Swami Abhedananda- A Yogi Par Excellence

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Swami Abhedananda, an illustrious monastic disciple of Sri Ramakrishna and a yogi par excellence, left a lasting Legacy in the Ramakrishna Order by disseminating Vedanta through scientific reasoning and interpretation, thereby continuing the work of Swami Vivekananda in the West, and training innumerable sincere spiritual aspirants both in India and in the West.

As part of commemorating the 150th Birth Anniversary of Swami Abhedananda, this book is brought out to popularise and celebrate the greatness of his glorious life among the public, especially the devotees and the well-wishers of the Ramakrishna Movement.

This book is a biographical narrative of Swami Abhedananda, with incidents compiled from his autobiography and various other sources, and coherently presented in a lucid style to help the readers get a fairly reasonable pen-picture of his glorious life and contributions. It highlights his unique spiritual genius, intellectual acumen, and missionary zeal that paved the way for understanding and practice of the teachings of Vedanta and its illustrious exponent in the modern age, Sri Ramakrishna.

Sri Ramakrishna, after reaching the zenith of his spiritual quest and illumination at the Kali temple in Dakshineswar, was eagerly waiting to impart his spiritual wisdom to sincere seekers of God. The influential Brahmo leader Keshab Chandra Sen requested Sri Ramakrishna, 'Sir, if you permit, I want to make your message known to the public. It will definitely benefit people and bring peace to the world.' Sri Ramakrishna replied in an ecstatic mood, 'It is not the right time to spread the message of this place [meaning his message] through lecturing and newspapers. The power and ideas that are within this body will automatically spread all over in the course of time. Hundreds of Himalayas will not be able to suppress that power.'

Many prominent people of Kolkata was of the opinion that Sri Ramakrishna lacked the faculty of organisation. Who could have then even imagined that Sri Ramakrishna would prove to be a past master in organising a band of highly evolved souls committed to God-realisation and welfare of the world, with such calibre the world had never seen before? Who could have then anticipated that his band of disciples would spread his teachings far and wide and perpetuate his ideas for the good of humanity?

When Sri Ramakrishna incarnated for the welfare of the world, he had already chosen his missionaries. He brought with him his eternal companions-realised souls belonging to the class of the ever-perfect to make people turn Godward and enjoy the bliss of spiritual life. His marked companions started coming to him one by one, and when all of them gathered around him, he consolidated his intimate group, bound them with the cord of divine love, and imparted training and instructions according to the specific roles they were to play in carrying his eternal message to the world afflicted with terrible misery, trials and tribulations.

Sri Ramakrishna trained his disciples so that they would be able to give the required impetus to keep the wheel of his mission rolling forward for the benefit of the future generations the world over. And when the chosen receptacles were ready, Sri Ramakrishna left his mortal frame and the wheel began to roll.

Sri Ramakrishna's young disciples, receiving his divine command, embarked on a mission fully equipped with the highest ideals of knowledge, devotion and selfless service as their driving force. They began to make their presence felt wherever they went. One among such brilliant and inspired carriers of Sri Ramakrishna's message of peace, harmony and divinity of man was Swami Abhedananda, a perspicacious philosopher and a yogi par excellence.

Endowed with highest spiritual realisations and saintly qualities, Swami Abhedananda was the intellectual and academic face of the Ramakrishna Movement. Apart from many outstanding hymns on Sri Ramakrishna and Sri Sarada Devi, he was the author of thousands of pages of literature on Vedanta and Indian culture, travelling as far as Tibet to collect some rare information. Swami Vivekananda was one who fully understood and appreciated the greatness of Swami Abhedananda's intellectual insights and spiritual realisations and had great faith in him. Following the footsteps of Swami Vivekananda, Swami Abhedananda influenced the thought process of the West by dedicating his life for preaching Vedanta. He showed that Vedanta can be explained scientifically and implemented practically. His innumerable and erudite lectures on Vedanta and Indian heritage, delivered throughout his life in India and abroad, popularised Vedanta and created a sensation in the academic circles of the scientific world.

As part of the 150th Birth Anniversary celebrations of Swami Abhedananda, we intended to bring out a commemorative volume highlighting his unique spiritual genius, intellectual acumen and missionary zeal that had paved way for the understanding and practice of the teachings of Vedanta and its illustrious exponent in the modern age, Sri Ramakrishna. Accepting the initiative taken by Smt. Ruchira Mitra, we decided to bring out an enlarged and revised edition of the book Swami Abhedananda: The Yogi par Excellence, which was published by Ramakrishna Math, Hyderabad, and printed in limited copies to be distributed to the participants of their celebrations of Swami Abhedananda's 150th Birth Anniversary.

This volume is basically a compilation of material of biographical significance, culled painstakingly and diligently by Swami Surarchitananda of our Publication Department and Smt. Ruchira Mitra of Hyderabad. While some contents are directly quoted from the sources, others are rendered in a different language and style while ensuring that the information given are true and loyal to the original sources. References have been given to all the passages in the text, either for every paragraph or collectively for a few paragraphs taken from the same source. The content of the Bengali sources were translated by Smt. Ruchira Mitra and Br. Biswajit. Swami Lakshmidharananda of our Publication Department has edited the text and has shaped the volume to its present form, interspersing the text with various photographs.

We are grateful to Smt. Sumita Roy and Dr. Alok Paul for their proofreading the text and giving their valuable suggestions in improving the presentation.

May the blessings of Sri Ramakrishna, Sri Sarada Devi and Swami Vivekananda be on all those who worked towards the preparation of this commemorative volume and we hope the devotees and well-wishers of the Ramakrishna Movement would find in this book an interesting and inspiring narrative of Swami Abhedananda, the great yogi and scholarly disciple of Sri Ramakrishna.

**Contents and Sample Pages**