA (1867 - 1932) He met Ramakrishna in 1884, and was loved by all for his child-like character.

SWAMI TRIGUNATITANANDA (1865 - 1915) Born in an aristocratic family, he was a spoiled child, yet also one of the best students in his class. At Ramakrishna’s side he discovered the blessings of service and simplicity. He also, at Swami Vivekananda’s request, ran the spiritual magazine Udbodhan, and was later sent to San Francisco, where he spent the last twelve years of his life. Swami Trigunatitananda established a temple there, The Universal Temple, which has today become a listed monument.

HARI – SWAMI TURIYANANDA (1863 - 1922) Born in a Brahmin family and educated in accordance with Brahmin ideals, Swami Turiyananda was thirteen or fourteen years of age when he met Ramakrishna. He later went on to found an ashram in San Francisco.

SASHI – SWAMI RAMAKRISHNANANDA (1863 - 1911) Swami Ramakrishnananda met Ramakrishna in 1883 and stayed with him until 1897, when he was sent to Madras upon the request of Swami Vivekananda. There, Swami Ramakrishnananda established an orphanage open to children of all castes or races, which is still active today and hosts more than 500 orphans. Swami Ramakrishnananda spent the last years of his life in Kolkata.

KALI – SWAMI ABHEDANANDA (1866 - 1939) A scholar and regular visitor of Ramakrishna, Swami Abhedananda accompanied Swami Vivekananda on is trip to England, and later lived in the United States (New York) from 1897 to 1921. Swami Abhedananda was the last of the direct disciples of Ramakrishna to be initiated in the Order.

GOPAL – SWAMI ADVAITANANDA (1828 – 1909)

SWAMI YOGANANDA (1862 - 1898) Although also a direct disciple of Ramakrishna, Swami Yogananda was initiated into the Order by Sarada Devi.

BABURAM – SWAMI PREMANANDA (1861 - 1918) A man who loved his brothers like a mother loves her children.

SARAT – SWAMI SARADANANDA (1865 - 1927) Born in a well-to-do orthodox Brahmin family, Swami Saradananda met Ramakrishna in 1883. Swami Vivekananda sent him to the United States in 1896 before recalling him two and a half years later to take on the responsibility of the General Secretariat of the Order and Mission of Ramakrishna. Swami Saradananda visited England, France and Italy, where during a stay in Rome, he had an experience during which he felt what the disciples of Jesus had felt. Swami Saradananda also authored a biography of Ramakrishna, entitled: Sri Ramakrishna, the Great Master (or Lila Prasanga as originally entitled in Bengali).

S.YatiswaranandaSWAMI YATISWARANANDA (1889 – 1966) Initiated into the Order by Swami Brahmananda, Swami Yatiswarananda is not a direct disciple but deserves mention given the closeness of his connection with the history of the Ramakrishna Mission in France and in Europe from 1933 to 1942. Following an invitation by some European spiritual seekers in 1933, Swami Yatiswarananda first lived and delivered lectures in Wiesbaden and Geneva, and then preached the philosophy of the Vedanta in France, Italy, Holland, England, and Scandinavia.

 

 

the lay disciples

M.Girish GoshM. – MAHENDRANATH GUPTA (1854 - 1932) Mahendranath Gupta first met Ramakrishna in 1882, in the midst of great despair and suicidal thoughts. He subsequently authored the book Sri Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita: a transcription of many notes taken during dialogues between Ramakrishna and his visitors. The work gracefully arcs between daily conversations and rare moments, laughter and songs, walks and spiritual revelations, all of which are used to transmit spiritual lessons, often in the form of stories or images.

GIRISH CHANDRA GHOSH (1844 – 1912) A celebrated and renowned dramatist (father of the modern Bengali theatre) for whom Ramakrishna showed a lot of affection. Although Girish Chandra Ghosh was married with a family, the other disciples of Ramakrishna considered him as a sannyasin—a religious ascetic who has renounced the world and with it any desire for social or family standing.

MATHUR BABU The son-in-law of Rani Rasmani, the donor of the Kali temple in Dakshineswar where, as temple manager, he was the first to witness Ramakrishna’s religious and spiritual experiences, and became his protector.

 
 

Portrait of Swami Vivekanda

Born in 1863, Vivekananda was only 18 years of age when he first met Ramakrishna. Vivekananda was then a young Indian of his time: torn between, on one hand, the attractions of progressive Western civilization and, on the other, the attractions of the ancestral civilisation of India. And, torn between the desire to fight for social reforms and to study history as part of this movement, and the need to develop an inner life based on the tenet that eternity is the only reality.

