Disciples of Ramakrishna
Ramakrishna Paramhansa Deva had sixteen direct disciples (other than Swami Vivekananda) who became monks of the Ramakrishna Order; they are often considered his apostles. In the Ramakrishna-Vivekananda movement, the apostles have played an important role. Apart from Swami Vivekananda the direct disciples or apostles of Ramakrishna were as follows.
Swami Brahmananda (1863–1922), whose original name was Rakhal Chandra Ghosh, was son of a zemindar in the Basirhat area. He was born on 21 January 1863 at Sikra Kulingram, 36 miles to the N.W. of Kolkata. Rakhal was devoted to God and used to practice meditation even in boyhood. At the age of 12 he was brought to Kolkata for his studies. There while studying at the Metropolitan Institution at Kolkata, he met Narendranath Dutta (later known as Swami Vivekananda) in a gymnasium. He was influenced by Narendranath to join the Brahmo Samaj. According to the practice common in those days, he was married at the age of 18 to Vishweshwari. Soon after marriage, his brother-in-law, Manmohan Mitra, who was a close devotee of Sri Ramakrishna, took Rakhal to Ramakrishna Paramahamsa.
Prior to that the Master had had a vision in which he saw the Divine Mother showing him a child who would be his son. As soon as Rakhal came to Dakshineswar, Sri Ramakrishna recognized him to be that child, and treated him like a son. After a few visits Rakhal came to Dakshineswar to live permanently with Sri Ramakrishna. Under the Master’s guidance, he practiced intense spiritual disciplines, and attained high levels of spiritual illumination. After the Master’s death in 1886 when the new Monastic brotherhood was formed at Baranagar, Rakhal joined it. He underwent sannyasa ordination and assumed the name Brahmananda. Two years later he left Baranagar Math and was a wandering monk for some time, living an intensely contemplative life at Varanasi, Omkarnath, Vrindaban, Hardwar and other places. During this period he is said to have scaled the highest peak of non-dualistic experience and used to remain absorbed in Samadhi for days together. In 1890 he returned to the Math. When Swami Vivekananda, after his return to India in 1897, wanted to give a new turn to monastic life, Swami Brahmananda whole-heartedly supported him. There was deep love between these two monastic brothers.
When Ramakrishna Mission was formed as an Association on 1 May 1897, at Baghbazar in Calcutta (now Kolkata) Swami Vivekananda was elected its General President and Swami Brahmananda was elected the first and only ever Calcutta President. After establishing Belur Math monastery when Swami Vivekananda got Ramakrishna Math registered as a Trust, Swami Brahmananda became its President. He held this post till the end of his life.
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