http://www.vivekananda.net/Ramakrishna/TributesToRK.html
Gandhiji used religion to unite people and spread love, but today we find it used to divide and spread hatred.
“Gandhi essentially belongs to the line of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and Swami Vivekananda, and as if by divine wish, Gandhi erred into politics,” K. Swaminathan, Chief Editor of the Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, had said. And so it is that Gandhi took two mantras to his countrymen, Vande Mataram (from a Bankim Chandra Chatterjee work) and Ram Ram (from the Ramayana). In those days, the sastras did not permit upper caste Hindus to travel abroad crossing the oceans, but in the case of Vivekananda, this code did not apply since he was a sanyasi.
When young Mohandas prepared to go to London for studies, people of his caste threatened his family with Jatibhrashta (expulsion from one’s caste). Gandhi was able to convince his people that age-old beliefs which were irrational should be rejected. Through persuasion and determination, he managed to convince his people and get permission to go abroad. The determination to fight for a cause was present even then in the young mind.
Vivekananda was a monk who took up social issues such as caste and untouchability, women’s rights, freedom, poverty and ignorance. “Awake, arise and stop not till the goal is reached,” he said. But how to unite a society which is vertically and horizontally divided? The key is again in religion. With all its imperfections and inequalities, religion holds the people together. Gandhiji used to begin his public meetings with a new common prayer, “Iswar Allah terey naam”.
https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/open-page/spiritual-journeys-of-the-mahatma/article29604273.ece
Other links.
Ramkrishna and Gandhi
https://shop.advaitaashrama.org/product/life-of-sri-ramakrishna-hb-1/
A Rabindrasangeet apt for now
Different Newspapers on Mahatma Gandhi
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