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SWAMI YOGANANDA

AND THE SAVARNA SPIRITUAL TRADITION

The focus of this article is on the parampara to which Swami

Yogananda belonged. The life of almost every direct disciple of Sri

Ramakrishna is well known and widely available. But history available on

Swami Yogananda is limited. He had a very short life and was the first of Sri

Ramakrishnas direct disciples to leave his body.

Swami Yogananda was born as Jogindranath Ray Choudhury

into a well-to-do aristocratic family at Dakshineswar on 30 March 1861. His

father Navin Chandra Ray Choudhury was a pious Brahmin who spent long

hours in spiritual pursuits. He did not pay much attention to managing his

properties and, as a result, lost most of them. These people belonged to the

Savarna Ray Choudhury family: the family which once owned the present

metropolis of Kolkata and its adjoins; the family of which Sri Ramakrishna

spoke in high terms.1

To narrate to the readers the history of Yoganandas family, we

must recede back by a millennium: Bengal in the tenth century of the

Christian era. The golden Bengal of the great King Sasanka (a contemporary

of Harsavardhana), which has been eulogised in many later literatures, had

long ceased to exist. The condition of Bengal then could be best explained by

terming it as matsyanyaya or the rule of the fish. Those dark ages played

havoc in the socio-politico-economic set-up of the land. Corrupt practices

pouring out of Buddhism and the newly evolved Tantric cult was defiling the

Vedic religion the Sanatana Dharma in Bengal. With no strong imperial

1 During Jogindranaths first encounter with Sri Ramakrishna, the Master had thus remarked: I know your father very well. I used to go to your house quite often and listen to readings from the Bhagavata and other scriptures. Your family members were very respectful towards me Come again.

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authority to rule over, Bengal2 was repeatedly devastated by wars with her

neighbouring kingdoms.

At this stage in history came Adisura as the Viceroy of Bengal,

who was also a member of the family of the reigning sovereign at Kanauj.3 On

coming to Bengal he found that the Vedic form of worship was unknown and

that the few families of Sat-sat4 Brahmins who ministered to the spiritual

wants of its inhabitants were themselves wanting in the knowledge of Vedic

rites. In order to dispel this ignorance and re-establish the Sanatana Brahmanya

Dharma in Bengal, Adisura brought down from Kanauj five learned Brahmins5

of Vedic fame with a number of educated attendants. These Brahmins were all

fair, stalwart, warlike, handsome men with clear-cut chiselled-out features of

the pure Aryan, and their attendants, though serving as clerks and

amanuenses, were no less fair, stalwart, warlike, handsome and pure of

descent. They all came armed to the teeth. These men and their sons and

grandsons were settled by the ruler in different parts of Bengal to spread

education and proper worship among the inhabitants. It is their descendants

who form the majority of the superior Brahmins and the Kayasthas of modern

Bengal.

We will now find that Swami Yogananda is a descendant of

Vedagarbha, one of the five Brahmins brought to Bengal by Adisura.

Vedagarbhas descendants became famous as Gangopadhyayas (Gangulis) and

settled on the banks of the Ganga and Ajay rivers somewhere near the

modern township of Katwa (in Burdwan district), which was given to them as

jagir. For the next six centuries they played the role of leading educationists

2 Ancient Bengal was a vast country with five divisions Rarh, Gauda, Varendra, Mithila and Utkala. 3 The Pala and the Sena dynasties that ruled over Bengal, and were sometimes occupying the imperial seat of power at Kanuaj, are believed to be chieftains and/or off-shoots of contemporary South Indian empires. Adisura, too, is believed to be a Tamil Brahmin. 4 Actually Sarasvat. They acquired the name owing to their inhabiting the banks of the Sarasvati river. 5 These five Brahmins were Sriharsa, Bhattanarayana, Daksha, Chhandara and Vedagarbha. Their original up-country titles were Pandit (Pande), Chaturvedi (Chowbe), Trivedi (Tewari), Dwivedi (Dobe) and Misra (Misser), which they eventually gave up, and assumed under a royal mandate the names of Gangopadhyaya (Ganguli), Mukhopadhyaya (Mukherjee), Bandyopadhyaya (Banerjee), Chattopadhyaya (Chatterjee), etc.

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and socio-religious reformers, successfully taking part in the process of the

revival of Hinduism in Bengal on strict Vedic principles.

