BRAHMANANDA

Swami Brahmananda (1863-1922) was born Rakhal Chandra Ghosh in a village near Calcutta called Sikra.  His father was a wealthy landowner, and his mother a devotee of Sri Krishna.  She was the one who chose the name Rakhal, (Cowherd of Vrindavan) in honor of the cowherds who were the companions of the young Krishna.

At the age of twelve Rakhal was sent by his family to Calcutta to study at an English secondary school. The boys at this school used to exercise at a gymnasium, where it so happened Rakhal met Narendranath “Naren” Datta. The affectionate, gentle Rakhal was drawn at once to Naren’s aggressive boldness, and Naren felt equally drawn to Rakhal.  Thus it happened that the two, who were destined to become the leaders of the future Ramakrishna Order, Rakhal as Swami Brahmananda, and Naren as Swami Vivekananda, were already close friends before either of them met Ramakrishna.

The young Naren joined the Brahmo Samaj, a religious and social reform movement, and persuaded Rakhal to do the same.  Both of them signed the Brahmo pledge to worship and meditate upon God without form, i.e. God without attributes.  Rakhal was by nature contemplative, becoming, as a result, so preoccupied with the mystery of life and death that he neglected his schoolwork, along with all other worldly interests.

Rakhal’s father was concerned about this and settled upon a common remedy, marriage, which Rakhal accepted with his usual submissiveness. Thus at the age of sixteen he was married to a young girl named Visweswari.  Rakhal’s father doubtless figured he’d thus protected his son from metaphysical influences, when in fact he had done the opposite. It turned out that Visweswari’s brother, Manomohan Mitra, took Rakhal to visit Ramakrishna, early in 1880, and the rest was history.