Sri Ramakrishna Math : The Vedanta Kesari, The Ramakrishna Tradition: A Culture By Itself

Linda Prugh is a long-time member and secretary of the Vedanta Society of Kansas City, Missouri, USA. She has authored articles on Sri Ramakrishna, Sri Sarada Devi, and Swami Vivekananda in various journals and special souvenir publications and the book Josephine MacLeod and Vivekananda's Mission.

In December 1898, a few days after the consecration of Belur Math as the headquarters of the Ramakrishna Order of India, Swami Vivekananda told a disciple: 'If the Lord wills, we shall make this Math a great centre of harmony. Our Lord is the visible embodiment of the perfect harmony of all ideals. His throne will remain unshaken in the world of spirituality if we keep alive that ideal of harmony here. We must see to it that people of all sects and creeds ... find on coming here their respective ideals manifested. The other day when we installed the image of Sri Ramakrishna on the grounds of this Math, I saw his ideas emanating from here and flooding the whole universe with their radiance!'¹

A culture is defined as the behaviours and beliefs that characterize a particular group. This article will describe some striking characteristics of the Ramakrishna Tradition, now 115 years old, which set it apart as a culture by itself.

First, it was founded as a religious organization the moment Sri Ramakrishna himself distributed monastic clothes to his disciples and told them to go out and beg for food. When they brought that food to the Master lying ill at the Cossipore garden house, he told them: 'This food is very pure.'² Sri Ramakrishna then requested Narendra (later, Swami Vivekananda) to keep his brother-disciples together and to spread the message of Vedanta. After their Master's death, the Ramakrishna Order was organized as a monastic community by Swami Vivekananda and his brother disciples. This is not unique in the world of religion. There are many monastics all over the world, and many spiritual orders. The Ramakrishna Order in fact belongs to one of the ten monastic orders founded by Sri Shankara-charya. Ramakrishna himself was given the vows and sadhana of Vedanta by Tota Puri, a monk of Shankara's Puri Order.

Like its founder and like its chief organizer, the Ramakrishna Tradition is so unique that it does truly constitute a culture, separate from and yet harmonizing with other orders and religious movements throughout the world. It has no conflict with any other religious tradition. That is because Ramakrishna himself, through his twelve long years of intensive sadhanas, plunged into the very depths of all the world's spiritual treasures and found the same Supreme Reality behind each one. The Bhagavad Gita declares that the true yogi 'never departs from Reality.' This was Ramakrishna's experience: He realized for himself that all the yogas and all the disciplines of various faiths led to the same God-realization, the same Supreme Reality. He knew that Brahman was both with form and without form, beyond both concepts, and inexpressible. Actually, he was from birth a comprehensive embodiment of all spiritual ideals throughout the world. For us, the devotees, this means that whatever form one wishes to worship, one can find that form inRamakrishna. As Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita: 'Whatever form a devotee, with faith, wishes to worship, I make that faith of his steady.' Even the Impersonal can be found in the Master

As Sri Ramakrishna repeated again and again: 'God is Infinite and infinite are the ways to reach Him.'³

And the Master's spiritual descendants, from his sixteen direct disciples down to the present-day monastics of the Order, inherited his spiritual treasures through an undying flame of power, kindled by love so strong that even the most ordinary person feels it just stepping inside an ashrama of the Order.

Swami Vidyatmananda wrote in A Yankee and the Swamis about the devotion that lies central in the Ramakrishna Tradition of monasticism. He states:

The most essential qualification of a monastic aspirant, as the Ramakrishna Order sees it, cannot be codified nor its development legislated. That is possession by him of devotion, or at least the potentiality of devotion, to God. It is as impossible to identify the promise of this inner quality in a postulant as it is to define it. It is impossible to force its appearance later in the monastic career. Yet without it excellence in other characteristics is held to count for little.

This matter of devotion -- of somehow striking a gusher of divine love in one's heart -- is central to Ramakrishna monasticism. The highest ideal of human existence is held out -- realization of God in this life; others have realized him; I too can and must: 'May He Illumine Us.' To realize him I must somehow develop this love for him, this devotion....

As I understand it the Ramakrishna plan is simply this, to hold high the ideal of realization and trust God that the necessary devotion may come. One successful guru explained the Vedanta training technique in this brief formula: 'We insist upon regular daily meditation; and we let go but keep watch.'⁴

The motto of the Ramakrishna Order is 'For one's own liberation and for the welfare of all.' This signifies that it is strictly a spiritual and humanitarian culture. The Order, as directed by Swami Vivekananda, has no connection with politics. Even during India's Freedom Movement, the Order stood fearlessly uninvolved, despite severe criticism. The Order also has no connection with commercialism. One will never find mantras being sold in any of its ashramas. The one goal of developing spirituality and realizing God is meant for all -- not just for a few.

