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Swami Vivekananda, with intense love in his heart for motherland undertook wanderings all over India. He came to Kanyakumari and sat on 25th, 26th and 27th December 1892 on the mid-sea rock meditating on India’s past, present and future.
It was on this rock that he discovered the mission for glorious India and later shook the world by India’s spirituality. On this sanctified place Sri Eknathji Ranade, with the participation of millions of people of India constructed the Vivekananda Rock Memorial, which symbolizes the glorious mission of India as seen by Swami Vivekananda in his meditation. Eknathji was chosen by Sri Guruji Golwalkar to take up this challenging task. He could complete this massive monument with the help of his co-workers from Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the blessings of Swami Ranganathananda and all other monks of Ramakrishna Math and great sanyasis like Swami Chinmayananda, Swami Chidananda, Swami Chidbhavananda, Paramacharya Sri Chandrashekharendra Saraswati of Kanchi Kamakoti peetham, leaders like Dr Radhakrishnan, Lal Bahadur Shastri, S K Patil, Atalbihari Bajpeyi, Annadurai, M C Chagala, etc and many others from all over the country.
As the Vivekananda Rock Memorial was taking shape, Shri Eknathji Ranade also envisaged a living Memorial for Swami Vivekananda. The result was the conception and formation of the Vivekananda Kendra as a spiritually oriented service mission, which reflected Swami Vivekananda’s vision of glorious India in action. The Kendra – a cadre based organization - is an eternal call for those youth who aspire to dedicate their life to serve the nation. Vivekananda Kendra is a call to those youth who want to lead a meaningful, different life in the service of the society.
Vivekananda Kendra aims at national reconstruction through 'Man Making.’ The Kendra has evolved a system of moulding Karyakartas – dedicated workers – by screening selected youth and training them as Karyakartas with dedication and skill to undertake the great task of national regeneration. The Karyakartas are of four categories. Jeenavrati Karyakarta - the young men and women who join Kendra for life, Sevavrati Karyakarta - who join Kendra for a specific period of time, Vanaprasthi Karyakarta - who join Kendra after their retirement and Sthanik Karyakarta – the local people who commit their specific time everyday for the work of Kendra.
Today around 200 Jeevan Vrati, Vanaprasthi and Sewavrati Karyakartas are rendering service through 225 branch centres situated all over India.
Taking Yoga as its core, to attract, contact and involve people belonging to various strata of society in the work of national regeneration Kendra has a unique method of regular activities for children, youth and all others. These are:
Number of camps like Yoga Shibir, Spiritual Retreat, Personality Development Shibir, Youth Camps and training camps for the teachers and Karyakartas are also organised at Kanyakumari and other places.
Vivekananda Kendra works to create the awareness for the need of organized work for the regeneration of nation. Such awareness is reflected in its ever-growing activities. To cater to the needs of specific areas in the country and fields of work many service projects as mentioned below are also taken up.
In the field of education, Kendra is running 58 regular schools affiliated to CBSE, out of these 29 are in Arunachal Pradesh, 16 are in Assam, 1 in Nagaland, 9 in Andaman Islands, 3 in Tamil Nadu and 1 in Karnataka. In all these schools, besides other subjects, English, Hindi, Sanskrit and the local languages are given prime importance. Regular cultural classes are conducted in all the schools in order to give value based education to the children. Total number of students studying in Vivekananda Kendra Vidyalayas as on today is approximately 30,000.
Kendra runs around 220 Balwadis (Nursery schools to take care of the nutrition, health and hygiene along with development of the personality of the tiny-tots.
Kendra is also running 4 Vocational Training Centres for women, out of which 2 are located in Arunachal Pradesh, 1 in Assam and 1 in Karnataka.
In the field of education a unique initiative of Kendra is Anandalaya. Anandalayas are run for the school going rural children to improve their academic as well as also to help to develop confidence. Gradually Anandalaya become the focal point of positive change for the whole village. Today Kendra is running Anandalayas in Arunachal Pradesh, Assam and Orissa.
