Swami Turiyananda: Life and Teachings
By Swami Ritajananda, 233 pages, Paperback.
Swami Turiyananda was a direct sannyasin disciple of Sri Ramakrishna. The Swami was closely associated with the Great Master during the last six years of his life, and afterwards he became one of the members o fthe small group of monastics who organized themselves in the Master's name under the leadership of Swami Vivekananda.
Swami Turiyananda was a rare combination of extreme asceticism, sympathy, devotional fervour, Sanskrit scholarship and modern outlook. Meditation was a pastime for him, and physical hardships and ailments had hardly any depressing effect on his mind. His unfailing spirit of dependence on God enabled him to face the uncertainties of a wandering mendicant's life even in failing health and distressing conditions. He was an example of one who possessed a body but was not possessed by it. Though a scholar of very high attainments, he lived without the vanity of scholarship, and always preferred to teach through example than precept. God was his only concern in life, with no place for pursuit of ambitious personal values. His life was a long-drawn meditation in lonely forest retreats, interspersed with periods of community life among his monastic brethren, with whom he never lost touch.
Swami Turiyananda was a direct sannyasin disciple of Sri Ramakrishna. The Swami was closely associated with the Great Master during the last six years of his life, and afterwards he became one of the members o fthe small group of monastics who organized themselves in the Master's name under the leadership of Swami Vivekananda.
Swami Turiyananda was a rare combination of extreme asceticism, sympathy, devotional fervour, Sanskrit scholarship and modern outlook. Meditation was a pastime for him, and physical hardships and ailments had hardly any depressing effect on his mind. His unfailing spirit of dependence on God enabled him to face the uncertainties of a wandering mendicant's life even in failing health and distressing conditions. He was an example of one who possessed a body but was not possessed by it. Though a scholar of very high attainments, he lived without the vanity of scholarship, and always preferred to teach through example than precept. God was his only concern in life, with no place for pursuit of ambitious personal values. His life was a long-drawn meditation in lonely forest retreats, interspersed with periods of community life among his monastic brethren, with whom he never lost touch.
