History of Ramakrishna Mission, Viveknagar
On 25 March 1985 the Governing Body of Ramakrishna Mission, Belur Math, West Bengal, took over the management of Sri Sri Ramakrishna Ashrama, Gangail Road, Agartala, a privately-run Ashrama established on 29 May 1950, at the request of the latter though the first service activity of the Mission in Tripura dates back to 1949 when the Mission conducted a major relief work at Anandanagar, near Agartala. The said Ashrama renamed as ‘Ramakrishna Mission, Gangail Road,’ started functioning since then as a branch centre of the Ramakrishna Mission, Belur Math, West Bengal. Till 28 May 1989 this centre was the hub of Ramakrishna Mission’s activities in Tripura with its following activities:
Activities of the Math Centre:
- Daily Worship, Regular Religious discourses, , Residential and Day-long Spiritual Retreats, , Gurupurnima, Durga Ashtami, Shorodhi Puja, Ratha Yatra, and the Anudhyan Shibir/Residential and Day-long Spiritual Retreats
- celebrations of the birthdays of Sri Ramakrishna, Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi, Swami Vivekananda, and other religious luminaries
- Ramanam Sankirtan on every Ekadashi
- Annual Ramakrishna Mela
- Guiding Study circles of local youths and devotees
- Sarada Anna Bhandar a regular welfare Activity for the footpath dwellers
- Pecuniary help to the needy persons.
- Medical Services.
- Relief and rehabilitation work etc.
Activities of Ramakrishna Mission, Viveknagar Centre:Educational Services- Higher Secondary School affiliated to CBSE with hostel facility
- An Industrial Training Institute (ITI)
- A Rubber Tapping Training School
- Proven Station for Tea Plantation for Tripura (with 14517 Tea Trees)
- A Hostel mainly for the students of Tribal Communities
- A Library with a total no of 13,150 books
- A free Students’ Home for the Tribal Students at the City Centre
Religious and Cultural
- Daily worship at the City Centre at Gangail Road, Agartala
- Conducting regular spiritual and value-based public discourses at the City Centre
- Celebrations of the birthdays of the Holy Trio, the Direct Disciples, and other Spiritual Leaders and Janmashtami, Durgashtami, Jagaddhatri Navami, Christmas Eve and Shivaratri at the City Centre.
- Show Room of Ramakrishna – Vivekananda and Vedanta literature and Palli Mangal Products
Medical Services
- Medical Service Unit, viz. “Niramay”
- Free Mobile Medical Unit
- Conducting Free Eye Camp
- Blood Donation Camp, and other Free Mobile Camps
Welfare and Relief Activities
- Supply of free Purified Water
- Gadadhar Abhyudaya Prakalpa (Integrated Child Development Project)
- Ma Sarada Shiksha Sahayata Kendra (MASSSK): Supports to the underprivileged children of the Society for Educational and all round Development
- Extending Pecuniary Supports to the needy people
After the establishment of Ramakrishna Mission Educational Complex at Viveknagar on 29 May 1989, which became the hub of Mission’s activities, this centre started functioning as the sub-centre of Viveknagar centre.
The service activities of the Mission gathered momentum in Tripura with the establishment of Ramakrishna Mission Educational Complex as a branch centre of the Ramakrishna Mission, Belur Math, West Bengal, in the year 1989 at Viveknagar – then known as ‘Amtali’ – a rural area located 8 k.m. away from Agartala, capital town of the State of Tripura. The development of this Educational Complex has an important background history which deserves special mention. In 1989, a Peace Accord was executed between the Governments (Govt. of India and Govt. of Tripura) and Tripura National Volunteers, the then prominent local extremist group, and following the said Peace Accord, Ramakrishna Mission Educational Complex was established at Viveknagar on 29 May in 1989, on the land measuring about 62 acres handed over to Mission by the Government of Tripura, with the infrastructure gradually developed with the funds from the Government of India.
Government of Tripura also handed over to the Mission Authorities a plot of land measuring about 5 acres in Dhaleswar area of Agartala on 29 May 1989 with the request to develop there a complex consisting of educational, cultural and medical units. It took about 7 years to start the said complex at Dhaleswar. On 11 September 1996, the historic day of Swami Vivekananda’s legendary appearance in the well-known Parliament of Religions at Chicago in 1893, Viveknagar centre started developing the Dhaleswar complex as one of its sub-centres to fulfill the wishes of the Government of Tripura mentioned above.
Thus the activities of Ramakrishna Mission in Tripura started in full swing from 1989 from Gangail Road Unit and Viveknagar centre along with the contiguous Math centre at Viveknagar, with the objectives of uplifting the masses, especially the local tribes and fostering the idea of national integration and tribal and non-tribal amity, and the central focus being the development and uplift of the tribal and poor people of Tripura particularly in the area of education, culture, self-employment, health and hygiene, and cultural and spiritual enrichment of the people of Tripura in general. From September 1996 onwards Viveknagar Centre started functioning in broader scale with its two sub-centres at Gangail Road and Dhaleswar in Agartala. Over years the people of Tripura in general have been highly appreciative of Mission’s activity.
Ramakrishna Math, Viveknagar had its humble beginning on 29 May 1989 through taking over the Assets and Properties including about 15 acres of land, donated by erstwhile ‘Sri Ramakrishna Sevashrama’ Amtali, that was organized by Swami Paramananda (a monk not belonging to the Ramakrishna Order attached to Ramakrishna Math, Belur), since 13 December 1966. It is 8 km to the south of Agartala, the capital town of the Tripura. Since inception of the new Math complex was renamed ‘Viveknagar’ as per official records of the Govt. of Tripura, and the name ‘Viveknagar’ is in regular use by the people of the area now. An Extra-Departmental Post Office for the locality is located at Viveknagar.