History of Sri Ramakrishna Mission Ashrama, Visakhapatnam
One of the foremost reminisces which is of prime relevance to the Vizag Ashrama is the expression of Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi, which she exclaimed while passing through Visakhapatnam onboard a southbound train to Chennai, in the month of February 1911 - Enchanted by the intrinsic beauty of the place she said - "See, see, it looks just like a picture!".
The Mother was attracted to the picturesque countryside, neither very cold nor very warm, neither excessively wet nor extremely dry weather, hills wrapped in lush green forests, sun sweet with a distant but mesmerizing view of the 'lighthouse' – situated on a narrow headland, commanding a wondrous and soothing exclamation of the onlooker.
Even to the present day, one can still be transported to imagine the above vision of Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi, through the panoramic view of the present city from the encompassing hills on either side of the old city overlooking the concrete-clad Beach Road, an endless streak of hills, greenery and bluish waters, along with the ubiquitous presence of the 'lighthouse' instantly spurring in one's mind, the nostalgia - the Holy Mother's blissful expression of this enchanting city.
This Port Town is surrounded by the Simhachalam Hill Range to the west, the Yarada Hills to the southeast, and Kambalakonda Wildlife Sanctuary to the northwest. Situated between the Eastern Ghats and the Bay of Bengal, the city is rightly nicknamed the "City of Destiny" and the "Jewel of the East Coast". This old Port City also called Vizagapatnam or Vizag which was a notable town in the erstwhile Madras Presidency is now a health resort, a Metropolitan city, a prime shipping port, and headquarters for Eastern Naval Command - one among the three commands of the Indian Navy.
The seed for the Visakhapatnam Branch of the Ramakrishna Order was sown in the joyous exclamation of the Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi. Also in 1924, Swami Shivananda Ji Maharaj (Mahapurush Maharaj), enroute to Chennai, halted for a few days at Visakhapatnam on the request of local devotees. The Swami's narration of the life and teachings of Sri Ramakrishna created a spiritual stir amongst the people present.
During this visit, Mahapurush Maharaj also went to Sri Varahalakshmi Narasimha Swami temple in Simhachalam, eleven miles away from the place where Maharaj stayed. After having Darshan of the deity Varahalakshmi Narasimha, Mahapurush Maharaj said: "I saw as though a lion was standing there and filling the whole temple with its sparkling light. I never had a Darshan of Narasimha Swami before."
During his second visit, two years later in the month of May 1926, Mahapurush Maharaj along with Swami Sharvananda Ji, Swami Yatiswarananda Ji and others halted at Visakhapatnam spending there about three to four days. Mahapurush Maharaj delivered talks on these days and the local people felt happy to listen about Sri Thakur and Swami ji. The Swamis' visits and Mahapurush Maharaj's talks on Sri Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda made a deep impression on the minds of the listeners.
The idea of starting a branch center of Ramakrishna Mission could become a reality only twelve years after Mahapurush Maharaj's visit to the town. Initially, the ashrama was started in a rent-free house at Chengalraopet and continued to function from there for the next three years before shifting to the present site that was procured from the government with the help of local devotees, well-wishers and admirers.
In November 1939 the center was formally affiliated to Belur Math, the Headquarters of Ramakrishna Order.
The foundation stone for the first building of the Ashrama was ceremoniously laid on the 5th May 1940 and was inaugurated in October of the same year. The erstwhile building, then christened as the ‘Students' Home’ - presently, the Ashrama Library, facing the beach had a Shrine Room, a Prayer Hall, two Living Rooms and an Office Room. The Prayer Hall and the veranda on either side of it had a few almirahs containing library books. The Students' Home provided accommodation to the poor and deserving students.
Some additions and improvements to the existing buildings were made in subsequent years, a primary school was started at a place a little away from the Ashrama and the activities of the Ashrama began to grow. Swami Virajananda Ji, the fifth President of the Ramakrishna Order chose Visakhapatnam for a long stay spread over a year between 1946-1947. This gave a considerable boost to the spiritual service rendered by the Ashrama and enlarged the circle of devotees associated with it.
A new building complex in the ashrama site had to be re-constructed as the erstwhile building of ‘Students' Home’ had become structurally unsound due to aging and had to be demolished. The new construction plan included a multifold building consisting of a Universal Temple with an Auditorium, Monks' Quarters, a Dispensary, Office cum Book Stall, and a Library (which was built at the same location of the ‘Students Home’).
In 1957, the Hindustan Shipyard Limited requested the Ashrama to manage their Hindustan Shipyard Colony Elementary School, which is 16 kilometers away from the Ashrama. This was managed efficiently for some time, benefitting their employees' children. Due to certain administrative difficulties, Ashrama could not continue the management of the Shipyard Elementary school which was handed back to them in 1960.
