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He walked
up to the Southern tip of India, Cape Comorin. He sat in deep meditation on a rock out in
the sea of Kanyakumari - almost the last bit of India. On one side of him there was the
vast land of India -
mute, inactive, humbled
and despondent, yet clinging with all her might to the invaluable treasure of her
spirituality - and all the other sides spread the infinite ocean - ever agitated, ever
varying in moods and symbolizing the inexhaustible play of human energy that lay on the
other shore. The scene vividly dramatized the mental problem of the Swami at that time.
Was there a solution to the apparent contradiction? Could the East and the West ever meet
in terms of friendship? Could spirituality and material prosperity co-operate for the
betterment of humanity as a whole? As he pondered, a definite plan flashed into his mind,
and he raised from his lonely seat, in those closing days of 1892, an enlightened Seer of
modern age, with the new light shimmering in his eyes. Alluding to this event he wrote
from Chicago in 1894: "at Cape Comorin, sitting in Mother Kumari's temple, sitting on
the last bit of Indian rock, I hit upon a plan: We are so many Sannyasins wandering about,
and teaching people metaphysics - it is all madness. Did not our Gurudeva say, "An
empty stomach is not good for religion?" ... Suppose some disinterested Sannyasins,
bent on doing good to other, go from village to village, disseminating education and
seeking in various ways to better the condition of all down to Chandala - can't that bring
forth good in time? We have to give back to the nation its lost individuality, and raise
the masses.
Swamiji further writes from America to his brother monks, "If you want any good to
come, just throw your ceremonials overboard and worship the Living God, the Man-God -
every being that wears a Human Form." "To do the highest good to the
world, every one down to the lowest - this is our vow...Ramakrishna Paramahamsa came for
the good of the entire world."
When Swamiji returned back to a triumphant welcome in 1897, he formed the Ramakrishna
Mission on May 1 1897, with the following ideals: "The aim of the Sangha is to preach
those truths which Shri Ramakrishna has, for the good of humanity, preached and
demonstrated by practical application in his own life, and to help others to put these
truths into practice in their lives for their temporal, mental and spiritual
advancement."
Thus this order was born.
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