Swami Kalyanananda

Kalyanananda (1874–1937) was a direct monastic disciple of Vivekananda, who had set up the Ramakrishna Mission Sevashrama at Kankhal, near Haridwar. As a monk of the Ramakrishna Order, he took up service to the humanity as the most important philosophy in his life and practiced it for the benefit of the local population and the pilgrims. He spent thirty six-years in Ramakrishna Mission Sevashrama Kankhal to serve the poor and afflicted. He was one of the pioneers to set up a hospital in a remote location for the poor, needy and the itinerant monks who did not have access to healthcare.

Pre-monastic life

Kalyanananda was born as Dakshinaranjan Guha in the year 1874 in Hanua village near Vazirpur town in Barishal district of East Bengal province (now Bangladesh). His father's name was Umesh Chandra Guha. He lost his father at an early age and was educated under the guardianship of his uncle. Extreme poverty compelled him to give up a formal education.

Monastic life

Dakshinaranjan was inspired by the ideals of Vivekananda of leading a selfless life and service to poor and needy by looking upon them as manifestation of God. In 1898, he joined the newly established monastery of Ramakrishna Order, the Belur Math. He was initiated by Vivekananda and took his monastic vows under the name Kalyanananda. He served an ailing Yogananda, another direct disciple of Ramakrishna, in his deathbed.
In 1899 when Vivekananda left for West a second time, Kalyanananda went for pilgrimage and for practicing austerities. In Benares he met Kedarnath Moulik who would later become famous as Achalananda, another monastic disciple of Vivekananda and the founder of Ramakrishna Mission Home of Service Benares. Together they were involved in serving the poor and needy in Benares and Kalyanananda developed initial exposure to Vivekananda's vision of practical Vedanta through this. From Benares, he went to Allahabad and got engaged in service activities. At Kishangarh in Jaipur, together with Swarupananda, another brother disciple, he got busy in providing relief to the local population affected by a famine. They fed about 300 people every day, which helped in alleviating the impact of the famine. In 1901, he returned to Belur Math to meet Vivekananda, who had come back from the West. Vivekananda had requested him to work for the sick and ailing monks around the Rishikesh-Haridwar region as he himself was the witness to the plight of the people there in absence of any healthcare facility. Vivekananda apparently told Kalyanananda, ''Kalyan, you will be a Paramhansa.'' Sarvagatananda of Vedanta Centre Providence, who as Brahmachari Narayan served Kalyanananda in Kankhal, used this statement as the title of the book on his reminiscences about Kalyanananda.

With the help of Swarupananda, Kalyanananda was able to raise some funds for beginning the work of the Sevashrama in Kankhal near Haridwar in a rented premise consisting of two rooms in 1901. He also met Vivekananda and served him before the latter's death. Once, he bought 20 kg of ice by walking over a distance of 8 km for Vivekananda. Vivekananda had told him the essence of practical Vedanta was service to the humanity, with spirituality as the mainstay. Kalyanananda followed this philosophy in practice by serving the patients as Gods or living manifestations of the divinity.

Later he was joined in his work by another disciple of Vivekananda, Nischayananda. The two monks received enthusiastic support from Dhanraj Giri, the head of Kailash Ashrama monastery in Rishikesh, who had a good relationship with Vivekananda and Abhedananda. Because of the effort of Dhanraj Giri, the local monks began accepting the two disciples of Vivekananda as part of the fraternity. Along with service to the poor patients, the two swamis followed strict austere practices like begging their food from a satra or alms house so that they did not have to spend the funds available for personal expenses like food and clothing.
Many monks of the Ramakrishna Order, including Brahmananda, Turiyananda and Shivananda, as well as householder disciples of Ramakrishna like Mahendranath Gupta, better known as "M", visited the Kankhal Sevashrama.
Kalyanananda's daily routine consisted in personally visiting every patient in the hospital and get to know about the condition, sitting by their side and talking to them, visiting the kitchen, the wards, the garden, the cowshed, the library and the temple shrine.

Last days

The last fifteen years of his life was spent in a shattered health owing to the strain of the excessive work. He suffered from diabetes. In 1932, he traveled to Advaita Ashrama

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