Reminiscences
Lessons from Swamis The Dec 2020 Special Issue of The Vedanta Kesari was on the topic ‘Lessons from Swamis’. New content on this topic is being serialised this year.
The August Movement
29 September 1942. The Quit India Movement or the August Movement had spread across the country. Tamluk, the ancient port city by the Bay of Bengal in the Medinipur district was in the forefront of the movement. With the leadership of Ajoy Mukherjee, Satish Samanta, Sushil Dhara, Matangini Hazra and others, the local Congress workers captured Tamluk treasury, police stations at Mahishadal, Sutahata, Nandigram and several other places and hoisted the national flag. But the bullets from the British police snatched away many lives including that of Matangini Hazra (72-year old freedom fighter popularly known as Gandhi-budi ‘Old lady Gandhi’). The dead bodies were dumped in the police morgue at Tamluk. Sri Rajanikanta Pramanik, an initiated disciple of Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi and a local Congress leader, brought many wounded freedom fighters to the Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission Sevashrama, Tamluk, for their treatment and nursing. Swami Vishokatmanandaji, who was the head of the ashrama, readily took up their treatment. The news reached the local administration. And when the sub-divisional officer of Tamluk censured Maharaj for his doings, he protested with a bold voice, “Ramakrishna Mission is a service organisation, and its ideal is to serve the people in distress irrespective of their caste, creed and religion. Had you, who stand with the government, been injured and had you come to the Ashrama, we would have served you as well.” After a few days the stinking smell of putrescent dead bodies of the martyrs in the police morgue started spreading in the locality and it became unbearable to the policemen working there. Now the same sub-divisional officer and the high-rank police officials called Maharaj with a request to cremate the decaying bodies. And Maharaj agreed. He bought a huge quantity of perfumes from shops all over Tamluk, sprinkled it over the bodies and arranged a mass cremation. —Sri Gourchandra Adhikary, Retired Teacher, Ramakrishna Mission, Vidyabhavan, Medinipur
August 2021
A
shutosh received his mantra-diksha from Swami Shivanandaji and joined the Order at the Tamluk centre in 1927; his guru gave him sannyasa-diksha in 1933. From 1945, Vishokatmanandaji served for 42 years as the head of Midnapore centre. He attained mahasamadhi on 25 January 1998 at the age of 98.
35 The Vedanta Kesari
PA G E D O N O R : S R I U M A M A H E S H WA R K I R A N AT I , O S H AWA
Swami Vishokatmananda