Vira Raghava, the eldest son of Vedagarbha, was renowned as

much for his scholarship as for his physical strength and valour in the

battlefield as a commander of Adisuras Brahmin infantry. It was for his

military achievements that he obtained from the reigning sovereign the title of

Vira. He was also called Hala (plough) owing to his reputation as a skilled

farmer. His brother Vasistha Siddhalas descendants are known to have

migrated to Orissa and founded a family there, which was renowned for its

knowledge of the Shastras and architecture. While the children, grandchildren

and great-grandchildren of Vira Raghava were famous for their Vedic culture,

physical strength and military skill, those of his brother Vasistha Siddhala

Deva were noted for their wealth, learning, piety and munificence. Bhavadeva

Bala Ballabha Bhujanga, the eight in descent from Vasistha Siddhala Deva,

built and consecrated the famous Ananta Vasudeva temple with its tank at

Bhuvaneswar. The temple with its sanctity and beauty of architecture still

attracts thousands of pilgrims and votaries from different parts of India

annually to its doors. The religious rites for the guidance of the Bengal

priesthood prescribed by this renowned Vedic scholar regulate to this day all

the social and religious ceremonial functions of the Rarhi Brahmins throughout

India.

Damodara, tenth in descent from Vedagarbha6, his son Kulapati

and grandson Sishu were for their qualities of head and heart, wealth and

social and political position placed among the highest of Kulins (aristocrats)

by Vallala Sena, a successor of Adisura in the twelfth century of the Christian

era. Their chief abode was at Amati, then a flourishing town situated within

the area of the present Katwa sub-division in the Burdwan district of Bengal.

Of their descendants, Jiva, better known as Shiva, seventeenth in descent from

Vedagarbha, was the most renowned Sanskrit scholar of his time, and was

6 Hereafter, we are dealing only with Vira Raghavas line. Refer to the genealogical tables.

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unanimously given the title of Vyasa by his learned contemporaries. He is

popularly called the fountainhead of the modern Gangulis in Bengal.7

Vedagarbhas nineteenth descendant, Panchanan

Gangopadhyaya used to adorn a high office in both the imperial army and

administration. It was for his valour, that he was awarded the title of Shakti

Khan and the pargana of Havelisahar as jagir under an imperial decree. He

had the rare insight of a social reformer and was also an able administrator.

He shifted from his ancient homeland to his jagir and founded an well-

organized society in the modern Halisahar-Kanchrapara-Kamarhati-Naihati

area.8 Haliasahar rose to prominence to occupy the seat of ecclesiastical

learning and Sanskrit scholarship in the post-Chaitanya era. It is said that Sri

Chaitanya was himself a student for sometime at Halisahar. Panchanan

became famous as Panchu Shakti Khan with his son, Shambhupati (b.1500)

and grandson, Jiya (1535/1548-1620), both being extraordinary scholars,

successfully carrying on with the scholastic traditions of the family. Jiya

Gangopadhyaya who had the rare title of Vidya Vachaspati was the most

renowned of all Nyaya scholars of the country of his time.

Jiya was married to Padmavati an exceedingly charming and

beautiful lady. For long time after their marriage, they had no children. So the

couple went for sadhana to their family deity, Devi Kalika, at Kalikshetra

(presently the Mother Goddess at Kalighat); which had already come into

association with the Savarna family from the time of Panchanan. On the dawn

of the third day of their penance they saw a divine halo and an oracle

predicted the birth of a male child with good fortunes shortly afterwards.

Padmavati discovered the mortal remains of the mythical Sati (Shivas

consort) from the adjacent tank which is still preserved as the right foot of the

Mother Goddess with reverence inside the shrine.

7 Fortune is proverbially fickle and the fortune of the Amati Gangulis was no exception. Their wealth and influence began to dwindle with the sub-division of their properties among various branches. Several of them had to leave Amati and settle themselves elsewhere to seek fresh field and pastures new. 8 The North 24 Parganas district in West Bengal covers this area today.

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In 1570, Padmavati gave birth to a son and died. The child was

named Lakshmikanta as he was born on the day of Kojagari Lakshmi Puja one

of the most auspicious days in the Hindu almanac. Saddened at the sudden

demise of his beloved wife, Jiya renounced worldly life, left the infant with

Atmaram Brahmachari the temple priest, and embraced the life of an ascetic

(parivrajaka) as Kamadeva Brahmachari. He wrote about the identity of the

child and all that had happened in a Sanskrit script. The script is still said to

be in possession of a member of the family.

