Guest guest Posted March 23, 2004 Report Share Posted March 23, 2004 Excerpt from the book Vivekananda - East meets West by Swami Chetanananda ************************************************************* (Narrated by Laura Glenn who later took up the monastic name Sister Devamata) The design which has become the symbol of the Ramakrishna Mission everywhere ...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 on Fifty eighth st. Mrs. Crane, the house keeper 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 draughtsman as well as printer. He converted the rough sketch into a finished drawing. Later on in India Swamiji again explained the significance of the design,this time to the artist Ranadaprasad Das Gupta, " The wavy waters in the picture are symbolic of Karma, he said; " 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 Paramatman (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. " ****************************************************************** Note: The symbol(emblem) is in this link http://www.ramakrishna.org/emblem.htm regards, ramasamy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 23, 2004 Report Share Posted March 23, 2004 Thank you, that is very beautiful to read. Love, Kanda Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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