AFTER THE PASSING AWAY

SRI RAMAKRISHNA passed away on Sunday, August 15, 1886, plunging his devotees and disciples into a sea of grief. They were like men in a shipwreck. But a strong bond of love held them together, and they found assurance and courage in each other’s company. They could not enjoy the friendship of worldly people and would talk only of their Master.

“Shall we not behold him again?” -this was the one theme of their thought and the one dream of their sleep. Alone, they wept for him; walking in the streets of Calcutta, they were engrossed in the thought of him.

The Master had once said to M., “It becomes difficult for me to give up the body, when I realize that after my death you will wander about weeping for me.”

Some of them thought: “He is no longer in this world. How surprising that we still enjoy living! We could give up our bodies if we liked, but still we do not.” Time and again Sri Ramakrishna had told them that God reveals Himself to His devotees if they yearn for Him and call on Him with whole-souled devotion. He had assured them that God listens to the prayer of a sincere heart.

The young unmarried disciples of the Master, who belonged to his inner circle, had attended on him day and night at the Cossipore garden house. After his passing away most of them returned to their families against their own wills. They had not yet formally renounced the world. For a short while they kept their family names.

But Sri Ramakrishna had made them renounce the world mentally. He himself had initiated several of them into the monastic life, giving them the ochre cloths of sannyāsis.

Baranagore Monastery

Two or three of the Master’s attendants had no place to go. To them the large-hearted Surendra said: “Brothers, where will you go? Let us rent a house. You will live there and make it our Master’s shrine; and we house-holders shall come there for consolation.

How can we pass all our days and nights with our wives and children in the world? I used to spend a sum of money for the Master at Cossipore. I shall gladly give it now for your expenses.”

Accordingly he rented a house for them at Baranagore, in the suburbs of Calcutta, and this place became gradually transformed into Math, or, monastery. For the first few months Surendra contributed thirty rupees a month.

As the other members joined the monastery one by one, he doubled his contribution, which he later increased to a hundred rupees. The monthly rent for the house was eleven rupees. The cook received six rupees a month. The rest was spent for food.

First members

The younger Gopal brought the Master’s bed and other articles of daily use from the garden house at Cossipore. The brahmin who had been cook at Cossipore was engaged for the new monastery. The first permanent member was the elder Gopal.

Sarat spent the nights there. In the beginning Sarat, Śaśi, Baburam, Niranjan, and Kāli used to visit the monastery every now and then, according to their convenience. Tārak, who hadgone to Vrindāvan following the Master’s death, returned to Calcutta after a few months and soon became a permanent member of the monastery. Rākhāl, Jogin, Lātu, and Kāli were living at Vrindāvan with the Holy Mother when the monastery was started.

Kāli returned to Calcutta within a month, Rākhāl after a few months, and Jogin and Lātu after a year. The householder devotees frequently visited the monastic brothers and spent hours with them in meditation and study.

After a short time Narendra, Rākhāl, Niranjan, Sarat, Śaśi, Baburam, Jogin, Tārak, Kāli, and Lātu renounced the world for good. Sarada Prasanna and Subodh joined them some time later. Gangadhar, who was very much attached to Narendra, visited the Math regularly.

It was he who taught the brothers the hymn sung at the evening service in the Śiva temple at Benares. He had gone to Tibet to practise austerity; now, having returned, he lived at the monastery. Hari and Tulasi, at first only visitors at the monastery, soon embraced the monastic life and thus completed the list of the Master’s sannyāsi disciples.

Surendra’s magnanimity

Surendra was indeed a blessed soul. It was he who laid the foundation of the great Order later associated with Sri Ramakrishna’s name. His devotion and sacrifice made it possible for those earnest souls to renounce the world for the realization of God.

Through him Sri Ramakrishna made it possible for them to live in the world as embodiments of his teaching, the renunciation of “woman and gold” and the realization of God.

The brothers lived at the Math like orphan boys. Sometimes they would not have the money to pay their house-rent; sometimes they would have no food in the monastery. Surendra would come and settle all these things. He was the big brother of the monks.

Later on, when they thought of his genuine love, the members of this first Math shed tears of gratitude.

Ascetic zeal of the young sannyāsis

The new monastery became known among the Master’s devotees as the Baranagore Math. Narendra, Rākhāl, and the other young disciples were filled with intense renunciation. One day Rākhāl’s father came to the Math and asked Rākhāl to return home. “Why do you take the trouble to come here?” Rākhāl said to him. “I am very happy here. Pleased pray to God that you may forget me and that I may forget you too.”

The young disciples said to each other: “We shall never return to the worldly life. The Master enjoined upon us the renunciation of ‘woman and gold’. How can we go back to our families?”

Śaśi had taken charge of the daily worship in the Math. The Master’s relics had been brought from Balarām’s house and Sri Ramakrishna was worshipped daily in the worship hall. Narendra supervised the household. He was the leader of the monastery.

He would often tell his brother disciples, “The selfless actions enjoined in the Gitā are worship, japa, meditation, and so on, and not worldly duties.” The brothers at the Math dependedon him for their spiritual inspiration. He said to them, “We must practise sādhanā ; otherwise we shall not be able to realize God.” He and his brother disciples, filled with an ascetic spirit, devoted themselves day and night to the practice of spiritual discipline. Their one goal in life was the realization of God.

They followed to their hearts’ content the injunctions prescribed in the Vedas, Puranas, and Tantras for an ascetic life. They spent their time in japa and meditation and study of the scriptures. Whenever they would fail to experience the Divine Presence, they would feel as if they were on the rack. They would practise austerity, sometimes alone under trees, sometimes in a cremation ground, sometimes on the bank of the Ganges.

Again, sometimes they would spend the entire day in the meditation room of the monastery in japa and contemplation; sometimes they would gather to sing and dance in a rapture of delight. All of them, and Narendra particularly, were consumed with the desire to see God. Now and then they would say to each other, “Shall we not starve ourselves to death to see God?”