Under the able guidance of his fathers guru, Atmaram

Brahmachari, and Raja Vasanta Ray, a well-wisher of the family and uncle of

Maharaja Pratapaditya Ray of Jessore, Lakshmikanta grew up to be a great

scholar of Sanskrit and Persian and also a tough warrior. On attaining age he

entered the services of the Jessore state under Pratapaditya. Later, owing to

differences arising from the murder of Vasanta Ray and defiance of the

imperial sovereignty by Pratapaditya, Lakshmikanta resigned his office and

came back to his birthplace, Kalighat, to lead a spiritual life.

As a Brahmin ascetic, Jiya became famous in Varanasi for his

erudition, piety and devotion. Learned in all the Shastras to an extraordinary

degree, he was hailed by Maharaja Man Singh of Amber, the famous Mughal

general, as his spiritual guru with unbounded respect. It was under the

instructions of this guru that Man Singh became successful in all his military

and administrative undertakings throughout India and was acclaimed as a

lion amongst men.

Meanwhile, Man Singh, on his way to crush the rebellion of

Pratapaditya, camped at Varanasi and got diksha (spiritual initiation) from

Kamadeva who was then stationed there. The disciple coming to know of the

story of his gurus life vowed to re-unite him with his son. There were many

high-pitched battles between the Mughal army and that of Pratapaditya. Man

Singh finally emerged victorious and was successful in capturing

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Pratapaditya.9 He traced Lakshmikanta with the help of Shudramani and

Bhavananda, the ancestors of Bansberia and Nadia Raj respectively.

Lakshmikanta was discovered at Kalighat as a youthful, quiet, polite,

intelligent man, but full of energy, piety and learning. He was presented in

the Mughal Durbar and offered the post of Subedar. But being a Brahmin, he

objected to accept the rank and work of a Kshatriya. So he was made

responsible for the revenue collection of a large area (Jagirdar) of Bengal suba,

given a huge tax-free zamindari of nine parganas (namely, Kalkatah,

Khaspur, Paikan, Havelisahar, Nimta, Anwarpur, Magura, Hatiagarh and

Amirabad) and presented with the prestigious title of Ray-Majumdar-

Choudhury in circa 1608 by the then Mughal Emperor, Nur-ud-din

Muhammad Jehangir Padshah Gazi.

The land that was given to Lakshmikanta was largely

uninhabited and under dense cover of tropical forests. It was Lakshmikanta,

who after much hardship and years of hard labour transformed these fertile

forestlands that were once part of the greater Sunderbans into one of the most

prosperous estates of Bengal, so that in the 1630s his annual income exceeded

twelve lakhs of sicca of the time.10

It will be not be improper and unethical to declare that Ray

Lakshmikanta Majumdar Choudhury (1570-1649) is the father of the

civilization that now flourishes in this part of the country, as it was his

indomitable courage and energy that was responsible for the development of

his estates within two decades.11 Lakshmikanta is also credited as the founder

of the modern Bengali Durga Puja. In 1610, he started the Saparivara Durga

Puja, the first of its kind in Bengal (Lakshmi, Sarasvati, Kartick, Ganesh and

9 Pratapaditya committed suicide as he was being taken to Agra to be presented in the Mughal Durbar as a prisoner of war. 10

With unflagging industry and unrivalled sagacity, Lakshmikanta converted this vast stretch of land into habitable and cultivable land, and got thousands of tenants from different parts of Bengal and even from Andhra Pradesh-Tamil Nadu border to squat upon it. 11

This historical fact has been established by a recent landmark judgement delivered by the First Bench of the Calcutta High Court on 16 May 2003 in a public interest litigation petition challenging Job Charnock as the founder of Calcutta and the birthday celebration of the city on 24 August.

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Mahisasuramardini Dasabhuja Durga all brought together in one structure),

at Barishas Sanjher Aatchala.12 The same puja is still celebrated with much

pomp and grandeur and is on its way to cross the four-century mark. He also

constructed a temple to the presiding family deity of the Mother Goddess,

Devi Kalika, at the very site where the present temple of Kalighat stands. He

is credited with the donation of 595 bighas of land for the daily seva-puja of the

deity. Moreover, the Lakshmikantapur in South 24 Parganas as we see today

was a creation of that great man and the settlement still bears his name.

