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The Starting of the Math_

A handful of college students with unshakeable faith in Sri Ramakrishna, founded the Ramakrishna Order of monks in a very old, worn out, dark and deserted house. Their eagerness to realise the ideal which had sustained them when the Master was alive grew stronger when he was no more. The intensity of their effort to realise the truth demonstrated by Sri Ramakrishna became keener. After the demise of the Master, for a short while this band of young men who had renounced the world in every sense, were left with neither money nor possessions. They were helpless and without any support.
The sacred ashes of Sri Ramakrishna collected from the burning ghat in a copper urn, were placed on the bed used by the Master when he was in the garden-house at Cossipore. They assembled there to discuss the holy life of Sri Ramakrishna, meditated on him and some of them even passed nights there. Earlier, it had been agreed by all that the ashes would be enshrined for service on a plot of land to be purchased on the bank of the Ganges. But owing to the large amount of money that this would require and for various other reasons the house-holder devotees backed out of this agreement. A difference of opinion now cropped up between two groups of devotees—some lay devotees headed by Ramachandra Dutta decided that the urn containing the sacred ashes should be removed to Kankurgachhi (Kolkata) for daily worship and service there, while the all-renouncing young men decided otherwise. Shashi and Niranjan and the other youngsters did not like the decision of Ramachandra. They removed the major part of the ashes and sent it away to Balaram Bose’s house at Baghbazar in Kolkata, for worship and service. Though Naren was against any altercation, he had fully sided with Shashi and Niranjan. He said to the youngsters, “Brothers, be reasonable! We should not quarrel ...”
Naren and the young group, referred to the ashes as “Sriji”. To them the urn became the “Atmaramer kouta” (container of Atmaram). “Sriji” was to them a radiant, living, reality. Naren swallowed a little of the ashes crying, “victory to Sri Ramakrishna” and his brother-disciples followed suit, and they all felt blessed. Ramachandra and others in a grand celebration organised the occasion of bringing the ashes to the Yogodyan at Kankurgachhi (Kolkata*) on 23rd August, 1886. This was the birthday of Sri Krishna—according to the lunar calender. The young group of all-renouncing devotees joined the celebration.
Around this time two incidents transpired at Cossipore. The first was the vision of Sri Ramakrishna which Naren and Harish had one evening. The other was the appearance of Sri Ramakrishna and his forbidding the Holy Mother from removing the bangles off her hands. Pressing the Holy Mother’s hand he said, “Have I died that you are going to remove the marks of a married woman ?” Every one was convinced that Sri Ramakrishna existed in a subtle body.

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