Swami Ramakrishnananda was a tall, well-built person with a golden complexion and a broad, serene face. His eyes shone bright with spiritual light.
When Swami Vivekananda visited Chennai on his return from the West, the citizens requested him to send a sannyasi to their city. Accordingly, Swamiji sent Swami Ramakrishnananda to Chennai. Till then, Ramakrishnanandaji was performing austerities at the Alambazar Math [in Kolkata]. Swamiji wanted him to start classes in Chennai and teach the Gita, Bhagavatam and other philosophical texts.
Swami Ramakrishnananda started his work in Chennai in 1897. For nearly twelve years, starting from mid-1898 to the end of 1910, I attended his classes regularly. Acceding to the requests of the devotees, the Swami visited different parts of the city every day and talked for one and a half to two hours, both in the morning and in the evening.
The Swami, being a Bengali, did not speak any Southern language; he spoke only English. People belonging to different strata of society and of different castes attended his lectures and benefited from them. He spoke simple, lucid English and even those with only a limited knowledge of the language could easily understand him. I was one of those who listened to his talks regularly. I can assert with justifiable pride that those lectures made an indelible impression on my mind and the change in mental outlook thus brought about can never be altered or destroyed.
Never did the Swami utter an unnecessary sentence. Every word of his brought about a perceptible change in the attitude of one or the other among his audience. He would inspire us and immerse us, as it were, in an ocean of bhakti. Every listener noticed a definite change, not only in his own spiritual life, but also, in his day-to-day worldly life.
This story is from the August 2018 edition of The Vedanta Kesari.
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This story is from the August 2018 edition of The Vedanta Kesari.
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