Sadhana in Monastic Life

Spirituality is the life-force of the Order. Revered Swamiji has established this Order for “One’s own liberation and for the good of the world.” Sri Ramakrishna also said, “The only aim of human life is to attain God.” Work can never be the aim, for work is merely a means. It is true that Swamiji used to talk about work, but he also always encouraged regular meditation and other spiritual practices. If anybody was absent at the time of meditation on any day without reason, he would not get food from the monastery that day as a punishment. He had to beg his food int the village. Swami Brahmananda used to say, “Everybody will work due to their natural tendency, but how many want to lead the life of meditation? that is why I always inspire the boys to perform spiritual practices.” Revered Swami Shivananda used to say: “Meditation and japa were important in the past, are important at present, and will be important in the future also. Without doing meditation and japa, it is impossible to work in accordance with Sri Ramakrishna’s and Swamiji’s ideals. Work and worship should go hand in hand.” In this way all our teachers have told us to perform spiritual practices seriously along with our work. We also realize it in the heart of our hearts. … Brothers, you are all Sri Ramakrishna’s children. In the midst of the glamour of wealth and the din and bustle of work, don’t forget the ideal for which you have left hearth and home making your parents shed tears. Be firm-minded and up and doing to reach that ideal even at the cost of your lives. “Either the fulfilment of sadhana, or the fall of the body”—maintaining this spirit, we are to advance with indomitable energy, keeping Sri Ramakrishna’s and Swamiji’s ideal before us. May the Lord be our helper.

Swami Achalananda
Monks’ Conference, 1946
Monastic Disciples of Swami Vivekananda, 295–6

Love the foundation of the Order

The foundation of this Order is love and respect amongst its members. Revered Swami Shivananda used to say: “Sri Ramakrishna bound us through love, and this organization is built through this bond of love. As long as this bond remains intact, the Oder will run smoothly.” Speaking personally, we could come here leaving our hearth and home only due to the attraction of the selfless love of revered Swamiji and other monks, and being charmed by their love we are living under their shelter. I don’t think there is any difference of opinion about this. … If we fail to maintain mutual respect and love for one another, we are sure to reap disastrous fruits in the near future. The work of the Order should be performed through love and not merely under the weight of rigid rules and regulations. Otherwise, dissatisfaction and aversion to work arise in the minds of the workers, the master-servant relationship is formed amongst them, and work, instead of being performed as a spiritual practice becomes a source of bondage. … Therefore I earnestly request the administrative heads of the Math and Mission and heads and managers of the branch centres that along with rules and regulations, they should make love also a basis of conducting the work of the organization. Workers too, in their turn, should show proper respect to the seniors and perform their allotted work with the feeling that they are doing the work of Sri Ramakrishna and Swamiji. Then alone will our lives be peaceful, and the work of the Order will also go on smoothly.

Swami Achalananda
Monks’ Conference, 1946
Monastic Disciples of Swami Vivekananda, 294–5

Vedanta Student’s life

When you deal with others and mix with other people, show that you possess self-control, and what you are practising try to live. Do not lose your temper, because if you want to help other people, you must first set an example. An example is better than precepts. So, remembering that, each student and each member of the Vedanta Society will help others by living a right example and by showing in the household and to others that he possesses self-control, as also in his business. If you show that, then you would be a worthy member of the Society as well as a worthy student. …

Give resignation to the Divine Will, and in unselfishness, to help others and to work for humanity. Now … this Society is based upon entirely unselfish principles. We have started, I think, for the first time an organization where there is no paid servant to do the work. Everything is done voluntarily through love, and not for money. … We are working with that one principle, to help others without seeking any return, and by helping the work, this work which we are doing not for ourselves without seeking any return, and you would practise that which we teach, and you will show wonderful power, and gain the most wonderful result. That is the purification of the heart. …

We have given our lives to the work, and those who are ready to follow the path are welcome, and as Christ gave His life to help humanity, so all the members of the Vedanta Society are living the Christ-life and following that noble example in his or her own individual way.

Swami Abhedananda
Question and Answer class, May 23, 1905, New York
from The Complete Works of Swami Abhedananda, 10.296–7

Love and Lust

There can be no love so long as there is lust—even a speck of it, as it were, in the heart. None but those with great renunciation have a right to the Love Divine.

—Swami Vivekananda
Complete Works, 5.345