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Swami Vivekananda |
Sri Ramakrishna |
Sri Sarada Devi |
Sri
Ramakrishna, regarded by rising numbers
of people around the globe as an Avatar, or
Incarnation of God of our modern time, was
born in Bengal, India in 1836, and around him
gathered a small number of world-renouncing
monks (sannyasis), among them the patriot
saint, Swami Vivekananda, who represented
Hinduism at the 1893 World Parliament of
Religions in Chicago. One of the first
of these young men to come to Sri
Ramakrishna as a disciple was Latu Maharaj,
later known as Swami Adbhutananda, who was
himself born (circa 1865) in the district of Saran (now
Chapra) in Bihar.
After a hundred years since the birth of
Ramakrishna, and approximately a hundred
years after the birth of Latu Maharaj, the
message of the Great Master and the
influence of the sixteen or so monk
disciples of the Master spread across the
world and now also is exerting a profound influence over
the lives of millions of people the world
over in thought and way of life.
This Power of
the World Teacher early
touched the vast interior parts of northern
India and Bihar. As before, to the call of
Sri Rama, people awakened
again to the infinite potentialities of the
human heart and the age-old religion of the
Vedas and Vedanta and were re-invigorated.
Free India arose and modern Hindu dharma
(Vedanta) experienced a rebirth
and a broadening of spirit with new
emphasis being on the practical application
of the ancient ideal— Oneness of Existence expressed
in non-dualistic Vedanta (Advaita), and preached and put into
practice by Swami Vivekananda and the other
monk spreaders of Sri Ramakrishna’s name
and teachings.
In the latter part of the
20th century, some lay
devotees of Ramakrishna and Vivekananda were
inspired to start holding meetings in the
name of
Sri Ramakrishna, Swami Vivekananda and Swami Adbhutananda (Latu Maharaj) in Chapra, to
meditate and study the Lord's divine play and, if
possible, to put its values into practice in their
humble lives. The devotees came in touch
with the Headquarters and leading monks of
the Ramakrishna Mission and got help and
encouragement to start an Ashrama in Chapra.
The new Ashrama was comemmorating the birth
of Latu Maharaj in the place.
The year was
1993 when the courageous beginning was
made by local devotees. In 2003 the private
ashrama, then known as
Ramakrishna-Adbhutananda Ashrama, became affiliated
in status with other centres of branch the world-wide Ramakrishna Mission
Organization, Headquarters at Belur
Math near Kolkata. The local devotees rejoiced.
The
whole society looked ahead to a hopeful
future when society, afflicted by lacuna of
ethical and moral values, would again be
purified and set on the bright path to spiritual and material
regeneration.
The Chapra Ashrama became thence
known as the Ramakrishna Mission Ashrama,
Chapra.
