SRI RAMAKRISHNARPANAM: Pranams at the Lotus Feet of The Holy Trio,Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi and Swami Vivekananda. A Blog dedicated to the Devotees of the Ramakrishna Order. JAI SRI RAMAKRISHNA
'The Vedanta Kesari' a cultural and spiritual monthly in English published by Sri Ramakrishna Math, Chennai since 1914 is now available in a DVD and for Digital download from the Ramakrishna Math, Chennai website. The magazine started at the behest of Swami Vivekananda, as the Brahmavadin in September 1895 under Sri Alasinga Perumal and later came to be called The Vedanta Kesari: the Lion of Vedanta since 1914 is an Encyclopedic Treasure House of Vedanta. The DVD contains all the articles published from May 1914 to December 2009 a period of 96 years with 14,300 articles by 2,400 authors in 48,000 pages. The DVD can be searched by Articles, Authors, Year wise or using keywords.
Swami Vivekananda's Jayanthi/ Janam Tithi celebrations were held yesterday 06-01-2010 at Belur Math the Headquarters of the Ramakrishna Math and Mission, Kolkata and various other centers including Sri Ramakrishna Ashrama, Mysore. Here is the link to the photographs of the various events held at Belurmath: http://sn.im/svphotos2010 and http://sn.im/svphotos2010_1
Holy Mother's Jayanthi was celebrated at Sri Ramakrishna Ashrama, Mysore on December 8, 2009. Here are some photographs taken on the occasion courtesy 'Sri Ramakrishna Ashrama,Mysore'.
Immediately thick plastic tent materials (LDPE tarpaulin sheets) & coir ropes were purchased & were distributed on the next day (Wed, 7th Oct, 09). In all about 150 tarpaulin sheets & coir ropes worth Rs. 40,000/- were distributed.
Both the Swamijis are moving about surveying badly affected areas in Bellary, Koppal & Bijapur districts & trying to arrange whatever services possible, depending on the immediate needs of the people.
Few photographs of the Matur Village are attached herewith.
Because of the sudden inundation of the areas adjoining the river Tungabhadra whole areas were submerged suddenly making it difficult for the people residing in those areas to shift and lost most of the items of their use. The damage to property is very huge. Ramakrishna Mission, true to its tradition has started the relief with limited resources at its disposal in Kurnool area as follows.
1. We have procured food articles like rice, dal,oil etc. and also needed cloths like lungi, saree, bedsheets etc. With one of our Monks and volunteers they have transported the materials to kurnool (about 200kms from Kadapa) on 4.10.2009 (As all shops also were inundated materials were not available there or they were very costly). After due survey they have selected one interior village - Sultanpura in Mahaboob Nagar District, about 40 kms from Kurnool. That village of 650 families was surrounded by water and houses were also in waist deep water. people were living on roof tops and no other agency had gone there to render any service. In this scenario, we selected that village and are distributing food articles, drinking water pouches and cloths.
2. The second team with another monk and volunteers have gone with food articles for distributing in E.Tandrapadu village and cluster of villages in kurnool District which was totally cut off from the road connection because of washing away of bridges and breech of railway track. They have distributed about 5000 drinking pouches and 3000 cooked food packets on 6th Oct. The relief is continuing in a similer way as the areas are still full of slush though the flood water has some what drained off.
More villages will be added and service in these two above villages will continue as it will take quite some time for normalcy to return to these villages where every thing is out of gear because of the damage due to floods.
With best wishes and Namaskars,
Yours in the service of the Lord
Swami Atmavidananda, Secretary
By the grace of the Lord, the consecration of the Swami Vivekananda Stone-bench Monument function went off smoothly on Friday the 27th March 2009.
We are herewith sending a brief report of the event along with a few photographs as attachments.
With good wishes,
yours in the Lord
Swami Harshananda
Ramakrishna Math, Bull Temple Road,
Bangalore - 560019 Ph # 080 - 2661 3149, 2667 1010
Report
On Yugadi day i.e. Friday the 27th March 2009, Swami Vivekananda Stone-bench Monument was consecrated by Srimat Swami Bhaumanandaji Maharaj (President, Ramakrishna Math, Pune). The consecration was done at 7:15 AM followed by special puja, homa, mangalarathi and prasad distribution. The morning session was concluded at 12:30 PM. Around 1200 devotees attended in the morning session.
In the evening there was a public meeting where Srimat Swami Bhaumanandaji Maharaj presided and Dr. Gururaja Karjagi (Director, International Academy for Creative Teaching, Bangalore) was the main speaker. Swami Harshanandaji addressed the gathering explaining the significance of the Stone-bench. Mementos were distributed for the devotees and members who worked for this Stone-bench project. There were about 1600 devotees in the evening session.
Brief report of the Monument
When Swami Vivekananda arrived in Bangalore during December 1892 from Belgaum, he stayed at the Kalappa Choultry in the Majestic area for a few days. During that period he sat and rested quite a few times on a stone- bench attached to the front wall of the house of Sri Sugappa, a jeweller by profession. After discovering later that the sannyasin was none other than Swami Vivekananda, Sri Sugappa and his descendants preserved it carefully with all respect, as a valuable monument. This stone – bench – slab, which was sanctified by Swami Vivekananda, was officially handed over to Ramakrishna Math in January 1997
I received this Treasure Box from the threads of the Holy Trio group on Google. You may be wondering what treasure lies within this box. Without, taking more time let me come straight to the point. Recently, I discovered this book @ the Book stall of Sri Ramakrishna Ashrama, Mysore with the following title "How to Live with God: In the company of Ramakrishna" by Swami Chetanananda, Minister of Vedanta @ the Vedanta Society of St. Louis. I had read books titled "God Lived with them" and "They Lived with God" also by Swami Chetananandaji, but here was a book which gave a new perspective about Sri Ramakrishna the world knows about. 
Three things are necessary to make every Man great, every Nation great:
1. Conviction of the powers of goodness.
2. Absence of jealousy and suspicion.
3. Helping all who are trying to be and do good.
- Swami Vivekananda. C.W. Vol. 8, Epistles - Fourth series. XV
