First General Report - 1912

THE FIRST GENERAL REPORT

OF

THE RAMKRISHNA MISSION

( 1912 )

ISSUED BY THE GOVERNING BODY,

FROM BELUR MATH, HOWRAH.

Published by

Swami Saradananda

Secretary, Ramakrishna Mission,

The Math, Belur, Howrah

Printed by K. C. Ghose at the

Lakshmi Printing Works,

64-1 Sukea’s Street, Calcutta.

CONTENTS.

I. INTRODUCTION ... ... ... 1

(a) Ramakrishna Mission, its origin ... ... 1

(b) Legal Incorportaion under Act XX of 1860 ... 2

(c) Re-adjustment work ... ... 3

II. DETAILED VIEW OF THE PRESENT SITUATION ... 3

A. Permanent Institutions ... ... 3

B. Occasional activities ... ... 3

A. (I) Permanent Institutions for missionary work ... 3

(i) The Ramakrishna Math Belur ... ... 4

(ii) The Ramakrishna Math in Calcutta ... 4

(iii) The Ramakrishna Home at Madras ... 4

(iv) The Advaita Ashram of Mayavati ... 4

(v) The Benares Ramakrishna Advaita Ashram ... 8

(vi) The Ramakrishna Math at Allahabad ... 8

(vii) The Ramakrishna Ashram at Bangalore ... 9

(viii) Foreign centres in America and their offshoots 10

A. (2) Permanent Charitable Institutions

(i) The Ramakrishna Mission Home of Service, Benares 14

(ii) The Ramakrishna Mission Sevashram at Kankhal 18

(iii) The Ramakrishna Mission Sevashram at Brindaban 21

(iv) The Ramakrishna Mission Sevashram at Allahabad 22

(v) The Ramakrishna Mission Ashram (Orphanage)

of Moorshidabad ... ... 24

A. (3) Permanent Educational centres ... ... 27

(i) Sister Nivedita’s centres ... ... 28

(ii) Mass Education at Sargachi ... ... 30

(iii) The Ramakrishna Students’ Home, Mylapore, Madras 30

A. (4) The Ramakrishna Mission (Branch centre), Barisal 30

B. (I) Occasional Preaching activities ... ... 30

(2) Occasional Relief activities ... ... 33

III. (a) THE SEVERAL MISSIN FUNDS KEPT OPEN FOR PUBLIC

CONTRIBUTION ... ... ... 34

(i) Funds for support of the permanent Institutions 34

(ii) Provident Relief Fund ... ... 34

(iii) Educational Fund ... ... ... 35

(iv) General Fund ... ... ... 35

(v) Poor Fund ... ... ... 35

(b) Thanks of the Mission and its appeal ... 35

(c) Concluding Remarks ... ... ... 36

(d) Appendices :―

Extract from the Memorandum of Association

of the Ramakrishna Mission ... ... 39

Rules and Regulations of the Ramakrishna Mission 41

Statement of Accounts ... ... ... 49

List of Monastic members ... ... 62

The Math and the Mission : Their Respective

Jurisdiction ... ... ... 65

Introduction.

“The national ideals of India are Renunciation and Service. Intensify her in these channel and the rest will take care of itself”. These were the words of the Swami Vivekananda and out of the small brotherhood of all-renouncing disciples, the glorious legacy of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa Deva to the world, rose that monastic institution, now known as the Ramakrishna Math of Belur, which was calculated to realise those lofty ideals.

And of those ideals the great Swamiji himself was the living embodiment ; and the divinely inspired activities of his brief but effulgent career before the world signalised the re-birth of a Renunciation and a Service which formulated themselves spontaneously into the Ramakrishna Math and Mission.

The formal name, however, of the Ramakrishna Mission was first given to an association which the Swami Vivekananda after his first return from the West, started about the month of May, 1897, mainly with the object of bringing about a close co-operation between the monastic and lay disciples of Sri Ramakrishna. But this function of the association was gradually transferred to the growing monastery at Belur, where sympathisers and friends constantly resorted and the association ceased to exist after about three years. Nevertheless, the name Ramakrishna Mission continued most naturally to be appropriated to missionary and philanthropic activities, undertaken by the Sanyásins of the Belur Math with the help of the followers of Sri Ramakrishna and of the sympathetic public. Any detailed account of those activities is not within the scope of this report, but still in submitting for the first time a general record of the work, retrospective reference is unavoidable and later on the activities of the Mission during a period of about fifteen years, will receive in some measure our attention. The direction and control in connection with all the work done

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during those fifteen years, having proceeded from the Ramakrishna Math of Belur ― an organisation by itself―it is no wonder that the Ramakrishna Mission could work and thrive without having any formal constitution of its own. But with the growth of its scope and public responsibilities, the need of a formal constitution steadily urged itself on the workers and authorities of the Mission and from the year 1906, an attempt to draw up a constitution had been leisurely going on. But what precipitated matters were specific instances of difficulty about such endowments to our Charitable institutions as could be received and utilised only in a capacity recongnised by the law of the land; and it is to obviate such difficulties that it became indispensable to give the Ramakrishna Mission a legal status. Evidently under modern conditions of public life, the legal incorporation of such an institution is a necessity. Its formal recognition by the Government as a bonafide association for public good also appeared at the time highly desirable. Consequently on the 4^th May 1909, the Ramakrishna Mission, with eight of the Trustees of the Belur Math as its promoters and with a memorandum of Association and a body of rules, regulations and bye-laws, was registered under Act XXI of 1860 of the Governor General of India in council. A copy of the memorandum and the rules etc. may be had on application at the headquarters of the Mission at Belur Math, Howrah.

When thus a legal constitution was given to the Mission, the newly formed Governing Body found no small difficulty in accommodating the old state of things to the new forms of procedure and that peculiar process is still going on. The old members of the Ramkrishna Mission, those followers of Sri Ramakrishna Deva, who had already become more or less associated with the Sanyásins of the Belur Math in all the Mission works undertaken before the registration of the society, had to be re-nominated by the Governing Body as numbers of the Ramakrishna Mission, before any members under the new

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rules were admitted. But still some of the old members were unwilling to observe the mere formality of a signature to be given as a legal token of assent to their re-nomination. The working and constitution of the branch centres again have to be adjusted to the requirements of the bye-laws, so that their affiliation to the parent Mission may now be properly established. And lastly the actual province of the Mission work has to be distinctly marked out, so far as possible, from the proprietory jurisdiction and the purely spiritual discipline of the monasteries.

The objects of the Ramkrishna Mission having been clearly defined in the Memorandum of the Association, every Annual Report is expected to make out the amount of progress, made in furtherance of those objects from the data of yearly reports submitted by all the branch centres. In addition to this it has to record all active measures, temporary or permanent, taken in pursuance of these objects from the headquarters of the Mission, or from its branches.

The objects of the Mission as defined in the Memorandum fall under three classes of Mission work:―

1. Missionary Work (Preaching and Organising).

2. Charitable Work.

3. Educational Work.

This threefold variety of work again, may

(A) proceed on a permanent footing from permanent institutions established for the purpose in different localities, or (B) they may be undertaken temporarily in some locality or other as occasion arises or need dictates.

First we take up a short account of Mission work done from permanent institutions.

The monasteries of the order of Sri Ramkrishna, established in several parts of India, properly constitute the permanent missionary institutions for the spread of the ideals of the Mission.

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(i) The Ramkrishna Math at Belur.

Of these monasteries the first and foremost is the RAM-AKRISHNA MATH of BELUR in the District of Howrah, where the headquarters of the Mission are located. Apart from the ordinary life and functions of the monastery with which mainly the disciples of Sri Ramkrishna Deva are concerned, the Math is actually a potent centre for the diffusion of the principles involved in the life and teachings of Sri Ramkrishna Deva, and visitors from the public at large have been resorting to the Math since the last few years in increasing numbers.

The atmosphere of the country having been grievously disturbed by political complications, we had to give up organising lectures among the public during the last six or seven years. Mention of such activities undertaken previously to this, will be made later on.

(ii) The Ramkrishna Math of Calcutta.

The literary portion of the missionary work, comprising the publication of the Bengali monthly, Udbodhan, and of the works of Swami Vivekananda and other disciples of Sri Ramkrishna, is done from No 12 & 13 Gopal Chandra Neogi’s Lane, Bagh-Bazar, Calcutta, and is under the supervision of Swami Saradananda, the Secretary of the Mission. The rooms occupied by the Mission workers for the publication work as above stated form part of a building constructed six years ago for the temporary residence of the Holy Mother, Srimati Sarada Devi, during her occasional sojourn in Calcutta. It is needless to point out that this centre of work deserves special mention along with the monastery at Belur.

(iii) The Ramkrishna Home at Madras.

The great interest in the ideals of the Ramkrishna Mission, created in Madras Presidency in 1892 by the sojourns of the Swami Vivekananda and in 1897, by his lectures in that province after his first return from the West, necessitated the permanent location of a religious teacher in the town of Madras and Swami Ramkrishnananda was

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chosen for this task. The “Brahmavadin”, an English monthly, called into existence by the active help and encour-agement of the Swami Vivekananda, the great founder of the Mission, had been already disseminating his ideals, when Swami Ramkrishnananda set heroically to work in a small house rented at Rs. 30/- per mensem in the same town of Madras. After about a year his centre of work was removed to a portion of the Castle Kernon, Triplicane, generously offered for free occupation by a follower of the Swami Vivekananda, and here Swami Ramkrishnananda worked and toiled till the 17^th November, 1907, with that inde-fatigable application to work and that lofty standard of devotion and spirituality, for which he is everywhere well-known. After the date given above, the Mission centre was finally established in a building erected with funds raised for the purpose by the public of Madras and made over to the Ramkrishna Mission for its use as the South India head-quarters.

