Swami Brahmananda Temple - Belur Math

Subrata Sarkar 47 months ago

SWAMI BRAHMANANDA TEMPLE is a wonderful temple in the Belur Math compound.  Swami Brahmananda was the first President of the Ramkrishna Math and the Ramkrishna Mission.This temple was built where his mortal body is creamated. When I come here the mind is fill with tranquillity.

Subhayan Mukherjee Tito 59 months ago

Rakhal Maharaj (Swami Brahmananda) was the first president of our Ramkrishna Math

Divine Vision 35 months ago

Swami Brahmananda was known in his pre-monastic life, was born in an aristocratic family in a village not far from Basirhat in the district of 24 Parganas. His father Ananda Mohan Ghosh was a zamindar. His mother was a pious lady and a devotee of Sri Krishna. Perhaps it was she who gave her son the name Rakhal (meaning the boy-companion of Sri Krishna) when the latter was born on 21 January 1863. Unfortunately, the mother died when Rakhal was only five years old. Soon after, his father married a second wife who brought up Rakhal.

As a student, Rakhal was remarkable for his intelligence. But even as a boy he had varied interests in life. Physically he was much stronger than the average boy of his age. His companions found it hard to cope with him in wrestling or at play. He would take part in many village games and show unsurpassed skill in them. But play and games did not absorb the whole of his attention. Nearby was a temple dedicated to the Goddess Kali. Often enough, Rakhal would be found in the precincts of the temple. Sometimes he would play at Mother-worship along with his companions. Sometimes he would himself make a beautiful clay image of the Mother and remain absorbed in worship. Even at an early age, Rakhal had a great devotion to Gods and Goddesses. During the time of Durga Puja in the family, he would be found seated still and calm witnessing the ceremony, or at the hour of darkness, when the evening service was being performed, Rakhal would be seen standing before the Deity in great devotion.

After completing his primary education, Rakhal was sent to Calcutta in 1875 and was admitted into an English High School. In Calcutta, he came in contact with Narendranath, afterwards known as Swami Vivekananda, who was the leader of the boys of the locality. Narendra, with his dynamic spirit and inborn leadership, cast his influence over others and carried them along the path he thought right. Rakhal, meek, quiet, and soft-natured as he was, easily came under his spell, and there grew a close friendship between the two which culminated in common discipleship at Dakshineswar and bore far-reaching results.

Rakhal and Narendra practised physical exercises in a common gymnasium along with their other companions. And it was Narendra who took Rakhal to the Brahmo Samaj, where they promised not to worship any image. Rakhal’s inborn religious tendencies began to unfold themselves more definitely at this stage. He would be found brooding over the mysteries of life and death, and his mind longed for the realisation of the Eternal Verity.

In his passing away the country, and in a remote way the world, has suffered a serious loss, the extent of which it is at present too early to judge. During the last two years of his life the Swami set himself to build a monastery at Bhubaneswar in the Puri District and almost brought it to Completion, when he came to Calcutta in January last He was in pretty good health and after finishing many important items of work, was thinking of going back to the quieter atmosphere of Bhubaneswar, when he had an attack of cholera in the last week of March, from which he was just recovering when he had a violent relapse of diabetes which had once overtaken him some three years ago. The attack soon proved too serious for treatment and the doctors, as well as the Swami, knew that the end was approaching. Two days before the fateful night, he called his Gurubhais and disciples near him, and in a most exalted mood spoke hour after hour on spiritual topics in a manner that will never be effaced from the memory of the listeners. These last exhortations were too sweet and ethereal to be reproduced in words. The Swami felt and indicated that it was time for him to end his sport on earth, that the Voice of the Beloved Lord was calling him back, now that his task was over, to His blessed companionship. The hour drew nigh. The curtain fell-the Swami entered into Mahasamadhi.