Musings of a Monk

Email

Whatsapp

Facebook

Pinterest

Twitter

Copy link

Revered Swami Smarananandaji Maharaj, after joining the Ramakrishna Order as a monastic member, started writing articles, chiefly in English, from early sixties. His writings were published in all the important English monthly journals, namely the Prabuddha Bharata, the Vedanta Kesari and the Bulletin of the Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture, of the Ramakrishna Order. Besides those, his writings were published in many other souvenirs and magazines, including the Vivek-Jivan, the monthly journal of Akhil Bharat Vivekananda Yuva Mahamandal, a youth movement which is considered as his brain-child.

In this collection of his articles and writings, sixty eight articles have been compiled together and they have been classified under fourteen sections.

The readers will find that the subjects of the articles are not confined to Ramakrishna- Vivekananda only, there are articles on many other subjects also. The articles on the scriptures and the comparative presentation show his in depth study and understanding on those subjects. From the articles on Sri Ramakrishna, Sri Ma Sarada Devi, Swamiji and Ramakrishna movement, the readers will find lot of insight and practical guidance of the theoretical aspect of the Ramakrishna movement and its practical application in individual as well as collective life. It is because of his travels all over India and many other countries he wrote a good number of travelogues, which attract the readers greatly.

Another very important feature of this compilation is two un-published writings. Though it has been mentioned in the beginning that the started writings from early sixties, one of his writings included here under section' Appendix', was written in 1958 when he was Brahmachari Samvit-chaitanya (i.e. before his initiation into Sannyasa and naming as Swami Smaranananda). In this small piece of very poetic and sublime writing he has expressed his feeling of a visit to the Dakshineswar Kali temple on one evening. We are sure that study of this writing will elevate the readers to a higher spiritual plane. Also there is a conversation with Revered Swami Atulanandaji Maharaj (a close associate of Swami Turiyanandaji and an initiated disciple of Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi), whom he met at the erstwhile Barlowganj Ashrama (near Mussoori in Uttarakhand).

Since quite some time, tbe devotees bave been enquiring about a collection of the writings of Revered Maharaj. We hope this publication will quench this thirst of theirs to some extent. There are many more speeches and writings of Revered Mabaraj. But, in this compilation, we have mainly concentrated on his articles published in the most important j ournals oftbe Ramakrishna Order.

We are indebted to Swami Atmajnanandaji, past-Manager of Advaita Ashrama, Kolkata; Swami Atmashraddhanandaji, Editor, Vedanta Kesari, Ramakrishna Math, Chennai, and Sri Dipak Sarkar of Akhil Bharat Vivekananda Yuva Mahamandal for their kind help in collecting the articles. Also we are indebted to Sri Debashis Moitra, an initiated disciple of Revered Mabaraj, for his help in preparing the manuscript.

Finally: we are extremely grateful to Revered Swami Suparnanandaji, Secretary of Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture, Gol Park, Kolkata, and the efficient team of the publication section of the institute, for taking up the publication work to fulfil the long cherished desire of the devotees and reader in general