Ray Lakshmikanta Majumdar Choudhurys successors were all

very prosperous and successful as zamindars. They were the cultural,

spiritual and religious leaders of their people and able administrators at the

same time. Ray Vidyadhar Majumdar Choudhury (1640-1720), a great-

grandson of Lakshmikanta, was a man of the highest religious fervour and a

popular administrator. He built and consecrated three temples to Lord

Krishna, Lord Shiva and Goddess Kali at Halisahar. In those days,

Vidyadhars name was mentioned along with the names of Hindu deities by

old men and women of all castes during their early morning prayer. Another

great-grandson, Ray Keshav Ram Majumdar Choudhury (1650-1726) was

such a benevolent administrator that he received some additional lands as

jagir and the title of Ray Choudhury from the Nawab of Bengal in 1699. Long

before that, Keshav Ram had permanently shifted to Barisha.13 He constructed

a richly engraved temple dedicated to Lord Shiva in the southern extreme of

his zamindari at Mandir Bazar, near the present Diamond Harbour. That

huge temple is one of the wonders of terracotta architecture in south Bengal.

He also constructed a bathing ghat on the bank of the old flow of Ganges (Adi-

Ganga) and a flight of steps from the river leading to the temple of Goddess

Kali. It was only after this that the place came to be known as Kalighat.

Kesav Rams fourth son Shivadeva, who later became famous as

Santosh Ray Choudhury (1710-1799) owing to his benevolent activities, was

12 Barisha is a part of South Kolkata.

13 It is the Savarna Ray Choudhury family of Barisha that is the most prominent of all the branches of the Savarna family today.

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the richest of all Savarna zamindars. He reconstructed the temple of the

family deity at Kalighat in its present form at an estimated cost of thirty

thousand rupees.14 He also consecrated a dozen Shiva temples and a temple

to Radhakanta in his residential compound. Santosh Ray Choudhurys land

administration is still a subject of interest to law students. He was such a

benevolent zamindar that he distributed more than one lakh bighas of

cultivable land among his landless peasants and deserving Brahmins.15 Both

Shivadeva and his father Keshav Ram were Samajpati (social headman) in

south Bengal in their time.

The Savarna Ray Choudhurys16 are essentially a spiritual family.

Kesav Rams grandson Nandadulal Ray Choudhury (b.1722) built the

Karunamayi Kali Temple17 near the present Tollygunj bridge in circa 1760 in

memory of his deceased daughter, while his father Krishnadeva (b. 1682)

founded a Rathayatra festival in 171918. Another descendant Mahesh Chandra

founded the famous Chandi Puja of Barisha, a unique festival of its kind in

1792, which is still celebrated with much pomp and grandeur accompanied

with a huge fair. There is also a temple to Goddess Annapurna in Barisha

constructed in circa 1850 by Chandrakanta Ray Choudhury. The founding of

the Barisha High School in 1856 by Surya Kumar Ray Choudhury was a

landmark event in the educational movement in progress at that time. It is

14 The Goddess Kali at Kalighat is the property of the Savarna Ray Choudhury family (Lakshmikanta and his descendants) who have kept up this system of breaking Kulinism ever since they installed the Goddess at Kalighat as their family deity. The Haldars of Kalighat are merely their purohits whose profession is to worship the Goddess. In the later decades of the last century, the said temple was renovated by the Hindustan Charity Trust, a Birla organisation. 15

It is no exaggeration to say that most of the later opulent Brahmin zamindars on either side of the Bhagirathi river in south Bengal owed to these gifts the nucleus of their fortune. 16

This is how the integrated family of Lakshmikantas descendants are known today. It is purely a coinage by the writers of history and various social chronicles. Vedagarbhas original ancestor was Savarna (Surya Tanaya), a great Rishi of dazzling splendour and fiery energy. His descendants describe themselves as belonging to the Savarna-gotra stock. 17

It is widely believed in the Savarna family that Rani Rashmoni visited the temple while on her way back from Gangasagar pilgrimage. The plan of the Dakshineswar Bhavatarini Temple has been evidently influenced by the architectural layout of this ancient Dakshina Kalika temple. 18 The Barisha Rathayatra Utsav is still celebrated with much pomp and clat with thousands of people attending the festival.

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said that Pandit Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar, then inspector of schools in south

Bengal, himself came to inaugurate the school.19 Apart from these, there are

many more temples in and around Midnapore, Howrah, Burdwan and the 24

Parganas, which were constructed by other luminaries of the family.

The Savarna Ray Choudhurys were no mere talukdars of small

income but zamindars with an income of thousand upon thousands of

rupees. Whether they be or be not well-versed in the science of arms, they

were by intuition or heredity, leaders and commanders of military forces and

adepts in protecting, and supplying commissariat to the army in the field of

battle.

After making due allowance for inaccuracies in documentation

and the natural tendency to exaggeration on the part of poets, bards, heralds

and chroniclers, the fact remains that the Savarna Choudhurys became big

zamindars, social leaders, military commanders and commissariat heads in

the seventeenth century during the reigns of Emperors Jehangir and Shah

Jehan. They were renowned for their piety and munificence as proprietors of

Goddess Kali at Kalighat, whose influence rose by leaps and bounds owing to

their moral and pecuniary support.