Swami Nirvedananda, writing in Sri Rama-krishna and Spiritual Renaissance, states about Vivekananda's conviction of the essential necessity of religion for the collective welfare of humanity:

Civilization minus religion appeared to [Vivekananda] to be nothing but polished animalism that was sure to ruin the entire society like the great empires of the past. He actually raised a note of alarm that the whole of Europe, with its growing apathy to spirituality, was sitting on the top of a volcano which might burst at any moment.... The Swami was emphatic in his enunciation that the value of the life of an individual or a society was to be assessed on its spiritual progress, and not merely on its material possessions or intellectual attainments. Hence culture of the cardinal virtues, namely, purity, devotion, humility, sincerity, selflessness and love -- all that contribute to spiritual progress -- should claim our attention more than anything else on earth.... He assured his Western audiences that this outlook, instead of standing in the way of material and intellectual advancement, would actually rather go to improve the condition of the world by eliminating all disruptive and disintegrating forces, all clashes and conflicts arising out of the present leaning towards the negation of the nobler traits of human nature.⁵

Nearly 1400 monastics operate centers all over the world. An impressive number of them are well educated and fluent in the languages necessary to their particular stations. Over and above these qualities, they try to share with others not only the literal meaning but the inner meaning of the Vedantic teachings, and this they do in a respectful way. It is the essence of Vedantic teachings which truly guides the Order, because that essence represents 5000 years of recorded experiences of great sages who, generation after generation, made a passionate search for Truth and found It through their own direct experience of God. This tradition of seeking experience of God for oneself and helping others to do so is really the basis of the Ramakrishna Tradition.

For this reason, all faiths are respected in the Order named after Sri Ramakrishna. In his lecture 'My Master' Vivekananda stated: 'First make character--that is the highest duty you can perform. Know Truth for yourself and there will be many to whom you can teach it afterwards; they will all come. This was the attitude of my Master. He criticized no one. For years I lived with that man, but never did I hear those lips utter one word of condemnation for any sect.... I learned from my Master that the religions of the world are not contradictory or antagonistic. They are but various phases of one eternal religion.'⁶

The Ramakrishna Tradition is also characterized by its acceptance of modern, scientific methods. It is progressive, without being faddish. That is, it is discriminating about modern science and technology and uses what is practical for its particular needs. Most big centers of the Order are computerized, and many even have websites. Vivekananda wanted Western methods of organization and technology to be shared with India and Indian spiritual traditions to be shared with the West. But more important than material progress is the fact that the Ramakrishna Tradition stresses having a basic scientific attitude towards spiritual truths, and emphasizes the importance of trying to experience Vedantic teachings for oneself. Devotees are never instructed to blindly accept any teaching without trying to have direct experience of it for oneself.

Perhaps the best known characteristic of the Ramakrishna Tradition is its service-mission work. Traditionally, monastics in India have been locked into an image and a mould of remaining aloof from society, retiring into solitude, and practising spiritual disciplines for their own liberation. But the revolutionary ideal of service to others that the Order established over one hundred years ago really came from Ramakrishna himself, who said that religion cannot be learned on an empty stomach. When he was on pilgrimage with Mathur and they visited a famine- stricken village, he refused to take one step further until Mathur had fed and clothed the people there.

After the Master's passing, when Vivekananda walked the length and breadth of India, he wept at the great chasm that separated the few elite who had so much from the starving masses who had so little, and he determined to somehow ameliorate human suffering. In 1894, Vivekananda inspired Swami Akhandananda to follow his heart and conduct relief work, saying: 'The Gerua robe is not for enjoyment. It is the banner of heroic work. You must give your body, mind, and speech to the welfare of the world.'⁷ And Akhandananda's relief work in Murshidabad in 1897 was really the first done on a large scale by the Ramakrishna Order. Delighted with what he had accomplished, Swamiji wrote again to Akhandananda: 'It is the heart, the heart that conquers, not the brain. Books and learning, yoga and meditation and illumination -- all are but dust compared with love. It is love that gives you the supernatural powers, love that gives you bhakti, love that gives illumination, and love, again, that leads to emancipation. This indeed is worship, worship of the Lord in the human tabernacle.'⁸

Vivekananda gave life to his own behest that only he who serves can be a leader when he conducted plague relief work in Calcutta in the spring of 1898. With the help of Sister Nivedita, Swami Sadananda, and other brother monks and disciples, lanes and ditches were cleaned by hand, people were given instructions in containing the plague, and plague patients were nursed in a respectful manner. This work endeared the swami and the Order to the people hit by the plague. This was his practical Vedanta.

