The Early History of Ramakrishna Movement-

by By Swami Prabhananda

The Permanent Home of the Ramakrishna Order on a 'Chosen' Plot of Land

To the glorious history of the ever murmuring, gently flowing Ganga, yet another chapter was added, chronicling the potentially illimitable movement of Ramakrishna's ideas and ideals. The eastern bank of the Ganga on the north of Calcutta was the original arena of the Ramakrishna Movement. The Movement that had its genesis at the Dakshineswar temple flowed on to settle at Baranagore via Baghbazar, Shyampukur and the Cossipore gardenhouse. Then it resumed its now, reaching Alambazar. In its last year at Alambazar, the Movement took a turn-in its functional aspect as well as geographical location-and crossed over the Ganga to Belur village. Its presence totally charged the garden-house of Nilambar Mukherji, making it pulsate with vitality. About a year thereafter, the movement inundated the place presently known as Belur Math. Here a powerful vortex of the movement was created; and the Ramakrishna Math, the principal centre of the Ramakrishna Order, was erected. As the Movement gained further strength, its flow radiated in various directions.

From Dakshineswar, it took the Movement, about a quarter of a century to reach Belur Math. Viewing the Movement's history with the aid of hindsight suggests that the land at Belur may have been predestined for its present use. We will recount some incidents that support this premise.
Holy Mother Sarada Devi lived at Nilambar Mukherjee's garden-house for about a year and a half. She also stayed in rented houses at Ghusuri and at Raja Gomasta's house at Belur. These residences were the sites of her intense spiritual practice. Most of the time, she was in an indrawn state and remained immersed in worship and other spiritual practices. Those days were rich with various divine experiences. One moonlit evening, sitting on the garden-house's bathing-ghat leading to the Ganga, she had a vision mentioned earlier, and therein she foresaw a very bright future for the Ramakrishna movement. Sarada Devi, who was worshipped by Sri Ramakrishna himself as the representative of Tripurasundari and who was adored by all as Sri Ramakrishna's Shakti, performed intense and austere spiritual practices, particularly during this period of her life. The Mother's statement itself intimates as much: 'Ah! How did I live there? What a quiet place, one always feels like meditating! So Naren was keen to have a place there. Thereafter the Holy Mother lived at Nilambar Babu's garden house and at the 'Leggett House' within the precincts of Belur Math. She sanctified the Math land by her presence at least three times before and a number of times after the Math had been formally transferred to this site.
We may mention yet more noteworthy events here. The Holy Mother herself said, 'Of a truth, it always seemed to me as though the Master lived on the land on the other side of the Ganga-in a cottage; just the present monastery and the plantain trees are there." Mother did not tell anyone about her vision at that time. Later, when the land was acquired for the Math, she revealed it in the context of some discussions. The Masters desire made it possible to fix the land. It was he who had selected the land for the Math." Later, extolling the glories of Belur, she said: He for whom one makes journeys to Benares sits there at Dakshineswar and Belur. It was Holy Mother who alone could appreciate the greatness and spiritual significance of the place.
As early as the Baranagore days, the future location of the permanent Math was revealed to the pure mind of Swami Vivekananda. One day while standing with some of his brother-disciples at the Baanagore ferry ghat, he said, Something tells me that our permanent Math will be in the neighbourhood across the river.
Part of the sprawling land of the present Belur Math had been sanctified by the touch of Sri Ramakrishna's feet. The log depot of the King of Nepal was near Belur's Kathgola ghat. Viswanath Upadhaya, who was affectionately nicknamed 'Captain' by Sri Ramakrishna, was the royal representative. Responding to Captain's loving invitation, the Master visited the site one day and was pleased to partake of sweets offered to him.
Considering the above incidents, we are inclined to believe that the land acquired for the Math had indeed been earmarked, as it were, for the Math, thereby rendering all efforts to acquire land at other places vain. The Math was finally established on the land divinely ordained for the purpose.
Yet another point merits our attention. Sri Ramakrishna, through his intense spiritual practice, transformed the stone image of the Divine Mother Kali installed by Rani Rasmani on the eastern bank of the Ganga into the Conscious Divine Mother; and a holy shrine for the new age evolved there. At Belur on the western bank of the Ganga, considered as good as Benares, Sri Ramakrishna's shakti, the Holy Mother Sarada Devi, established a great spiritual centre by her austerities. There, Swami Vivekananda, the tool in Sri Ramakrishna's hands, founded Sri Ramakrishna's 'Dharmakshetra' (sacred land), a novel shrine of spirituality-Belur Math. No doubt, at its auspicious beginning, the Ramakrishna Movement flooded the eastern bank of the Ganga with its spirit; but later, the movement, under the leadership of the Belur Math, radiated its energy from the western bank of the river.
It may be aptly said that if Dakshineswar were the 'Gomukha' (the site of the Ganga's origin) of the Ramakrishna movement, Belur Math is its ‘Gangotri’ (the place where the Ganga makes her majestic advent onto the plains).

