Ramakrishna Mission Ashrama @ Belgaum

A Report 

When the veteran politicians, young legislatures, entrepreneurs & men of social standing, share the same stage for a noble cause & speak earnestly, to a gathering of school & college students, their parents & teachers, about their experiences in life & how their lives have been inspired by the life & teachings of one man - Swami Vivekananda- then one may very well imagine what effect it must have made on the minds of the audience.

This is what happened on the morning of 27^th Sep, 08 at the very place sanctified by the stay of great Swami Vivekananda at Belgaum.

Saturday, 27^th September 2008 will be remembered, in coming times, as a day on which a new foundation was laid towards the strengthening of spiritual, cultural & moral values of our society in the region of North Karnataka. It was not an event for public propaganda. Rather it was, as Swami Vivekananda says “Slow and silent, as the gentle dew that falls in the morning, unseen and unheard yet producing a most tremendous result…”. This programme had the hallmark of the spirit in which the Ashrama is carrying on its activities.

The Chief Guest for the occasion, Sri C.M Udasi, the Hon. Minister for Public Works, Port & Inland Water Transport, Govt. Of Karnataka laid the foundation stone for the new Sabhangana to be constructed in the Ashrama premises. The sabhangana will serve as a multipurpose hall for conducting various activities of the Ashrama throughout the year. It will be used as a hall for special lecture programmes, satsangas, conducting Vivekananda Balaka Sangha & Yuvaka Sangha, competitions, students & youth conventions, welfare service activities, annual celebrations, etc.

In his touching & very thoughtful speech, Sri Udasi expressed his happiness & joy for being invited as the chief guest for this auspicious occasion. He appreciated the spirit of service towards the society with which the Ashrama is conducting all its activities & also the effort Ashrama is making in spreading, to the youths of this region, “the Character building & Man making ideas & ideals of Swami Vivekananda”, which is the pressing need of the present times.

The minister expressed his joy for the service activity of helping the poor students to continue their education by way of scholarship.

He also said that it is highly commendable & praiseworthy that the Ashrama is carrying on its multifarious activities for past several years in a quiet way. On behalf of the government he promised to extend all possible help for the Ashrama.

The other guests of Honour were Sri Shivakumar Udasi, Sri Ram Reddy, Sri Lakshman Reddy, Dr. A Rama Reddy. As special invitees were present Sri Abhay B Patil (MLA, Belgaum South), Sri Sanjay B Patil (MLA, Belgaum Rural), Sri Feroz N Saith (MLA, Belgaum North) & Sri Nanjundaiah. They expressed their heartfelt appreciation of the services being rendered to the Society through this Ashrama & wished these to continue to grow in the future also. All the speakers appealed to the gathering, in right earnestness, to imbibe the teachings of Swami Vivekananda for personal development in particular & development of the society in general.

The scholarships to the poor & meritorious students were distributed by the honorable minister & other dignitaries.

Free book coupons worth Rs 5000/- were also gifted to all the recipients to buy Ramakrishna-Vivekananda literature of their choice.

Sri Feroze Saith, (MLA, Belgaum North), under whose constituency the Ashrama is located, was much impressed by the Scholarship programme & promised to donate Rs. 50,000/- from his personal account to the Ashrama for this purpose. Similarly the other two legislatures from Belgaum, Sri Sanjay Patil & Sri Abhay Patil also assured to extend all possible help, monetary or otherwise, to the Ashrama.

In all, scholarships worth Rs. 5 lakhs & sponsorships worth Rs 2 lakhs have been distributed to 218 college students & 170 school students respectively, from all over Karnataka.

More than 500 people attended the function. All were served with cooked prasada after the programme.

Ramakrishna Mission Ashrama is the only Branch centre of the world wide Ramakrishna Math & Mission in the region of North Karnataka. This Ashrama since its inception in the year 2000, at the very place where Swami Vivekananda, as an itinerant monk, had stayed for 9 days (Oct 13-21, 1892) during his Bharat Parikrama, has been serving the society in various ways through its multifarious spiritual, religious & cultural activities.

Slowly & steadily the Ashrama has been expanding its services, which are being extended to the people of North Karnataka & there was a pressing need for proper infrastructure to conduct these activities. As such this new project comes as a welcome addition to the Ashrama & will go a long way in helping Ashrama serve the society.

It is estimated to cost Rs. 1.15 crores to construct this auditorium.We appeal to individuals & institutions to come forward to help generously in order to complete this project.

The donations may be sent by Cheque or D.D. favouring “Ramakrishna Mission Ashrama” to the following address:

“RAMAKRISHNA MISSION ASHRAMA

FORT, BELGAUM 590 016

KARNATAKA, INDIA

PH: 0831-2430789”

All donations are exempted from IT u/s 80G.

Ramakrishna Mission Ashrama, Belgaum conducted a 6 day programme from July 29^th – Aug 3rd named ‘VIVEKA VAHINI’. This programme was planned in order to spread the Value education.the programme consisted of Vedic chanting, Bhajans, lectures, classes, audio-video presentations, sales & free distribution of selected books.

