||Aum Sri Ramakrishna Sharanam||
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| Swami Vimokshananda addressing the audience |
Normally when people are about to retire , they start their
speeches by saying, I stand before you with mixed emotions but today as I sit
to write this blog I am also entwined with mixed feelings. One of immense joy
as I together with a few thousand people appreciated the wonderful and stellar
performances of the youth at the Ramakrishna children’s festival at the UKZN
University in Westville Durban. As the stage opened to a super life size canvas
of Swamiji my heart was gripped by an intense emotion which welled my eyes instantaneously as I recalled the 4th of July 1902 when Swamiji left
his body.
At seven o'clock in the evening, the bell rang for worship
in the Chapel. The Swami went to His room and told the disciple who attended to Him
that none was to come to Him until called for. He spent an hour in meditation,
then called the disciple and asked him to open all the windows and fan His
head. He lay down quietly on His bed and the attendant thought that He was
either sleeping or meditating.
At the end of an hour, His hands trembled a little and He
breathed once very deeply.There was silence for a minute or two, and again He breathed
in the same manner. His eyes became fixed in the centre of His eyebrows, His face
assumed a divine expression, and eternal silence fell.. Swami Vivekananda
passed away at the age of thirty-nine years, five months, and twenty-four
days... thus fulfilling His own prophecy: 'I shall not live to be forty years
old'.
On Thursday, 111 years on, the heavens’ still shed tears in
honour of Her great son Vivekananda. The sun lay hidden behind the dense clouds
of sorrow and as the rain washed away the helpless soil, it reminded me of how
they all stood around the pyre throttled by intense grief and watched
helplessly as Swamiji's mortal remains were consigned to the flames.
There is a story of Ahalya (one without any deformation)
created by Brahma as the most beautiful woman on the earth. She was desired as
a wife and lover by all men, creatures and Gods. Even Indra could not suppress
his lust for her. She was however, given in marriage to Sage Gautama. One day
while the Sage was gone to undertake His penance, Indra disguised himself as
the Sage and entered the hermitage. Ahalya being fooled and bewildered by
'maya' was dishonoured by Indra.
Sage Gautama returned unexpectedly from His penance and
caught Indra in His home. The Sage was overflowing with rage and cursed His
wife such that for her indiscretion, she will be turned into a stone and during
the Treta Yuga shall be redeemed from the curse by the touch of Sri Rama’s
feet. Whilst in the forest, Sri Rama did place His feet upon the stone and she
was freed back to her former glory.
Nivedita began to weep like a child, rolling on the ground.
Suddenly the wind blew into her lap a piece of the ochre robe from the pyre, and
she received it as a blessing. It was dusk when the flames subsided. The sacred
relics were gathered and the pyre was washed with the water of the Ganga. The
place is now marked by a Temple, the table of the altar standing on the very
spot where the Swami's body rested in the flames.
And: '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.'For centuries to come people everywhere will be inspired by
Swami Vivekananda's message: 'O man! first realise that you are one with Brahman
—aham Brahmasmi— and then realise that the whole universe is verily the same
Brahman —sarvam khalvidam Brahma-.
History will always show to the world one of the most
perfect Guru-Disciple-relationships of modern times, as that of Sri Ramakrishna
and Swami Vivekananda. Swamiji lived and died by the instructions of His Guru.
Once, Swami Vivekananda spoke to Master in this strain: "I want to remain
immersed in samadhi for three or four days, continuously, breaking it only for
a little food." But Master reprimanded him: "Shame on you! You are
seeking such an insignificant thing. There is a state higher than that even. Is
it not you who sing, 'Thou art all that exists?' I thought you would be like a
banyan, sheltering thousands from the scorching misery of the world. But now I
see you seek your own liberation." It was during His wandering years when
Swamiji came across the appalling condition of the masses, that He found
resonance with His mission and His Master's words. His heart began to churn
with empathy and His life no longer became about Himself, but for the millions
of suffering 'jivas' of the world.
Swamiji's mission is to save us. Like Ahalya, we are all
perfect souls, being tricked by the 'maya' of the world; lured by lust and
greed, our hearts have been turned to stone. We enjoy this world for self and
sense pleasure alone. Like how Sri Rama redeemed Ahalya, Swamiji left His
mortal coil to permeate this universe through His spiritual form. Through His
great and grand ideas that permeate the world and as people come into
contact with them and start to digest it, His grace shall flow and our hearts
will turn from stone to the beautiful lotus abode of the Lord. It shall feel
love again, it shall empathise again and we will understand that we are one
with God... and that we will only be freed when all are freed.
Until that day when every 'jiva' understands that... Swamiji
will be true to His word and shall never rest until it is achieved. Last Sunday
when Swami Vimokshananda was expounding the glorious gems of the Tirukurral, He
spoke of how envy, jealousy, anger, etc. were terrible obstacles in the
spiritual path. I was foolish to have been jealous and envious of all those who
lived and served Swamij; to those who had the opportunity to sit at His feet
and those who took the dust off His feet... because now in this time, after He
gave up His body, He is our eternal companion. Like how Hanumanji was at the
side of Sri Ram, Swamiji is with you.
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| Some children who participated |
With love and prayers always
Yogan
www.sudarshanavidya.blogspot.com
descriptions of swamijis last hours from various writings on swamiji from the net.
descriptions of swamijis last hours from various writings on swamiji from the net.
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