According to the present year’s report from this South India Branch of the Mission, the missionary work here mainly consists in religious classes and discourses held in the Math and various other places. The following books have been completed from the discourses, delivered by the Swami Ramkrishnananda.

(1) The Universe and Man.

(2) The Soul of Man.

(3) Sri Krishna, The pastoral and the King-maker.

(4) The Path to Perfection.

(5) Sri Ramkrishna and his Mission.

(6) The Scope and Method of Work of the Mission.

In addition to the above works, this branch has also issued the “Inspired Talks” by the late Swami Vivekananda and has published the second revised edition of the Gospel of Sri Ramkrishna according to “M”. Steps have also been taken to publish in local vernacular translation of certain lectures of the Swami Vivekananda.

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Several other centres of the Mission in the Madras Presidency are starting up at Coconada, Vaniambady, Dharampuri, Padukota, Trichinopoly and other places. Separate mention has to be made of another centre in South India at Bangalore.

(iv) The Advaita Ashram of Mayavati

High up in the Himalayan regions, about fifty miles to the north east of Almora, a monastery, known as the ADVAITA ASHRAM of MAYAVATI, was projected and established by the Swami Vivekananda with the help of Captain and Mrs. Sevier and with Swami Swarupananda as its first President. It was started on the 19^th of March 1899, on a hillock about 6800 ft. above sea level, the site being purchased for the purpose. The special aim and object of this Himalayan Institution is to constitute itself a hermitage exclusively for those devotees, irrespective of colour and race, who would realise and practise the Advaita Vedanta, “free from the settings of dualistic weakness,” so that this Ashram, though in entire sympathy with all other systems of discipline, is dedicated to Advaita and Advaita alone.

In furtherance of the objects of the Mission, the members of the Ashram are trained as workers and teachers. Since its inception, up to the present, 32 workers were admitted into it in all, out of which 12 failed to live up to its ideal and left ; 3 died in harness and 11 are now useful members in other centres of the Ramakrishna Mission, the remainder, namely 6, comprising the present workers.

The first president, Swami Swarupananda, used to undertake lecturing tours every year or two in many places of the United Provinces and Rajputana. By dint of his noble exertions, both the Ashram and the English monthly, The Prabuddha Bharata, which it publishes, enlisted the sympathy and admiration of the educated public. But unfortunately he was cut off by and untimely death on the 27^th June, 1906 at Nainital while there on an urgent mission. The Ashram lost another important worker in Swami Vimalananda who

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did much good work in 1902 at Nainital, in 1903 at Allahabad and during 1905 and 1906 at Bangalore. Since the time the Swami Swarupananda passed away his mantle has fallen upon Swami Virajananda who is now conducting the Ashram and its publication works with great zeal and devotion. He undertook a long tour from November 1901 to August 1902 through the United Provinces, Punjab, Sind, Kathiawar and Bombay Presidency, arousing deep interest in the Ramkrishna order and its monthly English organ, the Prabuddha Bharata.

The success which has attended the publishing work of the Ashram is really gratifying. The journal Prabuddha Bharata, was originally started in Madras under the auspices of the Swami Vivekananda in the year 1896, but ceased to exist, with the demise of its gifted editor after two years.

The Swamiji who was sojourning at Almora at the time, conceived the bold idea of reviving the journal as the organ of the Ramkrishna order from some place in the Himalayas and facing all the difficulties in conducting a printing press in the midst of the Himalayan jungles, 63 miles up from the nearest railway station. Launched out into the literary world under the able managership of the late Mr. J. H. Sevier and the editorship of Swarupananda, the journal has steadily prospered as the increase of its subscribers indicates. During Swami Swarupananda’s incumbency 8 books and pamphlets were issued under “the Himalayan series” and the gigantic task of bringing out in a popular collected form, all the lectures, writings, letters and discourses of Swami Vivekananda was taken in hand. This task has now devolved upon Swami Virajananda helped by the Ashram brotherhood, who has succeeded in bringing out 5 Volumes of the collected works, of about 250 pages each and of size 9½ " x 7 ¼". Two other volumes will bring this precious task to its completion. Besides this, the Ashram has, since 1907, published the following books.

(1) Jnana Yoga.

(2) Bhakti Yoga.

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(3) Two Lectures on Karma Yoga.

(4) Modern India.

(5) Epistles of Swami Vivekananda 1^st Series.

(6) Do 2^nd Series.

(7) Lectures from Colombo to Almora.

(8) Swami Abhedananda’s Lectures and Addresses in India.

(9) Srimad-Bhagavad-Gita by Swami Swarupananda.

(v) The Benares Advaita Ashram.

A small beginning in the direction of a religious institution for inculcating the life and teachings of Sri Ramkrishna Deva was made in Benares in the year 1900 by Swami Achalananda, then a Brahmachari of the Ramkrishna Mission. A sort of temple was at that time established near Kshemeswar Ghât and religious enquirers used to meet the earnest young founders of the home every evening to study and discuss religious subjects and the precepts of Sri Ramkrishna Deva. In the year 1902 Swami Shivananda was sent by the Swami Vivekananda from the Belur Math to take up missionary and monastic work at Benares on his own shoulders. He removed the Ashram the very same year to another rented garden house a Laksa. Here by dint of perseverance and devotion, the RAMAKRISHNA ADVAITA ASHRAM steadily rose to eminence and gained a permanent footing, so that it now possesses a decent local habitation of its own for accommodating its few monastic members ; and the only desideratum now is a separate temple. It is now evident that if ampler resources are forthcoming, this important Ashram bids fair to develop no small amount of missionary work. For such a development, stability of adequate financial support is obviously a sine qua non.

(vi) The Ramkrishna Math at Allahabad.

From the year 1900 Swami Virajananda commenced work at Allahabad with the Brahmavadin Club which was already started by some earnest followers of the Swami Vivekananda. Here religious enquirers used to meet for reading

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from scriptures and discussing spiritual topics. Gradually the Swami found it proper to invest his work with a public character and in the year 1908 he procured funds to raise a small building to be dedicated purely to monastic purposes ; but along with this he succeeded in starting since October 1910, in a separate house built for the purpose, a Sevashram or hospital on a small scale. The Math at Muthigunj as well as the Brahmavadin Club at Station Road, affords a good basis for developing plenty of work under favourable circumstances.

(vii) The Ramkrishna Ashram at Bangalore.

The Vedanta Society of Bangalore, started by some devoted followers of the Swami Vivekananda invited on the 19^th July 1903. Swami Ramkrishnananda from his Madras centre. As a result of the seven lectures the Swami delivered and the Classes he held in different parts of Bangalore, a new centre had to be opened in this place. The first arrangement made here for regular instructions proving unsatisfactory, Swami Atmananda and Swami Vimalananda were successively placed in charge of the centre during 1904 to 1906. Swami Bodhananda also worked here for some time before he left India for the United States in America. After him Swami Atmananda again had to carry on the work here for a time, before Swami Nirmalananda took up the charge, early in the year 1909. Since then there has been a rapid development and the seeds sown by the previous workers have been bearing fruit. About forty bighas of land have been acquired and a nice building has been constructed to accommodate the classes and the workers. From this Math, Swami Nirmalananda undertakes lecturing tours in various parts of South India and through his ardent activities new centres are slowly growing up in many places. Swami Somananda, a disciple of the Swami Vivekananda, who has been living at Bangalore from sometime ago, has been invited by the Mysore State to inculcate regular religious teachings among the convicts of the local jail; and his work is being much appreciated by the State, as their reports show.

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(viii) Foreign centres in America and their offshoots.

(1) New York ― The Vedanta Society.

Only a few months after the Swami Vivekananda had gone over to America and delivered his epoch-making lectures on Hinduism at Chicago, great interest and enthusiasm were arousd in New York in the philosophy and religion of the Vedanta. As early as 1890 a society was organised there for the study and practice of the Vedanta and the need of a permanent teacher and guide being felt soon after by the members, the fact was represented to Swami Vivekananda. The Swami then brought over from India the Swamis Sarananda and Abhedananda successively in 1896-7 to take charge of the work. The Seami Saradananda was recalled to India in 1898 and soon after this the Swami Abhedanada had the Society regularly incorporated under the laws of the State of New York. The lectures, classes and instructions of Swami Abhedananda made the work forw rapidly, so that in 1908 a permananet house ofr the Society was established out of its own funds and Swami Bodhananda was sent from India in 1907 to help to meet the growing demands of the centre.

About four miles from the West Cornwall Station in Connecticut (to which station it is only about a three hours’ Railway journey from New York), a peace retreat and a Summer School of Philosophy were also opened in 1909 by Swami Abhedananda under the name of Vedanta Ashram, for students who wish to study and practise the teachings of the Vedanta in its quiet Sylvan seclusion. Moreover the Swami’s occasional lecturing tours in Great Britain and the continent and his publications havce greatly helped forward the propaganda of the Mission in the West.

(2) Pittsburg ― The Vedanta Society.

In 1906, a group of Vedanta students at Pittsburg in Pennsylvania applied to the New York Centre for a Sanyâsin teacher and guide. In January 1907, Swami Bodhananda, who had been working at the New York Society with Swami Abedananda, came over to Pittsburg and formally

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started the Vedanta Society of that place with a regular constitution. There is a library attached to the Society and the work of the centre consists as usual in lectures, classes and private instructions. The centre has had to be closed however since October 1912 for the Swami Bodhananda was called away to take charge of the main centre at New York by the resignation of the charge of the same by the Swami Abhedananda.

(3) California―San Francisco―The Vedanta Society.

