Mamata Banerjee’s Swami/Sri critique on PM over Ramakrishna Paramahamsa birth anniversary

Ahead of West Bengal Assembly elections, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for calling Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa “Swami” on X, calling it culturally insensitive and emphasising the traditional “Thakur-Ma-Swamiji” hierarchy of the Ramakrishna Order

Kolkata: With the Assembly elections approaching, the political discourse in West Bengal has intensified. On Thursday, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee utilised a post from Prime Minister Narendra Modi on X to launch a critique.

She issued a statement ridiculing the Prime Minister for the latter’s description of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa as “Swami’ earlier while paying homage to the mystic on the occasion of “Ramakrishna Jayanti”.

---

Reposting the social media message on her X handle, the Chief Minister described the development as another attempt by the PM to aggressively display cultural insensitivity to great figures of Bengal. “Yet again, our Prime Minister aggressively displays his cultural insensitivity to great figures of Bengal. Today is the janmatithi of Yugavatara (God’s incarnation in our age), Sri Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsadeva. While trying to hail the great saint on this occasion, our PM added an unprecedented and improper prefix to the great saint’s name, “Swami”!,” the Chief Minister commented in her social media post. In her post, the Chief Minister also reminded that while Ramakrishna Paramahamsa is referred to as “Thakur (God)”, his aesthetic disciples are referred to as “Swamijis”.

She also reminded the holy trinity of the order of “Thakur (Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa)-Ma (his wife and spiritual consort, Sarada Devi or Sarada Ma)-Swamiji (Swami Vivekananda)”, which is followed by Belur Math, the international headquarters of Swamiji-founded Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission.

“As is well known, Sri Ramakrishna was widely revered as Thakur (literally, God). While his ascetic disciples constituted the Ramakrishna Math and the Ramakrishna Mission after their Master’s demise, and those monks were then called “Swami” as per Indian traditions, the Master, the Acharya, himself continued to be referred to as Thakur. The prefix “Swami” was meant for his disciples in the Ramakrishna Order, but the holy trinity of the Order remained Thakur-Ma-Swamiji. Thakur is Sri Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsadeva, Ma is Ma Sarada, and Swamiji is Swami Vivekananda,” the Chief Minister added.

She concluded her post requesting the Prime Minister to refrain from discovering “new prefixes and suffixes for the great Renaissance figures of Bengal who shaped modern India”.

PM Modi had posted a similar message last year while paying tributes. He wrote in Hindi, “On behalf of all the countrymen, heartfelt salutations to Swami Ramakrishna Paramhansa ji on his birth anniversary.”