Kendra works in the villages of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Orissa, in the rural areas of 5 Southern district of Tamilnadu, in rural areas of Nashik in Maharasthra and rural areas near Bangalore in Karnatak. This Rural development work is for the all round development of men, women and children of these economically backward areas. As part of these Rural Development Programmes, Kendra runs Balwadis, weekly Samskar Vargas, cultural competitions are organized for encouraging the rural talents. Medical centers amd mobile medical vans take care of the health aspects. For the interior areas the youth are trained as Swasthya –Rakshkas who take care of the health and also guide the patients to seek medical help in the initial stages of diseases. The rural youth is guided through one day camps, written examinations etc to face the challenges of life. Deepapooja, Shivapooja, Mahila Jagaran Shibirs, training in tailoring, weaving food preservation are the activities to focus on the rural women, to bring them together to learn about health and hygiene and upbringing of children etc. Besides number of Youth Camps and Personality Development Camps are organized as a regular feature for the rural youths.
Technological Resource Centre set up at Kanyakumari trains the workers, village officers, Panchayat members and NGOs under these four activities. Gramodaya Darshan Park an exhibition on the above four topics is also established in Vivekanandapuram campus.
Arunjyoti - A programme for the multi-dimensional development of the Arunachali society is a part of the Rural Development Project organized by the Vivekananda Kendra in Arunachal Pradesh. Through this programme Kendra works to organize the Arunachali people and awaken their dormant spirit. Programs are organised in different forums namely - Yuva Manch, Mahila Manch, Swasthya Seva Manch, Sanskritik Manch and Anoupacharik Shiksha Manch.
Vivekananda Kendra Medical Research Foundation is running a hospital in the Numaligarh Refinery Township complex. This 40 bedded well equipped hospital not only caters to the needs of the 4000 members of staff and family of the refinery, but also attends to peoples of 13 surrounding villages. Another hospital is being started at Bina in Madhya Pradesh in the township complex of Bharat Oman Refineries Ltd.
In order to take Swami Vivekananda’s message abroad and also engage in civilisational and religious dialogues, Kendra has set up Vivekananda International Foundation. This was inaugurated by Revered Amritanandamayi Amma on 1 Dec 2009. A befitting suitable building is completed on a plot allotted by the Government of India at Chanakyapuri. Regular monthly lectures with dignitaries on specific subjects are regular feature at present.
The Vivekananda Kendra Institute of Culture, Guwahati, Assam is established with the purpose of focusing and promoting the cultural continuity of the North Eastern communities with each other and also with rest of India. Also to focus on how development takes through cultural norms VKIC is conducting various seminars, study circles and research works in all the seven states of North East Region. Some of the seminar papers have been published in the form of books and CDs and are available for general public who are interested to know the colorful, cultural life of North East.
As part of the it’s various activities Kendra has been bringing out number of books and periodicals based on India’s cultural ethos. During the year Kendra has published its second edition of the book “India’s Contribution to World Thought and Culture” which was released by the Vice-President Sri Bhairon Singh Shekhawat on 22nd February 2004. The biggest biography of Swami Vivekananda “Comprehensive Biography of Swami Vivekananda” authored by Prof. S. N. Dhar has already entered into third edition. Kendra has brought out books authored by Mananeeya P Parameswaranji, President Vivekananda Kendra – “Marx and Swami Vivekananda”, “Heart Beats of Hindu Nation”, “Gita and its Social Impact”. Many books on various subjects in various languages have been brought out by Kendra.
All these periodicals are meant for the general public and particularly for the youth.
Besides the above mentioned service activities, number of regular activities are organised in Vivekananda Kendra campus. There are four exhibition maintained by Kendra:
Vivekanandapuram Campus also provides accommodation for one thousand people at a time visiting Kanyakumari at a considerably lower tariff. Visitors can stay here in a “Home away from home” atmosphere amidst serene surroundings close to the sea.
For the people all over the country following residential camps are conducted in the serene atmosphere of Vivekanandapuram
They alone live who live for others the rest are more dead than alive” Said Swami Vivekananda. How true! Today when the modern science tells us that existence interrelated, interconnected and interdependent. For living meaningful life, we have to contribute and work for the good of the society.
Vivekananda Kendra invites all contribute their time, energy and money for the actualizing the dream of Swami Vivekananda of vibrant Bharat working for good of humanity.
- Sri. A. Balakrishnan
Vice-President
Vivekananda Kendra, Kanyakumari
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[1] http://www.vkendra.org/sites/default/files/Vivekananda_Kendra_-_a_Rashtriya_Yajna_0.doc