Swami Advaitananda স্বামী অদ্বৈতানন্দ |
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Swami Advaitananda |
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Born | 1828 Calcutta, Bengal Presidency, British India |
Died | 1909 Calcutta, India |
Birth name | Gopal Chandra Ghosh |
Guru | Ramakrishna Paramahansa |
Philosophy | Vedanta |
Swami Advaitananda, one of the direct disciples of Sri Ramakrishna, the mystic saint from Bengal in late nineteenth century, was also known as Buro Gopal or the aged Gopal. He was senior to Sri Ramakrishna in age and took monastic vows at an advanced age. He played a crucial role during the early years of Ramakrishna Mission.
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Gopal Chandra Ghosh was born on 28 August 1828 in a village called Rajpur (Jagaddal) in 24 paraganas, a few miles away from Calcutta, to one Govardhan Ghosh. He lived in Sinthi in Calcutta. Little is known about his early life and education. He was an employee in a shop in Chinabazar,which belonged to Beni Madhav Pal, an illustrious member of the Brahmo Samaj, whose name appears in The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna. Gopal was married and at the time of meeting Sri Ramakrishna for the first time he was more than 50 years old. At the death of his wife he received a great shock and was taken by a friend to Sri Ramakrishna for assuaging his grief. [1] On his first visit Gopal was not very impressed with Sri Ramakrishna, but a few more visits onwards he became devoted to the master. The teachings of Sri Ramakrishna made a lasting impression upon him and he thought of renouncing the world. He used to serve Sri Ramakrishna and his devotees in various ways, by buying provisions and running errands. It was Gopal who distributed the twelve ochre clothes in the presence of Sri Ramakrishna to the first bunch of monks of Ramakrishna order, which included Swami Vivekananda. After the passing away of master, Gopal had no where to go. Therefore the Baranagar Math was started with him as the first inmate. He was soon joined by Narendra Nath Dutta (later Swami Vivekananda), Rakhal (later Swami Brahmananda), Kali (later Swami Abhedananda), Latu (later Swami Adbhutananda) and other direct disciples of Sri Ramakrishna, who also renounced material life and embraced spiritual life.
In 1887 Gopal along with other disciples took up monastic life and came to be known as Swami Advaitananda (Advaita - Monism, ananda - bliss. One of the major characteristics of Swami Advaitananda was his neatness and cleanliness. He was an embodiment of order and method. [2] After staying for a few years in Baranagar Math, Swami Advaitananda travelled to Benaras where he practised austerities for around 5 years. Here he stayed in a small room, used to wake up at 4 AM every day, even during the winter, and go for a bath in Ganga, after which he did his spiritual practices for the day. He lived on madhukari i.e. begging small quantities of cooked food from various places, as per the injunctions of the scriptures. He spent time mostly in contemplation.
When Swami Vivekananda returned to India after his historic visit to West to spread the message of Vedanta, Swami Advaitananda returned to Alambazar where the Ramakrishna Math was shifted. Afterwards when the new monastery in Belur Math was established he used to stay mostly there and looked after gardening and other managerial affairs. All these work were done by him very scrupulously and systematically. Even in his old age he was self-supporting. He would not like anybody to take the trouble of attending to his personal needs. Being the oldest in age, he was looked upon with affectionate regard by all his brother-disciples, with whom he had a very healthy relationship despite the age difference. After his return to the monastery, Swami Advaitananda's special duty was to look to the levelling of the newly purchased land at Belur and the repair of the old structures there. The land had been in use for repair of steamers etc. and was hence full of pits and canals. All this meant strenuous work. When the monastery became fully established there, he willingly took up the duty of looking after the comforts of the monks and producing vegetables etc. for offering to the Master. He made strenuous efforts to mould his life according to the life and example of the Master, and would sometimes express disappointment that he fell so short of the ideal. [3] Being very old he could not take up any public activity like philanthropy, missionary or charity. His monastic life was quite simple. However he carried on with austerities and meditation till his last days. He travelled extensively and visited, at one time or other in his life, sacred places like Kedarnath, Badrinarayan, and Hardwar in the north, Dwaraka in the west, and Rameswaram and other places in the south. He was in sound health throughout his life, even at an advanced age. He even accompanied the holy mother Sri Sarada Devi in some of her travels. After suffering for some time from stomach trouble, be passed away on 28 December 1909, at the age of eighty-one.