After the Master passed away, Rakhal, along with Narendra and other brother disciples, embraced monastic life and became ‘Swami Brahmananda’. He spent several years as a wandering monk, visiting places of pilgrimage, practicing rigorous austerities and spiritual disciplines, deeply absorbed in japam, meditation and living in samadhi at a stretch. A little before Swami Vivekananda’s return from the West, he came back to the Baranagore Math and started living there. When the Ramakrishna Mission was officially established Swami Vivekananda made over the responsibility of running the organization to him, remembering that Shri Ramakrishna had once remarked that Rakhal had the capacity to rule a kingdom. Swami Vivekananda was the leader of the Order, and Swami Brahmananda was its guiding force. He implemented Swamiji’s plans concerning the management of the Monastery as well as Ramakrishna Mission’s philanthropic activities. His uncanny sense in solving even complicated problems and spiritual eminence of Himalayan heights along with unselfish love and unbounded compassion took the organization to new levels of glory and development. It was a long stewardship marked by work and worship remarkably blended together.
Swami Brahmananda was extremely practical and endowed with strong common sense. Sweet, forgiving, humorous, playful like a child and loving by nature, he had above all other qualities, a tremendous spiritual power that enabled him to assess people’s abilities. During his tenure as the Head, he guided many earnest spiritual seekers by taking them under his protection. He kept a watchful eye on all his disciples, near and far, and sent spiritual aid to anyone in need. He could transform characters of people just by the touch of his palm. Swamiji once said to his disciple Sharat Chakraborty: “Even I do not have the spirituality that Rakhal has. He is the jewel of our monastery, our king.” Indeed, Swami Brahmananda was a “dynamo of spirituality” and could make the surrounding reverberate with the presence of God. When people who came to visit him would rise to leave, an air of exaltation and comfort encompassed them; all their doubts were cleared, even when a single word was not spoken. The effect of holy company is infallible; it may come immediately or after a period of time. Those who came in contact with Swami Brahmananda experienced a definite change in their lives.
He was more interested in building the character of the members of the Order than in framing rules and regulations that would restrict the monks’ freedom. He knew from his experience that religion finds its fulfillment in love and freedom. As a tree bends when it bears too much fruit, so a real spiritual person bends with humility. Swami Brahmanada taught the monks through his God-intoxicated life and actions. “Practice, practice,” he would tell his monastic disciples, “Through practice of the spiritual disciplines the heart will be purified and a new realm will open. You will realize that God alone is real and everything else is unreal. But when through japam and meditation a little awakening comes, do not imagine you have achieved the end. Light! More Light! Onward! Onward! Onward! Attain God! Gain His Vision! Talk to Him!” His intense love and devotion inspired everyone around him to move along the path leading to the highest ideal – that of realization of God. A divine air of spiritual festivity and heavenly happiness prevailed everywhere he went. Shri Ramakrishna once remarked about Swami Brahmananda: “Rakhal is like the kind of mango that looks green even when ripe.” He meant that within Rakhal was a great spiritual power that he kept hidden from the outside world. Behind Swami Brahmananda’s grave exterior, he was like a frolicsome boy. He would joke and have fun with the monks and devotees. Mahendra Nath Gupta (author of The Gospel of Shri Ramakrishna) once told a monk: “Observe how Maharaj acts and you will have some idea of what Shri Ramakrishna was like. When his mind came down to the finite plane, his sense of humour was very keen.” This was also true for Maharaj. He exemplified the verse from the Bhagavatam:
‘Those who realize the eternal presence of the Lord in their hearts are endowed with goodness and beauty, and their lives are a perpetual festival of joy.’
Swami Brahmananda, known as Rakhal Chandra Ghosh in his pre-monastic days, was the pure-hearted spiritual child of Shri Ramakrishna. He was born of aristocratic parents at Sikra, a village near Calcutta. During his high school days he came into contact with Narendra Nath (Swami Vivekananda) that evolved into an intimate lifelong friendship. He had a burning love and yearning for God since childhood and was given to devotional moods bordering on mysticism. His father got him married at an early age to ward off the religious pursuits from his mind and fix him up in the world. Strangely, this very tie of marriage brought him to Shri Ramakrishna who at once recognized in him his spiritual son as per the vision vouchsafed to him by the Divine Mother. Thus started a course of spiritual intimacy and intensive training under the loving care of the Guru, which resulted in several exalted spiritual moods and experiences. He gradually became absorbed in the blissful state of God consciousness. He was a great soul, ‘ishwarkoti’ (a God-like soul) and ‘nityasiddha’ (an ever-perfect soul), a cowherd playmate of Lord Krishna in Vrindavan in previous life. He came to be referred in the Ramakrishna Order as ‘Raja Maharaj’ or ‘Maharaj’ meaning Great King.