During his second tour through the United States, America, Swami Vivekananda visited California and held classes and lectures in Los Angeles, San Francisco and other cities of the “Golden West” in the Pacific side of U. S. A. His visit to San Francisco resulted in the formation of a centre at that place and regular classes on Hindu Scriptures continued. In 1900, the students of Vedanta from San Francisco and Los Angeles representing to Swami Vivekananda the need of a permanent teacher and guide and the San Francisco centre receiving a gift of land in San Antoni Valley, some fifty miles from the nearest Railway Station, ideally located for undisturbed practising of meditation, Swami Vivekananda sent from New York Swami Turiyananda to carry on the work in the California centres and to establish the Shanti Ashram in the solitude of the valley.

Before he returned to India in 1902, Swami Turiyananda had by his example and precepts placed the work in these centres on a solid basis, infusing true spirituality and devotion for the ideal. He was succeeded by Swami Trigunatita, whom the President of the Ramkrishna Mission sent to take charge of the centres towards the close of the year 1902. By holding regular weekly classes and Sunday public lectures Swami Trigunatita greatly developed the work at San Francisco, so that in 1905 the centre could commence the construction of a building of its own, which was completed in 1907 and is now known as the Hindu Temple. In April 1906, Swami Prakashananda came over from India to help swami Trigunatita, as the work in his charge had been

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constantly growing. Since then both the Swamis are busily working to bring light and peace to thousands of truth-seekers. A monastery has been established in the third floor of the Hindu Temple, where there are at present about six or seven Brahmachârins. A sort of nunnery has also been started in a rented house near the Temple, where there are at present three permanent inmates. The Society has also been able to secure a Press of its own, which is placed in charge of an expert, a Brahmachârin of the monastery. A monthly magazine, “The Voice of Freedom,” is published regularly from this press and other important publications have been undertaken to help the Vedantic propaganda.

The worker from India who took charge of the centre at Los Angeles could not unfortunately achieve any success and the work there had to be discontinued. Attempts are now being made from San Francisco to re-establish a centre here.

(4) Boston―The Vedanta Society.

The first definite efforts towards establishing a permanent Vedanta centre at Boston were made from the year 1909, when Swami Paramananda came from New York to Boston on the invitation of a friend and commenced holding classes with a circle of earnest enquirers and delivering public lecturers on Sundays. Besides these regular functions, the Swami moved from place to place in the neighbourhood of Boston, addressing religious or philosophical associations and groups of religious enquirers. Thus grew up the present work in Boston and within a few months of his visiting the place, arrangements were made for a year for his classes and lectures. He had to leave however when the Boston season closed in early May, to hold classes in other places, coming back here in October. But the winter proving too severe for his health here, he had again to shift to Washington, where before April, he sowed the seeds of a new centre. Next summer he could continue his work in Boston, for in-spite of severe heat, his bi-weekly classes attracted good attendance. This year his visit to Greenacre and to Bermudas,

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an Atlantic Island, proved successful, the Sister Devamata carrying on the work at the Boston centre during these visits. Permanent headquarters for the centre were established however in St. Botolph Street in 1910, although six weeks in autumn were spent again by the Swami at the new centre at Washington. The arrangement was made now that the Swami would henceforth divide the year between the two centres, giving two months more to Washington during early spring. Steadily the centre at Boston has grown in importance and usefulness, and a monthly magazine has been started under the name of “The Message of the East” to stimulate Vedantic thought and record progress in work. Sister Devamata by her great devotion and earnest help has all along supplemented Swami Paramananda’s activities in both the centres. During her travels in India, she was presented with some relics of Sri Ramkrishna, and a permanent Mission building, with a temple where they may be preserved, is now being planned on a plot of land procured by the Boston centre.

(5) Washington―The vedanta Society.

In December 1909, the Vedanta centre of Washington was established by Swami Paramananda in a house well adapted for the work, and classes and lectures continued till the Swami’s return to Boston in April ; but in view of the general interest shown, two meetings a week were carried on by Sister Devamata till the first of July. After that the summer heat was too much in Washington for any regular work to go on and so the reading room and the meditation rooms only were kept open. On September 14^th, the Swami returned from Boston to re-open his work. In October the centre was moved to 7 Town Circle and when the Swami departed again for Boston on the 24^th of October, Sister Devamata took up the work with her tri-weekly meetings. In this way sufficient interest was aroused in Washington to assure the growth of a permanent centre and in view of the highly conservative and political atmosphere

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of the place, the rise and steady progress of the Vedanta centre bear high testimony to the intrinsic power of the message.

Besides his activities in America, Swami Paramananda’s tour in Great Britain, Germany, Switzerland and Italy is arousing interest for Vedantic Study and practice in those countries. A few books on the Vedanta thought have also been published by the Swami, thus adding to the store of popular Vedanta literature.

We shall have next to pass under review the permanent institutions for charitable work, at present conducted and controlled by the Ramkrishna Mission.

(i) The Ramkrishna Mission home of Service, Benares.

By the middle of 1900, a few earnest young men of Benares, belonging to the Ramkrishna Mission, started the Poor Men’s Relief Association to relieve the distress of the sick and the helpless placed beyond the reach of the existing conventional forms of Charity. That there was ample room for the activities of such an institution under the altered circumstances of the modern Benares, is clearly borne out by the history of this noble undertaking. The management and control of the Association was originally vested, by a public meeting held in September 15, 1900, in a local committee. But on the 23^rd November 1902, at a general meeting held at the Carmichael Library, the Institution was placed under the control and supervision of the Ramkrishna Mission. After the Registration of the Mission under Act XXI of 1860, a charter of Local Committee has been formally granted to the Benares Institution, now styled as the RAMKRISHNA MISSION HOME OF SERVICE, BENARES.

The work of the Sevashram was first started in a house, No. D 32/82 Jangambari, rented at Rs. 5. Next it was removed to house No. 227 Dashashwamedh Road on the 19^th February, 1901. But to cope with the growing needs of the Association, it had again to be removed, on the 2^nd June 1901, to house No. D 38/153 Ramapura. Regarding

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this also, the complaint arose that “although the management has been trying its utmost to make the rented house of the Home as comfortable as possible in all respects, the inmates have not been getting, simply for want of sufficient accommodation and healthy surroundings, the full benefit of the care and attention bestowed on them”. The appeal for a building fund had been made to the public even in the First Annual Report of the Association as early as 1901 and ever since, the necessity of a hospital building constructed solely for the purposes of the Association had been sought to be impressed on all the sympathisers of the institution. In 1903 Sj. Upendra Narayan Deb of Entally, Calcutta, came forward with a donation of Rs. 4000 for the purpose and this sum together with that of Rs. 2000 donated by Sj. Tarini Charan Pal about a year latter, formed the nucleus of the building fund. In 1907, it was announced that a suitable site for the building had been finally secured and purchased, and on this land the foundation stone was laid by the President of the Mission in April 1908. The actual construction work of the Hospital was undertaken on the purchased plot of land on 7^th October 1908 under the expert supervision of Swami Vijnanananda and was finished within two years from the commencement, the quarters of the workers and the resident medical officer only remaining to be constructed. The details of the work now completed are : an out-door Dispensary with Office and Library, four general wards, three infectious wards, two small general wards, a cook-room, 4 bath-rooms, a morgue, compound wall, 15 sanitary latrines and 6 sewers. The different wards are now capable of accommodating about 50 patients and the necessary expenses for maintaining them would amount to Rs. 500 per month. All the work is being conducted now in this new building since July 1910.

The quarters for the use of the workers and the resident medical officer as well as separate wards for infectious diseases could not be constructed at present for want both of funds as well as of spare land. A suitable site contiguous to the Hospital is thus absolutely necessary for the purpose. It

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has been decided at present to purchase a suitable site for the purpose by the help of the Land Acquisition Act.

The problem of sheltering decrepit old persons, requiring constant medical aid and nursing till the envied death at Benares removes them from this world, has for some time urged itself on the Sevashram workers and a scheme for meeting this keenly-felt social need has been placed before the public this year. The purchase of a plot of land contiguous to the existing buildings would no doubt be an important step towards the execution of this scheme.

For the fulfilment of all these needs the Home of Service looks to the public for support and help ; and unless the same promptitude and kindness with which the public have in the past always responded to the appeals from the Home, again move to charity the hearts of the generous-minded, this noble institution would still have to labour under serious difficulties. Lastly, it is evident that stability and smooth working can never be secured by any public hospital relying absolutely on public charity for maintenance and support, unless the workers are placed beyond the every day struggle for expenditure money, by getting the beds of the indoor-patients endowed by our kind-hearted countrymen. Towards such a consummation, the institution, we hope, will proceed apace, if the blessings of the Lord of Kasi continue to be showered on it in future as in the past.

The nature and amount of Seva-work carried on in the Home of Service will be realised by a perusal of the following tabular record of successive years:―

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(ii) The Ramkrishna Mission Sevashram at Kankhal.

Early in 1901 Swami Kalyannanda, a disciple of Swami Vivekananda, during a pilgrimage to Hardwar, came face to face with sufferings amenable to medical help and nursing, and felt an irresistible impulse to serve the afflicted by bringing to them the same. This noble impulse, inspired no doubt, by the master mind of the Swami Vivekananda, germinated into a firm resolve, which a brother disciple in charge of the Mayavati Math fully shared and both set to work for initial funds. In June 1901, the Sevashram was started in rented huts at Kankhal with a few phials of medicine and Swami Kalyanananda as doctor, nurse, accountant and all. The work steadily prospered and early in 1902, during the Kumbha Melâ at Hardwar, a branch centre was worked at Hrishikesh with great success. Appreciation and encouragement gradually came and the scope of work began to widen. In 1903 the Mission was provided with funds for the purchase of a plot of land measuring 15 bighas with a good well in it, and in about 1905 two permanent buildings were raised on this land and Babus Bhajanlal Lohia and Harshima,, Sukdevdas of Calcutta supplied the expenses. But a single ward for patients soon became inadequate to cope with the growing demands of the indoor work, which called for separate wards for different infectious diseases and the need of a Phthisis ward specially began to urge itself on the workers with increasing pressure. In 1906, the sum of Rs 1000 was placed in possession of the Sevashram by a friend from Bombay as the nucleus for a fund to be utilised in opening a separate Phthisis ward. This fund went on Swelling until in 1910 the construction of the ward was actually undertaken. It is now an accomplished fact. But the problem of proper in-door accommodation still confronts the workers here. and unless we can enlist in a greater measure the generosity of the public in favour of this Sevashram, the work of relief will continue to be hampered. From the outset, the indoor treatment of this Sevashram has been confined to Sadhus, but it is being felt necessary to extend

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this Shevâ to all helpless pilgrims and poor people. It is proving hard work to avoid huddling up all manner of infectious cases in the same ward ; it is harder still to deny admission when urgent cases claim our services. During epidemics, all makeshifts to meet such emergencies became defeated. In fact, it is rather a keen day-to-day struggle between increasing demand for Shevâ and inadequate supply of means to do it, a struggle which public help only can put an end to, and we look forward to the same source for assuring to this important centre the required degree of efficiency and stability. In the subjoined tabulated figures, it is fairly possible to read the history of the striking progress that the institution has hitherto made.