A team of 7 monastics & 3 volunteers from the Ashrama headed by Swami Raghaveshanandaji Maharaj visited different schools & colleges in rural areas in the districts of Belgaum, Bagalkote & Raichur. The following was the programmed schedule in brief.

Day 1- July 29^th, 08

1^st programme: was held at Shri Annadaneshwara Swatantra pre-university college, Munavalli, Tq. Savadatti, Dist. Belgaum. 240 students from PUC I & II years (Arts & commerce) participated. Free books on teachings of Swami Vivekananda & were distributed to the participants.

2^nd programme: was held at Dr. Govindrao Vamanarao Nayik Swatantra PU college, Munavalli, Tq. Savadatti, Dist. Belgaum. In this 230 students from PUC I & II year (arts & commerce) participated. All participants were also given a free book on teachings of Swami Vivekananda & a photo of Swami Vivekananda.

3^rd programme: was conducted at Shri Kumareshwara high School, Munavalli. More than 200 students attended this session.

4^th programme: at Govt. High School, Munavalli. 250 students participated & were benifitted.

5^th programme: was held in evening for the benefit of general public at Panchalingeshwara Kalyan Mantapa, Munavalli. More than 200 people attended the Bhajans & speeches.

Day-2. July 30^th, 08

Different sessions at Sports school, Chandargi for English & Kannada medium students from 6^th – Puc 1^st Yr students. In all 900 students attended these sessions.

In the evening a public programme ( Satsanga) was organised by Swami Vivekananda Seva Kendra, Lokapur, Tq. Mudhol, Dist: Bagalkote. 150 people attended the programme.

Day 3. July 31^st, 08

Programmes were held at 3 different schools & colleges in Jamkhandi Tq, Dist. Bagalkote. More than 2,000 students attended these programmes.

In the evening a public programme was organised at Ganpati Temple, in which 200 people participated.

Day 4, 5 & 6. Aug 1, 2 & 3

In all 5 sessions were held at the Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Lingasagur, dt. Raichur, for all the students of this residential school. Also a Q & A session was held for PUC students & a special programme was conducted for the staff & teachers of the School.

Apart from the Navodaya school, 4 programmes were conducted at different school & colleges in Lingasagur Tq. In which 800 students participated.

In the evening of 3rd Aug, a special satsanga was conducted at Shri Raghavendra Swami Matha for general public. Around 70 people participated in this programme.

In all more than 5,200 students were reached & an effort was made to inculcate in them higher values for self development & formation of strong character, so that they can grow into a useful member of the society.

Free books & cards were distributed & for students interested in reading more literature, facility of a mobile book stall was provided at all the places where the programmes were conducted. In all the response was overwhelming & the student community showed much enthusiasm & genuine interest in the books on & by Swami Vivkekananda. The ideals & ideas of Swami Vivekananda was received with much keenness by the students as was understandable by the demand of more such classes by the students community.

The Ramakrishna Mission Ashrama, Belgaum is committed to take the life giving message of Swami Vivekananda by visiting as many schools & colleges as possible , specially in the rural areas.

As a part its on going services towards the student community ( Vidyarthi Devo Bhava),  Ramakrishna Mission Ashrama, Belgaum distributed free notebooks to the poor students from the nearby government schools.

Some of the photographs of event can be seen below:

Around 250 poor students were given 2 note books & 1 pen each, along with candies. The articles were distributed by the dignitaries present  namely Sri Sudhakar Prabhu (Manager HDFC Bank, Belgaum), Sri Vikas Kalaghatgi (President, Bengal chamber of commerce), Sri S G Wke ( advocate & an ardent devotee), Smt. Shanta Hisholkar ( a devotee) & Swami Raghveshanandaji Maharaj.

Like previous years this year also a summer camp, viz., Vasanta Vihara for boys in the age group of 10-16 yrs is being held in the Ashrama for one whole month in two batches from April 11th to May 13th 2008. More than 150 students participated in this year’s camp.

       Some photographs of the event

The features of the camp were Vedic Chanting, Yogasanas, Meditation, Character Building, & Classes on art and many other facets of our great culture. Lectures and presentations were also organized on many themes like “Planet earth”, “Life of Swami Vivekanada”, “Health & Hygiene” & “Team work”, etc which were emphasized through audio visual presentations, group tasks & competitions. These Classes were conducted by Swamijis and eminent members of the society in the pure and elevating atmosphere of the Ashrama.

Dear Friend,

The Universal Temple of Bhagawan Sri Ramakrishna at the Ramakrishna Mission Ashrama, Belgaum was consecrated in January 2004. 

To celebrate the completion of 4 years of this event, we have organized a 3-day programme at the Ashrama. These programmes are aimed at spreading the life and message of Bhagawan Sri Ramakrishna, Holy Mother Sri Sharada Devi and Swami Vivekananda.

The 3-day programme held from February 1st to February 3rd includes youth conventions – aimed at exhorting our youth to incorporate the man-making and character building teachings of Swami Vivekananda, devotees’ conventions, talks and cultural events. As a prelude to these celebrations various competitions for school students have also been organized on January 31st.

I extend a warm welcome to you, your relatives & friends to participate in these programmes. You can download the details of the programmes here.

      Yours in the Lord,
Swami Raghaveshananda
         (Secretary)