Back in history | Fiji loses swami

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Swami Rudrananda. Picture: FT FILE

When the head of the Ramakrishna Mission in Fiji, Swami Rudrananda, 84, died at his Nadi Ashram retreat, The Fiji Times reported that students from Shri Vivekananda High School — which Swami Rudrananda established in 1949 — would form a guard of honour for his funeral.

An article published on July 1, 1985 stated his body would be transported to a the Wailoaloa Cemetery for cremation.

People came in large numbers to the ashram in Nadi Town to pay their last respects to the swami.

The orange robe that he used to wear was draped over his body and flowers were spread around the bed. Women devotees sat on the floor and chanted religious hymns which continued until the funeral procession left.

Tributes flowed in for the swami who came to Fiji from India in February 1939, aged 40, and immersed himself in religious, educational and social activities for all communities.

He was also active on behalf of farmers in the sugarcane industry, and was a senior advisory councillor, retiring in 1983 because of ill health.

The Mayor of Nadi and president of the Nadi Chamber of Commerce, Manu Patel, said shops in Nadi Town would be asked to close until the funeral was over.

The Sangam organisations, which Swami Rudrananda guided to open up a chain of schools, asked all its education facilities around Fiji to close as a mark of respect.

The National Federation Party called off its Working Committee meeting in Nadi and Opposition parliamentarians, Senators and others went to the ashram to pay their last respects.

Swami Rudrananda fell ill and was admitted at the Lautoka Hospital, suffering from diabetes and heart problems.

But several weeks prior, he asked followers to take him back to the Ashram where he remained in a serious condition until his death.

He had not eaten for seven days and only took some water. Swami Rudrananda was born Muthukrishnan in Madras in 1901, the eldest son in an upper class Naidu family.

His first act of community service was as a relief worker in Tanjore during a flood disaster, where he came under the influence of two monks of the Ramakrishna Mission.

He decided to join the order as a monk in 1929.

He was initiated by Swami Shivananda, a direct disciple of Ramakrishna, and world president of the mission.

For seven years he stayed there as a devotee and immersed himself in a three-pronged exercise involving service to God, service to humanity and personal purification of character.

He was initiated in renunciation by Swami Shivananda and became a monk at a young age. In 1936 Swami Avinashananda came to Fiji from India and upon his return in 1938, he sent Swami Rudrananda to begin Sangam work.

Following his arrival, Swami Rudrananda began setting up a Sangam School and in 1949 started off the Shri Vivekananda High School in Nadi.

He was one of the pioneers of the Pacific Review and Jagriti newspapers and started the Ramakrishna Library in the late 1950s.

It was considered the forerunner of the Western Regional Library, which was later formed by the government.