Originality of the Pioneers of the Ramakrishna Order

Book excerpt: Swami Vivekananda the matchless personality of the second millennium emphasized the word ‘Original’ while describing the unfathomable uniqueness and greatness of his master Sri Ramakrishna the greatest incarnation and embodiment of renunciation, austerity, and love. Swamiji wished that his brother-disciples should also possess originality of their own. An extensive research has been carried out to find out the testimonies of originality of not only the Master but of Holy Mother and their sixteen monastic disciples also. A painstaking attempt has been made to focus on the contribution of the illuminated souls to the history of genesis of the Ramakrishna order along with its multifaceted non-political, global philanthropic movement in this magnum opus. Once Swami Vivekananda said to his disciple Sharat Chandra Chakraborty: “Do you think these Sannyasin Children of Sri Ramakrishna are born simply to sit for meditation under trees lighting dhuni-fires? Whenever any of them will take up some work, people will be astonished to see their energy. Learn from them how to work.’’ Sri Ramakrishna’s teachings are very useful and relevant to people of all ages. The world heard the short but significant utterances—‘As many faiths so many paths.’, ‘To serve jiva as Shiva’; first from his lips. Swamiji a leading exponent of fearlessness and positive thinking, introduced ‘man-making religion’—a universal religion. He said,’’ The first of all worship is the worship of the Virat—of those all around us….These are all our gods—men and animals, and the first gods we have to worship are our countrymen.’’ In this age of the ‘the fret and the fever’ these historic proclamations are the antidote to fanaticism, intolerance towards different religions and pessimism. The author has meticulously discussed how the direct monastic disciples of Sri Ramakrishna had made Vedanta an organized religion that does not stress rituals, a rigid set of practices, theory, dogma or doctrine and the living being and its reason is the centre of the religion and how they had shown quite apart from their scrupulous honesty and unfailing dedication—a degree of organizational, managerial and administrative ability that could be the envy of professional specialists in different spheres of activity. This glorious history deserves wide circulation for the promotion of religious tolerance, catholic outlook and the ideals of equality and fraternity. Target Readers: People interested in spirituality, researchers, people fond of thought-provoking repository articles and curious book-lovers.