News Bulletin : 01 Feb 2020

Revered President Maharaj will be visiting Narendrapur from 7 to 17 February.

Swami Vagishananda ji will visit Sargachhi from 8 to 15 February.

Swami Gautamananda ji will return to Chennai Math on 5 February after his trip to Salem and Tiruchirapalli. He is scheduled to visit Belagavi and Kolhapur from 15 to 20 February, and Rajamahendravaram and Visakhapatnam from 28 February to 3 March.

Swami Prabhananda ji will visit Kamarpukur and Jayrambati from 5 to 17 February.

Swami Shivamayananda ji will be visiting Asansol from 7 to 9 February, and Koyilandy from 13 to 17 February.

Swami Suhitananda ji is scheduled to visit Balaram Mandir, Kolkata, from 7 to 12 February.

All of them are in good health.

The birthday of Swami Vivekananda was celebrated at Belur Math on Friday, 17 January.  Thousands of devotees attended the celebration throughout the day.  Khichri prasad was served to about 12,000 devotees.  Swami Satyeshananda presided over the public meeting held in the afternoon. Photos

Sri Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India, visited Belur Math and stayed at the Math guest-house from the evening of 11 January to the morning of 12 January. Photos

South Kolkata Sports & Cultural Association conferred Seva Brati Award on the Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission in recognition of the twin organizations’ contribution to society.  Sri Jagdeep Dhankhar, Governor of West Bengal, presented the award in a ceremony held in Kolkata on 19 January.

The following centres celebrated National Youth Day (12 January) with great enthusiasm by holding various programmes such as processions, youths’ conventions, speeches and cultural competitions:

Almora, Antpur, Aurangabad, Bagda, Chandigarh, Chapra, Chennai Math, Chennai Mission Ashrama, Chennai Students’ Home, Coimbatore Mission Vidyalaya, Cooch Behar, Davanagere, Dibrugarh, Gadadhar Ashrama, Ghatshila, Gurap, Guwahati, Hatamuniguda, Itanagar, Jalpaiguri, Jammu, Jamshedpur, Jamtara, Kadapa, Kailashahar, Kalady, Kankurgachhi, Karimganj, Kayamkulam, Khetri, Kochi, Koyilandy, Kozhikode, Lalgarh, Limbdi, Madurai, Malda, Manasadwip, Mangaluru, Mumbai, Muzaffarpur, Mysuru, Nagpur, Naora, Narainpur, Narendrapur, Narottam Nagar, Pala, Ponnampet, Pune, Puri Mission, Purulia, Rahara, Raipur, Rajamahendravaram, Rajkot, Ramanathapuram, Salem, Seva Pratishthan, Shillong, Swamiji’s Ancestral House, Taki, Tamluk, Vadodara and Vijayawada. Photos and Reports

Sri Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India, addressed the youths in the celebration at Belur Math which was jointly organized by the Headquarters and Saradapitha.  Thousands of youths and devotees thronged the Belur Math premises throughout the day.  Khichri prasad was served to about 30,000 people. Photos and Report

Sri Jishnu Dev Varma, Deputy Chief Minister of Tripura, and other dignitaries took part in the celebration at Agartala centre.

Cultural competitions held by the following centres as part of National Youth Day celebrations deserve special mention:

Coimbatore Mission Vidyalaya has discontinued its telephone numbers: 269 2667, 269 5451, 269 5452.  It has a new mobile telephone connection: 99449 41427.

Kankurgachhi Math has new telephone connections: 2320 9721 and 80179 19056.  The centre’s dispensary has a mobile telephone connection: 75950 46920.

Mumbai centre has a new telephone connection 6181 8000, and the centre’s hospital has a new telephone connection: 6184 4000.  The centre’s fax number is changed from 2604 8568 to 6181 8099.

Sargachhi centre has discontinued all its landline telephone and fax connections.  It has a new mobile telephone connection: 90832 75274.

Cuttack centre has launched a website with address: www.rkmcuttack.org

As part of its centenary celebrations, Salem Ashrama conducted a spiritual retreat on 5 January and a workshop for teachers on 7 January which were attended by 350 devotees and 113 teachers.

Swami Gautamanandaji inaugurated the second floor of the school building at Kadapa centre on 9 January. Photos and Report

On the occasion of the Gangasagar Mela, Manasadwip centre held a camp at Sagar Island in South 24-Parganas district from 11 to 16 January.  About 1000 pilgrims were given free board and lodging at the camp.  In addition, free meals were served to about 5000 non-resident pilgrims.  Discourses and devotional singing were also arranged in the camp. Seva Pratishthan hospital extended round-the-clock medical service on the above dates.  In all, 8374 patients were treated, out of which 27 received indoor medical care. Photos and Report

The inaugural function of the year-long centenary of Sri Ramakrishna Vijayam, the Tamil monthly brought out by Chennai Math, was held at a public auditorium in Chennai on 12 January.  Vice President of India Sri M Venkaiah Naidu, Governor of Tamil Nadu Sri Banwarilal Purohit, Swami Gautamanandaji and others spoke on the occasion.  Earlier, Chennai Math had conducted cultural competitions in connection with the centenary in which 1.4 lakh students had participated.  The winners in the competition were awarded prizes in this inaugural function. Photos and Report

Special worship and a public meeting were held at Purnea centre on 14 January to mark the taking over of Sri Ramakrishna Ashrama and starting of a branch of the Ramakrishna Math there.  The news of the starting of the centre and the centre’s contact details have already been announced in the October 2019 Bulletin.

