This thought evolved in his mind and he somehow felt that The Parliament of Religions was being held for him. However, he waited for more concrete approvals from His Master before he resolved to go. 24 A vision of His Master and encouraging letter from Holy Mother finally told him that his Master indeed wanted him to go to America. Swami Vivekananda traveled to America as an unknown and after his first address at the Parliament of Religiones he now became known to the whole world. He had told Pramadadas Mitra earlier: “When I shall return here next time, I shall burst upon society like a bombshell, and it will follow me like a dog.” “We are so many Sannyasins wandering about, and teaching people metaphysics – it is all madness. Did not our Gurudeva say, “An empty stomach is not good for religion?” … Suppose some disinterested Sannyasins, bent on doing good to other, go from village to village, disseminating education and seeking in various ways to better the condition of all down to Chandala – can’t that bring forth good in time? We have to give back to the nation its lost individuality, and raise the masses.
Swamiji further writes from America to his brother monks, “If you want any good to come, just throw your ceremonials overboard and worship the Living God, the Man- God – every being that wears a Human Form.” “To do the highest good to the world, every one down to the lowest – this is our vow…Ramakrishna Paramahamsa came for the good of the entire world.”
He took the momentous decision to go to the West to raise funds for the uplift of the Indian masses, by giving in exchange the rich spiritual treasures that India had accumulated through centuries, and which he himself had inherited from his Master. The Parliament of Religions was a huge success. Swami Vivekananda was now famous in America. He diligently followed up this success with lot of lectures. He traveled to places within US lecturing. By the time he returned he had concretized plans to start Vedanta Society in New York. The Swami had seen by now the best and the worst of both the East and the West. He was now convinced that each had something to learn from the other. “I believe that the Hindu faith has developed the spiritual at the expense of the material,” he said, “and I think that in the West the contrary is true. By uniting the materialism of the West with the spiritualism of the East, I believe much can be accomplished.” He set sail again to London in 1896. Though he was busy with his work in the West ne never forgot his original mission. He was constantly in correspondence with his disciples in Madras and elsewhere, guiding, instructing, and encouraging them to push on with the work in India In the middle of November 1896, he suddenly decided that he must go back to India.
So he asked Mrs. Sevier, after a class talk, to book their berths for India from Naples by the earliest steamer available. On 16th December the Swami left London with the Seviers and visited Dover, Calais, Mont Cenis, City of Pisa, Florence, Rome, Vesuvius, and Pompeii, before taking the boat at Naples on 30th December 1896. In Rome, at St. Peter’s, he was struck by the resemblance between the Christian liturgy 25 and the Indian ceremonies. At Naples, Mr. Goodwin joined the party, and they arrived in Colombo on 15th January 1897.
The news of the Swami’s return had already reached India. He was no longer the unknown, wandering Sannyasin. The great work he had done for India in the West had become known throughout India. From Colombo to Madras, in all the important cities, committees consisting of all sections of the society had been formed to accord him a fitting reception. Two of his brother disciples and others from the north hastened to Ceylon and to Madras to receive him. Everywhere people gathered in hundreds to have his darshana and pay him homage. There were grand processions along richly decorated streets strewn with flowers; and triumphal arches, religious chants, addresses of welcome, and suitable replies by the Swami were the order of the day. Incense was burnt before the houses, and the sacred water of the Ganga and rose water were sprinkled on him. The newspapers carried editorials on the Swami. At Ramnad, where he arrived on 26th January, the Raja of Ramnad himself drew the carriage in which the Swami was being taken in procession. Inspired by the Swami’s message, he fed thousands of the poor. But the grandest reception awaited the hero at Madras, where the admirers were expecting him for weeks in feverish excitement. Madras had been mainly instrumental in sending the Swami to the West, and so it was but natural that the city should give him a hero’s reception. He was taken in procession through the streets which were profusely decorated with triumphal arches, flags, festoons, and flowers. Thousands gathered in the streets just to have a look at him, and during his stay there he was presented with twenty four addresses of welcome in various languages. The horses of the carriage in which he was conducted were unharnessed and the citizens themselves drew it. The public life of the city was suspended for nine days. He was accommodated in the Castle Kernan, a palatial building belonging to Mr. Biligiri Iyengar.
All along the route of his tour, specially in Jaffna and Kumbakonam, he gave inspiring lectures, reminding the people of the glory of India’s past and exhorting them to apply themselves to the task of raising her to her ancient splendor. But it was in Madras that he gave full expression to his ideas. On the third day after his arrival, a public address of welcome was presented to him at the Victoria Hall, but it was too small to contain the large gathering. The Swami at the insistent demand of the enthusiastic public waiting outside, spoke to them in the open from the top of a coach in “the Gita fashion”, urging them to maintain their enthusiasm and utilize it for the service of India. During his stay in Madras the Swami gave five public lectures, the subjects selected being “My Plan of Campaign”, “The Sages of India”, “Vedanta in Its Relation to Practical Life”, “The Work before Us”, and “The Future of India”. In these, the Swami addressed the whole of India, and here one finds his message to India expressed in the most inspiring language.
For the purpose of establishing his work on a firm basis, the Swami summoned all the monastic and lay disciples of Shri Ramakrishna to a meeting at Balaram Bose’s house on 1st May 1897. He told them that he had come to the conclusion that without an organization nothing great and permanent could be achieved, and proposed that an association be formed in the name of the Master known as the Ramakrishna Mission. The aims and ideals of the Mission as propounded by the Swami were purely spiritual and humanitarian. The Mission had nothing to do with politics. Suitable resolutions were passed to this effect and the Ramakrishna Mission 26 came into being. The Swami himself became the General President, Swami Yogananda the Vice-President, and Swami Brahmananda the President of the Calcutta center.
The Holy Belur Math
He formed the Ramakrishna Mission on May 1 1897, with the following ideals: “The aim of the Sangha is to preach those truths which Shri Ramakrishna has, for the good of humanity, preached and demonstrated by practical application in his own life, and to help others to put these truths into practice in their lives for their temporal, mental and spiritual advancement.” “Atmano Moshartham Jagathithaya cha” (For the Liberation of the Self and For the Good of the World)’.
Thus this order was born.
Sri Ramakrishna in Belur Math
Ramakrishna Math & Ramakrishna Mission are together referred to as the Ramakrishna Order. From the legal point of view the organisation has two distinct wings – the Ramakrishna Math and the Ramakrishna Mission. But this distinction is tenuous, often overlaps and therefore, more theoretical than real. The Math and Mission are closely related.
To stress the point – though both the Math and the Mission take up charitable and philanthropic activities, the former lays more emphasis on spiritual development of the people and the latter gives priority to welfare work.
The motto the twin organisations follow is the same, one that Swami Vivekananda put before them: ‘Atmano Mokshartham, Jagad Hitaya Cha’
There are over 138 official centres of the Ramakrishna Order, and many more unofficial, or unaffiliated ones. These centres not only cover the length and breadth of the Indian sub-continent, but also are in Europe, Russia, Japan, South America, Africa, Canada and the United States.
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