The Ramakrishna Order
Do you know what the Math is like? It is like an oasis in the desert. In the desert there is nothing but an immensity of burning sand everywhere. The traveller, overcome by hunger and thirst, is almost dead. As soon as he sees the oasis, he runs to it. How beautiful is the pool of water surrounded by green trees! And there is juicy fruit too! The traveller revives, and his life is saved. The Math, too, is an oasis in the burning desert of worldly troubles. Scorched by the threefold fire of daily life, people take refuge in the Math, seeking inner peace and balance. It was for the peace of men and women living the householder's life that God created the Math, the monks and nuns, and everything else. The Math is truly an oasis in the desert of worldly life.
~ Master Mahashay (M.) ~
The Ramakrishna Order
The Ramakrishna Order, headquartered at Belur Math near Kolkata (formerly Calcutta), is one of the most respected religious orders in India.
It is made up of two sister organisations, the Ramakrishna Math and the Ramakrishna Mission, legally distinct but closely connected and run by the same governing board. The Math is devoted to spiritual life and religion and their spread; the Mission carries out humanitarian work in a spiritual spirit. Together they form the centre of a worldwide spiritual movement, known as the Ramakrishna Movement or the Vedanta Movement. This non-political, non-sectarian movement rests on three ideals:
- Harmony of religions
- Harmony of East and West
- Spiritual realisation
These ideals embrace the development of human faculties, social equality and peace for all humanity, without any distinction of creed, class, race or nationality. In India, the Order runs hospitals, dispensaries and mobile medical units, colleges, schools and polytechnics, student hostels, orphanages, libraries, publishing houses, schools for children with disabilities, agricultural and rural development institutes, non-formal education centres and many other institutions offering medical, educational, cultural and spiritual services. It constantly helps victims of earthquakes, floods, famine, epidemics and other disasters. Up-to-date figures are published in the Order's annual reports on belurmath.org. All this social work is carried out as worship, as Swami Vivekananda taught:
This is the gist of all worship — to be pure and to do good to others.
~ Swami Vivekananda ~
The Ramakrishna Order is essentially spiritual in nature. Despite its strong work in the service of others, it is not a welfare organisation.
Origin of the Ramakrishna Order
The Order was inspired by the great Bengali saint Sri Ramakrishna. Shortly before his passing in 1886, Sri Ramakrishna encouraged his young disciples to follow the spiritual life by giving them the ochre cloth of the monk, which in India signifies renunciation of the world. He entrusted their care to his foremost disciple, Swami Vivekananda, who in 1897, together with his brother monks, founded the Ramakrishna Order.
Sri Ramakrishna's seedbed
After the Master's passing, fifteen of his young disciples, now more united than ever, began living together in a dilapidated building at Baranagar, north of Kolkata. Under Narendra's leadership they formed a monastic brotherhood, and in 1887 took formal vows of sannyasa, assuming new monastic names. Thus Narendra became Swami Vivekananda, though he adopted that name only much later.
The Holy Mother envisions a monastery for the monks
Soon after Sri Ramakrishna's passing in 1886, each of his monastic disciples set out on pilgrimage as a wandering monk, living an utterly austere life on the charity of devout people. All were seeking spiritual illumination at any cost, even life itself. The only monk who stayed at Baranagar was Swami Ramakrishnananda, who worshipped Sri Ramakrishna constantly.
In 1888 the Holy Mother went on pilgrimage again, to Gaya, an ancient city sacred for the Vishnupada (the footprint of Lord Vishnu). She also visited Bodh Gaya, where the Buddha attained enlightenment. There she saw a large Hindu monastery and was glad to see its monks living happily, in want of nothing. Her heart ached at the thought of her own children, Sri Ramakrishna's monastic disciples, wandering as mendicants. She later said:
I went to see the monastery at Bodh Gaya. It was full of all kinds of provisions, and the monks lacked nothing. Seeing this, I wept many times before the Master's picture and prayed: "O Lord, my children have no place to lay their heads. They have so little to eat, wandering from door to door for a morsel of food. May they have a place like this." Belur Math was later established by the Master's grace.
~ Sri Sarada Devi ~
Swami Vivekananda in the West
Swami Vivekananda's success began when he represented Hinduism at the World's Parliament of Religions, held in Chicago, USA, in 1893. He presented India as a tolerant society, in which different sects coexist harmoniously under the one roof of Hinduism, which also accepts people of other religions. He declared that all religions ultimately pray to the same one God and share the same goal: to reach God. He opened his address by calling the other delegates "Sisters and Brothers of America", underlining his view that the whole human race is one great family. His message drew many people of European culture, and many credit him with beginning the Western interest in Indian spiritual teachers.
