Swami Swahananda: 1921-2012

http://vedanta.org/about-the-vedanta-society/vedanta-temple-hollywood/

Swami Swahananda, the senior most Vedanta monk in the United States, passed away on October 19 at the age of 91. As the head of the Vedanta Society of Southern California for 36 years, Swahananda was a frequent visitor and a popular lecturer at the Santa Barbara center on Ladera Lane.
Swahananda’s influence owed much to his direct lineage to Ramakrishna, the 19th century mystic regarded as a saint (and avatar) by many in India. Swahananda’s own teacher was a brother monk to the formidable Vivekananda, Ramakrishna’s foremost disciple, whose electrifying appearance at the Parliament of Religions in Chicago in 1893 made him an overnight sensation. It was Vivekananda, the first missionary from the East, who introduced yoga and meditation to the West.
Vivekananda’s clarion call of “work and worship” became the credo of Swahananda’s life. While renowned for his compassion, scholarship, and flawless memory, he eschewed ostentatious displays of piety. Indeed, he was an encyclopedia of jokes, which peppered all his talks. “A man went to a fortune teller and asked her what was in his future,” began one of his perennials, which he recounted in a gravelly Bengali accent. Informed by the fortune teller that “the next ten years of your life will be difficult,” the man asked fearfully, “Then what?!” “Don’t worry,” she replied, “you’ll get used to it.” Another chestnut began with a missionary telling Eskimos that they had to accept Jesus or go to Hell. “But what about the folks who lived before Jesus?” asked one Eskimo. Told by the missionary that they are okay because they didn’t know, the Eskimo exclaimed, “So why are you telling us?”
Swahananda was born Bipadbhanjan Goswami to a religious family in a small village in the northeastern corner of British India which is today Bangladesh. His father, who died two months before his birth, had been a disciple of Sarada Devi, the wife of Ramakrishna; she was known as Holy Mother. When Swahananda’s father asked her if he should become a monk, Sarada Devi reportedly told him, “No my child, but from your family two shall come.” (In addition to Swahananda, a nephew also joined the Ramakrishna Order.)
Swahananda was keenly interested in spiritual matters and texts as a young child. At the age of 14, in 1936, he began corresponding with the head of the Ramakrishna Order. When he was 15, he embarked on a long and arduous trip to Belur Math (the monastery and headquarters for the order, outside of Calcutta) to receive initiation from Swami Vijnanananda, the last, living disciple of Ramakrishna.

As a young monk

Like Vivekananda, Swahananda was a sannyasin of unconditional renunciation, an indefatigable missionary, and a scholar with bottomless curiosity about the world. He earned two Master degrees, in English Literature and English Language, at the University of Calcutta in 1945-46. A year later, he joined the Ramakrishna Order. Sent to their monastery in Madras (Chennai), he became the editor of Vedanta Kesari, an English language journal of the Ramakrishna Order, for six years. After a pilgrimage to practice austerities in the Himalayas, he was asked to take charge of the Ramakrishna Mission in New Delhi, becoming the youngest monk in its history to do so.

In 1968, he was dispatched to the United States to serve as the assistant minister of the San Francisco Vedanta Society, arriving on the West Coast during the Summer of Love. He was greatly amused, but entirely unimpressed, by New Age hippies seeking a pharmaceutical shortcut to enlightenment. Two years later, he was appointed head of the Vedanta Society of Berkeley, California. When the People’s Park demonstrations took hold of the city, devotees asked him to leave the area for his safety. Swahananda, however, was an avid student of politics and relished being in the thick of it. He had, after all, survived the partition and independence of India, both of which were birthed in his native Bengal.
In 1976, he was sent to the Hollywood Vedanta Center to succeed Prabhavananda, the charismatic monk and author who had initiated authors Aldous Huxley and Christopher Isherwood, and established the center as a mecca for intellectuals and seekers from Igor Stravinsky to Greta Garbo.
Swahananda was quite different from his predecessor in style and temperament. He initiated fewer celebrities but in a blaze of what one might call spiritual manifest destiny, he exponentially expanded the reach of Vedanta in the United States. In all, he established 17 new Vedanta centers in the states, including ones in Washington D.C., Houston, Phoenix, and Dallas, and a retreat center at Ridgley, New York where Vivekananda had spent a good deal of time in 1895. Swahananda also traveled and lectured in Europe, Latin America, Canada – and even Russia, knowing that Leo Tolstoy had been an early admirer of Vivekananda. Like the titan monk he so admired, Swahananda was an insistent champion of women and, in an unprecedented move, appointed them to manage and run Vedanta centers.
Swahananda translated the Chandogya Upanishad and Panchadasi of Vidyaranya from Sanskrit to English, and several other works from Bengali. His own books include Hindu Symbology and Other Essays, Meditation and Other Spiritual Disciplines, Mother Worship: A Collection of Essays on Mother Worship in India, Service and Spirituality, Vedanta and Ramakrishna, Vedanta and Holy Mother, and Vedanta and Vivekananda.
In recent years, Swahananda had been beset with poor health including diabetes and kidney disease. Yet he seemed impervious to the degradations and torments of illness and quietly performed multiple acts of devotion and service daily. A week before his death, he insisted on flying to Austin, Texas, to speak at the opening of a new center.

