Birth of the Ramakrishna Order Seal

[Guest guest]

Namaste,

 

Readers would be interested in reading this bit of history:

 

[between July 14 and 27, 100]

 

http://www.vedanta-newyork.org/articles/history.htm

 

The Symbol

 

One event of historical interest during this stay was the story of

how, in an informal sitting at a breakfast table he sketched in the

back of an envelope, a design of an emblem that was to become the

official seal of the Ramakrishna Order. Writing of this event in

later years, Sister Devamata---as we have seen, then Laura Glenn---

describes:[27]

 

The design which has become the symbol of the Ramakrishna Mission

everywhere [she wrote in her Memories] came into being in the same

casual way as did the " Song of the Sannyasin. " It took shape in 1900

during Swami Vivekananda's later visit to America. At that time the

Vedanta Society of New York was definitely established and occupied a

modest house in Fifty-eighth Street. Mrs. Crane, the housekeeper,

told me that the Swami was sitting at the breakfast table one morning

when the printer arrived. He said he was making a circular for the

Society and wished to have an emblem to go on it, could the Swami

suggest something? Swamiji took the envelope from a letter he had

just received, tore it open and on the clean inner surface drew the

waves, the swan, the lotus, and the sun circled by a serpent -- the

four Yogas wrapped about by eternity, it seemed. He threw the bit of

paper with the design on it across the table and said, " Draw it to

scale. " Henry van Haagen, the printer, was an able draftsman as well

as printer. He converted the rough sketch into a finished drawing.

Later, on his return to India, Swamiji explained the significance of

the design to the artist Ranadaprasad Das Gupta: " The wavy waters in

the picture are symbolic of Karma, the lotus, of Bhakti; and the

rising-sun, of Jnana; The encircling serpent is indicative of Yoga

and the awakened Kundalini Shakti, while the swan in the picture

stands for the Paramatma (Supreme Self). Therefore, the idea of the

picture is that by the union of Karma, Jnana, Bhakti, and Yoga, the

vision of the Paramatman is obtained.[28]

 

 

 

Regards,

 

Sunder