We are happy to inform you that the portion of the house in which Swami Vivekananda stayed for 3 days in October 1892 (as a guest of the advocate Sri Sadashiv Bhate) was handed over to the Ramakrishna Mission at a function held on 3rd Feb 2007. This portion of the house contains a cot and mirror used by Swamiji during his stay here and the walking stick used during his Parivrajaka days.

This was maintained until now as a private centre, under the name Ramakrishna Vivekananda Sevashrama. The Ramakrishna Mission, Belur Math, has now made this the Sub-Centre of its Belgaum centre – Ramakrishna Mission Ashrama located at Fort, Belgaum.

The building housing the Sub-centre will be maintained as a memorial of Swami Vivekananda. This house sanctified by the stay of Swamiji was also visited by the following great leaders of India and many others:

Mahatma Gandhi, Motilal Nehru, Jawaharlal Nehru, Gopalakrishna Gokhale, Subhash Chandra Bose, Balgangadhar Tilak, Sarojini Naidu, Rabindranath Tagore

Over 150 years old, this building needs a thorough and careful renovation to preserve it for the future generations of our society, as a heritage especially for Swamiji’s innumerable admirers and devotees.

Activities at the Sub-Centre:

• Daily puja, regular discourses, Jayanti celebrations and Satsangs

• Books section to spread Ramakrishna-Vivekananda-Vedanta Literature

The Ramakrishna Mission has initiated activities to serve the underprivileged, as an attempt to follow Swamiji’s ideal of real worship, which he defined as the service of the poor and the downtrodden:

 
fig: distribution of milk and tiffin (left) & coaching classes for students (right)

• Every evening the Mission provides milk and snacks to 100 poor children from the local government school.

• Free coaching classes for students in a school nearby.

Planned future activities at the Sub-Centre

• Knowledge of computers has become a necessity for everyone these days. The Mission intends to open a computer training institute at the premises of the Sub- Centre to provide courses at nominal charges to help bring awareness among students, youth and the general public.

• It is found that a lack of good spoken English is a great disadvantage in today’s student and professional life. The Spoken English classes are being started for all age groups.

We propose to start the following activities for which we appeal for donations:

1. A charitable Dispensary : Rs. 10 Lakhs

2. Thorough Renovation : Rs. 50 Lakhs

3. Spoken English Classes : Rs. 5 Lakhs

4. Computer Training Centre : Rs. 15 Lakhs