Archives
Contribute
| Obituary - Swami Sarvagatananda “The Sunshine In Boston" |
Bijoy Misra
05/13/2009
b. 1912 – d. 2009
Swami Sarvagatananda, the icon of Indian community in the greater Boston area for the past fifty years, passed away in sleep during the early morning hours of Sunday, May 3, 2009. A person of intellect, generosity, nobility and saintliness, Swami mentored generations of students passing by in the Boston schools, particularly at MIT, Harvard and Boston University. Equal at ease with children, Swami was instrumental in running summer camps for children to help them learn ethical conduct and social values to develop into bright young men and women. A counselor to thousands of individuals of various religious denominations at various stages in life, Swami was a friend to all who needed a hand. He was love embodiment himself and continued to propagate the message of loving consciousness through his lectures, writings and conversations and through his personal life. Boston lost an immense personality with his passing away.
Swami Sarvagatananda’s pre-monastic name was Narayan and he was born in a Brahmin scholarly family in Kakinada district of Andhra Pradesh, India in 1912. His father was a good Sanskrit scholar and was known for his worship and devotion to Rama. Narayan had his early influence from the devotional ecstasy of his father. He was a good and well-rounded student and was extremely devoted to his family. In 1921, he accompanied his father to a public meeting addressed by Mahatma Gandhi and was thoroughly impressed by Gandhi’s simplicity, sincerity, determination and liberating spirit. Narayan became a keen reader of history, and began to analyze Gandhi’s thoughts deeply. This led him to move on to study Swami Vivekananada’s inspirational writings on India and his call to young men to liberate India from age-old superstitions and lethargy. He admired both these personalities very much and these early years shaped his future life for public service and created his path to help in the struggle of human liberation.
After finishing his college education, he served as an account manager in a Bank and during this period he had an opportunity to meet Swami Akhandananda, a direct disciple of Sri Ramakrishna. Ramakrishna’s teachings of the universality of religion and oneness of Truth touched his sentiments deeply and he convinced himself about the power of the humanity in religion. He got initiated into the Ramakrishna Order and went through a period of training and reading. He studied and analyzed the major Indian scriptures like the Vedas, the Upanishads and the Puranas and expanded himself into the world religions. Being a young initiate, he needed training in public service in the spirit of the ideals of Ramakrishna Mission. He was dispatched to a remote hospital over the mountains in the Himalayas serving thousands of monks, renunciates and villagers who choose to live in the quiet setting of the mountains. He became an apprentice medical assistant at the Ramakrishna Mission Hospital at Kankhal, Himalyas. Here he met Swami Kalyanananda, who mentored him in taking care of the sick and dying. He has narrated his experiences in Kankhal in a moving book entitled “You will be a Paramahansa†published by the Advaita Ashrama, Mayavati, Himalayas. His lifelong compassion to absorb the distress of people began in those humble hamlets over at the high mountains.
Upon his highly successful apprenticeship in the hospital, he was ready to take the vow to remain as a monk for the rest of his life. Swami Birajananda, who was the President of the Ramakrishna Order at that time administered the vow to him in a special ceremony and he assumed his monastic name of Swami Sarvagatananda. He was then deputed to Karachi branch of the Order to work with and under the guidance of Swami Ranganathananda who remained his lifelong friend and mentor. It was in Karachi he befriended Sufi and Zoroastrian monks and began his deep journey to appreciate the fabric of religions in the world. Along with Swami Ranganathananda he initiated relief efforts to assist people affected by the famine in Bengal and later on their monastery became a shelter for the refugees and people affected by the riots during the partition of India. He observed the human conditions of rivalry and violence first hand and these experiences made deep impact on him in forming his message of service and compassion.
From Karachi he left for Visakhapatnam being appointed as the head of the Order’s branch there. He became a loving teacher and lectured on philosophy and scriptures to devotees and students. It was a time of deep introspection for him and he developed his research into Sri Krishna’s message in the Gita during this time. That the paths of knowledge, action, devotion and meditation in life are not independent but are complementary was his discovery. He found specific areas where Sri Krishna enunciates this message of unity of the paths of yoga in the Gita and remained convinced that Sri Krishna taught a message of human fulfillment through a harmonious unity of all four yoga paths together. He finally lectured on this topic at MIT some forty years later and these lectures have been compiled in a book called “Sri Krishna Yogaâ€, published by the Advaita Ashrama in Kolkata, India.
Because of his insight, cultivation and scholarly aptitude he was recommended by the Trustees of the Ramakrishna Order to move to Boston and to join as Assistant Minister in the ministry of Swami Akhilananda at the Ramakrishna Vedanta Society in Boston. The Boston Center, though started in 1910 had gone through a period of reorganization and with another Center in Providence, and with the growing interest in the area because of earlier association of Swami Vivekananda, the area needed active involvement of two Ministers. Swami Sarvagatananda arrived in Boston in 1954 and was assigned the responsibility of building up the parish in Providence. He recruited new volunteers and became an active assistant to Swami Akhilananda whose health was failing. Swami Akhilananda passed away in 1962 and Swami Sarvagatananda continued as the sole Minister of Boston and Providence until Swami Sarvatmananda was deputed to join him in 1985.
The reputation of his wisdom, spirituality and personality spread through the US and many seekers of knowledge came to him for spiritual guidance. One of them was George Mraz, then a computer engineer at Holliston, Mass. George chose to stay as an Assistant to him for the rest of his life and was instrumental in taking care of him in his daily activities. George assisted him in his many obligations towards the activities at Boston and Providence Centers through all his life and was there with Swami when he breathed his last on the Sunday morning hours of May 3.
