Swami   Niranjanananda  (D-1902)

Nityaniranjan Ghosh, more commonly known as Niranjan, was probably born in the village Rajarhat-Vishnupur (Bengal), but lived in Calcutta with his uncle. Physically well-built and majestic in appearance, he had somehow become associated with a group of spiritualists who had found in him a very good medium. Having heard about the great spiritual power of Sri Ramakrishna, Niranjan came to Dakshineswar one day.

During this very first visit, the great Master told him, ‘My boy! If you think of ghosts and spooks, ghost and spook will you become! But if you think of God, divine will be your life. Which do your prefer?’ And this converted him from spiritualism to spiritual life. Though frank and openhearted, he was subject to loosing temper and consequently all sense of proportions. Sri Ramakrishna took special care to help him overcome this weakness. Niranjan was one of the few who served the Master day and night during his last illness. After his demise he took sannyasa along with others and become ‘Swami Niranjanananda.’ He was mainly instrumental in getting the major portion of the ashes of Sri Ramakrishna, to be later interred at the new Math built by Swami Vivekananda. He had a deep devotion for the Holy Mother. Though tender at heart, he could be fiercely stern in the face of hypocrisy. He breathed his last on the 9th May, 1904

Swami  Advaitananda  (1828 - 1909)

The darkness of a crisis in life often acts like the twilight before dawn leading to the effulgence of the sun. When Gopal Chandra Ghosh of Sinthi (Calcutta) lost his wife and was heartbroken, that very grief led him to Sri Ramakrishna, seeking relief. The contact thus established through a crisis ultimately led to glorious spiritual heights. Gopalda – as he was endearingly called – was older than even Sri Ramakrishna. Nevertheless, the attitude of reverence and devotion he cherished towards Sri Ramakrishna, his guru, was unflinching. It was his good luck that made him instrumental in the birth of the future Ramakrishna Order of monks by gifting a few pieces of ochre-coloured cloths of Sri Ramakrishna who personally distributed them among Narendra, Rakhal and others including Gopal himself, during his last days at Cossipore.

Along with Tarak (Swami Shivananda), Gopalda was he first to join the Baranagore monastery after the departure of the Master from this world. The monastic name given to him was ‘Swami Advaitananda.’ He spent a few years at the monastery, shifted to Varanasi for about five years and returned to the newly established Math at Alambazar, and later at Belur.

His advanced age prevented him from taking active part in his missionary activities of the new organization. His personal cleanliness, neat and methodical ways of doing any work, had been admired even by Sri Ramakrishna.

The Swami passed away on the 28th December, 1909 at the ripe old age of eighty-one.