Swami Vijnanananda

Swami Vijnanananda
Swami Vijnanananda
Religion	Hinduism
Order	Ramakrishna Mission
Philosophy	Vedanta
Personal
Born	Hariprasanna Chattopadhyaya (1868-10-28)28 October 1868 Belgharia, Calcutta, British India
Died	25 April 1938(1938-04-25) (aged 69) Allahabad, British India
Guru	Sri Ramakrishna
Disciple(s)	Uncountable
Other name	Pason

Swami Vijnanananda (28 October 1868 – 25 April 1938) was born as Hariprasanna Chattopadhyaya in an upper-class family near Dakshineswar. He was a direct disciple of Ramakrishna. He was an engineer and worked as the District Engineer in the erstwhile State of United Provinces, India. He was a great scholar of Sanskrit with expertise in religio-philosophical works, astronomy, civil engineering etc. He spent considerable time in Allahabad (Prayag) centre of Ramakrishna Math. He became the President of Ramakrishna Mission in 1937. It was under his presidency and direct supervision that the Ramakrishna Temple at Belur Math was constructed and consecrated.

Hariprasanna Chattopadhyaya was born on 28 October 1868, in a respectable family of Belgharia. He had, in all probability, first seen Ramakrishna on 15 September 1879 at Keshab Chandra Sen’s spiritual retreat at Belgharia. When studying in the first or second class of a High School, Hariprasanna saw Ramakrishna at Dewan Govinda Mukherji's house. It was on 18 February 1883 that Hariprasanna, then a student of the St. Xavier's College, went to Dakshineswar with his fellow students Sarat, later Saradananda (Sarat Maharaj), and Barada Pal. Ramakrishna showed great love and kindness towards Hariprasanna, which bound the latter indissolubly to the former. Hariprasanna took Ramakrishna to be his Master. He however saw the Master only a few more times in his life as he was compelled to live at Bankipore in Bihar. Hariprasanna's guardians were not in favour of his meeting Ramakrishna. He stayed back in Dakshineswar one night upon request from the Master and later he divulged that on that night Sri Ramakrishna granted him special spiritual favours. Vijnanananda later recalled: ‘As I approached the Master he asked me to stick out my tongue. When I did so, he drew a figure on it with his finger. My whole body began to tremble, and I felt an unspeakable bliss within.’ He was rebuked by his mother and elder sister for the transgression and could not go to see Ramakrishna for a long time, who sent Sarat to bring him along. Ramakrishna made him enter into a deep meditation and gave him intimate knowledge on various facets of spiritual lives.