Ramakrishna Mission: About organisation
Sri Ramakrishna, the Prophet of the Modern Age laid the foundation of Ramakrishna Math, and it was registered as a trust in 1901. Sri Ramakrishna’s chief disciple, Swami Vivekananda founded the Ramakrishna Mission on 1 May 1897 and it was registered on 4 May 1909. At present, the Ramakrishna Math and the Ramakrishna Mission have 221 branch centres all over the world: 167 in India, 15 in Bangladesh, 14 in the USA, 2 each in Brazil, Canada, Russia and South Africa, and one each in Argentina, Australia, Fiji, France, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Malaysia, Mauritius, Nepal, Netherlands, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, UK and Zambia.
MOTTO: The motto of this organization is ATMANO MOKSHARTHAM JAGAD HITAYA CHA, “For one’s own salvation and for the welfare of the world”. It was the vision presented by Swami Vivekananda.
IDEALS: The working foundation of this organisation is based on three principles: Work as worship, potential divinity of the soul, and harmony of religions. Swami Vivekananda had a comprehensive plan for community development, both urban and rural, integrating the best elements of the East and the West. He gave a new philosophy of work for the modern world. One of the important principles Swami Vivekananda learned from his Master, Sri Ramakrishna, was Shiva Jnane Jiva Seva - ‘service to living beings looking upon them as veritable embodiments of the Divine’.
About RKMHOS, Varanasi:
Ramakrishna Mission Home of Service (Ramakrishna Mission Sevashrama) was started in a modest way in 1900 by three young men at Varanasi, viz, Sri Charu Chandra Das (later Swami Subhananda), Sri Kedar Nath Moulik (later Swami Achalananda) and Sri Yamini Ranjan Majumdar. In February 1902 Swami Vivekananda came to Varanasi. He was immensely pleased to see the dedicated service of the youths and re-named the Association as 'The Ramakrishna Home of Service.' The institution was registered in 1909.
The campus of Ramakrishna Mission Home of Service in Varanasi includes an Indoor hospital with 195 beds, Vivek Sanjivani- An Initiative for Healthcare and Education, Dispensary, Medical store, separate old age homes for women and men, dairy, Guest house for pilgrims, and Sadhu Nivas.
The charitable hospital is catering tireless service to patients from Eastern UP, Bihar, and Madhya Pradesh on a regular basis. Every year, around 1 Lakh patients attend the outdoor clinics, while close to 2,000 patients are admitted during the year and close to 500 surgeries are performed in the hospital.
About VIVEK SANJIVANI: An Initiative for Healthcare and Education
VIVEK SANJIVANI is An Initiative for Healthcare and Education of Ramakrishna Mission Home of Service, Luxa, Varanasi. This department offers Telemedicine services through Twelve Centres in which six Stationary Telemedicine Units (STUs) are fixed at a place and six Mobile Telemedicine Units (MTUs) are roaming. During 2022-23 we served 27,875 patients through our Stationary Telemedicine Units and Mobile Telemedicine Units and conducted Non-communicable Disease Screening (NCDS) for 18,878 patients. So, altogether we offered services to 46,753 patients which covered five districts including one aspirational district of Eastern Uttar Pradesh and one aspirational district of Uttarakhand.
We extended our Telemedicine services to patients among which 55.25% were women and 83.93% were needy and under-privileged people from OBC, SC, and ST communities. NCDS were done for 18,878 New Beneficiaries in which 12015 were women. Psychiatrist’s consultations for Common Mental Disorder and Severe Mental Disorder (SMD) patients were done for 4432 in which 1930 were women patients. Treatments offered to epilepsy patients who visited 2306 times. 556 women received Antenatal care (ANC). Most of the patients saved nearly Rs. 600 per visit for Doctor’s consultation, diagnostic tests, and medicine. We tried to propagate Value Education to bring Overall Wellness in life for all the people. We extended Health education to promote healthy living among the rural mass.
Vivek Sanjivani is also engaged in “Shishu Tirth”- A Non-formal Primary Education programme to cater holistic education to kids, Health Education-based and Value education-based film Development, publication of books and research programmes. It conducts Foundation courses in Science and Mathematics, online teachers’ training, and teachers’ workshops. Multimedia-based Online Science and Communicative English classes are now being regularly conducted for rural children.
