Swami Sarvagatananda (1912-2009) was a senior monk of the Ramakrishna Order and served at the Boston Center of Ramakrishna Vedanta Society from 1954 until his passing away on May 3, 2009.  He also served as a counselor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and at Harvard University during his active years.   He reached out to students, laymen, religious leaders, educationists, and social leaders to help create a harmonious understanding across faiths, religions, and sciences in the Boston area and elsewhere in the US and Canada.      

It was a cloudy day; the sun was covered up though rains had ceased.  The host Dr. Bijoy Misra had a white tent put up on the green grass in his backyard.  Tall trees with lush green leaves surrounded the venue.  A pleasant breeze was blowing.  Several of Swami Sarvagatananda's associates had worked for several months to create the “Remembering Swami” event on his death anniversary.  Their efforts were amply rewarded with the participation of a large number of friends and disciples. The highlight was the assembly of many young adults who were participants in the Sunday school and Vedanta camps organized by the Swami.  

People started gathering in this idyllic setting in Lincoln, MA on May 16, 2015, around 10:30 am. The assembly included young, middle-aged, and senior citizens. These were individuals who had lived, learned from, and laughed with the Swami at some point or the other in their lives.  They had formed an indelible loving relationship with him.  A prominent photograph of Swamiji was placed on a side platform in the front of the tent, with designated space for the speakers and the musicians.  A beautiful, white flower and green leaf garland adorned the photograph.  Flowers in vases were placed on each side of the attractive photo frame. A candle was lit and a mild fragrance wafted all over the assembly from its steady flame.  Swapna Ray, Ambalini Selvaraj, Armer Huyghe and Linda Clave had contributed to create the decoration and the ambience. 

The event began shortly after 11 AM with devotional music played on the guitar by Mr. Peter Travisano.   Dr. Cyrus Mehta, who had met the Swami as a student in the late ‘60s and was an associate to Swami in all his adult life offered the opening remarks.  He read a message from Father St. Goddard of Fall River, MA, who was invited but had to miss because of ill health.  The Father’s message narrated his association with the Swami and how he benefited in his understanding the religious faith through many discussions with the Swami.  The reading was followed by a lecture by Sister Gayatriprana from Santa Fe, New Mexico.  Sister Gayatriprana recalled her search for a teacher and the discovery of Swami Sarvagatananda.  She expressed her gratitude to the intense intellectual energy of the Swami which propelled her to seek and complete a Ph.D. degree in psychology.  The Swami remained a beacon to her.  She acknowledged that the “miracles” in her life were a result of blessing from the Swami Sarvagatananada’s inspiration.     

Speaking on the topic "Swami Sarvagatananda - The Man and the Minister”, Dr. Kumar Murty from Toronto recalled his novice entry to the Vedanta literature while he was a graduate student at Harvard University.  He spoke about the influence of Swami Vivekananda in his life.  Being impressed with the scientific approach to religion as urged by Swami Vivekananda he got associated with Swami Sarvagatananda because of his analytic approach to the thoughts and life.  He reminisced about Swami Sarvagatananda’s enormous contribution to the student life in campus and his attitude of assistance and service to all.  Dr. Murty was recruited by the Swami to be a substitute speaker in Vedanta Center assemblies when needed.

The lecture was followed by a short break and then audio recordings of excerpts of some of the selected discourses by Swami were played.  Mr. George Mraz, who served as an Assistant to Swami for more than forty years, was instrumental in creating audio recordings of the Swami’s lectures and transcribing many of them for further editing in compilation.   Dr. Mehta had compiled the transcription and the audio recording with the help of Mr. Mraz.  The audio pieces contained the Swami’s tribute to the Teacher SriRamakrishna, the Holi Mother Sri Sarada Devi and the Disciple Swami Vivekananda.   Swami Sarvagatananda’s affection to the personalities in the Ramakrishna Order and the overall thrust of serving the mankind were lovingly reflected through the recordings.  There was a motion of gratitude to Mr. Mraz who helped preserve Swami Sarvagtananda’s voice and words.  

Mrs. Swapna Ray offered a thoughtful musical tribute to Swami by rendering the theme Vedantic hymn “Na anya panthA vidyate”.  Dr. Rahul Ray followed each stanza with a translated version in Bengali.  Swapna followed up with another beautiful rendering from Tagore on the concept of a Creator.  â€œI cannot see you through my mortal eyes, but I see you in my mind’s eye!” Rahul offered a rendering of a song by saint-poet Kabir with the theme “O’ God! I am your servant!”  It was a favorite song of Swami Sarvagatananda.