The Plan and Efforts for Its Execution

Swamiji had drawn up a plan for the reconstruction of India even before his return to India, in this plan, primary importance as laid on building an organization that would help in the execution of the plan and the setting up of a permanent headquarters for the Ramakrishna movement, its life force. Again, of the two sets of priorities before them, the admirers of the Ramakrishna movement from the United States and England laid greater importance on founding some permanent headquarters for the Movement. Many of them extended helping hands by donating funds or committing to do so. Consequently, a greatly enthused Swamiji wrote to his disciple Alisinga Perumal on 20 November 1896, My present plan is to start two centres, one in Calcutta and the other in Madras, in which to train young preachers. I have funds enough to start the one in Calcutta, which being the scene of Sri Ramakrishna's life-work demands my first attention. As for the Madras one, I expect to get funds in India. After his return to the Alambazar Math, on 25 February 1897, Swamiji wrote to Mrs. Ole Bull, who had committed to helping financially, laying bare his above thoughts with slight modifications. He wrote, 'My duty would not be complete if I die without starting the two places, one for the Sannyasins and the other for the women.' Again, from his letter to Mrs. Bull on 26 March 1897 it is clear that of these two desired centres, the first received his foremost attention.'
No matter whether he was staying at Alambazar or Baghbazar or travelling about to preach or staying for his health, Swamiji remained ever anxious in the matter of securing land for the Math. An extensive search for land was going on under his guidance. Several proposed locations-the Cossipore gardenhouse, Govinda Chaudhuri`s garden-house at Panihati, a plot of land at Konnagar. land near Dakshineswar, a plot near the river Ganga with eight-cottah frontage-were either deemed unsuitable or, even when approved could not be finalised due to insurmountable obstacles. The information regarding the plot of land on which the Belur Math stands was first received in June 1897. On 12 June, an earthquake caused extensive damage to the Alambazar monastery. It became imperative to change the monastery building and to establish the Math on its own land. At last, a twenty-two bigha plot of land on the western bank of the Ganga with two houses, one small and the other medium, owned by a Patna resident, Bhagavat Narayan Singh. was purchased. This took place on 4 March 1898.
From the reminiscences of Kumud Bandhu Sen, we come to know of an incident that took place about one year before the purchase of this land. The Holy Mother Sarada Devi was staying at a rental in Baghbazar for a few days during March April 1897. Swamiji came to Calcutta from Darjeeling in order to meet Ajit Singh, the King of Khetri. At about that time, Swamiji approached the Holy Mother at Baghbazar and prayed to her, 'Mother, just now I offered one hundred and eight bel leaves to the Master so that we could have a piece of land for the Math. Hearing that, the Mother commented 'That Karma can never go without its fruit. One day it will certainly happen that way.'
The Math got possession of the land on 25 February 1898. The land's eastern border lies on the bank of the Ganga. In its north eastern corner stood a medium sized house and a small one-storeyed house. There were a few trees around the house as well as a vintage mango tree. That tree wearing the victory mark `Swamiji's Mango Tree' is still alive at present. At almost the southern periphery of the land on the northwest corner of Swamijis temple- stood three massive deodar trees. As eternal guards, they still stand and maintain vigil. These four trees bear witness to the one hundred year old history of the Math. The address of the original land, with its marshy pools, small pond, assorted trees and thickets, was No. 5 Kathgola Lane. The original property lay within the village Belur under Mouza Dori Barrackpore and Parganas Boro. Its northern fringe was bounded partly by the land and the garden-house of Haridhan Datta; the land of Sambhuchandra Paul bordered the rest. The southern border was in part contiguous with the land of Srischandra Singh and in part by the land of Bhagavat Narayan Singh. The western limit was partly bounded by the land of the said Bhagavat Narayan Singh, and on the remaining portion lay a public thoroughfare and land of Golam Asraf, Mahendralal Das and Benimadhav Biswas. In the environs, there were depots of wooden logs, brick kilns, gardenhouses and medium iron foundry works. Belur bazaar was nearby.
Swami Vijnanananda, who was thoroughly involved with the development of the land, reminisced later. 'The high tide waters of the Ganga used to inundate the big field you now see in front of the Math. It had holes and ditches all over. The ships of the Hore & Miller Co. were being repaired here. After purchase of the land we filled it with the rubbish of the nearby brick kilns. So now you see the field before you. We had to bear with so many hazards for the purpose. Even the G.T. Road was thick with jungles and people were frightened to pass that way even in the daytime. In this regard, some additional information is available from one of Swamiji's letters: Miss Mullet got us to buy a piece of land which cost Rs. 40,000 and about Rs. 4,000 to level it and fill up the huge gaps in it, as it was a dockyard, One had to enter the land by the southern approach. Walking down a pedestrian path towards the north, one found on his left a small pond nicknamed 'Golpukur' surrounded by coconut trees. Bushy thickets and bamboo groves thrived to the west. Next there were large fields replete with jungles on both sides of the pathway. On the field's western end lay Padmapukur (lotus pond), which was also surrounded by coconut trees and mango groves.
There were a number of date palms, jamrul (a juicy fruit) trees, and gulchi flower ramblers besides three massive deodar trees referred to earlier near the place where Swamijis temple presently stands. By the side of the spot where the Mother's temple now stands, there were one jackfruit and two mango trees; and nearby, west of Swami Brahmananda's temple, stood a number of Ashok, neem and mango trees. At the northern end of the property, through the jungles thick with mangos, coconuts, palms, plantain trees and tuber growths, one could find two worn single-storeyed buildings. There was a pond on the southwest end of the land where the present temple of Sri Ramakrishna stands. Its name was Panchapukur (rotten pond), which was also surrounded by coconut trees. The bigger of the two houses had two rooms at the north, one room at the south, and a long room connecting both wings. A veranda opened to the east. On the northwest, a small yet elongated house to accommodate the workers stood.

to be continued...

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