Funds crunch, ‘invisible power’ delayed Swamiji’s memorial
Times of India | 13 January 2025
123 It took 22 years to build a memorial on the cremation spot of Swami Vivekananda who passed away in Belur Math on July 4, 1902. Although the delay was largely because of a funds crunch created by a reluctant nation's apparent apathy to donate to the cause, Ramakrishna Mission monks attributed this to an "invisible power". Even the then cash-starved mission's repeated appeals for crowdfunding to preserve the place had also fallen on deaf ears.
The memorial is now a must-visit spot for thousands of people coming to Belur Math everyday, be it a prime minister or any other dignitary or common people. Students and youths pay their respects to the monk at this place on National Youth Day celebrated to mark his birth anniversary (Jan 12) on the Belur Math premises every year.
The construction of the west-facing 78-ft-six-inch-high memorial finally got completed in 1924 at a cost of Rs 40,000. The then RKM authorities had still a debt of Rs 10,000.
But the delay in funds collection for the memorial was baffling. In 1897, a few years before his death, Vivekananda was given a rousing reception on his return to Calcutta after his historic speech at the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago in 1893. Hundreds of people, especially the younger generation, received him at Sealdah station when his train arrived from Budge Budge where he alighted from his overseas trip. Not only did the crowd chant his name hailing his feat, some of them even removed the horse from the cart that was carrying him and pulled it themselves to the nearby Ripon (now Surendranath) College to accord him a civic reception.
Swami Jnanavratanandaji, a trustee of RKM, admitted to funds scarcity for the memorial. But he thought "Vivekananda himself wielded an invisible power to delay the structure". "Perhaps Swamiji would not have approved of a memorial soon after his demise spending hard-earned public funds which could have otherwise used in a nobler cause like serving man as serving god," he said adding the memorial was completed only after a charitable dispensary was set up on the premises in 1916.
After his passing away, Vivekananda was cremated the next afternoon at a place he had chosen a few days ago. Soon after, RKM authorities decided to build a "Shiva temple and a nata mandira" at a cost of Rs 2,500. "But the work to start the memorial was delayed because Vivekananda's sudden death and several pending projects like the boundary wall and the embankment had put RKM in a pecuniary difficulty," said Swami Muktishwaranandaji, who hasresearched on the subject.
Looking back at the memorial in its centenary year, Muktishwaranandaji said,"It came up in 1924 only after RKM's presence was solidified. The structure got its present shape with a semi-circular staircase in 1957 only after a temple dedicated to his guru Sri Ramakrishna was completed in 1938."