Then, one day the saint’s condition took a sudden turn for the worse and fast aggravated. It was decided to shift him to Calcutta for immediate treatment. He was feeling pain and his breathing was laboured.
In Calcutta, a garden house was hired when the saint was put up and medication was given. It was an ideal place for recuperation. Good location and treatment appeared to work. Ramakrishna Parmahansa’s condition stabilized.
He was kept there for several months. Legions of his disciples looked after him taking turns. Many of his followers were men with families and jobs to attend to. They managed to steal as much time as they could to serve their spiritual guru and to be near him. Most of the others were college students who stopped going to their classes and looked after Paramhansa. And Narendra was also there. He was devoting all his spare time to the service of his guru, Ramakrishna Paramhansa.
The saint guru was bravely going through his pain making least possible bother for others. He didn’t like being a problem and avoided seeking help. Becoming a living corpse was the last thing he wanted.
One day, he was in a bright mood and in full control of himself. He called all his disciples to him. It was apparent that the saint wanted to make some important announcement.
Ramakrishna Paramhansa said, “Sons! In this auspicious hour, I wish to pass on to you the holy mission of the spiritual liberation and upliftment of the people. The holy ideals and thoughts I nurtured all my life should be carried forward by my trusted ones who accepted my teachings and thoughts. I firmly believe that our philosophy is the sole hope for mankind which deserves to be made a mission. I want to initiate you through proper custom into the mission.
I admit that all of you are very good humans who live to the high moral values. Let me tell you that you are the sweet rewards of my spiritual penance of the entire life. All of you are very capable and very deserving. Yet I have chosen Narendra to lead our spiritual mission because he has a little extra thinking mind and exceptional leadership qualities. The initiation rite will make you the ordained missionaries of our spiritual philosophy bound to live by its rules and regulation. I will ask Narendra to come forward to me.’’
Then, Narendra was asked to take an oath when he went forward. Others followed him to go through the same ritual. Each one of them was given a saffron rob and the mendicant’s alms bag. Now the disciples stood in line headed by Narendra.
Ramakrishna Paramhansa surveyed the field with satisfaction and proclaimed, “You are my spiritual force. Narendra is your leader, your commander. I wish the commander to lead the spiritual force into the battle to defeat the armies of evil and the forces of darkness namely narrow mindedness, bigotry, blind faiths, material craving and all kinds of exploitation. Your valiant commander hence forth shall be called ‘Swami Vivekananda’.”
All the disciples bowed to Ramakrishna Paramhansa including Narendra alias Swami Vivekananda.
Swami Vivekananda had put on his saffron rob and turban. His face glowed in the saintly attire. Now all of the disciples of Ramakrishna were brothers of the mission. They greeted their leader Swami Vivekananda who humbly accepted the salutations of his brothers.
Ramakrishna Paramhansa’s pale face lit up with happiness of fulfillment. Tears welled up in his eyes and he blessed Swami Vivekananda with tears of joy. For him Vivekananda was the essence of his lifeful of penance and spiritual quest.
Ramakrishna Paramhansa’s condition suddenly aggravated on the night of 15th August, 1886 and he breathed his last on the same night liberating his soul. A great spiritual guru had departed. His disciples were grief stricken and looked spiritual orphans.
Vivekananda was beyond consolation. He wept like a child. The beacon of his life had gone out. He again found himself floundering in darkness of pain and despair.
Mournful silence prevailed even after the funeral rites of Ramakrishna Paramhansa. All of his disciples continued to be shell shocked. For days Swami Vivekananda didn’t utter a word. His mind stayed benumbed and blanked out. It took a long time for everyone to regain the normal state of mind and communicate with one another.
They decided to construct a monastery in the memory of Ramakrishna Paramhansa which could serve as their headquarter to plan the spreading of the spiritual message of the saint.
The monastery came up at Varah Nagar. The ashes of Ramakrishna Paramhansa was put in a bronze urn and ceremoniously taken into the monastery and installed as the holy relic of the saint. Vivekananda led this ritual and the monastery was declared open.
All the brothers moved into the monastery and Swami Vivekananda took charge as the head monk. Regulated life, doing penance, recitals of religious scriptures and devotional singing-cum-dancing were the activities the inmates kept themselves occupied with. No missionary tasks were taken up or planned.
Meanwhile, Vivekananda looked after his family as well. Her mother and the sisters were his dependents. The property case dragged on in the court. He was pleading the case himself as he was not in a position to hire a lawyer for financial reasons. Being the son of a Barrister, he showed his legal talent and won the case. For him it was a great moral victory and solution to all his worldly problems.
With the copy of the verdict in his bag, Vivekananda, went home triumphantly. He placed all the property papers and the verdict copy at the feet of his mother, Bhuveneshwari Devi and prayed with folded hands, ‘‘Ma, I have completed my duty I owed to you and the family. This large mansion can earn enough money to take care of all your needs and that of the sisters. The society and the country is calling me for a bigger mission. I am avowed to dedicate my life to the service of the society and the mankind. Kindly bless me and send me on way to fulfil my life’s aim and the main objective. Release me from the family bondage and allow me to take leave of you.’’
The mother stared at her son. He was no more a kid who used to pester her with silly questions. A stranger stood before her with bowed head, stately figure of a saffron robed Swami whose face glowed with some inner aura and magnetic eyes bore through her to gaze at a mystic point yonder. There was no trace of her Billay.