There can be no doubt whatsoever that the influence of the

Savarna Ray Choudhurys was paramount when the British traders came to

establish their factory at Calcutta towards the end of the seventeenth century.

Whatever land they had to acquire for their factory, shops and godowns had

to be obtained from them. In 1693, Job Charnock obtained from them the right

to use one of their buildings under rent for safekeeping of Company records.

In 1695, Captain Charles Eyre, an agent of the East India Company and son-

in-law of Job Charnock, endeavoured without success to acquire a legal right

for the English settlement by obtaining from the jagirdar the lease of two or

three villages. In 1698, Prince Azim-us-Shan, the then Governor of Bengal,

granted the British necessary permission to acquire land. On 10th November

19The family never accepted any British honours or titles and took great part and pride in the development of national interests.

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of the same year the East India Company took on lease the three villages of

Kalkatah, Sutaloota and Govindopoor, which later amalgamated together to

give form and shape to the present metropolis of Kolkata, from the heirs of

Lakshmikanta. Many have even gone to the extent of dubbing this singular

act as the real cornerstone in the foundation of the British Empire in India. It

is worthy to note here that only the descendants of the first two sons of

Lakshmikanta took part in this transaction. Be that as it might, the British did

not and could not purchase the proprietary rights to those said villages but

became intermediate holders between the proprietors and their tenants,

entitled to collect rent from the latter. They had to pay to their superior

landlord, the Savarna zamindars, an annual rent, and they this paid almost

down to the time of the Battle of Plassey in 1757 when Nawab Siraj-ud-

dowlas defeat by Lord Clive placed the British at the head of the

administration of Bengal and all idea of treating them as tenants or

subordinates disappeared once for all from the minds of one and all.

With the introduction of the British system of land

administration and the quinquennial and permanent settlements of Bengal

under Lord Cornwallis in 1788 and 1792 respectively, the wealth and

influence of the Savarna Ray Choudhurys decreased and they gradually

withdrew themselves more and more from social and political functions with

the disastrous result that in a few years their leadership came to be confined

within the gradually diminishing circle of their immediate tenants, retainers,

friends and relatives. The big social gatherings of thousands of Brahmins,

Vaidyas and Kayasthas, including learned Pandits and Ghatakas, that used to

take place on the occasion of Durga Puja and the Holi festivals, Rathayatra,

and other social ceremonies in the house of the Savarna zamindars slowly

became a thing of the past. European education and economic causes helped

considerably to destroy respect for traditional authority and religious way of

life.

Now in order to connect this narration with the history of

Swami Yogananda, we shall shift our attention to Lakshmikantas second son

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Gaurikanta (Gaurhari, 1610-69).20 Gauri probably had five sons and one

