Swami Prabhananda (above) and Swami Suhitananda

The Ramakrishna Math and Mission has selected a new general secretary and promoted a senior monk to the post of vice-president in a move that appears to be aimed at expediting the process of initiation of disciples worldwide.

Swami Prabhananda, the serving general secretary, has been promoted as vice-president.

As a religious body, spiritual issues remain at the core of RKM’s activities and the president and the vice-presidents deal exclusively with them. In keeping with the spiritual tradition, the president and vice-presidents have the power to offer mantra-diksha or initiation to disciples.

“On average, the RKM receives over 10,000 applications for initiation from over 130 centres and unless one of the three senior monks are visiting the centres across India and the world, it usually remains a tall order for a disciple to get initiated. The reshuffle will fast-track the process,” said an RKM veteran.

According to him, the shuffle — just ahead of the celebrations to mark the 150th birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda that would begin in 2013 — was well thought out with this purpose.

Nominated a few months ago, Swami Prabhananda — in his early 80s — assumed his office last Sunday. Swami Suhitananda — popularly known as Sanatan Maharaj and who has been serving as assistant secretary for over a decade — took over as general secretary of the Math and Mission the same day.

“The general secretary, like the Prime Minister of India, is the chief executive of the Math and Mission and performs the temporal operations, such as opening of new branches and looking after relief operations,” explained another veteran.

The Ramakrishna Math is administered by a board of trustees, which has an elected president, one or more vice-presidents, a general secretary, one or more assistant secretaries and a treasurer. The trustees of Ramakrishna Math also form the governing body that runs the Mission across the globe.

“Recently, several factors have been coming in the way of initiation of disciples and there has been an effort to address the issue,” said a Mission insider.

In October 2011, when Swami Prameyananda passed away, the post of a vice-president fell vacant.

This meant the process of initiation was left to the president, Swami Atmasthananda Maharaj, and the two other vice-presidents, Swami Gitananda and Swami Smaranananda. Swami Gitananda has been ailing for long and continues to be under medical care at the Kankurgachhi Math.

To reduce the burden on the senior monks, it was decided recently that two other senior monks would be given the initiation power.

Accordingly, Swami Vagishananda of Cossipore and Swami Gautamananda of Chennai branch were given the powers of initiation.

“Spiritual awakening through mantra-diksha or initiation remains a key activity for RKM since it is considered to be one of the most important tools through which the dormant spiritual potential in a human being is awakened. One of the aims of the recent organisational reshuffle is also to achieve this goal,” a Math veteran said. “Besides, it’s a long tradition of the Math to promote a general secretary to the rank of vice-president.”

In 2007, Swami Smaranananda was promoted to the post of vice-president while he was serving as general secretary. Similarly, Swami Atmasthananda was promoted to the rank of vice-president from the rank of general secretary in 1997.