Ramakrishna Math, Belur
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The Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission
by Swami Vireswarananda
The Ramakrishna Order
During the last few years of Sri Ramakrishna's life many sincere and yearning souls had come to him attracted by his spirituality. With great care and love, he trained these disciples, agood number of whom later embraced the monastic life, true to the spirit of renunciation he had infused in them. Foremost amongs them was Swami Vivekananda. After the passing away of the Master, the Swami travelled all over India, leading the life of an itinerant monk; and in his travels, he saw with his own eyes the miserable plight of his motherland steeped in squalor, poverty and ignorance. He was filled with a fervour to uplift his motherland; and with this object in view, he crossed the seas and went to the United States of America.
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There he presented Hinduism at the Parliament of Religions held in Chicago in 1893. His interpretation of Hinduism impressed enlightened Americans of various walks of life, and all earnest seekers of Truth were drawn to him. For Four years, he preached the eternal truths of the vedanta in U.S.A and Europe, which the westerners were sorely in need of. And these years of his life in the West gave him an oppurtunity tostudy the good and contrast with his own motherland, he realized the greatness of India in many fundamental things. But he had also realized that there was much superstition, poverty, and ignorance in this country.
On his return from the West, the Swami formulated for the monks of the Ramkrishna Order the true significance of the monk's life in one pithy sentence, 'For one's own liberation and for the good of the world.' He admonished them to give up the selfish idea of leading the life of a recluse and to dedicate themselves to the service of the others, to see God in the sick, the poor, and the ignorant and render service, as worship, to this God in man. with this angle of vision, he asked them to distribute spiritual, intellectual, and material food, according to the needs of the sufferer. The stress was on God-realization. such a sadhana or spiritual practice was presented as on a par with the traditional disciplines. social service was, as it were, a byproduct of this divine worship. the Swami's message, therefore, cannot be evaluated in terms of philanthropy or social service, for fundamentally it is a spiritual one. this service to man seeing the God in him, is the Swami's greatest gift to the modern world of strife, competition, and war.
The Ramakrishna Mission
On May 1, 1897, Swami Vivekananda had established an association called the Ramakrishna Mission Association to unite the lay and monastic followers of the Master in a common organized effort for the service of humanity. after the starting of the Belur Math in 1899, this association ceased to function as an independent organization, and the Math itself carried on the preaching, educational, and philanthropic activities. With the extension of the activities, it was found necessary to have a seperate organization, and the Math itself carried on the preaching, educational, and philanthropic activities. With the extension of the activities, it was found necessary to have a seperate organisation for better facilities of work and more efficient management of the activities. It was also found necessary to give the organization a legal status. So, in 1909, a society under the name of the Ramakrishna Mission was registered under the Act XXI of 1860. The management of the Mission is vested in a Governing Body consisting of the Trustees of the Belur monastery for the time being. This Governing Body is responsible to the Association,consisting of lay and monastic members. Everyone who has full sympathy for the objects of the Mission, and is prepared to accept all religions as paths to God and live in peace and fellowship with the followers of all religions, is eligible to become a member of the Mission. The Mission membership today includes men and women of various religious faiths and nationalities. The branch centers of the Mission, spread all over India and abroad, are under the control of the Governing body, though often placed under the management of local committees, most of whose members and office bearers are public men of the place. The principal workers of the Mission, however, are the monastic members of the Ramakrishna Order. They are helped by local friends and admirers. The activities which entail enormous expenditure - in 1961-62 it was about 1.5 crores for its permanent activities alone - are maintained by subscriptions and donations from the general public as well as grants from the state and Central Governments spent for that particular purpose; and funds of the branches are exclusively used for the welfare of the respective branch centres towards the promotion of their various activities. The branches and headquarters publish periodical - mostly annual reports of their activities along with the accounts which are audited by certified auditors appointed by the service irrespective of caste, creed, colour, position or nationality.
Source: A Bridge To Eternity, Advaita Ashrama
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Pages updated monthly Last updated: 28 February 2005.
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2004 Ramakrishna Mission, Shivanahalli. All Rights Reserved.
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