Personalia
Revered President Maharaj was discharged from Peerless Hospital on 22 November. He is recuperating at Narendrapur centre.
Swami Gautamanandaji will be visiting Raipur and Narainpur from 7 to 16 December, and Tiruvarur, Thanjavur and Villupuram from 21 to 28 December.
Swami Suhitanandaji left Belur Math on 16 November for a tour of Fiji, New Zealand, Australia, Singapore and Malaysia. He is scheduled to return on 21 December.
Swami Bhajananandaji is at Belur Math. He will be visiting Nabadwip on 10 December.
Swami Girishanandaji, who is now in Silchar, will return to Belur Math on 10 December. Later, he will visit Guwahati and Hojai from 18 to 26 December.
All of them are keeping well.
Headquarters
Governor of West Bengal Dr C V Ananda Bose presented the Governor’s Award for Excellence to the Ramakrishna Mission at a function held in Kolkata on 24 November in recognition of the Mission’s contribution to the field of social service. The General Secretary received the award carrying a silver salver, a citation and a sum of one lakh rupees.
New Mission Centre
Ramakrishna Sevashrama in Sitakunda, Bangladesh, is now treated as a branch of the Ramakrishna Mission, and is renamed ‘Ramakrishna Mission Sevashrama’.
The address of the centre is:
Ramakrishna Mission Sevashrama,
Mandir Sarak (Temple Road),
Chandranath Dham, Sitakunda,
Chittagong 4310, Bangladesh
Phone number: 880-17324 20134
Email ID: [email protected]
The Sevashrama was founded in 1992.
New Math Sub-Centre
Tripureshwari Temple, Matabari, Udaipur, Dt Gomati, Tripura
A property near the famous Tripureshwari Temple in Tripura was gifted to the Ramakrishna Math in 2014. Subsequently, Viveknagar (Agartala) centre founded a small ashrama there. The ashrama is now officially recognised as a sub-centre of Viveknagar Math centre.
The address of the sub-centre is:
Ramakrishna Math,
P.O. Matabari, Udaipur,
Dist. Gomati,
Tripura 799013
News of Branch Centres in India
Sri Mansukh L Mandaviya, Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare, visited Narainpur centre on 21 October.
Swami Suhitanandaji dedicated a new building at Kathamrita Bhavan, Kolkata, on 28 October. The programme was attended by 175 monks and 625 devotees. The building houses a prayer hall, a multipurpose hall, a few residential rooms for monks, and other facilities.
Sri Chowna Mein, Deputy Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh, opened the newly built girls’ academic block, and the General Secretary unveiled a statue of Mother Saraswati at Lumdung centre on 21 November. Two ministers of Arunachal Pradesh—Sri Mama Natung, Minister for Sports and Youth Affairs, and Sri Wangki Lowang, Minister for Public Health Engineering and Information Technology—attended the programme along with several monks, students, staff and villagers.
Ms Pratima Bhoumik, Union Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment, and other dignitaries attended Jagaddhatri Puja at Viveknagar (Agartala) centre on 21 November.
Puri Mission Ashrama dedicated Karmi Bhavan, a three-storied building with rooms for staff, guests and computer training, on 24 November.
The newly built meeting room and stack room at Bhubaneswar centre were inaugurated on 25 November.
Newly set-up STEM laboratories were opened at our schools in Bhopal (on 22 November), Gwalior (on 30 October) and Indore (on 18 November). (STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.)
News of Branch Centres outside India
Ms Sheikh Hasina, Prime Minister of Bangladesh, accompanied by several dignitaries attended Durga Puja celebration at Dhaka centre on 22 October.
Communication Addresses
Phone Numbers:
Mymensingh centre, Bangladesh, has discontinued its phone number 9167086. It has a new telephone connection: 01715-954494.
Values Education and Youth Programmes
The following centres held programmes mentioned against their names:
Belgharia: A youths’ convention on 7 October in which 354 students from different schools and colleges took part.
Chandipur: A two-day residential youths’ convention on 25 and 26 November attended by 79 students.
Chennai Math: Nine workshops on life skills at Vivekananda Cultural Centre in October in which altogether 429 students from 4 institutions took part.
