Know about the Ramakrishna Order

Swami Tapasyananda

(Continued from the previous issue)

Youth is the raw potential of any country and mankind at large. Can you tell what is the message for them by Swami Vivekananda through the Ramakrishna Order?

The monastic Order is the great gift that Swami Vivekananda has offered to the youth of the country having faith in the spiritual ideal and destiny of India. He himself and his great brother-disciples, who had direct contact with Sri Ramakrishna and had been witness to the divinity manifest in him, have by their life of austerity, service and mutual concord generated a holy tradition and kindled the spirit of brotherhood. Those pioneers of the Order have left this great legacy to posterity through their own disciples, and thus the Order and the tradition are to be transmitted to generations yet to come for the spiritual upliftment of India and the world at large. Swamiji wanted young men to join the Order in large numbers for propagating the message of the Master and keeping up the continuity of the spiritual tradition set in motion by him.

Writing to a brother-disciple in 1894, with the fiery zeal of a spiritual revolutionary, he exhorts: 'We want converts at any risk. ...Not householder disciples, mind you, we want sannyasins. Let each one of you have a hundred heads tonsured--young educated men, not fools. Then you are heroes. ...Start centres at places ...Convert everyone into the monastic Order, whoever seeks for it. ...Whoever at this great spiritual juncture will stand up with a courageous heart and go on spreading from door to door, from village to village, His message, is alone my brother, and a son of His. ...Whoever will be ready to serve Him--no, not Him but His children--the poor and the downtrodden, the sinful and the afflicted--in them He will manifest Himself. Through their tongue the Goddess of learning Herself will speak, and the Divine Mother--the embodiment of all power--will enthrone Herself in their hearts.'

Monasticism is a life suitable for a chosen few. Then how can one think that people of the common run can also join the Ramakrishna Order in thousands and find themselves fit to practise this grand ideal?

Swamiji once wrote: 'And if amongst us, each one may not individually attain to that perfection, still we may get it collectively by counteracting, equipoising, adjusting, and fulfilling one another.'

An organization, like a State requires not only geniuses but ordinary folks, not only leaders but followers also. In the Order of Sri Ramakrishna all are welcome, talented and highly qualified persons as also mediocres, provided they are attracted by the ideal of living a life of renunciation and service.

In monastic life, as in any community life, the individual is participating in the general group consciousness and is therefore propped up or pulled down by that consciousness as the case may be, according to the standard of excellence prevailing in the group. The new self- consciousness of being the member of a group of elite, together with a host of inhibitions like vows, traditions, dress, association and so on, raises a solid barrier of protection behind which even one comparatively weak can operate with sure chances of success, provided one is sincere.

How can a man of patriotic feelings find fulfilment of his ideal of regeneration of India through the Ramakrishna Order?

After political independence was attained, we have now come to understand that it has no meaning without economic independence, and the country is, therefore, struggling for that through planning and industrialization. But sooner or later it will be realized that without moral, religious and spiritual freedom--freedom from the animal in man--even economic freedom can offer no solace to the people. It is necessary that at least the more thoughtful sections in the country are prepared to face this disillusionment sufficiently early.

For the attainment of this spiritual freedom the country requires a huge army of workers cast in the mould that Swamiji has prepared through the harmonious combination of Jnana, Bhakti, Yoga and Karma. The monastic Order is the great legacy he has left to posterity for accomplishing this purpose.

Is there scope for an individual to nurture his talents interfacing it with the pursuit of this high ideal?

Renunciation implies the eschewal of personal ambitions, family bonds, possessions, luxury and sex. An individual can practise renunciation only if these urges find fulfilment in the higher satisfaction which devotional life offers.

Service implies the dedication of one's energies and capacities to the works of the Order conceiving it as a symbol of the Master. Spiritual talents are therefore more important than worldly abilities, but by the very nature and object of the Order a harmonious combination of both is the ideal.

Monastic life, therefore, offers to persons having the required temperament, the best opportunity of developing their capacities and of living their lives in a way that will be of maximum benefit to themselves and the world at large. While personal ambition has no place, scope for great achievements are open to persons of ability and courage.

