Swami Brahmananda As We Saw Him: Reminiscences of Monastic and Lay Devotees --- A Review

This book has been on my long shelf of biographical works for sometime. After devouring others, I thought of poring over this; hence, I lacked the immediacy to plunge into this, at least for now. On the morning of 10 April 2021, I felt impelled to pick the book, which was somberly wedged between a spiritual giant and a science genius. Riffling through the first few pages of the book, my eyes suddenly alighted upon the date of Swami Brahmananda's death, which was 10.4.1922. On the 99th-year of his death anniversary, Providence took me to the book.

I did not read it until perhaps a month later.

Swami Brahmananda, whose original name was Rakhal Chandra Ghosh, was an aristocrat. From a very young age, he was devoted to God. At the age of 12 he was brought to Kolkata for his studies. He received reasonable educational; got involved in the activities of Brahmo Samaj, and at the age of 18, he got married. He spent considerable number of years with his spiritual master, Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa.

The book is a compilation of disciples' and aspirants' reminiscences of Swami Brahmananda, who was, according to his Guru, a playmate of Sri Krishna, the author of the Bhagavad Gita. I was, thus, quite motivated to find out more about him from the mouths of the people who moved closely with him.

In any biographies, especially those that have been published by the people who have a reason to protect the interest and reputation of the protagonists, one is bound to encounter only highly sanitised information that does not portray the characters in any way that is prejudicial to their memory. The same might have been done in this work, too, of which I have no reasonable suspicion, but it however contains certain private details of Swami Brahmananda that have somehow escaped the editor's blue-pencilling. That is an incidental reward to the reader who wants to know the true Swami Brahamananda as he was.

Notwithstanding the faux pas, one cannot help but be enamored of the protagonist whom Swami Sri Ramakrishna considered a "spiritual son". Almost all the accounts of the swami show him as a simple, sincere, pious and highly spiritual person. Everyone who came into contact with him had, to a considerable extent, been informed by Swami Brahmananda maharaj.

The book contains valuable information on the swami's instructions to spiritual aspirants, as to how they ought to conduct themselves when they face the calamitous vicissitudes of life on earth. In this respect, his advice on Japa (=chanting), how to do proper Japa, what to read, essentiality of sadhana (=daily spiritual practice) and spiritual discipline is priceless.

If one knows to which sampradayat (=tradition) that the swami belongs, what he and his Mission espouse and preach, what influenced their philosophy, which in many important ways stands in contradistinction to the main tenets of Hinduism, one will be safe reading the book. Then, it will become an inspirational book.

Still and all, I should say the book's Appendix F entitled "Spiritual Precepts of Swami Brahmananda" by one Seshadri Aiyar contains very many valuable tips on how to improve one's spiritual life and progress.

Spiritual aspirants who want to be persuaded by the examples of a sincere devotee should read this book. It is bound to motivate them. If one is searching for authentic methods and methodology that will secure enlightenment for oneself, this book may not measure up to the expected standards.