among them was Kasiswar. Kasiswar had two sons, Kartick and Ganesh. The

property was further bifurcated to give both the sons administrative holds

and rights. While Kartick managed the estates at Erachi, the younger son

Ganesh shifted to Dakshineswar where he laid the foundation of the Savarna

Ray Choudhury family of Dakshineswar from which Swami Yogananda has

descended. In the absence of proper documentary sources, we have not been

able to link Swami Yoganandas father Navin Chandra with Ganeshs

progeny. But Ganesh had two sons Raghuram and Jagatram, who again had

three sons each. We have been able to trace two great-grandsons of Ganesh in

the progeny of both his sons. Taking the dates of Swami Yogananda into

consideration, we can infer that he belonged to the thirty-second or thirty-

third generation of the Savarna family from Vedagarbha; while we are able to

trace down till the twenty-eighth descendant of Vedagarbha in the

Dakshineswar line of the Savarna Ray Choudhury family, we are unable to

link Navin Chandra with that line of descendants. There remains a missing

link of two or three generations between Yoganandas father and either of the

great-grandsons of Ganesh.21

Jogindranath was the eldest son of his father, and the familys

only hope lay in this most promising son. However, Jogin developed a

religious tendency very early in life. When he was a child of five, he would

often be overwhelmed with spiritual feelings. After his sacred thread

20 It may be noted here that there was no partition or division of zamindari between Lakshmikantas sons, grandsons and even great-grandsons and they all belonged to the one and same joint family. Lakshmikantas eldest son Ramkanta (Ramhari, 1590-1650) was at Halisahar with his son Jagadish, Rambhadra, Narayan, Subuddhi and Rajendra. His second son Gauri was at Nimta with his sons of whom Srimanta as the most intelligent was in charge of the properties at Calcutta and its neighbourhood. His third son Gopal and fourth son Mahadeva were both in charge of his Uttarpara cutcheri house where they managed the zamindaris in the district of Hooghly and Midnapore (Contai, which extended down to Orissa) and from where Gopal eventually moved to Gangur, then a flourishing town on the banks of the river Jamuna but now an insignificant settlement. He managed zamindaris, covering the present sub-divisions of Ranaghat, Bongong and Basirhat, and a large part of Barasat. Lakshmikantas youngest son Gopikanta was in charge of his zamindari at Teghoria and Bonghoria, and administered the estates lying within the present sub-divisions of Sealdah, a part of Barrackpore and a part of Barasat. 21

Genealogical tables appended.

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ceremony, Jogin began to spend more time in meditation and worship. He

would enjoy reading Ramayana, Mahabharata, and other scriptures. Jogin

was sent to a Christian missionary school and it was during his final year of

school that he met Sri Ramakrishna. After his entrance examination, Jogin

began to live with the Master for longer periods of time and to spend more

time in meditation. However, he was aware of his familys hardships and so

with his fathers permission he went to Kanpur to his uncle to try for getting a

job.

But as destiny would have it, Jogin was called back from

Kanpur and his family got him married by trick. Jogin had to bow his head

before the decree of fate and married a beautiful daughter of Madhusudan

Ray, who lived close to Dakshineswar.

There was yet another side to Jogins character his strong

independence. Forced to marry, he rebelled like a caged lion that desperately

wants to be free. Jogin and his wife never slept in the same bed. Sri

Ramakrishna declared that Jogin has been Arjuna, the hero of Mahabharata,

in his previous birth. One day, Jogin took his wife to the Master, who

accompanied them to the Kali temple. Jogin and his wife bowed down before

the Divine Mother. The Master blessed Jogins wife, touching her head, and

then said to Jogin that he need not worry about her anymore.

Jogin used to serve the Master with heart and soul. Since he was

very austere and neglected his body, he used to fall sick frequently. When he

was not serving Sri Ramakrishna, Jogin used to devote his time to japa and

meditation. Another aspect of his nature was his deep feeling for suffering

people.

After Sri Ramakrishnas mahasamadhi on 16 August 1886,

Swami Yogananda took upon himself the task of serving the Holy Mother and

he did this with utmost care and unflinching devotion till the end of his life.

Yogananda did not care much for studying. He loved to be in

solitude. Due to his immense fasting and austere practices, his body was lean,

but his eyes were bright and luminous. Though he was lean, he was not weak.

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Swami Shivananda, another brother-disciple, remarks: He [Yogananda] was

a highly evolved soul. He was extremely handsome and had a manly body.

He used to beg for food, as it is customary for mendicants. But at the same

time, he had a good sense of humour coupled with his monastic seriousness

and burning renunciation.

Swami Yogananda commanded love and respect for his sterling,

saintly qualities. But what distinguished him among the disciples of Sri

Ramakrishna was his devoted service to Holy Mother. He was the first

disciple to be initiated by Sarada Devi.

Yogananda led an ideal life, and he taught by his example. He

did not lecture or do any spectacular work except organizing the birth

anniversary of Sri Ramakrishna on a large scale at Dakshineswar from 1895 to

1897. In 1898 he organized a similar celebration at Dahns temple complex of

Belur. The name of Sri Ramakrishna was not widely known then, but

Yogananda had a magnetic personality. He attracted many young people and

celebrated the Ramakrishna festival with clat. In 1897, when Swami

Vivekananda, returned from the West, Yogananda took an active part in

organizing the reception for Swamiji that created a sensation throughout

Calcutta.

Although married and born into a rich family, Yogananda

demonstrated how to practise renunciation and purity. He was an

uncompromising monk. He shunned everything that took his mind away

from the Master. He presided several times over the weekly meetings of the

Ramakrishna Mission. Vivekananda greatly valued his judgement and

foresight. It was 1898. Although Yogananda was quite ill, Swamiji took him

by boat to show him the new site for the monastery at Belur on the banks of

the Ganga, which had been recently purchased.

During his last illness Yogananda suffered from fever and blood

dysentery. His whole body was emaciated and his voice was feeble. Under

explicit instructions of Holy Mother, Yoganandas wife came and served him

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during his last days, though he himself was averse to the idea, he had to yield

to Holy Mothers direction.

