SingaSpeaks A PERIODIC NEWSLETTER FROM THE RAMAKRISHNA MISSION, SINGAPORE
ROAR 41 | SINGAPORE | SATURDAY | 31 DECEMBER 2016
Pundit Shashadhar, a renowned Hindu preacher of the time, asked Sri Ramakrishna, “Does God listen to our prayers?” Sri Ramakrishna answered: "God is the Kalpataru, the Wishfulfilling Tree. You will certainly get whatever you ask of Him. But you must pray standing near the Kalpataru. Only then will your prayer be fulfilled. 179 BARTLEY ROAD | SINGAPORE 539784
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"'I shall make the whole thing public before I go,' the Master has said some time before. On January 1, 1886, he felt better and came down to the garden for a little stroll. It was about three o'clock in the afternoon. Some thirty lay disciples were in the hall or sitting about under the trees. Sri Ramakrishna said to Girish (Ghosh), 'Well Girish, what have you seen in me, that you proclaim me before everybody as an Incarnation of God?' Girish was not the man to be taken by surprise. He knelt before the Master and said with folded hands, 'What can an insignificant person like myself say about the One whose glory even sages like Vyasa and Valmiki could not adequately measure?' The Master was profoundly moved. He said: 'What more shall I say? I bless you all. Be illumined!' singapore@rkmm.org
PERIODIC NEWSLETTER ROAR 41
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24 December: Christmas Eve The nine disciples present on 24th December 1886AD at Antpur are as follows:1. Shri Narendranath Dutta – Swami Vivekananda 2. Shri Baburam Ghosh – Swami Premananda 3. Shri Sarat Chandra Chakroborty-Swami Saradananda 4. Shri Sashibhushan Chakroborty – Swami Ramkrishnanada 5. Shri Tarak Nath Ghoshal – Swami Shivananda 6. Shri Kaliprasad Chandra – Swami Abhedananda 7. Shri Nitya Niranjan Ghosh – Swami Niranjanananda 8. Shri Gangadhar Gangopadhay – Swami Akhandananda 9. Shri Saradacharan Mitra – Swami Trigunatitananda At the Cossipur garden house Thakur who was gravely ill grouped together the twelve young men who dedicated their lives for Thakur and the responsibility of running the group (Sangha) fell on Narendranath. But after passing away of Thakur on 16th August 179 BARTLEY ROAD | SINGAPORE 539784
spread around and a big group it became comprising Narendra, Baburam, Sarat, Sashi, Tarak, Kali, Niranjan, Gangadhar and Saradacharan. They boarded the train to Tarakeshwar at Howrah and took along with them the percussion instrument (Tabla) and a stringed 1886 the Cossipur which instrument (Tanpura). was taken on rent was Getting inside the released in August itself. compartment the group The group was disbanded started singing. The song and many went back home. “Shiva Sankara Byoma Tarak, Kali,Sashi, and Byoma Bhola”. They spent Burogopal started to live in the journey with music and the dilapidated house made merry all the time. taken on rent in They got at Haripal station Baranagar. Narendranath and reached Antpur eight was then anxious and lost miles away by Hackney for a direction in Carriages (Horse drawn reorganizing the group. At carts). It was then about that time Matangini Devi evening. sent her eldest son Tulsiram to Calcutta for Baburam’s mother was extending an invitation to overjoyed to receive them; go to Antpur in the end of treated them as her sons December. Narendranath and made proper considered the invitation arrangements for their to be an instruction from food and stay. There was Thakur and gleefully no dearth of men to serve decided to go to Antpur. to young men but Matangini took it upon At first it was talked that herself to look after them. only a few like In the green quietude of Narendranath, Baburam the village the young men etc. will go but words having no thoughts for PH: +65 6288 9077 | FAX: 6288 5798
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PERIODIC NEWSLETTER ROAR 41 food and stay, gave their entire concentration to prayer and meditation. Their constant topic of discussion was around Ramakrishna’s love, instructions, ideal, life and the responsibility with which he entrusted them. Along with the discussion they were occupied with the chanting of hymns, singing devotional songs and prayers. In this ecstatic existence, the young men gradually coalesced into One Consciousness. Narendranath led them. At this time an unthinkable happening came before them on 24th December. Long after the evening, they sat under the open, bright, and starlit sky and lit a fire concentrating on meditation. After the meditation they were discussing about God when Narendranath had a rare inspiration and started talking about the life of Jesus, his penance and sacrifice. His words were so eloquent and so full of humility that everyone was very deeply moved. 179 BARTLEY ROAD | SINGAPORE 539784
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oath of renouncing this world. The fire in front of them reflected upon their faces and made their emotion – charged oath even brighter. The whole atmosphere, as it were, trembled by divine inspiration and lapped up this heavenly sight. He then talked about St. When their minds came Paul and other disciples of down to earth again, they Jesus whose hard labour were astonished to know and sacrifice made it that the night was the possible for Christianity as “Christmas Eve”. Later, a religion and the recalling the importance of Christians as religious the Antpur incident, group to come up and Swami Shivananda said “It prosper. He exhorted his was at Antpur that our fellow disciples to shape resolve to become a group themselves as the Christian grew more intense”. saints and called upon Thakur had already made them to sacrifice their lives us ‘Sannyasis’ – that was for the welfare of mankind. cemented at Antpur. After spending a week at Antpur Narendranath’s fellow they came back to Calcutta. disciples were charged by In 1887 Rakhal and his oration. They stood up Burogopal came with and touched the fully-lit Narendranath to Antpur. fire and took the solemn These eleven embraced Sannyasa formally by performing “Biraja Hom” at Baranagar Math in January 1887AD. Thus the Ramakrishna monastic order was born and with the passage of time is now a household word. PH: +65 6288 9077 | FAX: 6288 5798
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PERIODIC NEWSLETTER ROAR 41
179 BARTLEY ROAD | SINGAPORE 539784
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PH: +65 6288 9077 | FAX: 6288 5798
SATURDAY, 31 DECEMBER 2016
singapore@rkmm.org
179 BARTLEY ROAD | SINGAPORE 539784
PH: +65 6288 9077 | FAX: 6288 5798
singapore@rkmm.org
179 BARTLEY ROAD | SINGAPORE 539784
PH: +65 6288 9077 | FAX: 6288 5798
singapore@rkmm.org
179 BARTLEY ROAD | SINGAPORE 539784
PH: +65 6288 9077 | FAX: 6288 5798
singapore@rkmm.org