After his success in America he returned to India and established the Ramakrishna movement, which sees Indian culture as deeply humanistic and spiritual. The movement helped restore the Indian people's pride in their own culture, lost after centuries of foreign rule. His philosophy influenced many national leaders, each of whom drew from it light for the cause of freedom and the rebuilding of the nation.
The Ramakrishna Math and Mission
The Ramakrishna Math
The Ramakrishna Order is a monastic organisation for men inspired by Sri Ramakrishna (1836–1886), the great nineteenth-century Bengali saint regarded as a prophet of the modern age. Shortly before his passing, Sri Ramakrishna encouraged his young disciples to follow the spiritual life by giving them the ochre cloth that in India signifies renunciation. He entrusted their care to his foremost disciple, Swami Vivekananda, who in 1897, with his brother monks, founded the Ramakrishna Order.
The Ramakrishna Mission
A registered society in which monks of the Ramakrishna Math and lay devotees work together on many kinds of social service projects, mainly in India. It was founded by Swami Vivekananda (1863–1902), Sri Ramakrishna's foremost disciple and one of the most eminent thinkers and religious leaders of our time, whom the distinguished Western scholar A. L. Basham said would be remembered "as one of the main moulders of the modern world".
Centres around the world
The Ramakrishna Order (Math and Mission together) has branch centres across India and in many other countries, including the United States, Bangladesh, Argentina, Brazil, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Russia, Japan, Australia and others. Some centres also have sub-centres attached to them, and around the world there are many non-affiliated centres, popularly called "private groups", founded by devotees of Sri Ramakrishna and Vivekananda. The Order's world headquarters is at Belur Math. Centres affiliated with the Ramakrishna Math are administered by its Board of Trustees, and those affiliated with the Ramakrishna Mission by its Governing Body. The current list of centres is available on belurmath.org.
The four streams
The Ramakrishna Movement consists of four streams around a main current. The Ramakrishna Math and Mission together form the main current. These twin institutions were started by Swami Vivekananda at Sri Ramakrishna's bidding, with the help of the Master's other disciples; their original inspiration and enthusiasm are kept alive by an unbroken succession of spiritual teachers and a central administration.
Sri Ramakrishna's lay (householder) devotees form the first stream. They have a role in the movement as important as that of the monks. Sri Ramakrishna did not ask his householder disciples to renounce the world; on the contrary, he taught that householders, too, could realise God by fulfilling certain conditions, and several of the Master's lay disciples proved the truth of this teaching by their exemplary lives. These examples should inspire our householder devotees to walk the spiritual path of faith, hope and dignity.
The lay devotees include many young people who do not wish to marry but, for various reasons, cannot become monks. In every ashrama you will find them giving much volunteer service; they are usually simply called "volunteers". They form the second stream. Sri Sarada Math and the Ramakrishna Sarada Mission form the third stream. The "private centres", working independently without administrative affiliation to the Ramakrishna Order, form the fourth. Of course there is nothing "private" about them: they are non-profit institutions based on the ideals of Sri Ramakrishna, the Holy Mother and Swami Vivekananda.
Summary
Vedanta observed that everything manifested in the world, and the world itself, is constantly changing, and concluded that whatever changes has a beginning in time and an end. Everything changes, and everything will pass. Is there anything that does not change, that has neither beginning nor end, that is eternal and permanent? Vedanta answers with an emphatic yes: at the core of every being, in the deepest and most hidden Self of every creature, lies the same single, undivided Reality, whose nature is pure consciousness, eternal and unconditioned, beyond all space, time and causation. It is this supreme consciousness that manifests itself as the world, as creatures, as body, mind, the elements and nature itself. This is Vedanta's concept of divinity, the meaning of the word God.
God is infinite existence, consciousness and bliss, says Vedanta. This reality is transcendent and impersonal. Yet Vedanta also holds that God can be personal, taking human form in different ages. Most importantly, God dwells in our hearts as the divine Self, the Atman, which is never born and never dies, untouched by our failings or by the changes of our bodies and minds. Pure, perfect, free from limitation, the Atman is one with Brahman. The greatest temple of God is the human heart, and the goal of life is to manifest this divinity. Consciously or unconsciously, every human being moves towards expressing it, for it is our true nature. Finally, Vedanta holds that all religions teach the same basic truths about God and the world. Thousands of years ago the Rig Veda declared: "Truth is one; the wise call it by many names."
Truth is one; the wise call it by many names.
There is a vast literature on Vedanta
In English, the Advaita Ashrama bookshop in India offers the Ramakrishna Order's publications. In Portuguese, Editora Vedanta works to translate major Vedanta titles, which are still few in our language.