Sri Sarada Devi, born Kshemankari / Thakurmani / Saradamani Mukhopadhyay, was the wife and spiritual consort of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, a nineteenth-century Hindu mystic. Sarada Devi is also reverentially addressed as the Holy Mother by the followers of the Sri Ramakrishna monastic order. The Sri Sarada Math and Ramakrishna Sarada Mission situated at Dakshineshwar is based on the ideals and life of Sarada Devi. She played an important role in the growth of the Ramakrishna Movement.
Swami Yatiswarananda was a vice-president of Ramakrishna Order, whose headquarter is in Belur Math. He was a disciple of Swami Brahmananda, who was a brother disciple of Swami Vivekananda and a direct disciple and spiritual son of Ramakrishna. He served in Philadelphia propagating the message of Vedanta. He was the president of Bangalore centre of Ramakrishna Math. He founded an ashrama in Switzerland.
Belur Math is the headquarters of the Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission, founded by Swami Vivekananda, the chief disciple of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa. It is located in Belur, West Bengal, India on the west bank of Hooghly River. Belur Math was established in January 1897, by Swami Vivekananda who was the disciple of Sri Ramakrishna. Swami Vivekananda returned back to India from Colombo with a small group of disciples and started work on the two one at Belur, and the others at Mayavati, Almora, Himalayas called the Advaita Ashrama. The temple is the heart of the Ramakrishna movement. It is notable for its architecture that fuses Hindu, Islamic, Buddhist, and Christian art and motifs as a symbol of unity of all religions. In 2003, Belur Math railway station was also inaugurated which is dedicated to Belur Math Temple.
Sister Nivedita was an Irish teacher, author, social activist, school founder and disciple of Swami Vivekananda. She spent her childhood and early youth in Ireland. She was engaged to marry a Welsh youth, but he died soon after their engagement.
Bagbazar is a neighbourhood of North Kolkata, in Kolkata district in the Indian state of West Bengal. The area, under Shyampukur police station of Kolkata Police, has been, along with neighbouring Shyambazar, the citadel of the Bengali aristocracy. Bagbazar has played an active role in growth and development of Kolkata.
Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda Centenary College, popularly known as Rahara V.C. College, is one of the best colleges of West Bengal, it is a boys college, currently autonomous and affiliated to the West Bengal State University. It is named after Swami Vivekananda. It was formerly affiliated with the Calcutta University. It is administered by the Ramakrishna Mission Order. The college is situated in Rahara, Khardaha, North 24 Parganas district in the state of West Bengal, India. The college is ranked 3rd among colleges in India by the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) in 2024.
Ramakrishna Sarada Math is a religious monastic order, considered part of the Hindu reform movements. It was established in 1929 at Bagbazar, Kolkata.
Pravrajika Mokshaprana, born Renuka Basu, was the second President of the Sri Sarada Math and the Ramakrishna Sarada Mission. In Hinduism, Sri Sarada Math is the monastic Order for women established as an independent counterpart to the Ramakrishna Order.
Ramakrishna Sarada Mission Vivekananda VidyabhavanGirls' College (RKSMVV) is a partly residential degree college for women affiliated with the West Bengal State University, India.
Ramakrishna Mission Vidyapith, Deoghar is a residential boys' senior secondary school in Deoghar, Jharkhand, India, established in 1922. It is the oldest institute of Ramakrishna Mission, and used to be visited by brother disciples of Swami Vivekananda. Swami Jayantananda is the present secretary, and Swami Divyasudhananda is the current principal of the school.
Yogin Ma, born Yogindra Mohini Biswas, was one of the principal female disciples of Sarada Devi, the wife and spiritual consort of the Hindu mystic Ramakrishna. Together with Gopaler Ma, she was a constant companion of Sarada Devi, revered as the holy mother in the monastic order of Ramakrishna.
Baburam Maharaj (Swami Premananda) (Bengali: বাবুরাম মহারাজ; 10 December 1861 – 30 July 1918) was a direct disciple of Ramakrishna, the 19th-century saint and mystic from Bengal, India. He was born in Antpur in the Hoogly district of Bengal in the year 1861. Baburam, as he was called in his pre monastic days, was also related to Balaram Bose, a leading householder disciple of Ramakrishna. He was given the name of Premananda or "joy of divine love" by his brother disciple Vivekananda. He had a notable contribution during the initial days of Ramakrishna Mission as he managed the whole affairs of Belur Math from 1902 to 1916. He also mentored young spiritual aspirants.