Today the Ramakrishna Order has a multitude of hospitals, charitable dispensaries, and mobile medical units; it operates fine orphanages, top schools, and respected colleges and technical institutes. It also connects worldwide through its many publication sites operating in over two dozen languages. In times of natural calamities, such as floods, famine, and fire, the Ramakrishna Order works alone or alongside other humanitarian organizations to conduct relief work.

Once a monk of the Order was heard recalling his own experience in helping with relief work during a great flood in Calcutta in 1970. For five days there was torrential rain, with water reaching six to seven feet in the eastern part of the city. Hundreds of stranded people were huddled together on roofs of buildings. First, this monk arranged for one of the Order's big hospitals to prepare khichuri and loaves of bread for 2,500 people. Then he and three other monks loaded big festival drums into the bed of a rented truck and drove to the hospital to pick up that food. Transferring those big drums to boats, they crossed the flood waters to reach those people and give them that food. This process they followed for a number of days, working fifteen hours at a stretch. He said: 'I cannot express to you what I got from that experience. The bliss and joy I have felt in deepest meditation cannot compare with what I felt in carrying that food to those helpless people. At night I used to lie awake and see their faces.'

The Ramakrishna-Vivekananda ideal of service is to perform all work as worship. At Dakshineswar Ramakrishna conveyed to Vivekananda the basis of what the Order's service should be. It happened one day in the following way. Ramakrishna had been describing to some devotees the three salient disciplines of the Vaishnava religion: love of God's name, compassion for all living beings, and service to the devotees. Repeating the word compassion he suddenly went into samadhi. When he returned to normal consciousness he said to the devotees: 'How foolish to speak of compassion! Man is an insignificant worm crawling on the earth -- and he is to show compassion to others! This is absurd. It must not be compassion but service to all. Recognize them as God's manifestations and serve them.'

Leaving the Master's room, Naren (Vivekananda) told others: 'How beautifully [the Master] has reconciled the ideal of bhakti with the knowledge of Vedanta, generally interpreted as dry, austere, and incompatible with human sentiments! What a grand, natural, and sweet synthesis!... The embodied being cannot remain even for a minute without activity. All his activities should be directed to the service of man, the manifestation of God upon earth, and this will accelerate his progress towards the goal.'⁹

And Vivekananda later made this practical Vedanta, this ideal of service as worship of God in man, the basis of all mission work done in the Ramakrishna Tradition. Once he wrote to an American devotee: 'May I be born again and again, and suffer thousands of miseries so that I may worship the only God that exists, the only God I believe in, the sum total of all souls--and above all, my God the wicked, my God the miserable, my God the poor of all races, of all species, is the special object of my worship. He who is in you and is outside of you, who works through every hand, who walks through every foot, whose body you are, Him worship, and break all other idols.'¹⁰ In the Ramakrishna Tradition, then, the sick are worshipped with medicine; the illiterate with education; the poor with food; and all with spirituality.

And even Vivekananda appreciated that there is a place for formal worship in establishing a relationship with God, and on July 4, 1902, one of his last requests was that worship of Divine Mother Kali be performed the following day. He himself performed some worship once, with definitely different touches, however. Swami Bodhananda, who was present, later described its uniqueness. He wrote:

'First, in the usual way [Swamiji] took his seat as worshipper and meditated. We meditated too. After a pretty long time we sensed that someone was moving around us. I opened my eyes to see who it was. It was Swamiji. Taking the tray of flowers meant to be offered to Sri Ramakrishna, he got up. But instead of placing them before the Lord, he came to us, and touching the flowers with sandal paste, placed one on the head of each disciple.

'Considered from the ordinary traditional standpoint, this was an antitraditional act. Imagine flowers meant for the Lord, offered by Swamiji to his disciples! Generally, after the worship service, the leftover flowers are set aside to be thrown away. But instead of doing this, Swamiji approached the altar and offered what remained in the tray before the picture of Sri Ramakrishna. He also carried out the usual rites. Then he indicated that the time had come for food offering; so we all got up to leave the room. It is a custom in India that during the food offering no one should be in the shrine except the worshipper. We heard from outside Swamiji saying, addressing Sri Ramakrishna, "Friend, please eat!" ...

