SWAMI ABHEDANANDA

In the previous posting, “Swami Vivekananda’s Early Death,” I stated that in 1896 Vivekananda confided to Abhedananda, a fellow disciple of the Ramakrishna Math (monastery) and Mission, that he, Vivekananda, only expected to live another six years, at most.  It was in that same year that Vivekananda, while in London to give a lecture, sent for Abhedananda to join him. 
 
Unbeknownst to Abhedananda, Vivekananda had arranged for him to also give a lecture, announcing it in advance to the Press.  As it happened, Abhedananda had never spoken in public before in his life, but his faith in Vivekananda, the head of their Order, was such that he agreed to do it.  Stepping in front of an audience which filled the hall to its capacity, Abhedananda gave what all agreed was a brilliant lecture. 
     
Due to this and the subsequent successful lectures that Abhedananda delivered in London that year, Vivekananda asked him to take charge of the Vedanta Society in New York.  Abhedananda agreed to it and again was highly effective.  With the exception of one short trip to India in 1906, Abhedananda stayed on in New York, teaching and lecturing, until 1921.  By this time, Vivekananda had long since passed away. 
 
Returning to India in 1921, Abhedananda went on to found his own Vedanta Society two years later, which gradually dissociated itself from the original Ramakrishna Math and Mission.  There were, however, no unfriendly feelings between the members of the two institutions; they simply were different institutions. 
 
Abhedananda died in 1939 and was the last of the original sixteen direct disciples of Ramakrishna, the last to have ever actually met Ramakrishna.