Swami Yogananda was a disciple of Ramakrishna Paramahansa, the 19th-century mystic. He took his formal initiation from Sarada Devi, the "holy mother" of Ramakrishna paramhansa Order and spiritual consort of Ramakrishna. He was the first vice-president of Ramakrishna Mission. He belonged to the family of Sabarna Roy Choudhury, an aristocratic family of erstwhile Bengal. He had a very short life, but he played a very important role during the formative years of Ramakrishna Mission. He was also a dedicated and devoted attendant to Sarada Devi during her stay in Calcutta after Ramakrishna paramhangsha's death. He was one of the disciples whom Ramakrishna paramhangsha referred to as "Iswarakoti" or the "ever perfect soul".
Josephine MacLeod was an American friend and devotee of Swami Vivekananda. She had a strong attachment to India and was an active participant in the Ramakrishna Vivekananda movement. She was given the nicknames "Tantine" and "Jo Jo" by Vivekananda. She considered Swami Vivekananda to be her friend and helped him with his finances. MacLeod was not a sanyasin, unlike many others such as Sister Nivedita or Sister Christine. She was instrumental in spreading Vivekananda's message on Vedanta in the West. She made many contributions to the initial and the later phases of the development of the order of Ramakrishna and Vivekananda. She was a contributor to many causes espoused by Sister Nivedita, the most famous disciple of Vivekananda, including that of contributing financially towards the development of the Indian National Movement especially in Bengal and elsewhere in India.
Basiswar "Boshi" Sen was an Indian agricultural scientist. He was a pioneer of the Green Revolution movement that changed the food landscape of India by growing abundant food grains, thereby reducing the possibility of any famine in the country. His wife was Gertrude Emerson Sen, an American author and specialist on Asia. He founded the Vivekananda Laboratory in the Almora region of the Himalayas. He was a friend of many notable people, such as Indian Prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, poet Rabindranath Tagore, Julian Huxley, and D. H. Lawrence. Sen was also associated with the Ramakrishna Order and the Ramakrishna Vivekananda movement, as well as with Jagadish Chandra Bose, the Indian scientist, and Sister Nivedita, the writer, orator, freedom fighter and direct disciple of Swami Vivekananda. The Government of India awarded him the third-highest civilian honour of Padma Bhushan in 1957.
Gopaler Ma was a devotee and a householder disciple of Sri Ramakrishna, the saint and mystic from Bengal. Her birth name was Aghoremani Devi, but she came to be known as Gopaler Ma among the devotees of Sri Ramakrishna, owing to her intense motherly love for Sri Ramakrishna as "Gopala" or baby Krishna. She was famous for her divine visions of Lord Krishna as a baby and her devotion to the ideals of Sri Ramakrishna. In her later years, she was very close to Swami Vivekananda and Sister Nivedita. She spent the last few years of her life with Sister Nivedita.
Swami Sadananda, born Sharat Chandra Gupta, popularly known as Gupta Maharaj in the Ramakrishna Order, was a direct monastic disciple of Swami Vivekananda. He was the first disciple according to some sources. He took his monastic vows and joined Baranagar Math to serve the other disciples of Sri Ramakrishna in 1888–89 and subsequently joined the Belur Math when it was established. He was one of the leaders of early Ramakrishna Mission in its relief work. One of his significant contributions was providing relief to the citizens of Calcutta during the plague epidemic of 1898–99. He traveled to Japan in 1903. His later days were spent in company of Sister Nivedita as her protector and guide. His notable contribution in the later part of his life was preaching the message of Swami Vivekananda, especially among youth.
Baranagore Ramakrishna Mission Ashrama High School (H.S.) (BRKMAHS) is a senior secondary boys' school in Baranagar, Kolkata, India and a branch centre of Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission, Belur Math. The school was founded in 1912, and is located at the northern outskirt of Kolkata, on the banks of the river Ganga. The school is run by the Baranagar Ramakrishna Mission Ashrama Authority under the umbrella of Ramakrishna Mission headquartered at Belur Math. Based on its performance of the students in the Xth standard board examination, the school is considered one of the very best schools in West Bengal. Department of Tourism listed it as one of the tourist spots of West Bengal.
Sri Sarada Math is named after Sri Sarada Devi, the consort of Sri Ramakrishna, and founded on 2 December 1954. Built by a group of eight sadhavis, as per the instructions given by Swami Vivekananda, it serves as a monastic order for women. Headquartered at Dakshineshwar, Kolkata, the organisation has branch centres all over India, in Sri Lanka and Australia. The nuns of this order use the title "Pravrajika" before their ordained name, and are usually addressed as "Mataji" meaning 'revered mother'.