Sri Sarada Bala Vihar
In the meantime, in January 1958 the Ashrama started "Sri Sarada Bala Vihar", a pre-primary school in the residence of a devotee. The same was shifted to small thatched huts in the Collectorate campus in 1960. In the same year, the Government allotted a piece of land adjacent to the Collectorate and the pre-primary school was upgraded to 5th standard. The first building to come up was in 1961.
In 1963, Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, the then President of India, inaugurated the Vivekananda Hall of the pre-primary school. Allotments of land by the Government in 1960 and subsequently in 1966-67, facilitated the construction of other buildings in the school. The school was given permanent recognition by the State Government in 1966. The school became popular and expanded to upper primary school in the year 1988 and a new building was added.
Ramakrishna Mission High School
In the year 1993, "Sri Sarada Bala Vihar" was further upgraded to the High School and was renamed as Ramakrishna Mission High School. The High School was given State Government Recognition in the year 2011. Now it has grown into a government recognized English medium co-education school from kindergarten to 10th standard with a strength of 850 students, along with a team of dedicated teachers and non-teaching staff.
The School has a well-equipped computer lab, science laboratory, and library, including indoor games like table tennis, caroms, chess and a well-trained School band. The School also conducts value education classes to make the students future enlightened & responsible citizens. In the process of saving energy, the whole school is run on Solar Energy.
In 2022, the School converted all the classrooms into digital classrooms and also introduced virtual classes to enhance the school curriculum through the implementation of appropriate technology into the classrooms to support and enhance the learning experience of students along with the quintessential professional development of the teachers as well.
The main motto of the School is to impart the academic curriculum in an efficient and purposeful way along with value-based education to the needy students in the field of education. Thus, the Ramakrishna Mission High School enables its students with appropriate programs and co-curricular activities to make them excel and achieve academic growth along with ingraining in them a virtuous and resilient character based on ethical and patriotic values.
The erstwhile library was in its inception accommodated in the prayer hall and its veranda, benefitting mainly the devotees.
Later on, during the construction of the Universal Temple and to cater to the growing need, a larger and full-fledged library was envisioned and the foundation stone for the same was laid in 1993 and the newly built Library was inaugurated on 25th May 1997, having a general section, children's section, reference section and magazine section with a total number of over 19000 books, coupled with a book stall, adjacent to the present library.
The Bookstall is a palpable repository of Ramakrishna-Vivekananda-Vedanta literature, children's books, books on morality and personality development and other religious books. There are also religious articles, photos, posters, lockets, etc. available in the bookstall, which remains open from 9 a.m. to 12 noon and from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. every day (except Mondays).
A small but exquisite 'clay model' exhibition depicting the lives and teachings of Sri Ramakrishna, Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi and Swami Vivekananda is displayed on the first floor of the library building. This exhibition hosts an attractive and visually compelling array of well-crafted - 75 exhibits - carefully housed in glass cubicles, with each exhibit labeled with a brief writeup in English and Telugu explaining the exhibit’s key depiction and enlivens the cherished sequential life events of the Holy Trio (i.e. Sri Ramakrishna, Sri Sarada Devi and Swami Vivekananda). The 'clay model' exhibition is kept open from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. Entry to this exhibition is free.
Maa Sarada Cerebral Palsy Clinic And Learning Center For Children
In 1970, a free homeopathic dispensary was started to cater to the needs of the suffering poor which was serviced by the Homeopathy Sevak Samaj. Further, in January 1992 a dispensary building was opened and later a specialist medical aid for speech-impaired and spastic children was subsequently added.
Since 1997 the dispensary has metamorphosed and developed into a hallmark, highly venerated clinic - christened later as the "Maa Sarada Cerebral Palsy Clinic and Learning Center for Children", a specialized place to serve the palsied children. It provides therapeutic services for sensory-motor and cognitive disorders in children below twelve years of age of the nearby districts - fulfilling a starving need for this treatment, as there was no special infrastructure, institutes nor adequate government funding for these patients in the state. It has evolved into a full-fledged integrated treatment center over the last twenty-five years providing services free of charge.
The mission of this clinic is to provide social independence through rehabilitation. Special camps are held for the parents of palsied children to provide consultancy and guidance.
Along with the therapeutic services the clinic ensures the efficacy of the treatment of the palsied children by providing them high-nutritional food wherein the essential requirement of the childrens’ diet is given in the form of ragi malt, sprouts, protein powder in milk, fruit juice, and vegetable soup for their holistic recovery.
