Swami Ramakrishnananda

Direct disciple of Sri Ramakrishna, founder of the Madras (Chennai) Math of the Ramakrishna Order, and the order’s most uncompromising exemplar of devotion to the Master.

Overview

Known in the monastery as Shashi Maharaj, his monastic name Ramakrishnananda means “one whose bliss is in Ramakrishna” — and he lived it literally. For him, the worship of Sri Ramakrishna’s photograph was never a ritual directed at a representation; Sri Ramakrishna was present, and the daily offerings (bhoga) were meals literally served to a living presence. The famous anecdote: on a day when nothing had been brought for the offering, he is said to have threatened to go to the Madras beach, roll balls of sand as “food,” offer them to Sri Ramakrishna, and eat them himself — at which point food promptly arrived.

Sent by Vivekananda to establish the Madras Math, he endured extreme poverty and physical hardship (wading through flooded sewage to give talks no one attended; refusing to touch money directly). Not a charismatic speaker in the Vivekananda mold — serious, stern, sometimes poorly attended — but a monk of rare intensity, read through Sister Devamata‘s Days in an Indian Monastery for Western audiences.

His answer to Devamata’s “why did you have to suffer so much?” — “My real life is infinite. Let the Lord play with this little life as he will. What is it to you?” — is cited by Swami Sarvapriyananda as a living demonstration of the atman/body distinction that 2.18 teaches.

Related

• Disciple of ramakrishna
• Fellow disciples: vivekananda, and others of the direct circle
• Chronicler who preserved his teachings: Sister Devamata

Lecture evidence

• Ep. 6 [58:58]: Introduced as Shashi Maharaj; his name meaning; Madras Math founder.
• Ep. 6 [60:09]: Poverty at the Madras Math; the “sand as offering” story.
• Ep. 6 [62:50]: Devamata’s “why did you suffer?” exchange — “My real life is infinite” — cited as lived 2.18.