The assembly then broke for lunch catered by the Sreenath Temple in Lowell.  The catering was facilitated by Dhiraj and Raj Jhaveri of Framingham, long-time supporters of the Vedanta movement in Boston.  The delicious vegetarian food included traditional dishes of rice pulao, dal, kadhi,  poories, papad, raita, mohanthal and much more.  Ms. Bhavani Vankineni,  Mr. Sanjeev Tripathi and Mr. Janmejay Shishupal , who study Sanskrit with Dr. Misra, had volunteered in setting up and serving the food.  All showed appreciation to their diligence and enthusiasm.  It was like the Swami overseeing the many lunches he had organized with personal attention and interest.

A beautiful brochure was compiled for the event with material edited in by Dr. Misra and formatted and produced with care by Dr. Nannaji Saka.  The celebration continued with Mrs. Chaya Timmaraju coordinating various readings of Swami Sarvagatananda's teachings.  The program started with two Rama and Krishna kirtans offered by Mrs. Chandrika Sharma who was supported by her husband Mr. Narayan Sharma on the harmonium.  It was a nice warm up to a series of readings by different people on topics of interest to each.  It became a spiritual experience to relive Swami’s melody of words and his beautiful analytic explanations.  Arjun Ray and Rohan Vakil were particularly impressive on their rendering of the Swami’s message.

The reading session was followed by a reminiscing session where various associates recalled their interaction with the Swami recalling his affection, love and guidance.   The Swami tailored custom ways for each person to choose his or her path in dealing with life.  He could guide couples to help with marital stress and he could inspire young children to excel in their studies and the hobbies.  This session was emotion filled with individuals sharing their recollections with joy and jubilation. 

There was a short coffee break.  Swapna Ray had baked her popular "You are My Sunshine” mango cake that she offered the Swami every year.  All assembled in a formal cake-cutting event and Peter Travisano with Armer Huyghe sang the song "You are my sunshine, my only sunshine" with everyone clapping and joining in.  Indeed the sunshine had just peeped in from the western sky.  The Swami’s presence was relived through the revelry.    

All assembled back under the tent to join the musical offering “To a Friend” composed by Swami Vivekananda.   Peter’s sonority was heart-touching, everybody joined in the singing.   The guitar thumped “Friend, let me speak my heart to thee; Love, love, that is the only jewel!” Love permeated in air, the trees, the blooms, the shrubs, grass and in all.  It was a lightning experience.  The session continued with Kumar Murty and Sister Gayatriprana giving an overview of their ongoing and proposed projects associated with Swami Vivekananda's work. They both requested support and participation in the projects.  Bijoy shared his experiments with Valmiki’s Ramayana, a Swami Sarvagatananda favorite through his family relationship.  Janmejay made a dramatic rendering of a few of the stanzas as an offering to the Swami.  

More music followed.  With the joyous tone Peter rendered “We are one in the Spirit,” another favorite of Swami Sarvagatananda.  He followed up with the all-time favorite camp song “Green Grow the Marshes Ho” where everyone joyfully clapped and sang.  Bijoy offered the prayer from the Rgveda “samgachhadhvam” as the concluding chanting.  He acknowledged the help and assistance of many and offered his grateful thanks.  

It was around 6 PM when the day session came to an end and the candle was ported to the shrine inside the home.  Many left for the evening after offering their final respects. The out of station associates and other volunteers were treated to a home-cooked meal of idli-sambhar, avial, freshly cut mangoes, and brownies.  After supper, all gathered at the shrine for a meditation session followed by the evening chanting of Narayanistuti.  With the mother’s blessings the candle was brought back to Swami’s photograph and finally the upanisadic chant of “om bhadram karnebhih srunuyama deva” was recited.  It was solemn.  Some saw Swami raising his arms as he does when he is pleased!

Dr. Misra thanked all who stayed for the evening prayer.  He recalled Swami’s favorite phrase and uttered "We all did it"!!  There were US born Americans, and naturalized immigrants from India settled in the United States and Canada.  Languages spoken at home included English, Hindi, Bengali, Punjabi, Telugu, Oriya, Kannada, Gujarati, and Konkani.  Almost all participated in the Sanskrit chanting.  

In his book “You will be a Paramahansa”, Swami Sarvagatnanada recalls the instruction he had from his teacher “Don't react or resent. Only Reflect!" The assembly appeared to reflect one thought: "Swami, we love you, we miss you, we thank you."