Dhunimandapa
This pavilion has been built in 1981; small but beautiful this reminisces the inspiration that Swamiji and his fellow disciples received and the holy vow of Sannyasa that they took. On its walls adorn sculptures of Thakur’s nine disciples who were present at Antpur on 24th December 1886AD. Besides the sculptures, 49 terracotta pieces depicting Thakur’s life add to the beauty and poignance of the structure.
The nine disciples present on 24th December 1886AD at Antpur are as follows:-
1. Shri Narendranath Dutta – Swami Vivekananda
2. Shri Baburam Ghosh – Swami Premananda
3. Shri Sarat Chandra Chakroborty-Swami Saradananda
4. Shri Sashibhushan Chakroborty – Swami Ramkrishnanada
5. Shri Tarak Nath Ghoshal – Swami Shivananda
6. Shri Kaliprasad Chandra – Swami Abhedananda
7. Shri Nitya Niranjan Ghosh – Swami Niranjanananda
8. Shri Gangadhar Gangopadhay – Swami Akhandananda
9. Shri Saradacharan Mitra – Swami Trigunatitananda
At the Cossipur garden house Thakur who was gravely ill grouped together the twelve young men who dedicated their lives for Thakur and the responsibility of running the group (Sangha) fell on Narendranath.
But after passing away of Thakur on 16th August 1886 the Cossipur which was taken on rent was released in August itself. The group was disbanded and many went back home. Tarak, Kali,Sashi, and Burogopal started to live in the dilapidated house taken on rent in Baranagar. Narendranath was then anxious and lost for a direction in reorganizing the group. At that time Matangini Devi sent her eldest son Tulsiram to Calcutta for extending an invitation to go to Antpur in the end of December. Narendranath considered the invitation to be an instruction from Thakur and gleefully decided to go to Antpur.
At first it was talked that only a few like Narendranath, Baburam etc. will go but words spread around and a big group it became comprising Narendra, Baburam, Sarat, Sashi, Tarak, Kali, Niranjan, Gangadhar and Saradacharan. They boarded the train to Tarakeshwar at Howrah and took along with them the percussion instrument (Tabla) and a stringed instrument (Tanpura). Getting inside the compartment the group started singing. The song “Shiva Sankara Byoma Byoma Bhola”. They spent the journey with music and made merry all the time. They got at Haripal station and reached Antpur eight miles away by Hackney Carriages (Horse drawn carts). It was then about evening.
Baburam’s mother was overjoyed to receive them; treated them as her sons and made proper arrangements for their food and stay. There was no dearth of men to serve to young men but Matangini took it upon herself to look after them. In the green quietude of the village the young men having no thoughts for food and stay, gave their entire concentration to prayer and meditation. Their constant topic of discussion was around Ramakrishna’s love, instructions, ideal, life and the responsibility with which he entrusted them. Along with the discussion they were occupied with the chanting of hymns, singing devotional songs and prayers. In this ecstatic existence, the young men gradually coalesced into One Consciousness. Narendranath led them. At this time an unthinkable happening came before them on 24th December. Long after the evening, they sat under the open, bright, and starlit sky and lit a fire concentrating on meditation. After the meditation they were discussing about God when Narendranath had a rare inspiration and started talking about the life of Jesus, his penance and sacrifice. His words were so eloquent and so full of humility that everyone was very deeply moved. He then talked about St. Paul and other disciples of Jesus whose hard labour and sacrifice made it possible for Christianity as a religion and the Christians as religious group to come up and prosper. He exhorted his fellow disciples to shape themselves as the Christian saints and called upon them to sacrifice their lives for the welfare of mankind.
Narendranath’s fellow disciples were charged by his oration. They stood up and touched the fully-lit fire and took the solemn oath of renouncing this world. The fire in front of them reflected upon their faces and made their emotion –charged oath even brighter. The whole atmosphere, as it were, trembled by divine inspiration and lapped up this heavenly sight. When their minds came down to earth again, they were astonished to know that the night was the “Christmas Eve”. Later, recalling the importance of the Antpur incident, Swami Shivananda said “It was at Antpur that our resolve to become a group grew more intense”. Thakur had already made us ‘Sannyasis’ – that was cemented at Antpur. After spending a week at Antpur they came back to Calcutta. In 1887 Rakhal and Burogopal came with Narendranath to Antpur. These eleven embraced Sannyasa formally by performing “Biraja Hom” at Baranagar Math in January 1887AD. Thus the Ramakrishna monastic order was born and with the passage of time is now a household word.