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(iii) The Ramkrishna Mission Sevashram at Brindaban.

Sri Brindaban in another great resort for pilgrims and Sadhus, where destitution and disease were left to do their fatal work in the absence of any orgqnised efforts to save their pious victims, for alms-giving and Chhattras alone could never meet such cases. Moved by the situation and encouraged by the success of the Mission’s relief work at Benares, some local gentlemen formed themselves into a body with the object of starting and conducting a Sevashram in January 1907. A managing committee was organised in February and Babu Jajneswar Chunder with his own son and Bramachari Harendra Nath of Belur Math undertook the actual work of Shevâ. The kind proprietors of Kala Babu’s Kunja at Bansibat, lent the out-houses of th same for the accommodation of the institution and a Zemindar of Entally, in Calcutta, provided initial funds. As the scope of the work increased and need for whole-time workers urged itself, the managing committee transferred the control and management of the Sevashram to the Ramkrishna Mission on the 12^th January 1908. Since then, the reports from this centre had to tell the same story of incessant struggle for meeting increasing demands for Shevâ in every direction. The scope of relief, both indoor and out-door, has been steadily increasing ; but want of accommodation has proved here a great stumbling-block, and until the generous public come forward to meet the most urgent demands for in-door relief. Accommodation for indoor patients has already been increased from four beds to fifteen, taking advantage of the magnanimity of the proprietors of the Kunja ; but still that is too small to cope with the existing needs.

Here is a tabulated record of work done during the last few years :―

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(iv) The Ramkrishna Mission Sevashram at Allahabad.

Since October 1910, a work of relief had been started as an experiment, in the form of an our-door dispensary at Jumna Mission College Road, Muthiganj, Allahabad, “where medicines and medical advice are given free to poor patients, irrespective of caste and creed and the same supplied at their houses in case they are quite incapable to come and have none to help them.” The record of the work of the Sevashram for the years 1911 and 1912 gives unmistakable

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evidence of the utility of the institution and of its growing popularity amongst the poor pilgrims and the inhabitants of the city. Altogether 5,856 poor patients were treated in 1912 of which 5,111 were Hindus, 671 Mahomedans, 35 Christians and 39 belonging to other nationalities. These figures show that the Sevashram has been trying to remove a sore and urgent need and that it has not come into existence too early or in vain. The work of relief was carried on in a purely unsectarian spirit and Hindus from the highest to the lowest caste, as well as Mahomedans, Christians and people of other religious persuasions are being served with equal care and attention.

These four permanent charitable institutions of the Mission, it will be noticed, have sprung up in the four holy places of pilgrimage recognised by Hinduism. The Hindu standpoint is that the most fundamental concern of man is religion and all social and civic activities must grow out of and revolve round that centre. In India, for example, the national characteristic is to develop cities round the temples, while in Europe cities evolve round centres of commercial or political activity. The Hindu Shastras also specially extol in one voice, charity in places of pilgrimage. In fact, it is a part of national economy in India to direct the liberality of the people towards those who devote their lives more or less to the cause of spirituality. This important principle together with the universal impulse of charity in the presence of distress underlies the noteworthy fact of the Sevashrams springing up in the holy places. So when the Mission appeals to the public for help in the work undertaken through these Sevashrams, the appeal is made not only to their noble impulses of charity but also to their national instinct of rendering the house-holder’s help to those ascetics and other devotees through whom spirituality has to live and thrive in India in a special sense. Benares and Brindaban, Prayag and Hardwar, still hold undisturbed sway over the minds of thousands of all classes of Hindus, including the well-to-do classes. and is it too much to say that

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donations to the local Sevashrams would constitute a noble form of their heats’ tribute to these particular Tirthas ?

(v) The Ramkrishna Mission Ashram Orphanage of

Moorshidabad.

When during his wanderings in 1897, Swami Akhandananda was ameliorating the sufferings of famine-stricken people in the District of Moorshidabad, he picked up two helpless boys cut off from parents without trace―sure driftings towards the jaws of premature death. This fact impressed on the Swami’s mind the idea of an orphanage and he set to work with characteristic singlemindedness. A gentleman of the village Mahula came forward to bestow on the orphans the shelter of his own house and with the encouragement of some other gentlemen of the district and notably of the noble-hearted magistrate Mr. E. V. Levinge, the Swami started the Ramkrishna Orphanage in 1899. A Kutchery building belonging to a lady Zamindar was secured through her kindness for free occupation and in this house standing on an old historic public road, the orphanage has spent the last 12 years of its existence.

The object of the Orphanage has been to give orphans under 12 years of age all the blessings of parental care, together with the benefits of a training that would make them good and pious bread-winners in society. The Swami in consequence had to provide at the outset for primary education and manual training in some of the useful handicrafts along with all the comforts and necessities of home life. His work in this time developed with the increasing number of orphan boys and he had to open the doors of his school moreover to the boys of the village peasantry. Thus the school with its technical department rose to the standard of an M. E. School. The number of boys on the roll averaged from 72 to 75. The technical classes also proved a success and have turned out up till now many juvenile artisans able to eke out an honest livelihood. This department has all along received the special patronage of the noble Maharajah of Cossimbazar, the Hon’ble Manindra Chandra Nandi, who is

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always ready to give a lift to the work of this centre by his timely aid. At the Banzetia Arts Exhibition held under his noble auspices, the handiwork of the boys of the technical department has invariably secured a fast class certificate.

Swami Akhandananda has always striven to make the education imparted in his school suit the special conditions and circumstances amidst which the boys would have to work and prosper in life. He introduced the Kindergarten system in his school long ago with suitable improvements.

In addition to the training department a good deal of dispensary and hospital work has also been done from the Ashram. Swami Akhandananda himself had to undertake relief expeditions from his centre in times of sudden distress, such as flood, famine, epidemic etc. In 1900 the Ghoga flood of Bhagalpur bred throughout the outlying villages the epidemic of cholera and Swami Akhandananda’s work of relief was much appreciated there. In fact, he is known all round the district as an expert in cholera cures. The collection of medicines in the Ashram proves to be a good source of relief to diseased villages. Recently Swami Akhandananda has been making earnest efforts to give the whole work of his centre a solid permanent footing. Taken as a whole, this most important work of uplifting the masses seeks to solve the very problem of the depressed classes which educated India now-a-days is so keen about. Swami Akhandananda, instructed by Swami Vivekananda himself as to the proper lines on which to proceed, has been by slow degrees laying down his life during the last 15 years, for working out a solution of that problem. His idea is to start model institutions on a scale calculated to illustrate to educated men the methods by which the rural classes are to be approached and the light of knowledge is to be diffused among them. These institutions will provide respectively for the following items of work : 1^st, orphanage work―taking parental care of rural children having none to look after ; 2^nd, relief work―combating disease, misery in every form and sudden scourges of nature ; 3^rd, general

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education ; 4^th, training in useful industries and arts ; 5^th, training in modern agricultural methods ; 6^th, separate provision for giving medical aid, nursing, refuge and useful education of girls ; and 7^th, organising of all these classes of work in the district centre and its rural branches with a spiritual outlook on life and its activities. Thus with a central workers’ Ashram conducted on a religious basis, there will be six separate institutions set up side by side in this district centre where the whole work of the uplifting of the masses will be combined. from this district centre as the head-quarters will be spread a network of village organisations specialising technical training and relief according as the needs of the local area dictate. The district Ashram and the Orphanage will also make it a point to initiate trained up youngmen from the poorer classes into a life consecrated for all this work and scatter them throughout the rural areas with or without some professional pursuit for their own livelihood as the case may demand, the idea being to make rural people fully participate in all the nobler ideals of life for which the Ramkrishna Mission stands, not simply as passive recipients but also as their active promulgators. With a view to start such a set of model institutions in some rural area, fifty bighas of land have been secured by the Ramkrishna Mission near Sargachi, a railway station some 12 or 15 miles down the district town of Berhampur. Evidently it is proper to make our help reach the rural people who live in the villages and not to make them come to us in the towns for that help. The nation, we should remember, lives in the rural cottages and it is there that we should have to fight malaria, ignorance and poverty. Swami Akhandananda encouraged by his many sympathisers from the public, specially those of Berhampur headed by the Maharajah of Cossimbazar and Rai Baikunthanath Sen Bahadur, is now trying to collect funds for raising the buildings on the secured area of the land and it is needless for us to point out that the gradual fruition of the scheme depends in a large measure on the liberality of our well-to-do countrymen

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who have the welfare of the poor masses of India at heart.

A―(3) Permanent Educational Centres.

The problem of education admits of being considered under three separate divisions, viz : education for male youths, female education and mass education. The Ramkrishna Mission is pledged to work in this threefold direction according as means and opportunity present themselves.