Swami Yogananda passed away in samadhi at 3:10 pm on 28

March 1899. Holy Mother burst into tears at the death of her favourite and

foremost disciple. Before the body was taken for cremation, Swamiji waved

vesper and offered flowers and sweets as a part of the ritual. He was so

stunned that he did not accompany the procession to the cremation ground.

Grief stricken, Swamiji did not go to Sri Ramakrishnas shrine for three days.

He remarked, A beam is down and now the rafters will fall one after

another.

The perusal of these facts puts before the reader the tradition to

which Swami Yogananda belonged. The Savarna family was basically a

spiritual family. In the thousand years of their history in Bengal, we can find

two distinct phases: while the first half was devoted solely to academics and

spread of Vedic religion, the second half saw the family engaged in

zamindari. But spiritual and socio-religious activities always occupied the

forefront of activities for this family. Yogindranath, who came in contact with

Sri Ramakrishna at a very young age, who was recognised by Him as

isvarakoti, who was the first to be initiated by the Holy Mother, who went on

to become the first Vice-President of the Ramakrishna Order, was yet another

shining scion of the Savarna family.

The Indian spiritual tradition is hoary and ancient. The Savarna

family is a part of this tradition and Swami Yogananda comes in this

parampara. Swami Vivekananda has said, The ideal man of our ancestors

was the Brahmin. In all our books stands out prominently this ideal of the

Brahmin the greatest princes seek to trace their descent to some ancient

sage who dressed in a bit of loin-cloth, lived in a forest, eating roots and

studying the Vedas. It is there that the Indian prince goes to trace his ancestry.

You are of the high caste when you can trace your ancestry to a Rishi, and not

otherwise. Our ideal of high birth, therefore, is different from that of others.

15

Our ideal is the Brahmin of spiritual culture and renunciation.22 The Savarna

family, which claims descent from Sage Savarna (lit. m. Surya-tanaya)

represents this ideal through its many sons, one of the foremost among them

being Swami Yogananda.

22 The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, Vol. III, p-197.

16

GENEALOGICAL TABLE: 1

MAHARSHI SAVARNA23

Saubhari Upadhyaya24

1. VEDAGARBHA25

2. Raghava 2. Vasistha Siddhala26 [Vira, Hala, Professor of Sanskrit and

Commander of Adisuras Brahmin Infantry] 3. Gunai 3. Bhavadeva 4. Hari 4. Buddha 5. Suvikrama 5. Sphurita 6. Bishai 6. Adideva 7. Balai 7. Govardhana 8. Heramba 8. Bhavadeva Bala Vallabha Bhujanga27 9. Shauri (1082(AD) 10. Pitambara 11. Kulapati (Scholar at Amati, 1182AD) 12. Sishu28 13. Gadadhara 14. Haladhara (1282(AD) 15. Ayurama 16. Vinayaka [See Table 2]

23 Great Vedic sage; son of the Sun God: Surya-Tanaya.

24 Renowned Vedic Brahmin and Sanskrit scholar at Kanauj, of countrywide fame.

25 Vedagarbha migrated into Bengal in the 10th Century and was given as jagir, areas in the present Katwa sub-division in Burdwan district. It is alleged that his family stayed in a village named Gangagram. It was on this account that they came to be known as Gangopadhyaya. It may also be that as they settled on the banks of River Ganga, they came to be known as Ganga+Upadhyaya=Gangopadhyaya. 26

Vasistha Siddhalas descendants migrated to Orissa and founded a family there which was renowned for its knowledge of the Shastra and architecture. 27

Built and consecrated the Ananta Vasudeva Temple in Bhuvaneswar, Orissa. 28

Sishu Gangopadhyaya, it is alleged, was awarded as royal gift, the legendary land Kalikshetra extending from Dakshineswar in the north to Behala in the south, in the time of King Vallala Sena of Gauda. See Indian Antiquary, Vol. II, (1873) as also A. K. Rays A Short History of Calcutta, Ch. III, (1902). Sishu was a made a Kulin by Vallala Sena.