Coimbatore Mission: Three youths’ conventions on 28 October, and 4 & 17 November which were attended by a total of 264 students from 3 schools.
Gurugram: (i) Twenty-five workshops, including one in online mode, on values education for the teaching staff of primary and middle schools from 30 September to 21 November; in all, 822 school teachers from different parts of India participated. (ii) A social innovation programme (workshop) on 21 November in which 20 management students took part.
Koyilandy: A youths’ camp on 26 November wherein 35 college students from nearby areas participated.
Raipur: A personality development camp at an educational institution in Raipur on 21 November attended by 225 students.
Rajamahendravaram: Two values education programmes on 17 and 18 November which were attended by a total of 223 class-12 students.
Yadadri Bhuvanagiri: Values education programmes at three nearby schools from 22 to 29 September in which altogether 330 students and teachers took part.
Eye Camps and other Healthcare Services
The following centres conducted medical camps. A summary of the services provided by them is given below.
India:
Jammu: An eye and ENT camp on 18 November in which 332 patients were treated.
Bankura: Eye camps from 29 October to 29 November in which a total of 452 eye patients were screened, 60 were operated on and 37 were given spectacles.
Coimbatore Mission: Five medical camps (1 cardiology, 1 dental, 1 ENT and 2 general camps) in and around Coimbatore from 28 October to 19 November in which a total of 319 patients were treated.
Digboi: A cataract detection camp on 26 November in which 35 people were checked and 12 of them were shortlisted for undergoing operation.
Ghatshila: Eye camps from July to September: 147 patients were screened, 23 were operated on and 17 spectacles were given.
Kamarpukur: 494 eye patients were checked, 212 were operated on and 104 were given spectacles in November.
Kanpur: Two medical camps (one at the centre’s dispensary on 29 October and the other at Behta village in Kanpur district on 26 November) in which a total of 310 patients were treated.
Khetri: A total of 92 eye patients were checked and subsequently 38 were operated on for cataract at an eye hospital in October and November.
Lucknow: 6449 eye patients were checked and 345 were operated on and given spectacles in October.
Manasadwip: (i) Conducted an eye camp on 5 November in which 170 patients were treated. (ii) Arranged cataract surgery for 46 patients on 9 November in association with another institution.
Nattarampalli: An eye camp on 19 November: 251 patients were checked, 58 were operated on for cataract in an eye hospital, and 62 were given spectacles.
Rajamahendravaram: A medical camp for epilepsy patients on 12 November in which 587 patients were treated.
Ranchi Morabadi: An eye camp in November in which 355 patients were checked and 4 were operated on for cataract.
Salem: (i) An eye camp on 19 November: 185 patients were checked, 45 were operated on for cataract in an eye hospital, and 45 were given spectacles. (ii) A medical camp on 19 November attended by 266 patients.
Thanjavur: Two medical camps (1 cardiac and 1 general) on 1 and 19 November in which a total of 283 patients were treated.
Visakhapatnam: A medical camp in a village in Srikakulam district on 29 October: 115 patients were treated; 5 of them underwent eye surgery.
Outside India:
Batticaloa (a sub-centre of Colombo branch), Sri Lanka: Medical camps at Kiran, Kudumimalai and Vaharai in November in which a total of 533 patients received medical aid.
Obituary
Swami Shivapranananda (Bijan)
We record with sorrow the passing away of Swami Shivapranananda (Bijan Maharaj) at a nursing home in Deoghar on 12 November, the sacred Kali Puja night, at about 9.50 pm. He was 76. Initiated by Swami Vireshwaranandaji Maharaj, he joined the order in 1969 at Advaita Ashrama, Kolkata, and received sannyasa diksha from his guru in 1980. He served the order at Advaita Ashrama (Kolkata), Katihar, Vrindavan, Rahara, Barasat, Varanasi Advaita Ashrama, Deoghar, Cossipore, Thrissur and Itanagar centres. In 1979, he participated in the flood rehabilitation project at Arambagh in Hooghly district. Since 2009 he had been staying at Deoghar Vidyapith. Simple by nature, the swami was meticulous in his duties.