swami gambhirananda

7/30/2019 Swami Gambhirananda

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Swami Gambhirananda, the eleventh President of the

Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission, was born on 11

February 1899 at Sadhuhati in the district of Sylhet (now in



Bangaladesh). His pre-monastic name was Jatindranath Dutta.

His parents were Dinanath Dutta and Tarasundari Devi. After

completing his education, Jatindranath joined the army as an

Accounts Officer. While a student, he was greatly influenced by

Swami Jagadananda, a disciple of the Holy Mother, who wasJatindranath's teacher. His teacher's influence made him read the

Works of Swamiji and that brought change in him. Consequently,

he quit his job in the army to join the Ramakrishna Order. He came

to the Belur Math in March 1923 and met Swami Shivananda. At

his behest, Jatindra joined the Order at the Ramakrishna Mission

Vidyapith, Deoghar, where he subsequently became the Principal

of the School. In December 1923, he received his brahmacharya

vows and spiritual initiation from Swami Shivananda. After

brahmacharya, Jatindra was named Brahmachari

Soumyachaitanya. He assumed the charge of the Secretary of the

Vidyapith in Deoghar while he was still a brahmachari. He took the

monastic vows from his 'guru', Swami Shivananda in 1928.

Because of his profound and indrawn nature, Gambhirananda was

popularly known as Gambhir Maharaj.

After serving the Order at Udbodhan (Bagbazar in Kolkata) Swami

Gambhirananda was sent to the Sri Ramakrishna Advaita

Ashrama at Varanasi where he studied the main texts of the

Advaita Vedanta from the traditional scholars. Between 1942 and

1944, Swami Gambhirananda served as the editor of the English

journal, Prabuddha Bharata Mayavati. Since 1936, he was a

member of the Working Committee. In 1947, he became a

Trustee of the Ramakrishna Math and a member of the Governing

Body of the Ramakrishna Mission. He joined at the Belur Math as

an Assistant Secretary and served the Order in that capacity till

1953. Then he was made the in-charge of the Advaita Ashrama atMayavati. During his tenure at Mayavati, the ashrama made rapid

progress.

In 1963, Swami Gambhirananda was brought back to the Belur

Math to serve again as an Assistant Secretary. In 1966, he was

made the General Secretary. Swami Gambhirananda became a

Vice President on 1 April 1979. After the passing away of Swami

Vireshwarananda, he became the next President of the Order, on

9 April 1985.



Swami Gambhirananda had profound knowledge of the scriptures.

He had many books to his credit. He had translated the main

Upanisads in Bengali. Moreover he had translated eight Upanisads

in English, with the commentaries of Sankaracharya. He had also

translated the Brihadaranyaka Upanisad and the Bhagavad Gita,with the commentaries of Sankaracharya as well as with

Madhusudan Sarasvati's annotation on the Gita. However, his

actual credit lay in composing authentic biographies of the Holy

Mother and Swami Vivekananda in Bengali which were brought

out during their birth centenaries. The compilation of the

biographies of the direct disciples of Sri Ramakrishna named in

Bengali, was one of his first gifts to the Ramakrishna Movement.

Decisiveness, punctuality and orderliness were the hallmark of hispersonality. The striking feature of his character was his utmost

sincerity in every dealing, yet remaining unattached, as the ideal of

Karma-Yoga demands. He was open-minded and strict in his

principles. Swami Gambhirananda passed away on 27 December

1988 at the ripe age of almost 90 years.

swami gambhirananda

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