Bose, accompanied by his friend Khagen (later Vimalananda). He also frequented the house of Gopal Lal Seal where the swami was put up, to hear his conversations. In one of the rooms of the garden house he talked directly to Vivekananda for the first time. Once in a meeting, Sudhir read out from Kathopanishad and Vivekananda interpreted the verses to an assembled crowd. Monastic Life and contributions Initiation and service Sudhir joined in Alambazar Math in April 1897. Vivekananda would call Sudhir affectionately as Khoka (small boy). Sudhir was initiated by Vivekananda into monastic vows (sannyasa) in May 1897 and was named as Shuddhananda (Shuddha: pure). His brother was Prakashananda (called Sushil Maharaj), who also served the Ramakrishna Order as a monk and was also a direct disciple of Vivekananda. In April 1897 when Vivekananda was laying down the guidelines for the future monastic order only Shuddhananda volunteered to take his dictation. He was asked to put all rules in a positive form. He was also asked on one occasion to deliver a lecture on Atman in English before an assembled crowd. Swami Vivekananda himself asked Swami Shuddhananda to translate his Raja Yoga into Bengali. Later he translated many other works of Swami Vivekananda including Karma Yoga, Jnana Yoga and Bhakti Yoga. He also captured the lecture of Vivekananda on the Gita from his memory and wrote Gita Tattva in Bengali. Following Vivekananda's instructions, he is known to have written an independent commentary on the Brahma Sutras. Vivekananda had also asked Shuddhananda to maintain a diary of the Math and prepare weekly report of its activities. His diary is a historical account of the steady development of the Ramakrishna Order. He also wrote many of the personal letters of his master. From it is also known many incidents related to the life of Vivekananda in the monastery. On 6 May 1897, Shuddhananda accompanied Vivekananda on his lecture tour in northern and western India. During this trip, he was with his master for six months. This close association familiarized Shuddhananda with his ideas regarding the past, present and future of Ramakrishna Order, the essence of the scriptures and the problems being faced by the society. In company of the other direct disciples of Ramakrishna Before taking monastic vows Shuddhananda had spent many days in Almora practising spiritual disciplines under Swami Niranjanānanda Puri, a direct monastic disciple of Ramakrishna. In September 1898