A Short History...

In this historic place of Tamluk, in 1914, Rajanikanta Pramanik of village Kalai, P.S. Panskura, Dist : Purba Medinipur, then a student of class X of Tamluk Hamilton High School and later on initiated by the Holy Mother Sri Saradadevi, started one “Ramakrishna Sevashrama”. He was assisted by Girija Charan Adhikari, Gajendranath Guria, Achyutananda Das, Bipracharan Maiti, Narayan Chandra Mandal and others. The Math section of the Sevashrama was affiliated to the Ramakrishna Math, Belur Math in 1924 and the Mission section was included into a branch centre of the Ramakrishna Mission, Belur Math in 1929.

Initially the activities of the Sevashrama was being carried out from a room of Tamluk Moktar library, adjacent to fouzdari court. The activites were limited to treating of cholera and malaria affected patients, cremating of dead bodies, distress flood relief and box collection through handful of rice given in charity.

After several shifts, the Sevashrama came to be settled permanently at its present site in 1921, to the north-west side of Tamluk Swimming club and Purba Medinipur District library beside Baikuntha Sarovar under Tamralipta Municipality. This can be reached directly from Calcutta/Howrah Railway station via Mecheda, by bus or by train. The Math section has at present 0.49 acre of land, whereas the Mission has a total of 1.693 acres of land, most of which were acquisitioned by the Government of West Bengal.

The Ashrama has the blessings and physical presence of Sri Ramakrishna’s direct disciples Srimat Swami Premanandaji Maharaj and Srimat Swami Vijnananandaji Maharaj during the years 1915 and 1935 respectively. The Ashrama has the sweet memory of the presence of Srimat Swami Virajanandaji Maharaj during the year 1945. Srimat Swami Yatishwaranandaji Maharaj also visited here and inaugurated the present Temple of the Ashrama in 1963, the Birth Centenary year of Swami Vivekananda. Many of our most revered Presidents and Vice-Presidents of the Order also visited the Sevashrama occasionally and were kind enough to initiate about 8,000 spiritual aspirants.

We are proud of keeping the compliments from the dignitaries like Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Jadugopal Mukherjee, Kailashnath Katju, Kaji Nazrul Ishlam, Vijaya Laxmi Pandit, Prafulla Chandra Sen, Shyamaprasad Mukherjee, Annada Shankar Ray, Ashapurna Devi and many others.