Evolution of love

The inspirational leader

Then came the sad day, when our old teacher died.
We nursed him as best we could.
We had no friends; who would listen to a few boys, with their crank notions?
Nobody. At least, in India, boys are nobodies.
Just think of it - a dozen boys telling people vast, big ideas, saying they were determined to work these ideas out in life.
Everybody laughed. From laughter, it became serious; it became persecution.
The parents of the boys came to feel like spanking everyone of us.
And the more we were derided, the more determined we became.

After the passing away of Sri Ramakrishna, we went through a lot of religious practice
at the Baranagore Math.
We used to get up at 3 A.M. and after washing our face etc. - some after taking bath, and some without it - we would sit in the worship-room and become absorbed in japam and meditation.
What a strong spirit of dispassion we had in those days!

Of course, we had to beg from door to door for our food - got hips and haws -
the refuse of everything. A piece of bread here and there.
We got hold of a broken-down old house, with hissing cobras living underneath; and because that was the cheapest, we went into that house and lived there.

On some days, there would be only rice and salt, but nobody cared about it in the least.
We were then being carried away by a tidal wave of spiritual upsurge.
Boiled Nimba leaves, rice and salt - this was the menu for a month at a stretch.
Oh! Those wonderful days! The austerities of that period were enough to dismay supernatural beings, not to speak of men.
But, it is a tremendous truth that if there is real worth in you, the more circumstances are against you, the more will that inner power manifest itself.
But the reason why I provided for beds and a tolerable living in the Math is that the Sannyasins that are enrolling themselves nowadays will not be able to bear so much strain as we did.
There was the life of Sri Ramakrishna to inspire us, and that was why we did not care much for privation and hardships.
Boys of this generation will not be able to undergo so much hardship. Hence, it is that I have provided for some sort of habitation and a bare subsistence for them.
If they get food and clothing, the boys will devote themselves to religious practice, and will learn to sacrifice their lives for the good of humanity.

And thus we went on, only a band of boys. The only thing we got from those around us was a kick and a curse - that was all.
Thus we went on for some years, in the meanwhile making excursions all over India, trying to carry out the idea gradually.
Ten years were spent without a ray of light! Ten more years!
A thousand times despondency came; but there was one thing always to keep us hopeful - the tremendous faithfulness to each other, the tremendous love among us.

It tells on the body in the long run: sometimes one meal at nine in the evening,
another time a meal at eight in the morning, another - after two days, another - after three days; and always the poorest and roughest thing.
Who is going to give to the beggar the good things he has?
And then they have not much in India.
And most of the time walking, climbing snow peaks, sometimes ten miles of hard mountain climbing just to get a meal.
They eat unleavened bread in India, and sometimes they have it stored away for twenty or thirty days, until it is harder than bricks; and then they will give a crumb of that.
I would have to go from house to house to collect sufficient food for one meal.
And then the bread was so hard, it made my mouth bleed to eat it.
Literally, you can break your teeth with that bread.
Then I would put it in a pot and pour river water over it. For months and months, I lived that way - of course, it told on the health.

I worked for fulfilling the purpose for which the Lord (Sri Ramakrishna) came.
He gave me the charge of them all (the youngsters), who will contribute to the great well-being of the world, though most of them are not yet aware of it.

Know each of the disciples of Sri Ramakrishna to be of great spiritual power.
Do not think them to be ordinary souls.
They will be the source of the awakening of spirituality in people.
Know them to be part of the spiritual body of Sri Ramakrishna,
who was the embodiment of infinite religious ideas.
I look upon them with that eye. See Brahmananda - even I have not the spirituality,
which he has.
Sri Ramakrishna looked upon him as his spiritual son and he lived and walked, ate and slept with him.
He is the ornament of our Math - our King. Similarly, Premananda, Turiyananda, Trigunantita, Akhandananda, Saradananda, Ramakrishnananda, Subodhananda and others.

To create a band of men, who are tied and bound together with the most undying love in spite of differences, is it not wonderful?
This band will increase.

The ways, movements and ideas of our Master were all cast in a new mould,
so we are also of a new type.
Sometimes dressed like gentlemen, we are engaged in lecturing;
at other times, throwing all aside, with “Hara, Hara, Aum, Aum" on the lips, ash smeared on the body, we are immersed in meditation and austerities in mountains and forests.

When my Master left the body, we were a dozen penniless and unknown young men.
Against us were a hundred powerful organizations, struggling hard to nip us in the bud.
But Ramakrishna had given us one great gift - the desire, and the lifelong struggle, not to talk alone, but to live the life.
And today all India knows and reverences the Master, and the truths he taught are spreading like wildfire.
Ten years ago I could not get a hundred persons together to celebrate his birthday anniversary. In 1894 there were fifty-thousand.

His thoughts and his message were known to very few capable of giving them out.
Among others, he left a few young boys, who had renounced the world, and were ready to carry on his work.
Attempts were made to crush them.
But they stood firm, having the inspiration of that great life before them.
Having had the contact of that blessed life for years, they stood their ground.
These young men living as Sannyasins, begged through the streets of the city, where they were born, although some of them came from high families.
At first, they met with great antagonism, but they persevered and went on from day to day spreading all over India the message of that great man, until the whole country was filled with the ideas he had preached.

I am not taking pride in this. But, mark you, I have told the story of that group of boys.
Today, there is not a village, not a man, not a woman in India that does not know their work and bless them.
There is not a famine in the land, where these boys do not plunge in and try to work and rescue as many as they can.

With the Lord’s help, they will do things, for which the whole world will bless them for ages. ... Many and many in India could not understand me;
and how could they, poor men?
Their thoughts never strayed beyond the everyday routine business of eating and drinking. ... But appreciation or no appreciation,
I am born to organize these young men. ...
And this I will do or die.
We are a unique company. ...
Nobody amongst us has a right to force his faith upon others. ...
Many of us do not believe in any form of idolatry. ...
What harm is there in worshiping the Guru,
when that Guru was a hundred times more holy,
than even the historical Prophets all taken together?
If there is no harm in worshiping Christ, Krishna, or Buddha,
why should there be any harm in worshiping this man,
who never did or thought anything unholy,
whose intellect only through intuition stands head and shoulders
above all the other Prophets because they were all one-sided?