SWAMIJI AND MAHARAJ

Vivekananda and Brahmananda, or "Swamiji" and "Maharaj," as they were known more familiarly, were the natural leaders of the Ramakrishna Order of Vedanta, the organization that formed soon after the death of Ramakrishna.  Both were at this time twenty-three years old and had been friends since early boyhood.

Vivekananda, handsome and athletic, embodied physical and intellectual energy.  He was impulsive, ardent, skeptical, and impatient of all hypocrisy, conservatism, or sloth.  Vedanta had not come to him easily.  Questioning Ramakrishna at every step, he accepted nothing on trust, without the test of personal experience. 

Vivekananda was well-read in western philosophy and science, and was inspired by the doctrines of Keshab Sen, a westernized Bengali reformer who lived between 1834 and 1884.  Vivekananda brought to his religious life that most valuable quality:  intellectual doubt.  If he had never visited Ramakrishna at the temples at Dakshineswar, he might well have become one of India's foremost national leaders.

Brahmananda was a more mysterious figure, whom few knew intimately, and those few confessed to how little they knew of him.  Still, he was a very great mystic and saint, whose wisdom and love seemed superhuman.

Indeed, Brahmananda's brother disciples did not hesitate comparing him to Ramakrishna himself.  "Whatever Maharaj tells you," one of them said, "comes directly from God."  In 1902, Brahmananda was elected head of the Ramakrishna Order, a position he held until his death in 1922.  An excellent biographical essay entitled "The Eternal Companion" was written by his disciple Swami Prabhavananda.