Swami Vivekananda’s idea was that education in India must have its foothold secure on what history has transmitted to us as our ancient Indo-Aryan culture. In this culture, the supreme end is the Vedic goal of spirituality and from that standpoint, the significance and value of all the departments of knowledge and art are estimated. So our national culture has its own peculiar points of view and its own peculiar methods. The supreme spiritual end governs its outlook on the facts and conditions of life, so it studies experience in the terms of the spiritual and creates forms in art to symbolise the spiritual. But at present this ancient culture lies dismantled and disorganised, and our first duty is to reorganise it on its eternal basis of Vedic spirituality as revivified in the life of Sri Ramkrishna. This work of reorganisation can best be accomplished by those only whose lives are fully sacrificed for the cause of Indian spirituality ; for, culture in our country has ever been by its nature a handmaid to spirituality, and in Buddhist India, we all known how culture was wonderfully reorganised by Bhikshus on the basis of Buddha’s new enlightenment.

Our ancient culture, in fact, refuses to be dealt with in the way the modern educationists strive to do it. It is a sort of living organism, this culture, and no mechanical process of adding and subtracting will apply here. Within its integrity, all human ends and ideals, ancient or modern, must have to enter as terms of an organic inter-relation through which the supreme spiritual end fulfils itself. Unless our ancient culture is restored to this sort of organic existence, no element of any foreign culture can be properly absorbed

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by it. So the first step in successfully solving the problem of education in our country is to start a central educational institution under monastic control, which will embody our ancient Indo-Aryan culture as emanating from the Vedas, but as appearing well-organised on the above lines in this actual life of some individuals who are to impart it.

Meanwhile the public mind in India has been much exercised over the problem of education during the last few years and efforts are proposed to be made in some quarters, with a view to combine Western culture with the ancient culture of India in the best way practicable. Such efforts through a steady but sure course of experience will lead the public to that organic conception of our ancient culture from which Swami Vivekananda derived his own scheme for its reconstruction ; and unless public co-operation and sympathy gradually converge on the execution of this scheme, the Ramkrishna Mission cannot take it up on any adequate scale ; so it has to bide its time in this matter.

(i) Sister Nivedita’s School

In regard to the problem of female education, Sister Nivedita’s noble offer of her own life as a sacrifice in that cause enabled Swami Vivekananda to make just a beginning in the direction of a practical solution of that problem. When in 1899 Sister Nivedita opened at 17 Bosepara Lane, Baghbazar, an institutions to girls and ladies, it was rather an effort to reconnoitre her own position and to feel her way to the real problem to be tackled. In 1903, the institution was re-established on a permanent basis with Sister Christine as Supervisor and organiser of all the detailed work and her steady success inspired much confidence. Financial help used to come mostly from a lady disciple of Swamiji in America and the Sisters were putting off the idea of a public appeal for funds till they would find their steady success with the school to be a concrete solution of the problem to be put before the public. They thought that if what they had kindled proved the real fire, the country would surely come

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forward in time to add fuel and keep it ablaze. But all on a sudden on October 13, 1911 Nivedita left this world and just about a year before her, the American friend also having died, the financial situation became highly precarious, for the income from the sale of books and writing which the Sister Nivedita left by will to the school, was not sufficient to meet its requirements. The memorial meeting that was held in March 1912 at the Calcutta Town Hall in honor of Sister Nivedita resolved to raise funds to maintain the school, but nothing very substantial has yet accrued to this memorial fund. So, at present, Sister Christine is carrying on her uphill struggle with nothing but burning faith and zeal on her side and with occasional doles of pecuniary help from friends and sympathisers. Another America friend, however, has come forward to help the Institution, lately, and it is through that help mainly, that this work is being continued at present.

With respect to this women’s institution the relation of the Ramkrishna Mission has not yet been formally defined, but to all intents and purposes, its founder’s own paternal attitude towards this educational enterprise of his disciples has been bequeathed to the Mission and so it is but proper for it to regard this noble enterprise as a valuable addition to its own achievements, contributed by two female workers deputed to work out in isolation the Indian Women’s problem. But this isolation in sphere of work does not necessarily imply isolation in thought, and formal provision has to be made for the fullest participation and community in ideas and ideals to remain established between the Ramkrishna Mission and this educational movement for women. To commemorate the hallowed memory of the late Sister Nivedita Rs. 2532-7-9 in all was collected by the memorial committee of Calcutta by convening a meeting in the Town Hall in Calcutta, the incidental expenses of which were Rs. 148. The balance Rs. 2384-7-9 was handed over to the President, Ramkrishna Mission, as a trust for the benefit of the school.

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(ii) Mass Education at Sargachhi.

With regard to the problem of mass education which the Mission is trying to deal with from its centre at Sargachhi, Moorshidabad, the subject has had its full share of attention in our notice of the permanent philanthropic institutions, in this Report, so we need not traverse the same ground over again here.

(iii) The Ramkrishna Students’ Home, Mylapore, Madras.

With a view to help poor and deserving students with free boarding and lodging and at the same time to secure for them general supervision by elderly men in their conduct and regulation of life, the Ramkrishna Students’ Home was established in Madras on the 17^th of February 1905. Only boys of undisputed poverty are admitted into it and no student who fails to get his promotion to a higher class or to pass a public examination is retained in the Home. It is also a wholesome rule of the institution that no married student is admitted into and maintained by it. Boarders are not only being taught in it in the practical carrying out in life of the principles of ethics and religion but are encouraged to lead a life of strict discipline. The technical classes attached to the Home, really prove to be most useful to the boarders and are very popular. With more help and sympathy, the Home is sure to improve the sphere and extent of its usefulness.

A―(4) The Ramkrishna Mission (Branch centre) Barisal.

The first conception of starting a branch centre of the Ramkrishna Mission at Barisal originated in the year 1904 with Srijut Sarat Chandra Chakravarti, a devoted disciple of Srimat Swami Vivekananda who was serving there as deputy Postmaster. He started a Samity with a few earnest seekers of religion. They formed themselves into a small and modest group with the object of enriching themselves by the study of Vedanta in the light of the lives and teaching of Sri Ramkrishna Deva and the Swami Vivekananda. The body gradually grew into importance ; and in the year 1910 a number of persons, attracted by the Samiti’s mode

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of practically carrying out religious principles in life by service to humanity, and the religious and philosophical discussions carried on by it, identified themselves with it and gave it a constitutional shape of its own with members and office-bearers. Thus the work of the Society continued when by the wishes of the majority of its members it was affiliated to the Central Ramkrishna Mission on the 2^nd of February, 1911.

The work of the centre gives evidence to the great utility of the Institution, and its growing popularity can be seen from the fact of its receiving greater sympathy and co-operation from the public every day. Besides the preaching of the principles of Religion as advocated by the Vedanta, pecuniary and medical help is offered to the poor by its members in a purely non-sectarian spirit in the following forms :―

(1) The distressed patients are picked up by the workers of the Mission from roadsides or out-of-the-way places and carried to the local Hospital.

(2) Cases of helpless patients of cholera and other diseases are carefully attended in their own homes, and medicines and diet supplied to them where necessary.

(3) Pecuniary relief both permanent and temporary is given as far as possible to distressed families and individual persons according to their circumstances.

The work and the usefulness of the Institution is rapidly increasing and we hope the generous public will come to its aid.

B―(i) Occasional Preaching activities.

Occasional activities of the members of the brotherhood which formed the nucleus of the Ramkrishna Mission, when it was founded in 1897, date, properly speaking, from a much earlier part of that decade. In fact, the soul-redeeming stream of spirituality that flowed into the world from Sri Ramkrishna Deva as its Divine fountainhead, carried with it combined both the highest spirit of Renunciation and the broadest spirit of Service. His deep solicitude to impart

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spiritual blessings to the world, his spontaneous impulses of charity at the sight of destitution and poverty, his own vindication of his daily intercourse with some people resorting to him on the ground of his looking upon them as Narayans, his exhortations to the young disciples, whom he called to himself from the world, to stand together behind the only “Teacher of men” he himself chose-all these constitute occasional glimpses of that divine impulse which through the chose medium of Swami Vivekananda concretised afterwards into the Ramkrishna Mission with its motto of “Work is Worship”. This same impulse lay latent in them when the monastic disciples roved scattered over the country knowing not what their Master would do with them and how ; it was the same impulse which led the rather unwilling footsteps of Swami Vivekananda to a land far away to bear testimony to the Sanatan Dharama as rising rejuvinated in his Master ; it was the same impulse which inspired those passionate behests of Swami Vivekananda from U.S.A., to his dear brother disciples to lay their lives down in the service of humanity; and it was the same impulse whose workings seized the soul of another brother disciple about the same time in Kshetri who was seeking approval by letter from the others, of his intention to start philanthropic work.

It were long to recount the many instances where the above impulse of worship through work prompted to action the brotherhood before it called itself the Ramkrishna Mission. Specially the inspired activities of the founder of this report. So having just traced the mainsprings of the whole movement formulating itself as the Ramkrishna Mission – a movement for the worship of God as revealed in man with its sacrament to consist in meeting those wants in him through which his inner divinity seeks expression,- we pass on to record briefly the many instances or work temporarily taken up by the Ramkrishna Misison through its members since the year 1897.

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Occasional Preaching done since 1897.

The Division of occasional work properly belongs to the report of work done from the several permanent monastic centres, of which we could only attempt above a very short retrospective account. The reason is that lectures and addresses in public or in semi-public associations have mostly been arranged for from one or other of the many Indian or foreign centres of propaganda ; but in cases of temporary relief-work, it is mostly from the headquarters of the Mission that funds are procured and measures are directed and organised. We may, however, remark here that owing to the sudden outburst of public enthusiasm in favour of a political nationalism and the consequent perturbed and perverted state of the public atmosphere, preaching in public had practically to be stopped in Northern India since the rise of the recent Swadeshi Movement. Only during 1906 when Swami Abhedananda of the New York centre was making a tour round India, he delivered speeches in some of the well-known towns. In South India, however, the Madras and Bangalore centres have all along had to do every year some preaching in public. And we have seen before how the preaching tours of the Swamis in charge of those centres of the Mission have largely contributed to keep up the propaganda in many parts of South India.

