Personalia
Revered President Maharaj is scheduled to visit the Institute of Culture, Kolkata, from 29 March to 12 April. He is keeping well.
Swami Vagishananda ji will be visiting Bardhaman and Bankura from 12 to 16 March. He is keeping well.
Swami Gautamananda ji sustained a left hip fracture on 25 February. He underwent surgery on the following day at Apollo Speciality Hospitals, Perungudi, Chennai, and is recuperating well. Doctors have advised him full rest for eight weeks.
Swami Prabhananda ji will visit Baghbazar centre (Kolkata) from 29 March to 11 April. He is keeping well.
Swami Shivamayananda ji will visit Gurap from 12 to 16 March, and Cooch Behar, Dinhata, Alipurduar, Mathabhanga and Mekhliganj from 29 March to 27 April. He is keeping well.
Swami Suhitananda ji will visit Barisha from 12 to 15 March. He is in good health.
New Mission Centre
A new branch centre of Ramakrishna Mission has been started at Bilaspur.
The address of the centre is
Ramakrishna Mission, Bilaspur
Koni Road, Opp. New Bus Terminal,
Sarkanda, Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh 495 009.
Ph. Nos : +91 82401 29728 and 94335 30046
Email-Id: bilaspur@rkmm.org
The formal inauguration programme, held on 22 February, was attended by about 500 people.
Communication Addresses
Phone Numbers: Jhargram centre has new telephone connections: (03221) 2560-10/11/12/13.
Website: Asansol centre has launched a website with the address www.rkmasansol.org
Commemoration of the 125th Anniversary of Swami Vivekananda’s Chicago Addresses
The following centres held programmes mentioned against their names:
In India
Chennai Vidyapith: Public meetings and cultural competitions from 29 January to 6 February in which about 5000 students took part.
Coimbatore Mission Vidyalaya: Cultural competitions in 6 schools and colleges in Coimbatore and Erode between 29 December and 15 February. In all, 1424 students took part in the competitions. At all the venues, the competitions were followed by a talk, an awards ceremony and a skit.
Guwahati: A public meeting on 3 February attended by some 300 people.
Hatamuniguda: A youths’ convention on 30 and 31 January in which 500 students took part.
Hyderabad: A seminar on “Relevance of Chicago Addresses in the twenty-first century” on 17 February which was attended by about 1200 people. Swami Gautamanandaji and other speakers presented their views.
Kailashahar: (i) Cultural competitions at ten schools and a college from 2 to 17 February in which about 500 students participated. (ii) A youths’ convention and a devotees’ convention at the Ashrama on 23 and 24 February which were attended by 800 youths and 610 devotees. (iii) Another youths’ convention in Udaipur on 25 February in which about 1000 students participated.
Mysuru: Two workshops on 13 and 16 February in which a total of 359 college students took part.
Swamiji’s Ancestral House: A spiritual retreat on 21 January which was attended by 450 devotees.
Outside India:
Phoenix, South Africa: (i) A programme comprising bhajans, talks and a video show on 5 February attended by 600 people. (ii) A seminar on 16 February in which 130 people took part.
News of Branch Centres (in India)
On the occasion of Kumbha Mela, Prayagraj (Allahabad) centre put up a camp on the Mela ground from 12 January to 20 February. In all, about 200 monks and 1500 other pilgrims were provided with board and lodging at the camp. Devotional songs and discourses were held daily at the shrine-cum-satsang pandal, and in another pandal an exhibition on the Holy Trio was set up. About 32,000 patients were treated at the charitable dispensary in the camp. A commemorative volume was also brought out by the centre on the occasion.
The General Secretary inaugurated the Swami Vivekananda Memorial at the city centre of Belagavi Ashrama on 1 February. The memorial includes a shrine, an exhibition on Swamiji and an audio-visual theatre and is housed in the very building (formerly called, Bhate’s House) in which Swamiji had stayed for a few days in 1892. As part of the inauguration, a youths’ convention, a devotees’ convention and cultural programmes were held from 1 to 3 February in which 80 monks, 1200 youths and 600 devotees participated.
Swami Gautamanandaji inaugurated the year-long centenary celebrations of Salem Ashrama on 2 February. In this connection, special worship, a grand procession, public meetings, and a youths’ convention were held from 2 to 4 February which were attended by about 9000 people in all. A commemorative volume was also brought out on this occasion.
Revered President Maharaj inaugurated the new monks’ quarters at New Town centre, Kolkata, on 6 February, the sacred birthday of Swami Brahmanandaji Maharaj.
Chennai Math celebrated Vivekananda Navaratri from 6 to 14 February by holding lectures and cultural programmes at Vivekananda House, Chennai, in commemoration of Swami Vivekananda’s nine-day stay there from 6 to 14 February 1897. Sri Banwarilal Purohit, Governor of Tamil Nadu, and Sri O Pannerselvam, Deputy Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, attended the celebrations.
Swami Prabhananda ji inaugurated Akhandananda Bhavan, the new residential quarters at RKMVERI (deemed university), Belur, on 27 February, for the use of employees, faculty and research scholars. The General Secretary, who is also the Chancellor of the university, among others, attended the function.
