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Written by Web Admin - Sri Ramakrishna Math, ChennaiOnce there was no food in the temple store room to offer Sri Ramakrishna at 4:00 p.m. At 3:00 p.m. the matter was brought to Ramakrishnananda, and it greatly upset him. He took it as a test from the Master. He did not become angry with the monks for not informing him beforehand; his ire and grievance were solely turned against the Master. He burst out: “O, Lord, You want to test me? I will eat sand and do Swamiji’s work here. Yes! You are testing me, I know. But you should also know my grim resolve. I would rather die and perish here than budge an inch from this place. Do your worst, if you will!” His face became ruddy and glowed in terrible anguish and fervour; he began to pace back and forth in the hall. It was a tense half hour. At 3:30 p.m. someone knocked at the front door. Mr. Kondiah Chetty, an old student of the swami, came with some flour, ghee, sugar candy, and dried fruits. He also offered five rupees as a donation. The swami burst out in childlike glee, and bade the monks to bring two stoves, and made some nice preparations for the offering. At 4:00 p.m. the refreshment was offered to the Master as usual.
Source: God Lived With Them by Swami Chetanananda
Shashi’s father Ishwara Chandra Chakravarty was an expert in ritualistic worship, and Shashi imbibed from him love for ritualistic worship. After passing out of the village school, he went to Kolkata and lived with his cousin Sharat (later, Swami Saradananda) for higher education. A brilliant student, he chose mathematics for the B.A. course which, however, he could not complete owing to the terminal illness of Sri Ramakrishna at Cossipore.
While studying in college Shashi and Sharat joined the Brahmo Samaj, and heard about Sri Ramakrishna from Keshab Chandra Sen himself. In October 1883 they visited Dakshineswar and were deeply attracted to Sri Ramakrishna. The Master used to say that Shashi and Sharat had been the followers of Jesus Christ in their previous birth.
Shashi distinguished himself most by the self-sacrificing spirit and devotion with which he served Sri Ramakrishna during his last illness at Shyampukur and Cossipore. After the Master’s passing he joined the Baranagar Math and underwent sannyasa ordination, assuming the name Ramakrishnananda. He took charge of the worship of the Atmaramer kauta, the urn containing the relics of Sri Ramakrishna in the Math’s shrine. He felt the living presence of the Master, and so his worship was not a mere ritual but loving service to a living God. It was Swami Ramakrishnananda who formulated and introduced the system of daily ritualistic worship to Sri Ramakrishna that is followed in the Ramakrishna Movement.
He seldom went out on pilgrimage, and devoted himself to daily worship at the Math. But when Swami Vivekananda, after his return from the West, asked him to go to Chennai and open a branch centre of Ramakrishna Math there, he obeyed without any hesitation. The saga of sacrifice and hardship that he underwent in preaching the message of Sri Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda for 14 years under unfavourable conditions has been recorded in letters of gold in the annals of the Ramakrishna Movement. In the South he travelled extensively. The starting of centres in Trivandrum, Mysore, Bangalore and Mumbai owed much to his pioneering efforts.
Incessant work, however, told upon his health, and he contracted tuberculosis. He breathed his last in a state of ecstasy on 21 August 1911.
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