RKM observes Swamiji’s 154th birth anniversary

Santhal students of Jangalmahal on Tuesday participated in the National Youth Day programme organised by the Ramakrishna Mission (RKM) at a school here on Tuesday morning.

This is for the first time that the Ramakrishna Mission has organised such a programme in order to celebrate the 154th birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda. 

It may be mentioned that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had instructed all block development offices, borough offices, civic bodies to celebrate Vivek Chetana Utsav. 

Students from Jangalmahal participated in a rally carrying placards containing messages of Swami Vivekananda in Santhali and Alchiki languages. Recitation and debate competitions on Swamiji’s messages were organised on Monday. The school children have also participated in a football match. 

District magistrate of West Midnapore Jagdish Prasad Meena and special secretary of Tribal Welfare Department Swami Subhakarananda of Ramakrishna Math and Mission (Belur Math) were present at the meeting. The school building was decorated with lights and flowers on the occasion.  

The Ramakrishna Mission is going to set up a school for Tribals in Jangalmahal, where the students will be taught by the teachers of Narendrapur Ramakrishna Mission.   

Few days ago, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee handed over a cheque of Rs 20 lakh to Swami Suhitananda of Ramakrishna Math and Mission during a function in Jangalmahal. Among the students, the girl cleaned the school premises while the boys cleaned the sewage drains. 

The birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda was celebrated with pomp and glory in Kolkata. Processions from North Kolkata converged at Swami Vivekananda’s ancestral house on Tuesday morning where a youth conference was organised. 

The Speaker insisted that Swamiji’s concept of value-based education is the need of the hour. His messages on social unity, uplift of downtrodden, women empowerment and education of the backward people should be implemented for a better and stronger India.

At Harish Park in South Kolkata, Vivek Utsav was inaugurated on Tuesday morning where Swamiji’s portrait was garlanded and school and college students participated in the day-long programmes. Throughout in the city, all the statues of Vivekananda were garlanded and the areas illuminated to convey his message of united India. 

“I see in my mind’s eyes that future India is raising from this chaos and strife, vibrant and composed, a Vedantic brain with an Islamic body is the only hope for us,” Swamiji in the letter wrote to Sharfaraj Hossain in 1898. The speakers insisted that India will survive through practicing Hindu Muslim unity.