Trigunatitananda

The family name of Swami Tigunatitananda was Sarada Prasanna Mitra. He was born in an aristocratic family of Twenty-four Parganas in West Bengal. From his very boyhood Sarada showed a rare religious disposition ad found delight in worship and reading religious scriptures. He was gifted with a retentive memory as a result of which even at an early age he learnt by heart more than a hundred Sanskrit hymns. For education Sarada was sent to Calcutta. As a student he showed great brilliance, and by his charming manners, he endeared himself to all.

The depression caused in his young life by the loss of a trifling thing as a gold watch became an indirect cause that made his teacher Mahendra Nath Gupta, the celebrated author of the ‘Gospel of Shri Ramakrishna’ lead him to his future guru, Shri Ramakrishna. A pure soul like Sarada was at once attracted towards the saint of Dakshineswar, and he began to go to him whenever he could get time. The contact with the Master stimulated his religious spirit, and the Master also kept a keen eye on the training of his boy devotee.

Obstacles in spiritual life are not always bad. Firstly, they reveal the evil nature of maya; second, they create the intense longing for the goal. If there is no obstruction to its flow, the river stagnates and eventually dies. Similarly, when one’s spiritual life passes through test after test, one achieves experience and strength, leading ultimately to fulfillment. Fearing that his religious inclination and frequent visit to the Master might ultimately induce him to become a monk, his relatives tried hard to change his mind, taking recourse to, in the process, religious rites and charms. But nothing worked. After the Master passed away, Sarada joined the Baranagore monastery and became Swami Tigunatitananda, or Swami Tigunatita as he was usually called.

The Swami had a strong constitution, an analytical mind and was fearless by disposition. He had a great yearning for places of pilgrimage. A real monk always remains submerged in thoughts of the Ultimate Reality. He is content with the food that chance brings him, and he roams the world with a free and joyful mind. During his itinerant days Swami Tigunatitananda had often been on the brink of disaster and was every time miraculously saved. In every situation his indomitable spirit carried him through. Once in Calcutta he underwent surgery for fistula without anaesthetics. The Swami had a great love for deep studies and was often seen immersed in books.

He never cared for his personal comforts but was eager to serve others. No work would give greater delight to the Swami than serving others. The relief work he organized at Dinajpur (West Bengal) during the terrible famine in 1897 bears testimony to this.

At the behest of Swami Vivekananda, Swami Tigunatitananda started the ‘Udbodhan’, the Bengali monthly of the Ramakrishna Order. He underwent Herculean Labour day and night and with vigilant care and ceaseless industry assiduously built it up.

After Swami Yogananda’s death, Swami Tigunatitananda became a personal attendant to the Holy Mother. He was extremely thoughtful and resourceful in every action. His love and faith in the Holy Mother was phenomenal. His zeal to serve her to the best of his abilities appeared to be almost an obsession.

When Swami Turiyananda returned to India from San Francisco, it was Swami Tigunatitananda who was entrusted with the responsibility of organizing the Vedanta work there. It was due to his untiring efforts that San Francisco Vedanta Society had a permanent building of its own which came to be known as the first HinduTemple in the whole Western world. The Swami’s life was an example to others in every respect. In his character, there was the one consuming purpose to give his life for the salvation of others, and all of his undertakings were only means to that end. A great disciplinarian of the highest order, his was the brightest example of what a disciplined life should be. In the West, too, he maintained his Sannyasin life, even sleeping on the floor. Always to bed later than the others, he was yet the first to rise. He was the model of punctuality and regularity. He practiced himself what he taught, a perfect example of the union between speech and action. As he had his mind fixed on the inner core of things, possible external bad results never deterred him. To the genuine disciple he would say, “I don’t mind if I break every bone in your body, so long as I can drag you up the shores of the Ocean of Immortality and throw you in; then my work will be finished.”

The life of the Swami was one long sacrifice, and those who were privileged to be in his presence found their doubts and troubles melt away like snow before the sun. He veritably radiated holiness, for he ever lived in the consciousness of the Divine Mother. Every moment of contact with him was one of increasing education, conscious and unconscious. The Swami would often say to his students, “That mind which is attached to more than one thing can never reach the goal.” “Learn to see God in everything about you. Smear God over everything, and your mind will think of Him alone.”

The great life came to an abrupt end as a result of a young deranged man’s act of throwing a bomb in his direction. Even in the midst of the excruciating pain the swami’s mind was filled with concern for the mentally ill young man. A nurse who had attended on him made a comment: “I have never seen such a calm, uncomplaining, and enduring patient in my life.” As the news of his death spread, a large number of people, including the Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish religious leaders of San Francisco came to pay homage to the swami. His form may have vanished, but his immortal message lives on after him: Work hard. Discipline yourself. Build your character. Endure to the end. Realize your Self. And be free.