Swami Ranganathananda

Swami Ranganathananda (born December 15, 1908, Trikkur, Thrissur, Kerala, as Shankaran Kutty; died April 25, 2005, Kolkata) was a Hindu monk who also took part in politics in India and the surrounding countries.

History

In 1926 he joined the Mysore branch of Ramakrishna Math. He obtained his final vows of monasticism from Swami Shivananda (also known as Mahapurush Maharaj) in 1933. He spent the first 12 years of monasticism in Mysore and Bangalore branches. He served there as the cook, personal attendant to Swami Siddheswaranandaji. He is said to have rendered remarkable service as the secretary and librarian at the Rangoon branch of Ramakrishna Mission from 1939 to 1942. He then served as the president of the Karachi centre of math from 1942 to 1948 until the partition of India.

From 1949 to 1962, he served as a secretary at the Delhi centre. Then from 1962 to 1967, he served as the Secretary of the Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture, Kolkata, director of School of Humanistic & Cultural studies, editor of mission's monthly. Then he served as the president of the Hyderabad branch for a long period. He was elected to the post of vice-president of Ramakrishna Math and Mission in 1989 and then as the president in 1998.

A man with a great insight into the problems of India and the world, Raganathananda was a great orator and scholar. He undertook extensive lecture tours from 1946 to 1972 covering over 50 countries in North and South America, Asia, Africa and Europe, including Russia, Poland and Czechoslovakia. From 1973 to 1986 he annually visited Australia, USA and Europe, spreading the message of Vedanta. Thus he served as a cultural and spiritual ambassador of India,

He declined the Padma Vibhushan as it was conferred on him in his individual capacity but accepted the Indira Gandhi Award for National Integration in 1987 and the Gandhi Peace Prize in February 1999 as both were conferred on the Ramakrishna Mission.

Raganathananda lived the last days of his life in the headquarters of the Ramakrishna Mission at Belur in West Bengal.

He attained Mahasamadhi at Woodlands Medical Centre, Kolkata, at 3:51 p.m. on Monday, 25 April, 2005, owing to cardiac arrest. He was 96. His mortal remains were kept for darshan at Belur Math (near Kolkata) on that day, and were consigned to flames at 12.30 p.m. on 26 April, 2005.

Quotations

* "Are you growing spiritually? Can you love others? Can you feel oneness with others? Have you peace within yourself? and do you radiate it around you? That is called spiritual growth, which is stimulated by meditation inwardly and by work done in a spirit of service outwardly."

* "I am not alone in the world. . .We belong to a world. . .The vast world is around us. We cannot do without it. We cannot become human without a human world around us. How much we owe to the world of other human beings around us!" - Universal message of the Bhagavad-Gita, Vol. 1, p. 178

* "Efficiency and energy comes from emotion, not from intellectual knowledge, which can only direct that emotional energy. But the real impulse comes from emotion. It makes you work at your best." - Universal message of the Bhagavad-Gita, Vol. 2, p. 412

* "So, work hard; perform all duties; develop yourself; then come and surrender to the highest. Do a whole day's honest work, then sit and meditate; then resign yourself to God. Otherwise, that meditation has no meaning or value. Meditation at the end of a lazy day has no meaning; but the same at the end of an active day, filled with good deeds, has meaning, and is rewarding." - Eternal Values for a Changing Society, Vol. 1, p. 379

* "How can we find joy in work? By working for oneself? No; it is not possible to find that continuous joy in work through selfish motivations. Frustration and ennui are the end of all selfish motivations. Frustrations and nervous breakdowns are the end of a self-centred life.The first advice of modern psychiatry to such people is to get out of this prison of self-centredness and to find a genuine interest in other people. Everyone has to learn the lesson some day that the best way to be happy is to strive to make others happy. So wherever you find frustration, you will always discover that the person concerned had been too self-centred and the only hope for him is through learning to take interest in other people, to find joy in the joy of other people. This is the royal path that makes for health, for strength, for efficiency. This great truth---universal and human---we should apply to the world and to our life in it." - Eternal Values for a Changing Society, Vol. 4, pp. 150, 151

* The great new mantra today is "Work" and 'Hard Work'; along with Hard work, intelligent work co-operative team work. All great undertakings are product of team work. We can meet the challenge of freedom only when we have learnt this character-efficiency involved in team work and intelligent hard work. This is the philosophy which we have to learn consciously, not unconsciously, somehow stumbling into it.

* Work from ego point of view is all tension. But behind ego, there is an infinite spiritual dimension. When that is realized even a little, then extra work won't make one feel that it is heavy. Even ordinary experiences will tell you: Whenever there is love in the heart, the worker doesn't feel heavy. When there is no love in the heart, even a little work makes one feel very heavy. As soon as you have love for a particular cause, you can do anything; do hard work, but have a spirit of detachment based on a larger love.

* Work is no work at all. It is a question of agency and attachment. When these two are not there, work ceases to be work, it becomes a play, it becomes spontaneous, and it becomes natural. When you become thoroughly detached, then all that tension goes away. You are working, but you don't feel that you are working. What a beautiful idea!"

* Work is drudgery; Sri Krishna will not allow that attitude. There is joy in work also. Do not abandon work; go on doing work; but, mentally renouncing all actions. It is a wonderful state of mind-working and yet not working.

* Those who work, work with a zest and with joy and in work, learn calmness and the serenity of the human mind and heart; what a wonderful joy it is to work in such a way!

Prominent works by Swami Raganathananda

* Eternal Values for a Changing Society (Vol- I to IV)
# Philosophy & Spirituality
# Great Spiritual teachers
# Education for Human Excellence
# Democracy for Total Human Fulfilment
* The message of Upanishads
* A pilgrim looks at the World (Vol. I & II)
* Swami Vivekananda and Human Excellence
* Vivekananda : his Humanism
* Science and Religion
* The essence of Indian Culture
* An introduction to the study of Gita
* The spiritual life of Indian people
* Vedanta and the future of Mankind
* The charm and power of the Upanishads
* Bhagawan Buddha and our heritage
* The Christ we adore
* Practical Vedanta and the Science of values
* The Indian vision of God as Mother
* Essence of Indian Culture
* The approach to Truth in Vedanta
* Divine Grace
* Democratic administration in the light of Practical Vedanta
* Universal message of Bhagavad Gita (vol I to III)
* Message of the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad

Related links

* [http://www.geocities.com/kpmiyapuram/rkp.htm Website on Life of Swami Ranganathananda and his views on education and philosophy]
* [http://www.sriramakrishnamath.org] Official Ramakrishna math website.
* [http://www.ncte-in.org/pub/other/swami/author.htm Swami Ranganathananda]