In placing a flower on the head of each one of us, he really offered the flower at the feet of Sri Ramakrishna in each disciple. Thereby he awakened His presence in us. That presence took different aspects in different persons. Some were devotional; some had the jnana aspect predominant. By his act of worship, Swamiji awakened the Divine in us.... The same divine presence, which Swamiji saw in the photograph of Sri Ramakrishna on the altar, he also saw in his disciples. Lastly, Swamiji's relation to his Chosen Deity was that of a friend. That is why, in offering the food, he addressed Sri Ramakrishna by that term.'¹¹

In the spring of 1902, when some Santhal men were working on construction at Belur Math, Swamiji would often talk with them. Swamijiloved these men and one day gave them a nice lunch at the Math. Afterwards one of the men said, 'We have never tasted anything like this.' Swamiji told them: 'You are Narayanas, God manifest; today I have offered food to Narayana.' Later he told a disciple, 'I found them the veritable embodiment of God -- such simplicity, such sincere guileless love I have seen nowhere else.' Then he asked his brother monks: 'Can you mitigate their misery a little? Otherwise of what good is the wearing of the Gerua robe? Sacrifice of everything for the good of others is real Sannyasa. They have never enjoyed any good thing in life.' And later that day he said: 'After so much austerity I have understood this as the real truth -- God is present in every man; there is no other God besides that. "Who serves man, serves God indeed." What I have told you today, inscribe in your heart. See that you do not forget it.'¹²

In the Ramakrishna Tradition all are welcome. Faith or no faith, it does not matter. Vegetarian or non-vegetarian, it does not matter. Easterner or Westerner, it does not matter. All are welcome and treated with respect and love. The ashramas we have visited in the United States, England, France, and India have been warm and welcoming. The faces of so many of the monastics beam with love and joy, and one feels that their lives are based on the love that has been carried heart and soul from one generation to the next in the Order.

Vivekananda once wrote to his brother disciples: 'We believe that every being is divine, is God.... We believe that this is the conscious or unconscious basis of all religions.... I, unworthy as I am, had one commission -- to bring out the casket of jewels that was placed in my charge, and make it over to you.... Preach the new ideal, the new doctrine, the new life.'¹³ 'We reject none, neither theist, nor pantheist, monist, polytheist, agnostic, nor atheist; the only condition of being a disciple is modelling a character at once the broadest and the most intense.'¹⁴

Sri Ramakrishna's life so harmonized every aspect of mankind that no one is left out. He practised and appreciated all the yogas, considering the ideal person to be a masterful blend of all of them: knowledge, service, self-control, and love for God. And when, after initiation by Tota Puri into Advaita Vedanta, he had the highest non-dualistic experience, he knew 'that by knowing which everything is known.' Vedanta itself is so broad and so deep that it cannot possibly be confined to any religion, because Vedanta is simply the essence of religion itself.

Actually, the Ramakrishna Tradition is not confined to Belur Math nor even to other Ramakrishna centres around the world. It is also found in the hearts of devotees. And when those hearts reach out and share that love, others are attracted. Behind -- or more appropriately -- within each heart is the divine Master, Sri Ramakrishna, holding the casket of jewels -- the Eternal, Universal Truths of Vedanta. And this is how the Tradition continues.

The amazing thing about being in a peaceful Ramakrishna ashrama is that one knows one is in the right place and one finds oneself wanting to be good. The Master seems to reach out to us and not only makes us want to be better than we are but shows us that we are better. Not just better, but suddenly peaceful; not only peaceful, but suddenly safe. A great feeling, a great sense of belonging dawns on one. Whether we do or do not belong to any Ramakrishna Mission or Vedanta Society does not matter at all. One needn't even believe in God to feel perfectly welcome. Being there simply reminds us again and again of the goal of life: God-realization.

And so, after more than one hundred years, the Ramakrishna Tradition, marked by peace,unity, and harmony, continues, and the Master's throne remains unshaken.

1. His Eastern and Western Disciples, The Life of Swami Vivekananda (Advaita Ashrama: Calcutta, 1981), 2:403.
2. Life of Sri Ramakrishna (Calcutta: Advaita Ashrama, 1977), p. 446.
3. M., The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, trans. by Swami Nikhilananda (Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Centre, New York, 1969), p. 506.
4. John Yale (Swami Vidyatmananda), A Yankee and the Swamis (George Allen & Unwin Ltd: London, 1961), pp. 208-09.
5. Swami Nirvedananda, Sri Ramakrishna and Spiritual Renaissance (The Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture: Calcutta, 1940), pp. 246-47.
6. The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda (Advaita Ashrama: Calcutta, 1978), 4:178, 180. [Hereafter, Complete Works.]
7. Letters of Swami Vivekananda (Advaita Ashrama: Calcutta, 1981), p. 93. [Hereafter, Letters.]
8. Complete Works 6:400-01.
9. Swami Chetanananda, God Lived with Them (Vedanta Society of St. Louis; St Louis, 1997), p. 35. [Hereafter, God Lived with Them.]
10. Complete Works 5:137.
11. God Lived with Them, pp. 66-67.
12. Talks with Swami Vivekananda (Advaita Ashrama: Calcutta, 1946), pp. 295, 298.
13. Letters, p. 71.
14. Letters, p. 68.