In the second phase of its year-long centenary celebrations, Bhubaneswar Ashrama held a series of public meetings and cultural events from 24 to 26 January.  The three-day programme was inaugurated by Sri Naveen Patnaik, Chief Minister of Odisha.  Swami Vagishananda ji and a number of monks and dignitaries addressed the gathering.  In all, about 200 sadhus and 1200 devotees took part in the programme.

Sri Jagdeep Dhankhar, Governor of West Bengal, presided over the annual prize-giving ceremony of Narendrapur Vidyalaya on 25 January.

Two girls of Narainpur school took part in the Children Science Congress held in Raipur from 30 November to 1 December and secured first position at the state level.

Three Sanskrit students of RKMVERI (deemed university), Belur, won three medals – gold, silver and bronze – in the national level Sanskrit competitions conducted by Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan, New Delhi, on its Agartala campus from 9 to 12 January.

Aalo centre conducted two medical camps in remote villages on 23 and 27 January in which a total of 92 patients were treated. Photos and Report

Bagda Math held a free homeopathy camp at a school in Puncha block in Purulia district on 15 December in which 102 students were treated. Photos and Report

The following centres conducted blood donation camps:

The following centres conducted eye camps:

Further, Delhi centre conducted 46 eye surgeries in its clinic and gave 18 spectacles to patients in November.  All the patients were selected from the eye camps held by the centre earlier.  In the eye camp held in December, 202 patients were examined.

Bagda Math conducted a values education programme on 4 January in which 218 students and 63 teachers took part. Photos and Report

Cooch Behar centre held a youths’ convention on 19 January which was attended by 200 youths. Photos and Report

Delhi centre conducted 21 values education workshops in 11 cities all over India between 3 and 24 January which were attended by a total of 850 teachers and 215 principals.

Gadadhar Ashrama conducted a values education programme on 11 January which was attended by 60 students. Photos and Report

Gourhati centre held a students’ convention on 18 January in which 650 students from 20 schools took part. Photos and Report

Haripad Math conducted values education camps at three schools in Wayanad district on 2, 3 and 4 January which were attended by 534 students in all.

Kailashahar centre held values education programmes at 4 schools and colleges in Kailashahar and Dharmanagar from 7 to 19 January in which 1575 students and 82 teachers took part.

Medinipur centre conducted 12 values education workshops in various schools and colleges in and around Medinipur from 2 to 25 January in which a total of 4654 students and teachers took part.

Mysuru Ashrama held a written quiz competition on Swamiji in which about 36,000 students from 387 schools and colleges in Karnataka took part.  State-level toppers were awarded prizes on 11 January.

Rajkot Ashrama conducted a residential personality development camp from 27 to 29 December and another camp on 18 and 19 January; a total of 88 students participated in these camps.  The Ashrama also held 8 values education programmes on its campus, and 5 more programmes in Botad, Morbi and Rajkot districts of Gujarat from 26 December to 18 January; a total of 3149 students attended these programmes.

Taki centre held values education programmes at 4 schools in and around Taki from 1 to 14 January.  In all, 474 students attended the programmes.

Vadodara centre conducted three values education programmes at different schools in Bharuch and Vadodara districts in January in which a total of 460 students participated

Barisha Math conducted a devotees’ convention on 19 January in which 1200 devotees took part.  The General Secretary addressed the gathering.

Guwahati Ashrama conducted a public meeting at an auditorium in Guwahati on 19 January which was attended by 600 people.  A special issue of Vivek Bhaskar, the Assamese monthly brought out by the Ashrama, was released during the programme.  The Ashrama also held special lectures in three colleges in Guwahati on 20 and 21 January which were attended by a total of 360 students. Photos and Report

Indore centre held a youths’ convention on 22 December in which 800 youths took part.

We record with sorrow the passing away of Swami Brahmalokananda (Shantinath) at Seva Pratishthan, Kolkata, on 23 January at 4.20 am.  He was 74 and had been suffering from kidney disease and other old-age ailments for the last few years.  Initiated by Swami Vireshwaranandaji Maharaj, he joined the order in 1971 at Kankhal centre and received sannyasa diksha from his guru in 1984.  He served the order at Kankhal, Asansol, Baghbazar, Rahara, Varanasi Advaita Ashrama, Jaipur, Khetri and Seva Pratishthan centres and Belur Math.  Due to his ill health, he retired from active life a couple of years ago and since then had been staying at Seva Pratishthan, the Institute of Culture, and Belur Math.  He was kind-hearted, affectionate and hardworking by nature.