- Work in Rural and Tribal Areas : For rural and tribal people, the Math and Mission run 3 institutions of agriculture and 4 rural development training institutes. Besides, farmers are taught improved methods of cultivation and also provided with agri cultured inputs and financial help. Projects such as construction of pucca house , wasteland development, planting of fruit and forest tree , etc are undertaken. Drinking water is provided by digging bore wells and tube wells. The Math and Mission spent a sum of 120 million rupees for rural and tribal development work apart from the huge expenditure incurred by the educational and medical institutions located in rural and tribal areas.
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Activities for Youngsters :
In all the educational institutions run by the Math and Mission special attention is paid to character-building and spiritual orientation of students. Apart from this, many of the branch centers conduct programmes for youngsters which provide recreational, cultured and spiritual activities for them at stated periods outside their school and college hours. The range of activities include chanting of hymns, devotional singing, participation in literary activities and games, instruction on character-building and ethical life, telling stories about great people, etc.
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Spreading Religion and Culture : This is accomplished through a large number of libraries, lectures, discourses and seminars, audio-visual units, exhibitions, museums, retreats, and publishing books, Sri Ramakrishna, Holy Mother Sarada Devi and Swami Vivekananda, spirituality and word religions in almost all the major languages of India and in some of the important languages of other countries are published from the 21 publications centers. In English alone more than 700 titles are brought out. Hundreds of titles have been brought out in almost all religion languages, including some tribal languages.
Almost every Math center maintains a shrine dedicated to Sri Ramakrishna where ritualistic worship is offered to Him every day. At dusk arati worship is done with congregational singing of vesper hymns and bhajans in which monks and devotees participate On festival days and on the birthday of Sri Ramakrishna, Holy Mother and Swami Vivekananda, special spiritual programmes are arranged in which thousands of people participate. The birthday of Buddha and Christmas Eve are observed in all Ramakrishna centers. Another form of spiritual service is spiritual talks and advice on spiritual topics given by heads of centers and senior monks to devotees. However diksha or spiritual initiation is given by the President and Vice-Presidents of Ramakrishna Order to sincere spiritual seekers.
Swami Vivekananda was the first religious leader of India to spread Vedanta philosophy and spirituality in the West in an organized way. The seeds of thought that he sowed in the closing years of nineteenth century later sprouted and developed into what is known as the Vedanta Movement in the West. The first center of Ramakrishna Math in America was started by Swamiji himself in New York in 1894. Now there are 13 such Vedanta Societies in the U.S.A. . Outside the U.S.A. also centers of Ramakrishna Math (and, in a few cases, centers of Ramakrishna Mission) have come into existence, invariably at the initiative of local devotees, in many of the cities in the West and in the East. In most of the centers outside India, except Bangladesh, the main type of service conducted is spiritual. The Swamis in charge of these centers give discoursed, classes and lectures on Vedanta scriptures and the spritual message of Sri Ramakrishna, Holy Mother and Swami Vivekananda. Individual spiritual guidance is given to sincere seekers. The aim of this kind of service is to enable people to find ultimate fulfillment and meaning in life within their own socio- cultured and religious milieu. Ramakrishna Math and Mission do not conduct any kind of proselytizing activity. Vision of Future: we end this brief description of the history, ideology and activities of Ramakrishna Math and Mission draws to a close, it should be pointed out (as has been done by several recent writers) that the influence the twin organizations have exerted on world thought is out of all proportion to their numerical strength. This influence is not limited by any foreseeable time or space frame. Sustained by the power of the Prophet of the Age, by a universal ideology which embodies the timeless truths of the spiritual world, by a monastic order built on renunciation and service, Ramakrishna Movement stands on the edge of one of the mega trends of modern world history, holding immense possibilities for the welfare and elevation of humanity in the coming centuries of the Third Millennium.
