Ramakrishna Mission

Ramakrishna Mission crossed the 125-Year mark

The Beginning, The Ideals and the Present Situation

The Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission are twin organizations which form the core of a worldwide spiritual movement known as the Ramakrishna Movement or the Vedanta Movement. Sri Ramakrishna himself founded the monastic order by distributing gerua or ochre clothes to his illumined disciples in 1886, months before his passing away. Headquartered at Belur Math on the bank of the River Ganga in West Bengal, the movement aims at the all-round well-being of everyone, everywhere.

The fundamental truth is that life is divine or in Swami Vivekananda’s words: “Each soul is potentially divine, and the goal is to manifest this divinity within.” The manifestation of this innate divinity is the goal of everyone, though many may be unaware of that. Human beings are in different stages of evolution and human nature is diverse. So it is important to serve people according to their needs. Keeping this in mind, the Ramakrishna Order has diverse means and methods for self-development, the all-round development and evolution of everyone. Thus the Ramakrishna Mission aims at the harmony of the East and the West, harmony of different faiths, harmony of the ancient and the modern, as also aims at the all-round development of human faculties, social equality, peace and above all, spiritual fulfillment for all of humanity without any distinctions of creed, caste, race or nationality.

Ramakrishna Math [also called ashrama] is an Order of sannyasins having Sri Ramakrishna (1836-1886) and Mother Sri Sarada Devi [1853-1920] as the ideals. Ramakrishna Math was established by the monastic disciples of Sri Ramakrishna, led by Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902) in 1886, soon after the mahasamadhi of Sri Ramakrishna. Ramakrishna Math is principally a monastic organisation, guided and led by monks, which is devoted to preaching, worship, prayer, contemplation, publications, service, and so on.

Outside India, Ramakrishna Math is called Vedanta Society. Swami Vivekananda also founded the first Vedanta Society in New York in 1894. Swami Vivekananda then founded the Ramakrishna Mission on 1 May 1897. Ramakrishna Mission is a registered society engaged in the service of humanity in the spirit of ‘service of the divinity in all’ in which both monks and lay devotees take part. The Mission principally engages in educational, medical, relief, welfare, and other countless activities. Ramakrishna Math was registered as a Trust in 1901. Ramakrishna Mission was registered as on 4 May 1909. Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission are twin organisations run by the same organisational setup, with the same ultimate goal.

Initially, Ramakrishna math was in a dilapidated house, and then moved on to a locality called Baranagore in Kolkata. Finally the headquarters of the twin organisations was established in Belur Math. From this centre, enormous work is going on all over the world with only a handful of  monks.

What is the vision of the Ramakrishna Organisation?

The vision and mission of Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission is best described in the words of its founder, Swami Vivekananda “My ideal indeed can be put into few words and that is: to preach unto mankind their divinity and how to make it manifest in every movement in life”. तन्नो हंस: प्रचोदयात् (Tanno hamsah prachodayat), meaning, “May the Paramatman, Supreme Self symbolized by the Swan (hamsa), awaken our innate divinity and higher understanding.”

The Mission

Swami Vivekananda gave this mission for both organisations: “For one’s own liberation and welfare of the world. आत्मनो मोक्षार्थं जगद्धिताय च (atmano mokshartham jagaddhitaya cha).”

Swami Vivekananda said: “It [Belur Math] will be a centre in which will be recognized and practiced a grand harmony of all creeds and faiths, as exemplified in the life of Sri Ramakrishna and only ideas of religion in its universal aspect will be preached. From this centre of universal toleration will go forth the shining message of goodwill and peace and harmony to deluge the whole world… This math shall become a great centre of learning and spiritual practices… The highest principles and ideals of religion have not only to be studied and comprehended but brought into the practical field of life… The spiritual force coming from here will permeate the whole world, turning the currents of people’s activities into new channels. From here will be disseminated ideals harmonizing jnana, bhakti, karma and yoga… There should be first annadana, or the giving of food and other necessities of physical life; next vidyadana or imparting of intellectual knowledge; and last of all jnanadana or conferring of spiritual knowledge. The harmonizing of three aspects that conduce to the making of man, must be the sole duty of the Math… Granted that by realizing the Atman in meditation you attain mukti (liberation) but what is that to the world. We have to take the whole universe with us to mukti. Then only you will be established in the eternal truth. In that state you will be speechless, carried beyond yourself, by seeing your own Self in every being that breathes, and in every atom of the universe. When you realize this you cannot live in this world without treating everyone with exceeding love and compassion. This indeed is practical Vedanta.”

This is the ideal of the Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission.

What are the core principles of Ramakrishna Mission?

The Ramakrishna Math and Mission bases upon the following two fundamental principles as taught by Swami Vivekananda and Sri Ramakrishna:

The potential divinity of all beings.

The oneness of all existence.

Thus service becomes spiritual practice. The aphoristic principle given by Sri Ramakrishna is, शिव ज्ञाने जीव सेवा, that is, “service of living beings as the worship of the Divine.”

There is a famous saying in Hindi: “by applying mehndi or red colour to the hands of others, your hands will automatically become red.” Why should we serve others? This is because there are no others at all. Everything is One, everything is Divine.  In serving others, it is we ourselves whom we are finally serving. The more we work selflessly for the good of others, the more our limitations are overcome and the more shall we evolve quickly.

As of 1 April 2024, the Ramakrishna Math and the Ramakrishna Mission have 279 branch centres all over the world. Of these, 211 centres are in India and the remaining 68 are in 24 other countries.
These apart, the Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission run, as of now, 14 huge hospitals [all of them charitable], more than 100 dispensaries, mobile dispensaries, nursing colleges, etc. We have the Vivekananda University with five off-campus faculty centres, seven colleges, 500 schools, polytechnics, Sanskrit college and so on. Relief work during natural calamities is one of the important services.

Please visit the website: www.belurmath.org for details.