Spiritual Masters, Then and Now
Kees Boukema
The teachings of the Greek philosopher Socrates (469-399 BC) consisted entirely of conversations. In it he played the role of questioner. He was seized by the realization of his calling: God had instructed him to ask people questions, to lead them back to themselves and thus to make independent judgments.
Socrates spoke to everyone: manual workers, statesmen, artists and heterosexuals. But especially with the youth: Socrates wanted to educate. He did not address the masses: “Someone who wants to stand up for what is right and still want to stay alive for a while must limit himself to dealing with a few,” he said in his ‘Apology’.
By steadfast and consistent questioning, according to Socrates, the true and good will reveal itself. He compares himself to a midwife, just like his mother, who was a midwife. When his interlocutor is confused by Socrates’ questions, Socrates says: “These are the contractions, because you are not empty, you are pregnant.” By asking further questions, people arrive at a solution. He receives from a mysterious depth what he actually already knew, but without consciously knowing it. In other words: Everyone must find knowledge within themselves. It cannot be transferred as a commodity; a teacher can only wake her up. When it is there, it is a reminder of what one has known before all time, as it were (Karl Jaspers, Socrates-Buddha -Confucius-Jesus, Utrecht, 2015, p. 17-20).
The Indian saint Sri Ramakrishna (1836-1886) visited the Sanskrit scholar and pillar of orthodox Hinduism, Pundit Shashadhar, on June 25, 1884. Ramakrishna asked him: “Tell me how you give lectures.”
Pundit: “Sir, I try to explain the teaching of the Hindu scriptures.”
Ramakrishna: “For the Kaliyuga the path of devotion described by Narada is best. Where can people find time now to perform their duties according to the scriptural injunctions? (….) You may ask people to practice spiritual rites and rituals; but, when prescribing the rituals, remove the ‘head and tail'(the non-essential parts). I tell people not to bother about the elaborate rituals of the sandhya as enjoined in the scriptures. I say that it will be enough for them to repeat the Gayatri mantra alone.” (The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, p. 464).
“There is no harm in teaching others,” Ramakrishna assured the pundit, “if the preacher has a commission from the Lord. Nobody can confound a preacher who teaches people after receiving the command of God. Getting a ray of light from the goddess of learning, a man becomes so powerful that before him big scholars seem mere earthworms.” (Gospel, p. 465/466).
Ramakrishna compared spiritual teachers to doctors: ‘There are doctors who feel the pulse of their patient, prescribe a medicine and leave it at that. And there are doctors who also give their patient instructions and, if necessary, persuade him to use the medicine. But the best doctors are those who, if the patient does not want to listen, force him to take the medicine.
There are also spiritual teachers who give instructions, but do not wonder what the effect of their instructions is. And teachers who not only give their students instructions, but also try to persuade them to follow the instructions. But in a class of their own are those teachers who force their pupils to turn their attention to God’ (Gospel, p.469/470).
Swami Ritajananda (1906-1994) was a popular and highly sought-after spiritual teacher in the second half of the last century. He had grown up in Mylapore, India, belonged to a family of orthodox Hindus and temple priests and received a corresponding, traditional, strictly regulated upbringing. This, according to him, included: ‘Reciting many prayers every day, practicing japam and participating in pujas.’ [See: ‘In conversation with Swami Ritajananda, R.V.V.N – Vedanta 1994, no.27, p.10 ff.] “ In 1930, after studying mathematics at university, I had little to do. I asked a friend, “Do you have a book to lend me?” He replied, “All I have are the collected works of Swami Vivekananda.” I said, “That’s fine, give it to me.”
“I started with the first part, but I didn’t understand much of it. I knew nothing about philosophy and it didn’t appeal to me. I wanted something practical, something that could give my life meaning. So the first parts didn’t really interest me. Therefore I began to read the sixth and seventh volumes; the conversation reports, questions and answers. That turned out to interest me. Suddenly I felt: ‘This is it!’. I was moved by what he said there. That’s where it started.
“As a schoolboy, I was already touched by Gandhi’s message: ‘Dedicate your life to the well-being of others’. That gave direction to my life at that time. And here I read from Swami Vivekananda: ‘I am looking for young people who want to dedicate their lives to the well-being of others’. This was not a political call like Gandhi’s. These two factors made me decide to commit myself to this. It was not so much the religion that attracted me, but the idea of putting my life at the service of others.”
“I wrote to the president of the Myavati ashram, where the books were published, and started corresponding with him. More and more frequent. My desire to join became stronger, although I didn’t know how to go about it. I knew my father would never approve of such a move. At one point I went to Madras; there was a Ramakrishna Math where I came into contact with the swamis Yatiswarananda and Siddheswarananda.”
In 1931, at the age of twenty-five, Ritajananda joined the Ramakrishna Order at Belur Math. As expected, his father disagreed. He asked the management of Belur Math to send his son back home. The aspiring novice warned his father that if he were refused admission on that ground, he would lead the life of an anonymous, wandering monk. It didn’t have to come to this; Swami Shivananda, president of the Order and a direct disciple of Sri Ramakrishna, conferred initiation on him. [See Swami Vidiyatmananda’s autobiography, The making of a devotee, Ch. 11, par. 1; also available on-line.]