Now I have understood the ideology of Ramakrishna Order. Kindly tell me what are the expectations from an aspirant who wishes to join it as a monastic?

While Swamiji thus invites young men in hundreds to join the Order, he has in mindonly people with an innate urge for God-realization, fortified with intense spirit of renunciation and service.

For a monastic Order, according to him, can be vigorous and healthy only if it keeps up the spirit of austerity, the love of learning, and missionary zeal.

The spirit of austerity consists essentially in practising control of the senses, in abandoning personal ambitions, and in always keeping the flame of divine aspiration bright through regular practice of meditation and other forms of devotional disciplines.

Learning in the sense of the study of scriptures has always been considered a 'must' for the sannyasins. Scriptural study is a support for one's Sadhana, especially if a monk is intellectual. As teaching and preaching in some way or other will always devolve on a monk as a duty, scriptural knowledge and capacity to spell out the teachings will be found essential for a meaningful monastic life. But in a monastic order of the type that Swamiji envisaged, a general knowledge of arts and science, both ancient and modern, is also necessary. Unless the modern trends of thought and human aspirations are grasped, scriptural study by itself becomes stagnant. Every spiritual message is ever-novel and ever-renewing, and it is only against the foil of expanding human understanding that this unique feature of a genuine revelation can be appreciated. Swamiji's interpretation of the Vedanta is itself the best example of this. But the practice of austerity and love of learning should not end in a self-centred pseudo-saintliness.

A combination of Jnana, Bhakti, Yoga and Karma which Swamiji expected his monks to be, is the ideal to be pursued.

He must have the capacity of an efficient civil servant, the erudition and expressiveness of a learned professor, the sociability and attractiveness of a genuine humanitarian, and above all the spirit of renunciation, devotion and serenity of a true philosopher and lover of God.

There is every danger of pitfall in monastic life, unless it is corrected by true missionary zeal. The common notion of a missionary as an unabashed propagandist of narrow creeds, is a caricature of a great ideal. An urge for sharing and serving is the essential characteristic of missionary spirit. It arises from a strong feeling that what has done immense good to oneself should be brought to the notice of others too in a spirit of humility and service, and shared with them. It consists also in a strong urge to efface oneself in the service of others. In his address to the monks at Belur Math quoted earlier, Swamiji has given clear expression to this ideal. There is no better antidote to the poison of self-centredness than a healthy missionary zeal which consists in the urge to share and to serve.

Does a youth aspiring to become a monk on the ideals set by Swami Vivekananda get some training in the Order? Please tell in some detail the requirements and the process followed therein.

Every healthy, educated, unmarried young man [Particulars about required education, age etc., may be known from the nearest Ramakrishna Math and Mission centres.], who is attracted by the faith and the way of life described above, is eligible for admission into the Order. An intending entrant should have read Ramakrishna-Vivekananda literature, associated himself with any centre of the Ramakrishna Order, and thus have had some acquaintance with the life within. He must also be free from undischarged family duties that are likely to weigh on his conscience as a sin of omission and act as a disturbing factor in his proposed monastic career.

One can join in any of the centres of Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission in India [or abroad]. He has to be a pre-probationer for one year and probationer for another two years. During this period the novice gets opportunity for study and practice of devotional life. For most of the period he may be a working member of the joining-centre or any of the branch centres. Then he will have to spend two years at the Headquarters at Belur in the training centre. He will get there systematic instructions in the scriptures and philosophy, and will also be put in touch with the traditions of the Order. But this training is only just an orientation course, which he will have to pursue all through his life, both from the spiritual and intellectual points of view.

After this training, if the elders consider him to be eligible, he will be formally initiated into Brahmacharya. On completing another period of four years as an initiated Brahmacharin he would be admitted into Sannyasa and full membership of the Order, provided the elders of the Math are satisfied about his fitness. He is given this long period of nine years to prepare himself and also to be provided with sufficient time to examine his own fitness for a monastic life.

In case he finds that this way of life does not suit him he is free to go away without any hesitation or obligation. But it must be specially pointed out that no one with a strong urge need feel nervous about joining the Order out of a mere sense of diffidence and under-estimation of one's own worth.

Concluded