A Visit to Swami Omkaranandgji - 26 January 1973

Anandaprana, Bhaktiprana, Shraddhaprana, and Gouriprana of Vedanta Society of Southern California, Hollywood

WE SPENT TWO HOURS and forty minutes with Swami Omkaranandaji. In spite of our attempts not to tire him, he insisted on our staying and he even served us prasad. He seemed like a grand lion. One could feel his inner strength and power, although he was not well. (He died a few months later.)

When we thanked him for permitting us to go inside the shrine room of Thakur’s temple, he said: ‘You are members of the Ramakrishna Math. You are one of us. Why should you not enter?’

The interview was as follows: Revered Omkaranandaji said:

‘I came to Kankurgachi in 1910 when I was a student. It was a small compound full of gardens, marshy lands, big mosquitoes, and a stinky smell. It was originally the garden of a Mohammedan. Ramchandra Datta, who was living in the neighbourhood at that time, was a Vaishnava by caste. He liked to sing songs in praise of the Lord. He would begin his kirtan around 10 p.m. and continue singing until 2 or 3 in the morning. This disturbed the neighbours and they asked him if he could begin his singing in the early evening and finish it by 10 or 11 p.m. But the man was very pedantic, so he acquired this garden in order to pray to the Lord with his friends in his own way. It was very solitary. In the summer, everything was very dry and the roads were full of dust, and this place too was covered with mud.