Vivekananda was preoccupied with the question of the existence of God, and was looking for someone who could bear witness to His existence. He went from person to person, asking “Have you seen God?” His quest finally came to an end when he met Ramakrishna, who replied: “Yes, I see Him just as I see you, but much more intensely”, and when, by a simple physical touch, Ramakrishna transmitted his vision to him.

From then on, Vivekananda never left Ramakrishna’s side, and all the more so because Ramakrishna had instantly recognised in Vivekananda the disciple he was waiting for.

Before leaving this world, Ramakrishna conferred on Vivekananda the responsibility for Ramakrishna’s disciples. In the years that followed Ramakrishna’s departure, Vivekananda lived the life of a wandering monk, crossing all of India and living off of the kindness and generosity of strangers. This phase of his life developed his spiritual consciousness, but also expanded his awareness of the social poverty in which his Indian brothers lived. He drew several conclusions from these experiences, which can be summarised as follows: first, one cannot develop develop one’s spiritual power while living in material poverty–it is therefore necessary to improve social conditions for the poor. At the same time, material prosperity, which is the great strength of the West, only becomes real prosperity when it is subordinate to spiritual prosperity–it is therefore necessary to work towards the spiritual elevation of all of humanity.

These became Swami Vivekananda’s goals from then on, and when he learned that, during the upcoming Chicago Universal Exhibition (in 1893) a World Parliament of Religions was to be held, he saw it as an opportunity to work towards them. His appearances at this event made such an impression that he subsequently received numerous invitations to deliver lectures in the United States. Vivekananda also travelled to Europe later on, staying in France, Switzerland, England, Germany, and Holland, and travelling by train from Paris to Istanbul on his return trip to India.

The two pillars of the Ramakrishna Mission had thus been established: education for social improvement and spiritual elevation for East, as well as West.

Upon his return to India, Swami Vivekananda, along with other disciples of Ramakrishna, established the Ramakrishna Mission, an institution dedicated to fulfilling these two goals.

Swami Vivekananda left this world on 4 July 1902.

Sri Sarada Devi

Sarada Devi was born on 22 December 1853 in Jayrambati, a little village in Bengal, in northeast India.

Although betrothed at a very young age to Ramakrishna (in accordance with longstanding tradition), she did not join him until 1872. Her husband’s perpetual religious exaltation brought joy to Sarada, as this exaltation fulfilled her own aspirations. Their union remained chaste, but was nevertheless perfect: neither served the other, since both had devoted themselves to the realisation of the Supreme.

After Ramakrishna’s passing in 1886, his disciples spontaneously recognised Sarda as the most faithful and eminent witness of his message. Despite being venerated by all of them, she never lost her innate simplicity.

Sarada Devi left this world in 1920.

Her last words (which are recited before every meal at the ashram of Gretz) were: “if you seek peace of mind, do not see the faults of others—observe your own faults instead. Learn to consider that the whole universe is no different from yourself. No one is a stranger to you—the world and you are one.”

At the photographer in 1884

“I bring to Europe – who does not know it – the fruit of a new autumn, a new message of the Soul, the symphony of India which has the name of Ramakrishna. {...] The man whose image I invoke here was the culmination of two thousand years of the inner life of a population of three hundred millions. Since his death forty years ago he has been a driving force behind present day India. He was neither a hero of action, like Gandhi, not a genius of art or thought like Goethe or Tagore, he was a little Brahmin peasant in Bengal, whose external life took place within a limited framework, without remarkable incidents, away from the political and social activity of his time. But his interior life encompasses a multitude of men and gods. [...] Very little goes back to the source. The little Bengali peasant, by listening to his heart, has rediscovered the inner Sea. And he has wedded it [...]”

Romain Rolland The Life of Ramakrishna 1929

Ramakrishna (18 February 1836 – 16 August 1886) was born in Kamarpukur, a little village in the province of Bengal, in northeast India.

At the age of twenty, he was entrusted with performing religious rites at a newly constructed temple dedicated to the Goddess Kali, in Calcutta, the provincial capital. This marked the beginning of a long series of religious experiences – some disconcerting, for his body and his mind, for himself or those near him. These experiences confirmed what he had already sensed long ago during his childhood: there is only one reality, and that reality is divine.

Around 1861, several master sages who were experts in these matters recognised that Ramakrishna had received the Supreme Ecstasy. This recognition changed nothing regarding the simplicity of Ramakrishna’s life: he continued his service at the temple in Calcutta. He also continued his search for true spiritual knowledge, and with this goal in mind practiced the principal approaches set out in Hinduism, as well as Islam and Christianity. 

In 1872, Sarada Devi joined Ramakrishna, whom she had already married as a child (in accordance with longstanding tradition). Their love for each other was unfailing, and nevertheless remained chaste.

Little by little, Ramakrishna’s reputation spread beyond his native village, and beyond the compound of the Kali temple, and soon people came from all over India to see him and converse with him.