Incidents from the Life of Swami Premananda

On 30 June 1884 the Master again said to M.: “Yesterday I came to know Baburam’s inner nature. That is why I have been trying so hard to persuade him to live with me. The mother bird hatches the egg in proper time. Boys like Baburam are pure in heart. They have not yet fallen into the clutches of ‘woman and gold.’ They are like a new pot. Milk kept in it will not turn sour… . I need Baburam here. I pass through certain spiritual states when I need someone like him.” About Baburam’s purity, the Master used to say, “He is pure, pure to the very marrow of his bones.”

—–

Another day Brahmananda told the monks about Premananda: “Listen, if you can follow sincerely one or two things that Premananda says, your lives will be blessed. Is he an ordinary man? He is so pure that in whatever direction he looks, everything in that direction becomes pure.”

One night I (Swami Premananda) was sleeping in the master’s room. In the dead of the night I woke up and found him pacing from one end of his room to the other, saying: “Mother, I do not want this. Do not bring me honour from men. Don’t, Mother, don’t. I spit on it.” Saying this, he paced back and forth like a madman. I was filled with wonder. I thought: “How strange! People are so eager for name and fame, and he is pleading with the Mother not to give it to him! Why is this happening before me? Is it to instruct me?”

One day the Master had a hard time swallowing anything; then he said, “I shall eat later on in my subtle body through a million mouths.” Baburam responded: “I do not care for your million mouths or your subtle body. What I want is that you should eat through this mouth and that I should see this gross body.”

Swami Premananda told a touching episode about Swamiji: “After the Master’s passing away Swamiji used to cry for him so much secretly at night that his pillow would get wet and I would put it in the sun in the morning to dry.”

Before his passing away, Vivekananda gave two instructions to Premananda: first, to manage Belur Math, the headquarters of the Ramakrishna Order; second, not to initiate anyone. “If you make disciples,” he said, “then your disciples will quarrel and compete with Brahmananda’s.” Premananda obeyed Swamiji.

Despite his humility, Premananda could be stern if necessary. He laid great stress on gentleness of behaviour. “Be gentle first,” he would often repeat, “if you want to be a monk.” He said regretfully: “Nowadays no one pays any attention to social and common good manners and gentle behaviour. The Master used to take extreme care to teach us these things.”

Swami Premananda once said that those who differentiated between Holy Mother and the Master would never make any spiritual progress; she and the Master were like the two sides of one and the same coin.

One day Sri Ramakrishna was found outside Balarâm Bâbu’s house where I used to stay. Balarâm Bâbu was not at home. The Master did not enter the house for fear of rebuke. He had come to see me! Afterwards someone called him in. His love knew no bounds and one drop of it could fill us full. Everyone thus thought that he was the most beloved of the Master. He used to say, ‘I can stand everything except egotism.’ – Swami Premananda (Source: Spiritual Talks by the First Disciples of Sri Ramakrishna)

Boys have nowadays a fancy to give up work, as if they have all become Shukadeva. This is the result of reading Kathamrita (The Gospel of Shri Ramakrishna by M.). M.’s books record the conversations of a few days only. ‘Call on the Lord in solitude!’ That is all right. But who weeps for Him ? Who can weep for Him? Sattva and Tamas both look alike. Tamas begets sleep, laziness, and aversion for work. Swamiji (Swami Viveka-nanda) used to say, ‘The country is immersed in Tamas. Like a delirious patient, it is thinking that it is all right and does not want to take any medicine. I have found the remedy. It is now necessary to apply it. Poisonous drugs are the remedies for delirium, so is Rajas the cure for Tamas. We must bring Rajas into the country in order to free it from Tamas.’ Vairagya (dispassion) and Tamas are quite different things. – Swami Premananda (Source: Spiritual Talks by the First Disciples of Sri Ramakrishna)

“One day Gosâinji (Vijaya Krishna Goswami) came to the Master and begged him to free him from lust. The Master touched him. That touch produced wonderful results. On another ocсаsion, another came and said to Shri Rama-krishna, ‘Sir, I feel so attracted by my wife that I cannot devote my mind to any other thing. All my business is going to rack and ruin. Please change my mental condition.’ ‘Very well,’ the Master replied, bring some fruits one day. I shall eat up your Mâyâ.’ When, however, the fruits were brought, the Master could not eat them, for though he tried, he could not raise them to his lips. I am told the man suffered a great deal on account of his wife afterwards.” – Swami Premananda (Source: Spiritual Talks by the First Disciples of Sri Ramakrishna)

At night a class was held on Raja-Yoga. When it was over, the Swami said to the monks, “Merely reading all these things won’t do. You must meditate on these and build your life accordingly. None of you who have come here through the grace of the Lord, are insignificant. You are all lion-cubs. It won’t be enough for you to say to people that you know this and that or that Swamiji has said so and so. You must demonstrate the validity of these teachings by your own life. Everyone of you must be a model of renunciation, discrimination, and passionlessness.” – Swami Premananda (Source: Spiritual Talks by the First Disciples of Sri Ramakrishna)

At the Belur Monastery, the Swami said at the end of the afternoon class:

“One must have true Nishthâ-steadfast, whole-hearted devotion and attachment to that aspect of God which one has chosen to realize. But let that not produce repulsion for the other aspects.