On the initiative of Jhargram centre, a statue of Swami Vivekananda was installed at Jhargram town on 27 February.
Students of the Sanskrit Department of RKMVERI (deemed university), Belur, took part in the following events and won medals:
| Event | Medals | |
| 1. | National level cultural competitions conducted by Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan, New Delhi, on its Agartala campus from 6 to 9 January | 2 silver medals |
| 2. | The 13th All India Sanskrit Students’ Talent Festival conducted by Rashtriya Sanskrit Vidyapeetha, Tirupati, from 4 to 7 February | 1 gold medal &
2 bronze medals |
In addition to the medals, all the winners received certificates and cash prizes.
Aalo centre held a dental check-up camp from 11 to 18 February in which 1035 people were examined.
Bagda Math conducted a free homeopathic treatment camp at Bargora village in Purulia district on 24 February in which 104 patients were given medicines.
Chennai Math held a programme for Leprosy Cured but Deformed Persons (LCDPs) on 3 February which was attended by 103 LCDPs. Various items were distributed to 25 LCDPs to help them earn their living.
Chennai Vidyapith conducted a blood donation camp on 29 January in which 1448 students donated blood.
Swami Gautamanandaji inaugurated the renovated Gita Darshan exhibition at Hyderabad Math on 17 February.
Jamshedpur centre conducted a blood donation camp on 12 January in which 213 people donated blood.
Kamarpukur centre held a training programme on organic farming on 24 and 25 January in which 61 farmers took part.
Values Education and Youth Programmes
Chennai Math hosted a day-long workshop on 24 February for students on facing the board examinations. In all, 225 students from 14 schools took part in the workshop.
Haripad Math held values education camps at two schools in Alappuzha district on 14 and 15 February which were attended by 444 students.
Jamshedpur centre conducted a youths’ convention on 3 February which was attended by about 1200 people.
Mangaluru centre held three education conclaves on 14, 15 and 16 February for college lecturers, postgraduate students and teacher trainees respectively. In all, about 1300 people participated in the conclaves. The centre also conducted lectures in 10 colleges in February, thus reaching out to about 2200 youths.
Medinipur centre held values education workshops in 11 schools and colleges in West Bengal from 2 to 19 February; they were attended by about 5500 students and teachers.
Nagpur Math conducted a youths’ convention on 12 February in which 620 students took part.
Rajkot Ashrama held the following events: (i) A written quiz competition on Swamiji from June to February in which 79,131 students from 994 schools in Gujarat took part. State-level and district-level toppers were awarded prizes on 24 February. (ii) Two special seminars on topics of importance to students at a university and on the centre’s campus on 30 January and 3 February which were attended by 650 students from a number of schools and colleges. (iii) Thirteen values education programmes in the centre as well as in different schools and colleges between 5 and 23 February, attended by about 2200 students. (iv) Four talks on human excellence at the Ashrama and also at corporate houses between 6 and 22 February in which about 250 professionals took part.
The following centres conducted eye camps:
| Sl. No. | Centre | Dates of camps | Patients
checked/treated |
No. of Specs given | ||
| No. of Surgeries | Surgeries performed at | |||||
| 1. | Bankura | 29 Jan to 27 Feb | 598 | 60 | 79 | Our eye care centre in Bankura |
| 2. | Chennai Math* | 26 Jan & 10 Feb | 210 | 104 | 22 | An eye hospital in Chennai |
| 3. | Halasuru | 2 February | 172 | 81 | 85 | An eye hospital in Bengaluru |
| 4. | Jamshedpur | 20 January | 148 | ‒ | 103 | An eye hospital in Jamshedpur |
| 5. | Khetri | February | 89 | ‒ | 43 | An eye hospital in Jaipur |
| 6. | Lucknow | February | 2551 | ‒ | 508 | Our Lucknow hospital |
| 7. | Porbandar | 8 February | 107 | ‒ | 40 | An eye hospital in Porbandar |
| 8. | Ranchi Morabadi | 22 Jan to 22 Feb | 1575 | 44 | 31 | An eye hospital in Ranchi |
| 9. | Salem | 10 & 17 February | 487 | 160 | 71 | An eye hospital in Salem |
* through Chengalpattu centre
Swachchha Bharat Abhiyan (Clean India Campaign)
Kamarpukur centre carried out a cleanliness drive at Kamarpukur village on 24 February.
Mangaluru Ashrama conducted the following activities in February: (i) four cleanliness drives in Mangaluru involving 1650 volunteers, (ii) awareness campaigns for 22 days in which volunteers reached out to nearly 1000 households in different parts of Mangaluru city, spreading awareness about cleanliness, (iii) nineteen seminars in colleges covering 5240 youths, and (iv) cleanliness drives in 150 villages of Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts in which 19,750 people took part.
Obituary
We are sorry to announce the passing away of Swami Divyashrayananda (Ashwini) at Cuttack centre on 27 February in the morning under tragic circumstances. He was 60. Initiated by Swami Bhuteshanandaji Maharaj, he joined the order at Narottam Nagar centre in 1981 and received sannyasa diksha from his guru in 1991. He served the order at Narottam Nagar, Baghbazar and Cuttack centres. He had a quiet nature.