Shashi Bhushan Chakrabarty was born on Monday, 13 July 1863, in Ichapur Village (Hooghly District, West Bengal). After finishing his education in the village school, Shashi went to Kolkata for higher English education. He lived with his cousin Sharat (Later, Swami Saradananda). He passed Kolkata University Entrance examination, and, as he was a brilliant student, won a scholarship.
One day in October 1883, Shashi, Sharat and some of their friends went to Dakshineshwar to visit Sri Ramakrishna. After the first meeting Shashi felt an irresistible attraction for Sri Ramakrishna, and he began to visit him frequently.
Observing that other disciples were experiencing ecstasy and devotion, one day Shashi prayed to the Master for those spiritual experiences. The Master said to him, “If you have that experience, you won’t be able to serve me.” “Then I don’t need it,” replied Shashi. “I don’t care for that ecstasy which will take my opportunity to serve you.” He was the very embodiment of service. He was convinced that service to the guru was the highest form of religion. He practiced no spiritual discipline, knew no other asceticism, travelled to no holy places. For getting his personal comfort, he was always ready to serve the Master.
Shashi Maharaja’s life was a glowing example of the “Servant” attitude towards God. He forgot huger and thirst, sleep and rest, and above all his body.
It is said that Swami Vivekananda at the time of sannyasa wanted to take the name of `Ramakrishnananda' for himself, but gave it up in favor of Shashi Bhushan, who, he thought, deserved it best, knowing that his devotion to the Master was second to none.
At Monastery (Baranagar and Alambazar) Shashi Maharaj performed the Mater’s worship as one serves a living human being. One summer night when he was lying in his room at Alambazar Monastery, and fanning himself with a palm- leaf fan, he felt that the Master too must be suffering from the heat. At once he entered the shrine and stood near the bed of the Master, fanning him till dawn. Sri Ramakrishna used to chew some spices, so Swami Ramakrishnananda used to keep those spices in a small bag near the Mater’s bed. He used to dry them after washing them, and clean them one by one so that there would bet be any tiny stone particles in them.
Maharaj was learned and devotional, but was not a gloomy ascetic. After dinner he would dramatically read Mark Twain’s The Innocents at Home and The Innocents Abroad. He would roar with laughter as he read them, and the others would laugh along with him. He enjoyed solving mathematical problems. He also translated the teachings of Sri Ramakrishna from Bengali into Sanskrit verses and got them serially published in Vidyodaya, a Sanskrit journal.
Returning from America in January 1897, Swami Vivekananda stayed for nine days in Madras. Swamiji created great enthusiasm among the people in Madras, and they asked him to send one of his brother monks to start a monastery there. With Ramakrishnananda in mind, Swamiji told them, “I shall send you one who is more orthodox than your most orthodox Brahmins of the South and who is at the same time incomparable in performing worship, scriptural knowledge, and meditation on God.”
Swami Ramakrishnananda was cordially received by the Madrasi devotees of Vivekananda. They first rented Flora Cottage, shortly afterwards he was offered a first floor of Ice House, to start his work.
Within five years of his arrival in Madras, Swami Ramakrishnananda became well known in the city, and his work was appreciated by many.
Castle Kernan came up for auction after the death of Mr. Biligiri Iyengar in 1906. A devotee tried to acquire the house for Swami Ramakrishnananda, but he was outbid by a rich landlord. In the same year a student of the swami donated a piece of land on Boris Road in the Mylapore area. On an auspicious day, Swami Ramakrishnananda conducted the religious ceremonies, and Swami Abhedananda, who was visiting from U.S.A. at that time, laid the foundation stone. The building was dedicated by swami on 17 November 1907.
In February 1911 Holy Mother went to Madras and stayed for a month in a two-storyed house that Swami Ramakrishnananda had rented near the monastery.
From 1897 to 1911 Swami Ramakrishnananda travelled all over South India, preaching the Hindu religion and philosophy as well as the message of Sri Ramakrishna.
In 1903 Swami Ramakrishnananda visited Bangalore and Mysore and lectured extensively.
He wrote a beautiful Sanskrit hymn on Swami Vivekananda; in addition, he composed Sanskrit mantras for the brahmacharya vows of the Ramakrishna Order. Further, he introduced and systematized the ritualistic worships of Sri Ramakrishna, which is now more or less followed by the centers of the Order.
He contributed many articles to the Bengali Udbodhan magazine, and wrote Sri Ramanuja Charit in Bengali, an authoritative life of Ramanuja, the profounder of the qualified-monastic Vedanta. (This book has been translated into English), Swamiji’s main works in English are: God and Divine Incarnation, The Message of Eternal Wisdom, Sri Krishna: Pastoral and King-maker, For Thinkers on Education, The Ancient Quest, Sri Ramakrishna and His Mission, and Search After Happiness.
Swami Ramakrishnananda’s service to Sri Ramakrishna is now legendary in the Ramakrishna Order. During the last illness of the Master, Shashi toiled and stayed until night to serve him and to look to his comforts. After Sri Ramakrishna's demise, when the relics were gathered and established in the shrine of the maiden monastery at Baranagore, it was Shashi who took upon himself the responsibility of worshiping it and also take care his monastic brothers who had been fired by an intense spirit of renunciation. No mother would have served her children with greater feeling and care than Shashi cared for them.
Swami Ramakrishnananda kept the Master alive in his mind through his intense love. One day he was resting when all of a sudden he had a desire to feed Ramakrishna hot luchis, which was his favorite dish. Immediately swami got up and made the dough, then he fried luchis. He placed a plate in front of the Master and carried hot, crispy luchis to him one after another, as if the Master were eating and enjoying his favorite dish.
Swami Ramakrishnananda’s life was short but eventful. For fourteen years he worked hard to spread the message of Sri Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda in South India. He burnt his energy quickly.
Swami Ramakrishnananda left his body while in Samadhi at 1:10p.m. on Monday, 21 August 1911.
Sayings of Swami Ramakrishanandaji
'Meditation means complete self-abandonment. Meditation requires complete annihilation of self- consciousness. You know that before a great light, lesser lights disappear; so before the effulgent glory of God, the little glory of the ego will completely vanish, as stars vanish when the sun rises.’
‘Science is the struggle of man in the outer world. Religion is the struggle of man in the inner world.’
‘Work for others is self-amelioration. We need to serve others in order to lift ourselves up out of the state of degradation and selfishness into which we have fallen. We should be grateful to the needy for making it possible for us to raise ourselves. That is the only real good that comes out of all that we do for others; we merely better ourselves.’
‘All your anxieties and worries come from egotism and selfishness. Let go your little self and they will all disappear.’
“Disbelief is a great obstacle in spiritual life. It is not only an obstacle but a disease. One will have to clear up the past life tendencies ingrained in the mind by practicing spiritual exercises and good deeds. He on whom faith descends is very fortunate. He needs nothing else.’
‘Faith in God is a precious treasure.’
‘Religion is the highest chemistry, for it analyzes the compound man into the elements, ego and non ego, the self and the non self, the soul and the body. Religion is the burning furnace in which is burnt up all the dross of his heart.’
'What kind of devotion takes us to God? The child's devotion to the mother. Why does the baby go to the mother? Because it has reasoned out that the mother is the best friend it has. And why do you go to God? Because you have previously reasoned out that God will help you and no one else can. So, as the baby goes to the mother, you will go to God.'
'So long as we have no ideal to follow, we will have to heed the calls of our lower nature. A characterless man is slave to all worldly enjoyments.'
'You have been worshiping this god of your body for so many lives; it is not easy to begin worship the true God all at once. If you would raise you Self, you must crucify the body and conquer the senses.'