“If the Nishthâ is true and devoid of hatred for other Gods and Goddesses, it leads quickly to Divine realization. The Master once told us a story: There were two brothers. The younger was the devotee of Gopala, Child-Krishna, and the elder of Kâli. Once a nice bunch of plantains grew in their garden, and each of them thought that as soon as it would get ripe, he would offer it to his Deity. In course of time the fruits got ripe, but the younger brother happened to be absent from home. The elder brother plucked them and offered them to Kali. When the younger brother returned and learnt that the plantains had been offered to Kâli, he got furious and went with a stick to the shrine of Kâli to break Her image. But as soon as he entered the shrine, he found that there was no Kâli but the image of Gopâla installed on the throne! He was struck with deep remorse. He thought he had by mistake entered the shrine of Gopâla. He came out and went into the other shrine with the stick in hand. But lo, there also he found the image of Gopala! Then the truth dawned on him. He understood that He who was Gopâla was also Kâli.

“One who has realized God cannot be bigoted. Take the case of Vijaya Krishna Goswami. He was a Brâhmo, but afterwards he gave up the Brahmo Samâj and practised austerity and dressed himself like a Vaishnava. One day he said humbly to Shri Ramakrishna: ‘Sir, many want to receive initiation from me. Should I initiate them?’ ‘Why not?’ the Master replied. ‘You are a descendant of Advaita Prabhu (one of the foremost disciples of Shri Chaitanya), you are as such born as a Guru. You can, of course, initiate.’ When Swamiji returned from America, Goswamiji sent for him. He himself could not come, for he was not doing well. When Swamiji went to his place, Goswamiji vacated his seat and asked him to sit thereon. When Swamiji remonstrated, he said, ‘I know how he (Shri Ramakrishna) used to look upon you. How can we understand your proper worth?”” – Swami Premananda (Source: Spiritual Talks by the First Disciples of Sri Ramakrishna)

“The essence of Shri Ramakrishna’s teaching is that one should give up all pride and egotism. A little meditation is no good. God cannot be realized through such lukewarm moods. One must yearn deeply, one must become restless.

“Just as the Lord has covered us with His Mâyâ, He also graciously incarnates Himself and undertakes spiritual practices in order to show how we are to rend asunder the Mâyâ. He Himself is also breaking the creations of Mâyâ. A man once went to a garden with his several sons. The sons played about. Some plucked flowers, some plucked green cocoanuts, but one went to angle in the tank. When it was evening, the man called all his sons. All came except the one who was fishing. The father sent for him again and again but he would not come he was deeply absorbed in catching fish. When it was quite dark, the father himself went, broke the fishing rod to pieces, and dragged the boy to the carriage. Thus does the Lord come from time to time, shatter our playthings, and drag us to Him.” – Swami Premananda (Source: Spiritual Talks by the First Disciples of Sri Ramakrishna)

“One must have intense indifference to the world and deep hankering after the Lord-I must realize Him even in this birth, even now!’ No slow process! Remember this carefully: Work is no use if you do not get immersed in Him. Make your heart a temple of the Lord and install Him there. Take His name and for ever lose yourselves in Him.” – Swami Premananda (Source: Spiritual Talks by the First Disciples of Sri Ramakrishna)

Next day the Swami Premananda said, addressing the monks who had accompanied him, “I am over-joyed to see their (of the villagers) enthusiasm. The Master fed us so often with sweets, and loved us so much! That made us go to him. But what have they got? They have merely read of him in books. And yet how full of joy and enthusiasm they are! In this hot sun they went to the station and themselves carried all loads, barefooted and bare-headed. And they are cooking for all. They also serve cholera patients and untouchables and thus rid them-selves of all pride, egotism, and fear. And they are quite mindful of their studies also. All this fills me with a great joy. It is to see these things that I hasten to these parts, and not to earn name and fame for myself. What am I doing? The Master himself has done every-thing already. Swamiji (Swami Vivekananda) once said, ‘The Master will be worshipped in every home. Go forth, all of you, and spread his name everywhere. (Source: Spiritual Talks by the First Disciples of Sri Ramakrishna)

Is it easy to meditate and repeat His name continually? Impossible. Therefore meditate as long as you can and devote the rest of the time to selfless service for others. Thus gradually will your mind be purified and be attached to the Lord. (Source: Spiritual Talks by the First Disciples of Sri Ramakrishna)

Additional menu