As an old monk

One of his jokes began with a minister asking a parishioner why he was not coming to church of late. “All my friends are dead,” explained the parishioner, “and I don’t want to remind God that I’m still around.” That however, was not the case for him. “Whether I die or stay does not matter to me,” he calmly told this reporter a year ago.

Five days before his passing, he told his physician, also a devotee, that he would die of a stroke. His doctor protested that such a calamity would cause great pain and disability. On the contrary, Swahananda assured his doctor: “Not the kind I’m going to have,” he said. “I’m going to have a big one. And that will be it.”

And so it was.


A.L.Bardach wrote about Vivekananda in The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times.

Nuns and swamis from throughout the country will gather for a memorial service celebrating Swami Swahananda's life on December 8, 10 a.m. at the Vedanta Temple, 927 Ladera Lane, Santa Barbara, 93103. Call 969-2903 or go to www.vendanta.org for more information.

From : http://www.independent.com/news/2012/nov/14/swami-swahananda-1921-2012/#comments
Wednesday, November 14, 2012 by A.L. Bardach

About the passing away of Swami Swahananda from Swami Sarvadevananda

 On Fri, Oct 19, 2012 at 10:22 PM, Swami Sarvadevananda wrote:

  Dear Friends and Devotees,

  Swami Swahananda ji was feeling well enough to travel to Austin for the
  inauguration of their new center this past weekend. He spoke extensively
  and joyously with dozens of devotees. He felt well after returning to
  Hollywood on Monday October 15, and on Tuesday.

  However, on the morning of Wednesday, October 17, our Revered Swami
  Swahananda ji was not feeling so well, and after breakfast and shower
  suddenly collapsed at 8.30 am. 911 was called, and he was taken to
  Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center. Swamiji was having difficulty
  breathing, and was unresponsive, so he was put on a breathing machine. All
  his blood tests and vital signs were stable at that time, and he seemed
  comfortable.

  A brain scan confirmed that Swamiji had suffered a massive stroke, from
  which recovery was not likely. Swamiji remained on life support until the
  afternoon of Friday October 19. Dr Malay Das and Dr Rupal Shah, who were
  chosen by Swami Swahananda ji to have power of attorney for his Advance
  Directive, after discussing everything with the monastic members, decided
  to gradually withdraw the life support, in accordance with Swamiji's wishes
  as expressed in his Advance Directive. The life support was therefore
  gently and carefully withdrawn by hospital staff, making it possible for
  Swamiji to make a smooth transition. He left his mortal frame at 2.52 pm
  today (October 19, 2012).

  Swamiji's body will be brought to the Hollywood Temple and will be on view
  beginning Saturday, October 20, from 11 am, to 10 am Sunday October 21.

  A funeral service and viewing will be held on Saturday, October 27, at
  Forest Lawn, Glendale (1712 South Glendale Ave) in the Church of the
  Recessional, from 10 am to 12 noon. Cremation will follow the service.

  Mother bless us all.

  Sarvadevananda

For official obituary read :  http://www.belurmath.org/news_archives/2012/11/08/obituaries-october-2012/

We lost our brother Gurupada Maharaj, Swami Dhiratmananda

Swami Dhiratmananda ji (Gurupada Maharaj of Ranchi TB Sanatorium), only 39 years of age, left us suddenly  on 26 October at 11 am. Till 7 am on the 25th he was in  normal health.When a monk of the Sanatorium went to his room for some work at about 8 am, he saw Dhiratmananda lying in a semi-conscious state. Gurupada Maharaj could only mutter that he could not open his door. They managed to open his door and rushed him to a  hospital. He was found to have suffered a massive cerebro-vascular accident. It was all over the next day at the hospital. 

Swami Dhiratmananda was an initiated disciple of Swami Bhuteshananda ji. He joined the Ramakrishna Mission at Saradapitha, Belur, in 1999 and had Sannyasa from Swami Atmasthananda ji in 2009. He had also served at Taki, Indore and Ranchi Sanatorium centres. 

We have lost a simple and good soul.

Hari Om Ramakrishna
  

A note by a brother monk :

Very sad to read this, he was my batch mate and was very jolly with us; and, yes, the tea prepared by him was always welcomed by all. Too young monk he was, Sri Sri Thakur liked him so early to finish the mundane play.

Swami Tapanananda

Swami Tapanananda ji (Mihir Maharaj), aged 85, passed away on 12 October at 8.05 am at Seva Pratishthan, Kolkata, due to pneumonia. He was initiated by Swami Virajananda ji. He joinedthe Ramakrishna Mission  in 1954 at Shillong centre and had Sannyasa from Swami Madhavananda ji  in 1964. He had lived and served at BelurMath, Jamshedpur, Ranchi Sanatorium, Seva Pratishthan, and Ramharipur centres. He led a retired life for the last fourteen years, mainly at Varanasi Sevashrama and Belur Math. He worked meticulously and was specially interested in tribal welfare activities. He was  a proficient musician, and he knew well the great musical traditions of the Sangha.