B-(2) Occasional Relief Activities during

(1) Famine, (2) Flood, (3) Plague, (4) Fire, (5) Earthquake, &c.

1. FAMINE WORKS :-

(a) In the District of Moorshidabad in 1897.

(b) In the District of Dinajpur in 1897.

(c) At Deoghar (Sonthal Perganas) in 1897.

(d) At Dakshineswar (24 Perganas) in 1897.

(e) At Kishengarh ( Rajputana ) in 1899-1900.

(f) At Khandwa, Central Provinces in 1900.

(g) In the Tipperah, Sylhet, and Noakhali Districts in

1906-7.

(h) In Diamond Harbour Sub-Division in 1906-7.

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(i) In the District of Puri in 1908.

(j) In the District of Moorshidabad in 1908.

2. FLOOD RELIEF WORKS :-

(a) At Ghoga in Bhagalpur District in 1899.

(b) Behala-Bishnupur (24 Perganas) in 1900.

(c) In Ghatal Sub-division and part in Hooghly District

in 1909.

3. PLAGUE RELIEF AND SANITARY WORKS :-

(a) In Calcutta during the plague epidemic in 1899 and

also in the year 1900.

(b) In the town of Bhagalpur in 1904, 1905 and also in

the year 1912.

(c) During Ganga Sagar Mela in Sagar Island in 1912-13.

4. FIRE RELIEF WORK :-

At Bhubaneswar in Puri District in 1910.

5. EARTHQUAKE RELIEF WORK :- At Dharamasala (Punjab), in 1905.

6. LANDSLIP RELIEF WORK : - At Darjeeling in 1899.

III. (a) The several Mission Funds kept open for

public Contribution.

It has been pointed out that apart from the monastic life and discipline of the Maths, the Ramkrishna Mission affords a field of activity where the public are invited to co-operate with the members of the Ramkrishna Order. Generally speaking, such co-operation may either consist in an active participation in the work of the Mission as its member or associate, or in pecuniary contribution to its funds, or in both. People who sympathise with the objects of the Mission but are precluded from active participation in its work by their avocation in life, are welcome to co-operate with the Mission, among other ways, by sending contribution, however small, to the following funds :-

(i) FUNDS FOR SUPPORT OF THE PERMANENT INSTITUTIONS i.e. Sevashrams at Benares, Allahbad, Brindaban and Kankhal.

(ii) PROVIDENT RELIEF FUND – for keeping resources ready to some extent against the sudden scourges of nature

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such as earthquake, pestilence, famine, flood &c., that is to say, cases of wide-spread distress where prompt action constitutes a large factor of successful relief. We quote the following from the public appeal that was made from the Mission when this important fund was first set afoot.

“The periodic recurrence of famine, plague and many other disasters has become almost quite certain in India like chronic diseases in the human organism and it seems that nothing short of a permanent fund can cope with such an outlook. The Mission, therefore, has decided to keep a special fund which for easy reference and for distinguishing it from other funds has been named “the Provident Relief Fund” open always to the public for contribution, for relieving all periodic and temporary public distresses such as famine, flood, earthquake, plague, fire &c.

(iii) EDUCATIONAL FUND- to help educational work in the Orphanage and the Women’s School.

(iv) GENERAL FUND- for genera expenses of the Mission, such as are incurred for inspection of centres, holding meetings of the Association, Missionary work, postage, printing, stationery &c.

(v) POOR FUND-for alleviating individual distresses of various natures that claim urgent help from the Mission at its headquarters.

Contribution are to be sent to the headquarters of the Mission with the name of that particular institution or Sevashram clearly specified which is to get the benefit thereof. It is also open to the contributors to send their money direct to the address of the Institutions of the Mission which they desire to help. In this connection it may be declared here that the management of the fund for maintaining the Women’s Institution at 17 Bosepara Lane, Calcutta as a fitting memorial to the late Sister Nevedita, has been vested in the Ramkrishna Mission by the memorial meeting at the Town Hall.

(b)-Thanks of the Mission and its appeal.

We take this opportunity of recording our sincerest

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thankfulness to the many donors, subscribers and sympathisers of our Mission without whose kind and prompt support none of the benevolent works enumerated above, could have been undertaken or accomplished. We also express our deepest gratitude and appreciation to the Editors and publishers of newspapers and journals and all those local gentlemen, both official and non-official, without whose help and sympathy none of our temporary relief centres in the mofussil could have been opened and worked. We continue our appeal here to the generous public all over the country to maintain their attitude of prompt help in future as in the past and thus to participate in the glorious privilege of rendering service and worship to God a perpetually revealed to us in the form of brother-man.

(c)-Concluding Remarks.

There is a good deal of confusion in the minds of many as to the precise relation that monasticism bears to all the work that the Ramkrishna Mission proposes to take up. This confusion mainly arises from a tenacious notion that Renunciation and Service are conflicting ideals that can not combine with each other without detriment to one or the other. Without entering into any controversy, which is out of place here, it may be pointed out that Renunciation does not mean the negation or avoidance of activity; for, except in the final consummation of Samadhi, absence of activity is impossible to attain, as it has been said in the Bhagavad-Gita―NA HI KASCHIT KSHANAMAPI JATU TISTHATYAKARMAKRIT. – GITA. Again the life of those who live in and out of Samadhi, displays an amount of activity tremendous both in intensity and extensity. Therefore, renunciation means rather a growing selflessness in one’s motive, - this selflessness being implied in that spiritual elevation gradually attained through Jnanayoga, Bhaktiyoga, Rajayoga or Karmayoga. Temporary abstention from distracting activities may of course, be necessary in many cases just for the sake of gathering a sufficient power to concentrate the efforts and to keep away selfishness from motives, but it cannot and need not be a

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general rule to lead the spiritual aspirants away from all motive action. Rather it is desirable and necessary for them to have some noble field of activity where they can under proper guidance practise selflessness in motive, which is the surest index to purity of heart, such as neither exuberance of sentiment nor loftiness of intellect is. It is indeed such a field of activity that the Ramkrishna Mission strives to provide through its many Institutions of Service-charitable, educational and spiritual, - and not only is it in such disciplinary stages that the spirit of service is combined with that of Renunciation, but also in the lives of liberated souls the same spirit of service manifests itself as the flowering of the highest renunciation, as the Symbolisation or Lila of the highest spirituality.

There is another misconception under which many of our educated countrymen seem to labour. In some quarters at least it is believed that monasticism cannot be any important factor in the growth of the collective life in India. Side by side with such a wrong notion, we find people seeking to utilise the monastic spirit as a means to some material collective end. It is possible to trace the real cause of such misconceptions, to a fundamental confusion between the ideals and culture of the West and those of India. Briefly speaking, India has its own scheme of life, just as the West has its; but being under a long spell of self-oblivion, we have been foolishly led captive by the Western scheme of life, fancying that we would build up a collective life in India on the lines laid down by Western culture. But the Indian scheme of life refuses to be cast into oblivion any longer, for it has found its stalwart champion in the Swami Vivekananda, the unique gift of Sri Ramkrishna to the world. Again and again in his Indian Speeches, the Swami pointed out that from the earliest ages, Renunciation has formed the central ideal, the pivot, on which the Indian scheme of life has been made to revolve and that no material or political end can ever supply the organising motive in the collective life of India. It was this spiritual scheme of collective life

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out of which the ancient law-givers of India developed a wonderful structure of society. They were the real makers of Indian history, for out of their endeavours Indian history took its start ; and throughout the course of this history, spiritual forces have always been found to form the determining factory, the shaping and moulding principle in the life of the people, while political changes have merely supplied to in the attendant circumstances.

In India, therefore, for inspiration and strength, for proper culture and enlightenment, for direction and guidance, collective life will have to look forward, as in the past so in future, to monasticism, remodelled in outward form, it may be, to suit the requirements of the age. But where are those youngmen whose renunciation will make this most central and fundamental Institution in Indian life and thought the success that it is incumbent on us to make it, before we can hope to reconstruct Indian life and thought with a view to contribute our quota to the sum total of human progress? To these youngmen the words of appeal uttered by Swami Vivekananda seem still to ring clear : “I want young men. Say the Vedas, ‘It is the strong, the healthy, of sharp intellect and young, that will reach the Lord.’ This is the time to decide your future ; with the energy of youth, when you have not been worked out, nor jaded but still in the freshness and vigour of youth. Work ; this is the time ; for the freshest, the most untouched, and unsmelled flowers alone are to be laid at the feet of the Lord, and such He receives. Get up, therefore, greater works are to be done that picking quarrels and becoming lawyers and such things.” To such youngmen shielded by true renunciation from all the seductions of worldly ambition and enjoyment and the allurements of a narrow, exotic, political ideal for their country, the Ramkrishna Mission sends forth its appeal, for the harvest indeed is full and we watch, day to day, for the coming of the reapers.

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(d) Appendices :―

Extract from the Memorandum of Association of the Ramkrishna Mission.

1. The name of the Association is the Ramkrishna Mission.

2. The Object of the Association are : ―

(a) To impart and promote the study of the Vedanta and its principles as propounded by Sri Ramkrishna and practically illustrated by his own life, and of Comparative theology in its widest form.

(b) To impart and promote the study of the arts, sciences and industries.

(c) To train teachers in all branches of knowledge above mentioned and enable them to reach the masses.

(d) To carry on educational work among the masses.