With the help of George, Swami developed a piece of land in Marshfield, Mass., earlier acquired by Swami Akhilananda to establish a summer retreat and the foundation of Sarada Ashrama was made. The summer home gave way to host a Summer Camp for the children and Swami was the most fun amidst the noise and bustle of young children coming to Marshfield for decades. An adult retreat also started in course of time and people from all around the country assembled for a week to hear Swami explain text and counsel people on righteous living and noble conduct. The clean air of Marshfield with its rustic dwellings made a great set for the summer classes. The summer season in Marshfield would end with the celebration of the birthday of Sri Krishna, with the Marshfield name of Krishna Festival. It was a meeting day for religious leaders, social activists, intellectuals and lay householders in a day of celebrating Sri Krishna’s life and ideals.
Swami was interested in music and recitation from his childhood and he attracted local vocal singers to the Center to help compose and render devotional music with the western instruments. Joe Dwyer from Boston University became a follower and helped create the Vedanta Choir Group at the Boston Center. Swami trained Joe in various tunes of traditional Indian hymnal music and in Joe’s sonorous voice brought out the spiritual charm in the lyric and melody. In some of the Krishna Festival events the Choir Group presented more than thirty voices and instruments. The spirit of music helped the children and many young children chose to retain music as their lifelong companion.
Evening classes ran in Boston Center on Thursdays and in Providence Center on Tuesdays. Swami lectured Sunday mornings in Boston and then left for Providence to host afternoon service there with lectures. A Gita class in MIT became a fixture on Friday evenings drawing students, Faculty and lay devotees to the study of the Gita. Swami developed liaison with the United Ministry in Harvard University and collaborated with many of the members by inviting them to his classes and joining with them in their services. The important activity in Boston happened with the student community at MIT, many of whom were strongly attracted to the noble conduct and loving affection of Swami. Swami became a virtual father to generations of students who cherished his knowledge and were inspired by him to follow paths of spiritual realization through professional work.
In 1977, he began a weekly discussion group on Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra and tried to create an authentic compilation of the aphorisms. His knowledge in Sanskrit helped him to gain new insight into the material and he discovered that many of the concepts as described in literature would have different interpretation when properly read and understood. He completed his journey in 1981 with 136 lectures. These lectures have now been compiled, edited and published as a two-volume book entitled “Meditation as Spiritual Culmination.†It’s the most scholarly interpretation of Patanjali’s aphorisms to-date and is highly recommended for all spiritual seekers.
With Swami’s accessibility and love to people, the Boston Center was a refuge to the growing immigrant community from India. He counseled people of all kinds with their myriads of issues in living, life and society. Pujas and events in the Center drew hundreds of people who joined to sing, worship, cook and celebrate. His inspiration was a factor to create the India Association of Greater Boston as a social service network for the immigrants. Swami organized the MIT students to serve food in local homeless shelters and the “Hunger Project†so formed continues to operate today. Swami was a
member of the interfaith clergy group in Boston and associated himself with the activities of several parishes of different denominations in the Boston area.
Swami’s scholarship took him to lecture in various classrooms in Divinity Schools and Philosophy classes in Boston area. He was a regular visitor to Harvard University and counseled a series of MIT Presidents on student curriculum, discipline and religious tolerance. He was invited to offer the invocation at the MIT Commencement exercises in 1998 and also participated in a public spiritual gathering at the United Nations. India Association of Greater Boston conferred on him the Distinguished Award for Public Service in 1989. In a special event in MIT in 1994 he was felicitated for his forty years of continuous service in Boston with a release of a book entitled “Lamplighter†that contained reminiscences of many of his friends and associates. Viswa Hindu Parishad of North America conferred on him the Samskruti Saurabha Award in 2004.
As Sri Ramakrishna had discovered that the purity of practice can achieve God-realization through the path of any religion, Swami Sarvagatananda discovered that the tenets and teachings in all religions are the same in their spiritual content of establishing unselfishness and universality. Swami was the living champion who took a spiritual view to all major religions and his Sunday service in Boston celebrated all faiths. In his deep solemn voice, he would end each of his lectures with the words –“May He who is Father in Heaven of the Christians, Holy One of the Jewish faith, Allah of the Muslims, Buddha of the Buddhists, Tao of the Chinese faith, Great Spirit of the Native Americans, Ahura Mazda of the Zoroastrians, and Brahman of the Hindus, lead us from the unreal to the Real, from darkness to Light, and from death to Immortality. May the all-loving Being manifest Himself unto us and grant us abiding understanding and all-consuming love. Peace, Peace, Peace be unto all.â€
The New England Indian community lost its founding member with the passing away of the Swami. He helped build the community with strength and solid ideals and they will continue to shine for centuries to come. Swami’s love and smile are contained in the hearts of all he met and his teachings would continue to be the beacon whenever uncertainty might arise in the struggle of life. “Perfection of human fulfillment is yoga†was his message and he was a living symbol of the message. Perfection is harmony and harmony is universality. All are spiritual, all are divine. Our interaction with others brings out that divinity. He had high admiration to all the mothers in the world and had special affection towards his own Spiritual Mother, the Holy Mother Sarada Devi. All his offerings ended with the following powerful quote adapted in the spirit of Holy Mother’s last words -- “O Lord! Please accept our offering. Bless us. Make us pure and all-loving. May we not accuse, demand or complain, but love, respect and cooperate with all. May we not find fault with others, but try to find our own faults. May we not treat others as strangers, but learn to make all our own. May we feel the whole world to be our own. Peace, Peace, Peace be unto all.â€
It was a tradition in Boston to spontaneously sing the song “You are my Sun Shine†over the lunch on Thanksgiving Day which was also celebrated as Swami’s birthday. After serving as a monk for more than seventy years, Swami returned to his eternal abode.
Let us live up to the ideal. The Sun will continue to shine.
Peace.
|
You may also access this article through our web-site http://www.lokvani.com/
