Lives Well Lived: Swami Gitananda Ji

More than an year back, Swami Gitananda ji passed away on 14th March, 2014, We were quite relieved that finally he was out of what seemed to us to be, a sort-of-vegetative state, for the last few years. Now-a-days, as medical sciences are improving and people get to live longer, rare types of old age ailments are beginning to get less and less rare. Gitananda ji seemed to have contacted some bug which would not leave the body and the body progressively slid into less and less active state.

It is easier to serve an actively sick person, There is a sort of romance about it, You get to feel that you are doing something noble, There is a bit of spiritual glamour or glow when you serve an eminent monk, like say, a President or Vice-president of Ramakrishna Order, when he is active in his spiritual ministry even though he might need medical attention now and then; but there is dullness like death when you serve a person in a vegetative state. All credit is due to the unsung glorious Jyoti-duos, Ramjyoti Maharaj and Devjyoti Maharaj. They served Gitananda ji till the end. One of them served as long as his own body could stand in health and the other till Swami Gitananda ji's body breathed. They kept up their fervor. They did not completely give up on their hopes of at least some partial revival in Gitananda ji's physical health condition. A few years before his passing away, when Gitananda ji had started to settle well into his medical stupor, Providence had it, that a leading Ayurvedic Physician came my way. I had to take him to Kankurgachi Yogodyan for sightseeing. I thought, like, `here is a leading physician and there, a suffering patient; why not try to arrange a meeting?’ The two Jyotis concurred and the good physician examined the patient; He opined that the best medical care was being given and excellent personal care was in place. He prescribed a supplementary medicine and advised some minor diet additions, all without conflict with the running medications. His recommendations could not be implemented fully, blame it on failed nerves of care-givers or on geruacracy, but anyway I was happy that the good doctor spoke highly about the care Gitananda ji was getting.

I joined the Mission in 1980, when I was 20. The Gitananda ji, that I knew, was then already a ripe, senior monk, known for his scholarship, kind manners, meditative habits and disinclination to dash into things; a sort of what Swami Srikarananda ji might have ripened into, had he lived a little longer. I did not have too many interactions with Revered Swami Gitananda ji but whatever little I had was enough to take it for sure that he is somebody close to me and one of my own.

Here's a lengthy quote from The Bulletin of the Institute of Culture about Swami Gitananda ji :

`He felt immensely attracted to places of pilgrimage like Jayrambati, Varanasi, Vrindavan and Puri. His brilliant discourses on the Bhàgavatam filled with divine fervour went far beyond the dry interpretations given by the Pandits. His ‘Bhàgavat Kathà’ (in Bengali) bears the stamp of his extraordinary understanding of the Bhàgavatam. Another book, ‘Sri Ràmer Anudhyàn’, is a standing example of his unalloyed devotion to Sri Ràma. Gitanandaji was an embodiment of humility and simplicity. He liked to do all his work himself. He always liked to keep himself in the background and project before humanity the bright lives of the Holy Trio.

Another notable trait in him was his love and empathy for the common man. Endowed with this he made everyone his own. His special characteristic was that he always remained absorbed in japa despite his tremendous involvement in work. ‘Work’ and ‘Japa’ had the same meaning to him. Japa was his rest. He never wasted time. Once he told a group of sannyasins from abroad: ‘You only need one thing: God’s Name. Keep it with you always. You may not see Him, but you can be close to Him (through His Name). There are many other things in the books that may help some people, but I do not know about these things. I just know God’s Name.’

Even I, a doubting Thomas if there ever was one, am not able to catch any note of exaggeration in the above quote.

‘Naked came I out of my mothers wombe, and naked shall I returne thither: the Lord gaue, and the Lord hath taken away, blessed be the Name of the Lord’

Hari Om Ramakrishna