(Today is the Blessed Tithi-Puja of Revered Brahmanandaji Maharaj. May he bless us all, on this Holy Day, with Bhakti.)
Rakhal Chandra Ghosh—to be known in later life as Swami Brahmananda, Sri Ramakrishna’s great disciple—was born on January 21, 1863, at Sikra Kulingram, a village near Calcutta.
Some time before Rakhal’s first visit to Dakshineswar, Ramakrishna had prayed to the Divine Mother Kali: ‘Mother, I want someone like myself to be my constant companion. Bring me a boy who is pure-hearted and intensely devoted to you.’
A few days later he saw in a vision a boy standing under a banyan tree in the temple grounds.
Later, in a second vision, the Divine Mother placed a boy, recognizably the same but much younger, on his lap and told him, ‘This is your son.’
Ramakrishna was dismayed at first, supposing that he would have to beget a son, but the Mother reassured him that this would be his spiritual, not his physical child.
Then, on the day that Rakhal and his brother-in-law were coming to Dakshineswar, Ramakrishna had a third vision.
He saw a lotus blooming on the surface of the Ganges and two boys dancing upon it. One of them was Krishna, the other was this same boy.
When Ramakrishna first set his eyes on Rakhal, he recognized him as the boy of his visions. He therefore began to regard Rakhal as his spiritual son, and Rakhal entered into the spirit of this relationship so completely that he could not bear to be separated from Ramakrishna. His visits became more and more frequent, and then extended themselves into long periods of living at the Dakshineswar Temple as Ramakrishna’s personal attendant.
Brahmananda was more interested in the spiritual growth of the disciples than in their practical efficiency.
He once reprimanded a senior disciple who had been put in charge of a younger brother, saying, ‘Did I send this young boy to you to make a good clerk out of him?’
Again and again, he pointed out that the success of a religious order depends on the inner life of each of its members, and not on its achievements in social service, its size, its buildings or its funds.
Brahmananda had the power to make the atmosphere of a place vibrate with his spirituality. By a glance or a touch or his mere presence he could raise the minds of others to a high level and change their very lives.
He spent most of his later life in a state of high spiritual consciousness, coming down from it only in order to teach and help others.
On April 10, 1922, he passed into the final Samadhi and life left the body.
His last words to his disciples were, ‘Do not grieve, I shall be with you always.’