(e) To establish, maintain, carry on and assist schools, colleges, orphanages, workshops, laboratories, hospitals, dispensaries, houses for the infirm, the invalid and afflicted, famine-relief works, and other educational and charitable works and institutions of a like nature.

(f) To print and publish and to sell or distribute, gratuitously or otherwise, journals, periodicals, books or leaflets that the Association may think desirable for the promotion of its objects.

(g) To carry on any other which may seem to the Association capable of being conveniently carried on in connection with and calculated directly or indirectly to promote any of the before-mentioned objects.

(h) To purchase, take on lease or in exchange, hire or otherwise acquire property moveable or immoveable and any rights or privileges which may be deemed necessary or convenient for the purposes of the Association and to improve, develop, manage, sell, lease, mortgage, dispose of, turn to

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account or otherwise deal with all or any part of the property of the Association.

(i) To construct, maintain or alter any house, buildings or works necessary or convenient for the purposes of the Association.

(j) To accept any gift of property whether subject, or not, to any special trusts or conditions in favour or furtherance of any of the objects of the Association.

(k) To take such steps by personal or written appeals, public meetings or otherwise as may from time to time be deemed expedient for the purpose of procuring contributions to the funds of the Association in the shape of donations, subscriptions or otherwise.

(l) For the purposes of the Association to borrow and raise money in such manner as the Association may think fit.

(m) To invest the moneys of the Association not immediately required upon such securities and in such manner as may from time to time be determined.

(n) To undertake and execute any trust or any agency business which may seem directly or indirectly conducive to ay of the objects of the Association either gratuitously or otherwise.

(o) For the purpose of the Association to make, accept, endorse and execute promissory notes, bills of exchange, Hundis and other negotiable instruments.

(p) To incorporate any institutions, societies or associations having objects wholly or in part similar to any of those of the Association and to co-operate with any person or persons in aid of such objects.

(q) To do all or any of the above things either as principals, agents trustees or otherwise and by

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or through trustees, agents or otherwise, and either alone or in conjunction with others.

(r) To do all such other things as are incidental or conducive to the attainment of the above objects or any of them.

3. The names, addresses and occupations of the Governing Body of the Association are :―

Swami Brahmananda, Belur Math, Hindu Missionary.

Do Saradananda, ,, ,,

Do Premananda ,, ,,

Do Sivananda ,, ,,

Do Akhandananda ,, ,,

Do Trigunatita ,, ,,

Do Subodhananda ,, ,,

Do Abhedananda ,, ,,

Do Turiyananda ,, ,,

Do Suddhananda ,, ,, Being the

Do Bodhananda ,, ,, present

Do Atmananda ,, ,, Trustees of

Do Satchidananda No.1 ,, ,, the Belur

Do Virajananda ,, ,, Math.

Do Achalananda ,, ,,

Do Mahimananda ,, ,,

Do Sankarananda ,, ,,

Do Dhirananda ,, ,,

Do Nirbhoyananda ,, ,,

Rules and Regulations of the Ramkrishna Mission.

OBJECTS.

1. The Association is established for the purposes expressed in the Memorandum of Association.

MEMBERS AND ASSOCIATES.

2. All followers, whether lay or monastic, of the Paramahamsa Ramkrishna may be members of the Association if elected at a meeting of the Association or nominated by the Governing Body hereinafter mentioned.

3. All persons irrespective of colour, creed or caste, sympathising with all or any of the objects of the Association

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may be associates if elected or nominated as mentioned in rule 2, regarding the election of members.

4. Monastic members shall not be required to pay any admission fee or any subscription.

5. Every lay member and every associate, unless exempted therefrom in writing by the Governing Body, shall pay an admission fee of Rs. 5 and an annual subscription of Rs. 5 payable by two half-yearly instalments in advance. The Governing Body may exempt any member or associate from payment of all or any fees or subscriptions.

6. The annual subscription shall be commuted by a payment of Rs. 100.

7. Connection of members and associates with the Association shall cease by resignation or non-payment of dues for two years but shall be capable or renewal in such manner as the Governing Body may from time to time determine.

8. Members shall be entitled to :―

(a) Vote at all meetings of the Association, use the Library attached to the Math at Belur in the District of Howrah and reside at the Math temporarily subject to rules and regulations prescribed by the Math authorities.

(b) Attend all classes formed by the Association for the instructions of its members and receive individual instruction whenever practicable.

(c) Receive all publications of the Association at a special discount of 25 per cent on the published price.

(d) Mufussil members shall be entitled to receive English or Bengali proceedings, reports and leaflets published by the Association on payment of postage dues.

9. Associates shall have all the privileges of members except the right to vote at meetings.

MEETINGS OF THE ASSOCIATION.

10. There shall be one ordinary meeting of the Association

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every year to be held at such place and time as the President shall from time to time determine.

11. Extraordinary general meetings of the Association may be convened either by the President or by a requisition signed by not less that five members of the Governing Body or by a requisition signed by not less than 8 members of the Association. The time and place of such extraordinary meetings shall be determined by the President or Requisitionists with the section of the President.

12. (a) Each member shall have a single vote, in all meetings of the Association except the President, who shall have a casting vote in case of a tie.

(b) In the absence of the President a member of the Governing Body of the Association will be elected to preside at any of its meetings.

(c) The Secretary shall duly notify to the members, the time and place of the meetings of the Association at least twenty-four hours before such a meeting takes place.

(d) The Treasurer will collect all funds, dues, donations, and contributions and deposit the same in a Bank, in the name of the Ramkrishna Mission.

13. (a) Not less that five members shall form a quorum in any meeting of the Association, competent to proceed with the business of the meeting.

(b) The Accountant shall keep clear accounts of the income and expenses of the Association and report the same at the meetings of the Governing Body.

THE GOVERNING BODY.

14. The management of the Association and its affairs shall be vested in the Trustees for the time being of the Indenture of Trust dated the 30^th day of January 1901 usually called the Trust Deed of the Belur Math, who shall form the Governing Body of the Association. If at any time there shall be no acting Trustee of the said Belur Math the

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Association in a general meeting may appoint a Governing Body of the Association, constituted as the Association in such meeting shall determine.

15 The Governing Body shall from among its members elect a President, a Vice-President, a Secretary or Secretaries, a Treasurer and an Accountant of the Association, and assign to them their respective duties and they shall form the executive committee of the Association.

16 The Governing Body shall be competent from time to time to frame rules for the conduct of its business and also to make bye-laws for the management of the Association and for the management, conduct and carrying on of its business and affairs and also from time to time to vary of repeal such rules or bye-laws.

17 The Association in general meeting may disallow, rescind, cancel or alter any such rules or bye-laws and may make rules or bye-laws for any of the purposes aforesaid.

18. (a) The Governing Body shall be competent to delegate by a certificate in writing and bearing the seal of the Association to any person or persons or body or bodies such portions of their authority as they shall from time to time think fit, and at pleasure to revoke the authority so delegated.

(b) The Governing Body may confer the honorary position of an associate upon any one who has distinguished himself by educational and philanthropic works or otherwise.

19. (a) The Governing Body shall cause proper records and accounts to be kept be kept of the Association, its affairs and property.

(b) The Governing Body shall elect workers from among the members and associates of the Association and authorise and empower them to raise subscriptions, donations etc., from the public, for furthering any object of the Association by giving them certificates in writing, bearing the

seal of the Association and take accounts from them of the same.

AUDIT.

20. The accounts of the Association shall be annually audited by an auditor or auditor or auditors to be appointed by the Association in meeting.

SEAL.

21. The Association shall have a common seal of such make and design as the Governing Body shall decide.

22. The seal shall be affixed to all formal documents in the presence of two members of the Governing Body of whom one shall be the President, the Vice-President of the Secretary.

CONTRACTS.

23. All contracts shall be made by two members of the Governing Body and the President or in his absence the Secretary.

MISCELLANEOUS.

24. The rules and regulations for the time being of the Association may from time to time be altered, added to or rescinded by the Association in a general meeting.

Bye-Laws.

1. Philanthrophic, charitable or any other kind of work started by Governing Body of the Ramkrishna Mission in co-operation with the interested people of any locality outside of Belur shall be regarded as Branch Centres.

2. (a) These will be managed by local committees and office-bearers, or by a single individual or individuals selected form among the local members and associates by the Governing Body.

(b) The duties and power with which a local committee or any of its office-bearers is hereby entrusted, shall, so far as applicable, be performed and exercised by a single individual or individuals, authorised to manage a branch centre, the

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monthly detailed account of the work done in the centre and the sums drawn and disbursed for carrying on the work being submitted directly by such individual or individuals to the Governing Body of the Mission.

3. The Local committees shall direct the business of those centres, by rules and bye-laws framed by the Governing Body in consultation with the local members and associates or the people of the locality interested in those works.

4. Every such centre shall contribute, when capable, a sum of Rupees twelve annually to the Governing Body in consideration of its affiliation with the Association.

5. The sources of income of such institutions shall be subscriptions and donations from the public : and the money raised by such means shall be exclusively used for the welfare of such institutions.

6. Subscribers to such an institution, its bonafide workers, and medical men and other persons who render substantial and gratuitous service to such an institution, are eligible for election as members of the Ramkrishna Mission.

7. The Governing Body of the Ramkrishna Mission shall appoint a chief Supervisor and a local committee with office-bearers for the management of affairs of every branch centre which is not managed by a single individual or individuals.

8. The Governing Body of the Ramkrishna Mission shall have power to remove and dissolve such Supervisors and local committees and appoint others in their place.

9. The local committee shall consist of not less than eight members including the chief Supervisor and the Secretary and each member shall have equal power to vote.

10. Subscriptions and donations shall be received by the Secretary or the Assistant Secretary who shall grant a receipt for the same.