Vivek Institute of Excellence
With a mission to strengthen the moral, social and spiritual values of the society at large and make a holistic attempt to halt the gradual erosion of the core values which form the bedrock of our society influencing every sphere of life and activity - Ramakrishna Mission Ashrama, Visakhapatnam, felt the need for starting an institute to impart the age-old ideals and cherished values aimed to provide, 'life-building, man-making, character-making and nation-building' - Education and Training as envisioned by Swami Vivekananda.
VIVEKANANDA BALA VIKAS is a value orientation and total personality development program for children of the grades 4th to 10th, conducted every Sunday from 8.30 am – 11.00 am. The children are given exposure to the following areas with the help of volunteers,
Yoga & Meditation.
Intelligent Games.
Art & Craft.
Personality Development.
Memory & Concentration.
Bhajans & Chanting.
Value Education.
Inspirational Video Show, et.al.
Doorashikshanam
I Background and purpose
The purpose of this pioneering program is to deliver quality instruction in academia along with value based education, using modern technology, to students in rural areas for free where the educational infrastructure including school facilities, teachers, etc. is not as good as their urban counterparts.
In this program, the Teachers teach from the Main Center located in the Ashrama campus in Visakhapatnam and interact live with students assembled at remote centers located in rural areas.
These tutoring classes are designed to supplement the instruction students receive at their regular schools in Science, Math, English - not to replace it. Along with academic instructions, these virtual classes also impart moral, social, spiritual and value-based man-making ideas by strengthening their knowledge in the fields of Sanskrit, Yoga, Subhashitas (Sanskrit poems) including the presentation of Personality Development Videos. The program thus holistically uplifts the self-confidence of the remote and rural area students, thus enabling them to prepare themselves for various competitive exams and face the challenges of the world with greater preparedness.
This program was patterned on a similar project running under the auspices of Vivekananda University located near the Headquarters of the Ramakrishna Math and Mission at Belur Math, West Bengal.
II History
The project was inaugurated with the auspicious blessings of Swami Gautamanandaji Maharaj, Vice-President, Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission, on 1st March 2020 with 3 remote centers and the main center at Ramakrishna Mission Ashrama in Visakhapatnam. Subsequently, 10 remote centers, including the original three, are in full operation as of 1st December 2020. The centers span various locations from Guntur district to Srikakulam district in Andhra Pradesh.
III Sponsorship
Doorasikshanam (virtual classrooms) program is sponsored by Balavikas of Fairfax, Virginia, USA, envisioned to bring high-quality instruction through academic and character development classes to children located in rural/ semi-urban locations typically lacking the facilities available in large city schools.
IV Number of operating centers and beneficiaries
Starting with 125 students at 3 centers in March 2020, the program presently reaches 351 students, who are being served at 10 remote centers spanning several districts in northern and middle Andhra Pradesh. It is noteworthy that this remarkable expansion occurred despite the pandemic-related shutdowns and other restrictions. This was possible due to the unwavering dedication and hard work of the teachers, monks of Ramakrishna Mission, parents, Ramakrishna Bhava Prachara Parishad members and committed selfless volunteers.
Extra-Curricular activities:
This program in its mission to enrich the lives of its participants also conducted a summer camp for all students, wherein the Doorashikshana students were able to attend the summer camp. The following activities for children were organized:
1. Yoga and Meditation.
2. Intelligent games.
3. Art and Craft.
4. Personality Development.
5. Memory and Concentration.
6. Bhajans and Chantings.
7. Value Education.
8. Inspirational video presentation.
Doorashikshana students are very happy to study with the teaching faculty hailing from far-flung areas and learning in a modern setup enabled with technology at par with well-equipped mainstream schools. The responsiveness from local people is very good. Though there are some problems with accessing the internet in remote rural places, the nodal points where students gather for online classes are selected based on the availability of internet facilities.
A growing network of 10 remote Doorasikshana centers (Virtual Classrooms) and the main center at Ramakrishna Mission Ashrama, Visakhapatnam are functioning well serving several hundred, and growing numbers of children.
Students And Youth Programs
The Vizag ashrama conducts various on-campus Value Education programs wherein classes are conducted in various schools and colleges, in and around Visakhapatnam to empower students with the message of strength propagated by Swami Vivekananda.
Youth camps are also organized for young men from the intermediate and undergraduate level students to render holistic guidance for their all-round development.
Mobile Medical Unit
Tribal Welfare is one of the important services of the Ramakrishna Order from its inception. About 100 kms from Ashrama and surrounding the Anantagiri Mountain Range - Mobile Medical camps are conducted weekly in rural areas providing free treatment and medicines for the benefit of the tribal people.
At present, the medical camp caters to two sites viz. Vantlamamidi in Paderu Mandal and occasionally in Gatum Bamanapadu, Valabu Villages in Araku Valley Mandal in Visakhapatnam District.