17

GENEALOGICAL TABLE: 2

17. SHIVA29

18. Parameswar (Purari) 18. Murari 19. Panchanan Gangopadhyaya30 19. Bhairav 20. Shambhupati (1500 AD) 20. Sridhar 21. JIYA31 21. Nilakantha (1535/48-1620) 22. LAKSHMIKANTA 22. Sripati [See Table 3] 23. Ramnath 24. Raghava32 25. Ramachandra

26. Harihar33

29 Alias Jiva, scholar like Vyasa, still at Amati, 1382AD.

30 Alias Panchu Shakti Khan, scholar and a highly decorated commander of the imperial army. It was for his valour that he received the title of Shakti Khan together with an imperial grant and the pargana of Havelisahar as jagir. He migrated to Goghat-Gopalpur (Hooghly district) and later founded the Halisahar Samaj. 31

Jiya, at a very young age, received the rare title of Vidya Vacaspati and was the most famous Nyaya scholars of his time. He was married at an early age to Padmavati and it was on his account of marrying into an inferior Srotriya family that he was de-Kulinised by Devivara. Later he became famous as Kamadeva Brahmachari. He is credited with the discovery and installation of Satis mortal remains in the shrine at Kalighat. 32

Married and settled at Bega-Vikrampur, beginning of the Beger-Ganguly. 33

Founder of the well-known Ganguli families of Janai and Barabazar, Calcutta.

18

GENEALOGICAL TABLE: 3

22. RAY LAKSHMIKANTA MAJUMDAR CHOUDHURY

( 1570-1649) 23. Ramkanta Gaurikanta Gopal Bireswar Krishna Gopikanta Mahadeva [1590-1650] [1600-69] [Ray] [Chakravarty] [Sinha] [Ray] [1639?-1730] 24. Gandharva Janardana Srimanta Kuleshwar [1618] [1620] [1625-81]

25.Pran Ramavallabha Subuddhi 24. Jagadish [1620-90] 25. Krishnaram [1668-1737] Radhakrishna 25. Keshavram [1650-1726] 25. Vidyadhar Raghudeva Ratneswar Rameswar [1640-1720] [1642-1722] [1670-1720] [1674-1739] 26. Ram 27. Krishnachand 26. Vasudeva [1660-1710]

27. Manohar Deva 28. Balai [1699-1760] 24. KASISWAR [See Table 4]

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GENEALOGICAL TABLE: 4

24. Kasiswar Kartick 25. Ganesh (Earchi) (Dakshineswar) 26. Krishnaram Rudradulal 26. Raghuram Jagatram 27 Balaram 27. Durgaprasad Bhawaniprasad Krishnakishore 28. Kalishankar 27. Ramkanta Krishnaprasad Gauriprasad 28. Ramchandra

[Note: Swami Yoganandas father Navin Chandra is descended either from any of the three sons of Raghuram, viz. Durgaprasad, Bhawaniprasad and Krishnakishore, or from any of the three sons of Jagatram, viz. Ramkanta, Krishnaprasad and Gauriprasad. The Saborno Sangrahalay has already installed a field research project to fill-up the gaps in the genealogy of the Savarna family. Swami Yoganandas ancestral house is no more in existence. Though the Ramakrishna Mission authorities tried their best to acquire the Dakshineswar lodging of the Savarna Ray Choudhury family, where Yogin Maharaj was born and he grew up, they remained highly unsuccessful as the incumbent owners were more interested in handing over the property to real estate developers and Dakshineswar Adyapith Temple.]

20

Sources cited:

1. Ray, Atul Krishna. Lakshmikanta: A Chapter in the Social History of

Bengal. Ed. Gorachand Ray Choudhury. Kolkata: The Saborno

Sangrahalay, 2001.

2. Chetanananda, Swami. God Lived With Them. Calcutta: Advaita

Ashrama, 1998.

3. Saradananda, Swami. Sri Ramakrishna, The Great Master. Madras:

Ramakrishna Math, 1978.

4. Gambhirananda, Swami. Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi. Madras:

Ramakrishna Math, 1955.

5. Saradananda, Swami. Sri-Sri-Ramakrishna-Lilaprasanga. Calcutta:

Udbodhan Office, 1386BS.

6. Gambhirananda, Swami. Sri-Ramakrishna-Bhaktamalika. Calcutta:

Udbodhan Office, 1384BS.

7. The Saborno Sangrahalay Archives, Kolkata.

The author, Probal Ray Choudhury, is currently a faculty with the Amrita Vishwa

Vidyapeetham (Deemed University) at its Amritapuri Campus (Kollam, Kerala). An

ex-student of Ramakrishna Mission Vidyamandira, Belur Math, and Ramakrishna

Mission Vivekananda College, Chennai, he holds a post-graduate degree in English

from the Department of English, University of Madras. He is also the Founder-

Secretary & Chief Executive of The Saborno Sangrahalay (A Sanatana Samskriti

Samsthan dedicated to the understanding of the quintessence of Indianness),

Kolkata.

An abridged version of this was published in the VEDANTA KESARI, April 2007.