11. All moneys and deposit accounts, Government Promissory Notes and other securities shall stand in the name of the Ramkrishna Mission with the name of the local centres

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attached to it. The local Treasurer shall have power to withdraw money and to draw interest at the requisition of the local Secretary or the local Assistant Secretary who shall quote the necessary authority in drawing the same.

12. The local Secretary or the local Assistant Secretary shall call a meeting of the local Committee every month, giving due notice of the business to be brought forward before the meeting to all the members of the Committee and shall submit the proceedings of such and other meetings to the Governing Body of the Ramkrishna Mission.

13. The local secretary shall publish an annual report of the working of his Committee or branch centre.

14. In all meetings of the local Committee the presence of five members shall form a quorum. In the absence of the local President or the local Vice-President, the meeting shall elect a President from amongst the members present.

15. All questions before a meeting of the local Committee shall be decided by a majority of votes. In cases of equal division, the Chairman shall have a casting vote.

16. The local Secretary or the local Assistant Secretary shall have power to call a meeting of the local Committee at any time at the request of four members of the local Committee.

17. The local Secretary and the local Assistant Secretary shall receive representations from the public and select the business to be taken up by the local Managing Committee at its sitting, and shall hold communications on behalf of the Committee.

18. The local Secretary with local Assistant Secretary shall keep a record of the proceedings of the meetings under the signature of the Chairman, and a detailed account of the work done in the centre and of the sums drawn and disbursed by him, for carrying on the work and shall place them before the monthly meeting of the local Committee.

19. The local Committee shall have power to frame new rules at any future time for the furtherance of the object of

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such an institution with the sanction of the Governing Body of the Ramkrishna Mission.

20. The Secretary or the Assistant Secretary of the local Committee should apply of the President of the Governing Body of the Ramkrishna Mission to empower with proper certificate bearing his own signature and the special seals of the Ramkrisna Mission, the workers elected by the Committee for raising subscriptions and donations in aid of the institution. Such workers should produce them, if wanted, before all donors for their satisfaction.

21. Such workers should carry receipt books to enter the sums donated with the signatures of the donors in their own handwritings. They should remit their collections to the local Secretaries with the names and addresses of the donors at the end of every week without fail, and the local Secretaries or the local Assistant Secretaries should send acknowledgements of the sums thus received, to the donors by return of post.

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List of Monastic Members.

At it has been found expedient to publish a full list of the names of all the members of the Ramkrishna Math, Belur and its branches, as well as of the monastic members of the Ramkrishna Mission belonging to the head Math at Belur and its branches, with their respective offices, we publish them below :―

S a n n y a s i n s.

Name 1. Swami Brahmananda 2. ,, Premananda 3. ,, Sivananda 4. ,, Subodhananda 5. ,, Sachchidananda 6. ,, Suddhananda 7. ,, Dhirananda 8. ,, Sankarananda 9. ,, Mahimananda 10. ,, Nirbhayananda 11. ,, Achalananda 12. ,, Adbhutananda 13. ,, Karunananda 14. ,, Ambikananda 15. ,, Purnananda 16. ,, Saradananda 17. ,, Turiyananda 18. ,, Akhandananda 19. ,, Trigunatita 20. ,, Prakashananda

Address Ramakrishna Math, Belur, Howrah Do Do Do Do Do Do Do Do Do Do Do Do Do Do Ramkrishna Math, Baghbazar, Calcutta Kankahal Sargachi, Moorshidabad Vedanta Society, San Francisco, U. S. A. Do

Office President, Math & Mission Vice-President of the Math & Treasurer of the Mission Vice-President of the Mission Trustee Do Do Do Do Do Do Do Member Do Do Do Secretary, Math & Mission Trustee Trustee : in charge of R.K.M. Orphanage Trustee Member

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Name 21. Swami Bodhananda 22. ,, Paramananda No. 1. 23. ,, Virajananda 24. ,, Paramananda No. 2 25. ,, Atmananda 26. ,, Girijananda 27. ,, Santananda 28. ,, Vijnanananda 29. ,, Nirmalananda 30. ,, Visuddhananda 31. ,, Somananda 32. ,, Kalyanananda 33. ,, Nischayananda 34. ,, Sharvananda 35. ,, Gokulananda

Address Vedanta Society, New York, U. S. A. ,, ,, Boston Mayavati, Almora Do Advaita Ashram, Benares Do Do Allahabad Bangalore City Do Do Kankhal Do Mylapur, Madras Do

Office Trustee Member President of the Advaita Ashrama, Mayavati Member Trustee Member Do In charge R. K. M. Sevashrama Allahbad In charge of the Bangalore Ashrama Member Do In charge of Kankhal R. K. M. Sevashram Member In charge of Ramkrishna Home Member

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Brahmacharins.

Name Brahmachair Jnan ,, Ram (Atul) ,, Jnanananda ,, Ashoke ,, Sachin ,, Naren ,, Gopal ,, Charuchandra No. 2 ,, Benodebehari ,, Viswachaitanya ,, Gangaram ,, Gonendranath ,, Kapil ,, Rasbehari ,, Prionath ,, Nirmal ,, Prajnananda ,, Bharat ,, Sitapati ,, Sitaraman ,, Prabhash ,, Chandranath ,, Prakash ,, Nalinikanta ,, Charuchandra No.1 ,, Harendranath ,, Srishchandra ,, Suddhachaitanya ,, Anandachaitanya ,, Abinash ,, Nagen ,, Rudrachaitanya ,, Nityachaitanya ,, Panchanan (Tincori)

Address Ramakrishna Math, Belur Do Do Do Do Do Do Do Do Do Do Ramakrishna Math, Calcutta Do Do Do Do Mayavati, Almora Do Do Do Do Advaita Ashrama, Benares Do Benares Do Brindaban Do Bangalore Kankhal Do Do Ramakrishna Home, Mylapore Do Allahabad

Office. Member Do Do Do Do Do Do Do Do Do Do Do Do Do Do Do Do Do Do Do Do Do Do Member Asst. Secy.,R.K. M. Home of Service Incharge of RKM Sevashram Member Do Do Do Do Do Do Do Do

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The Math and the Mission : Their Respective Jurisdiction.

The Ramkrishna Math and the Ramkrishna Mission are the twin institution to embody respectively, Renunciation and Service, which according to Swami Vivekananda “are the two national ideals of India.”

Renunciation is the locus of all progress in religious life, whether through Jnana-Yoga, Bhakti-Yoga, Raja-Yoga or Karma-Yoga ; and monasticism is the clearest and surest response from human life that Renunciation cal call forth. The Ramkrishna Math is therefore a monastic institution.

Besides, monasticism implies that tremendous concentration of life which is so indispensable to the proper fulfilment of a Divine Trust such as Sri Ramkrishna Paramahamsa imposed upon his all-renouncing disciples. This Divine trust to perpetuate the ideal and the revelation of One Universal Religion, re-establishing the truths of the Vedas and all the scriptures of the world for modern humanity, first devolved itself upon the consecrated head of Swami Vivekananda, who, accordingly, with his chosen group of his brother disciples formed themselves into the Ramkrishna Order of Sannyasins, with headquarters finally fixed in 1899 at the Belur Math. To this monastic institution a legal status was assured by the Swami through a deed of trust executed by him early in 1899.

This monastic institution besides possessing a legal aspect in that it administers its affairs, so far as necessary, in legal form through a Board of Trustees with a President and a Secretary, preserves also all the traditional character and polity of a monastic order with a chief or Mahant at the helm of its affairs and with its own methods of spiritual discipline, training and culture. The Math implies therefore a perfect organisation by itself and is quite a separate institution from the Ramkrishna Mission.

Thus the Math with its various remifications in the different parts of the country is purely concerned with the Ramkrishna Order of Sannyasins and Brahmacharins, and with the perpetuation through their spiritual culture of the great Ideal

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and Revelation which Sri Ramrkishan Paramahamsa embodied in his life. But when this monastic order steps out of the isolation of individual spiritual pursuits and associates with the public in sphere of service to humanity, it becomes the Ramkrishna Mission. It is then that from among the Trustees of the Math, the members of the Governing Body of the Mission are composed, the President of the Trustees of the Mahant of the Order becomes the President of the Mission and the public are invited to co-operate with the monastic order, as members and associates of the Mission, in all the missionary, educational or charitable activities of the Mission.

The Mission is therefore a collateral and dependent development of the Math itself, calculated to supply to the latter that proper scope and public aspect which it requires for realising its ideal of Service. In the Mission, the monastic order of the Math co-operates and associates with the public outside and therefore the Mission, except in the constitution of it Governing Body, is quite a public institution, with its own body of rules and regulations and its various recognised centres in the different parts of the country.

To Avoid misconception, it may well be added here that the great birthday celebrations that take place every year at the Math and its branches elsewere are not held by the Ramkrishna Mission as a general rule, but by the Math and its branches. Any centre of the Mission holding such celebrations has of course to submit a special account for money expended thereon to the public.

For facility of distinguishing from the purely monastic activities of the Ramkrishna Order of Sannyasins and Brahmacharins, those other activities which may be included in reports such as the present one, it may be laid down here that any work of spiritual, educational or charitable utility to the public which any member of the monastic order, being also a member of the Mission, may do without money or with money taken from the public or from the Mission funds for the purpose, falls within the category of Mission work.

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With regard to activities which any lay member of the Mission may undertake, it may also be laid down that any work of spiritual, educational or charitable utility to the public which any such lay member may do in pursuance of definite instructions from the Mission or any of its recognised centres, with private money or with money taken from the public after due authorisation from the Mission or taken from Mission funds for the purpose, falls within the category of Mission work.

No society or association in any place working on the lines of the Ramkrishna Mission is, as a general rule, affiliated to the Mission as its branch centre, unless the method of its work and the spirit which actuates it are brought into line with the method and spirit of the parent institution, by some monastic member of the Mission formally authorised and sent by the Mission to that society or association for that purpose.