From 1931 to 1954, Swami Ritajananda worked at various schools and training institutes of the Ramakrisna Mission in India and Sri Lanka. He turned out to be a born teacher. He liked hanging out with young people; many former students stayed in touch with him throughout his life. In 1936 he took the brahmacharya vow and in 1941 the sannyas vow.
In 1954 Ritajananda became an assistant to Swami Nikhilananda; the president of the ‘Ramakrishna-Vivekanada Center’ of New York,17E. 94Th St. He was given plenty of time to study; for example, he wrote a biography of Swami Turiyananda. He also had the opportunity to make friends. In “The Making of a Devotee” Swami Vidyatmananda wrote about this: “Swami Ritajananda became known among the congregation as someone ready to listen to one’s problems or just be companionable (…). The swami had developed a sunny, permissive personality; one sensed that one could tell him anything and that he would be interested Moreover he would not judge or condemn, and he would keep one’s confidences. Unassertive in most fields of activity, he took a strong lead in attracting and cultivating new contacts, He was especially interested in those individuals having adjustment problems: the misfits, the friendless, the inept.”
In 1959, Swami Ritajananda was transferred to the Vedanta Society of South California, founded in 1929 by Swami Prabhavananda. The center was called ‘Vedanta Place’ and was frequented by writers and actors who worked in the nearby Hollywood studios. Writer Christopher Isherwood, a faithful and active visitor to the center in those days, wrote about him in his diary in November 1961: “Swami Ritajananda was here with Prema (later Swami Vidiyatmananda) came to tea. A purely symbolic act, but Ritajananda wanted to come and he is sweet and going away soon to preach to the ghastly French.” [Diaries II, p.130]. In 1969 Isherwood noted: “I drove to Vedanta Place to see Swami Ritajananda from Gretz. He is very impressive. I felt a lot of love in him and also a great sadness (….). I am very glad indeed that I saw him again- it may be very possible have been for the last time.” [Diaries III, p. 622].
Ritajananda, appointed in 1961 as president of the ‘Centre Védantique Ramakrichna’ in Gretz, France, held that position until his death on January 22, 1994. When he was once asked what rules should apply in the center, he referred to a statement by Swami Turiyananda: “No rules. Everything here is pleasant and orderly without formal rules; no one misses a lesson or a meditation(….) Let there be freedom here, without obligation.” And he continued: “I say to people who are very close to me: ‘I don’t want to impose rules, you have to go through experiences to find out what is good or bad. I can only make some suggestions. I will never, ever use coercion. I then say: ‘If you want to investigate; examine everything.”
“A society or religion will of course never allow so much freedom. But when someone asks me: ‘How could you do that?’, I say: ‘If someone feels attracted to a certain direction and then you push him in a different direction ‘for his own sake’, he feels not free. That’s just how a person’s mind works (….) I think we should give people the freedom to become wiser through their own experiences.” (RVVN-Vedanta, p. 21 ff.).
Swami Vidyatmananda became assistant to Swami Ritajananda in Gretz in 1966 and also ‘Manager-Maharaj’, as he called himself. Under his leadership, the severely neglected estate ‘Bois Vignolles’ was transformed in two years into a well-equipped ashram and retreat for Vedanta students from all over Europe.
In the Vedanta Kesari Presentation ‘Values. The key to a Meaningful Life’ (Madras, February 20, 1996; also available on-line) he wrote about Swami Ritajananda: “Godly qualities manifested in a human being offering the best demonstration of the God that we cannot otherwise see. For most of us, a living being, functioning saint is more precious than a divine concept sought mainly through an effort of imagination (….) He (or she) is very holy and at the same time reassuringly human. I have known and worked with a real sadhu. And for this experience I shall be grateful forever. (…). My conception of ‘Sadhu Values’ comes from this experience: the qualities I saw in my sadhu. I shall try to give a description in such a way as to reveal what these values are, expressed in him.
“The primary quality I would cite is availability. My sadhu was open to everybody whether they were easy and attractive or not (…). Moreover he would not judge or condemn and he would keep one’s confidences. Although being essentially of a shy disposition and unassertive in most fields of life or activity, my sadhu took a strong lead in attracting and cultivating new contacts. He was especially interested in those individuals having adjustment difficulties: the misfits, the friendless, the inept. And how they respond to his advances!
“The second Sadhu-Value my sadhu adhered to was positiveness. He sincerely believed in the potential perfectibility of everyone. The quality of not criticizing was firmly established as a part of his personality. When someone did something clearly unwise or obviously wrong, his usual observation was: ‘But he is like that, that’s his nature. What can he do?’ And then he would probably add: ‘But he will surely change’. That’s the final line of the few negative assessments of people I ever heard my sadhu utter: ‘He will suffer from the course he is taking, and suffering will force him to change.'(…). He believed in the future spiritual success of everyone he came in contact with and it was this belief in them that attracted so many people to him.
“For my sadhu the purpose of religion was to produce a change in the individual who practiced it; a change of character, a change in his habitual reactions, a fundamental change in that person’s very thought-patterns.”
__________________________________________________________________
Mr Kees Boukema is a scholar in Vedanta and Comparative philosophy. His brilliant and thorough-going articles on various philosophical and spiritual subjects are being published since the first issue of the magazine. His latest work is De Beoefening van Meditatie.