She had lost her Billay in the mystic saffron robes. Tears rolled down her cheeks as Swami bent down to touch her feet. She automatically put her hand on the hand of Swami in the gesture of blessing. Her lips mumbled some unintelligible words.
Swami Vivekananda rose up, bowed his head again and turned his back to her. The departing figure didn’t look back.
Meanwhile, the news of Swami Vivekananda winning the property case had reached the monastery. The brothers naturally thought that the Dutt family would celebrate the victory that night. Thus, they were not expecting Vivekananda.
So, as usual the brothers started singing devotional songs and dancing to their tunes. Ramakrishna Paramhansa had a great penchant for it. He had taught his disciples how one could lose oneself in the flow of the music to simulate Nirvana. When Swami Vivekananda arrived in the monastery the brothers were lost in singing and dancing oblivious of the happenings around. His arrival went unnoticed. The music drew Vivekananda into its quick-sand magic and he too began swaying entranced. He was dancing for joy being liberated from the worldly bondages. The freedom had come to him after a long period of helplessness. It was a heady experience. He had reasons to celebrate it by dancing with abandon.
Gradually the brothers sensed the presence of Vivekananda. It made then ecstatic and the dancing went on all through the night.
In the morning, Swami Vivekananda revealed that he was free of all the worldly trappings. The brothers were overjoyed. Vivekananda was heartily congratulated by them.
Now, Swami Vivekananda could devote all his time to the monastery and pay attention to its working. He must define the aims of the monastery and chalk out clear cut plans and programmes. So far, monastery life ran on vague and loose ideas. It required to be strictly regimented to infuse the spirit of purpose and duty. The monastery was set up with a definite mission.
He decided to lead by example. He got up before down and woke up others saying, “Wake up, O sons of light. The sun invokes you.”
That began their day. Swami Vivekananda out lived before the brothers his ideas about the new order in the monastery life and the need for strict discipline. The brothers obediently accepted the strict rules and the regulations.
In the evenings Swami Vivekananda used to go for a stroll among the trees. One evening, he was taking a stroll at sunset time. The merrily twittering birds were flying homewards for a restful night in their nests. They appeared happy like bundles of contentedness, so free of cares and worries and so liberated. He sadly wondered ‘why the people of our country are so different from the other creatures of the land? Why are they doing slavery of others? Why so poor and sad wretches! Why a spiritual culture of India was being trampled upon by a cheap materialistic western culture? Why is God allowing this? Does He want it to be so?”
His mind reasoned, “No, God would not wish it. He won’t support injustice and naked exploitation. The countrymen themselves are responsible for their own plight. God can’t help the people who are hell bent on destroying themselves by perpetuating illiteracy, poverty, social evils, castism, slave mentality and defeatist mindset. The people are resigned to their fate to be the fodder of the cannons of vested interests. They cling to their blind faiths to justify their misery. The need of the hour is to awaken the people to their own spiritual power and legacy. The banes of the society, the castism, untouchability, illiteracy, blind faiths and strange hold of the orthodoxy must be dealt with. It will lead to a society really great, free of hunger, poverty and subjugation.
Then and only then, the masses will resume their spiritual tradition and repel the forces of materialism.’’
Swami Vivekananda came to the conclusion that he must inspire and work for the spiritual awakening of the people to liberate them from the miseries they were suffering. The evening was falling but inside Vivekananda a new dawn was breaking.
To the monastery he returned with a firm resolve. Now he must get down to the brass tacks to plan the strategy and the course of action on practical level. It will require some careful thinking.
Meanwhile, a brother named Shardananda had left the monastery for good out of disillusionment with the life there which had become a routine with no aim, sooner or later others too were bound to get fed up with rituals serving little purpose. It gave further strength to the determination of Swami Vivekananda to work out a definite plan of action. Staying holed up in a monastery like a recluse would gain him nothing it was clear. Ramakrishna Paramhansa wanted him to free the people of narrow thinking, backwardness, evils, poverty and diseases through spiritual upliftment.
Vivekananda observed fast for two days. Fellow brothers followed his example although a bit puzzled since no reason was spelled out.
On the third day, he announced, “Brothers! I feel that I have failed to guide you into the direction guru Ramakrishna Paramhansa had wished. I apologize for being a burden on you. I want you to release me. I wish to see and feel the outside world to know the exact aim of our mission.”
The brothers were stunned at this development. They could not understand the reasons behind it. One brother said, “O Vivekananda! Are you angry with us for some reason? Did any one of us do something that has offended you so much? Do tell us what made you take such drastic decision?”
Vivekananda said assuringly, “No brothers, it is nothing like that. I am infact, very thankful to you for bearing with me and being cooperative. You may remember that our guru Ramakrishna Paramhansa had entrusted a special mission to us and to me in particular to lead spiritual renaissance. Building up this monastery was not our sole aim. It was merely a stepping stone. For the time being my usefulness here is over. Don’t shed tears or grieve for me. I wish you to stay here and carry on the traditions of our late guru. We all have separate roles to fulfil to realise the dream of our guru. Now my role is to go out and find the meaning of what he had said to me. I wish you all happiness and peace.”
Swami Vivekananda departed from the monastery as his brothers bid him tearful farewell.
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