Hundred years after his death
S> One cannot even imagine that such a human sea would overflow in a lane of Kolkata. It was a scene of great enthusiasm and pleasure for the sanyasis, brahmacharis and followers of Ramkrishna Mission, in this house, at Gourmohan Mukherjee Street of central Kolkata where Swami Vivekananda was born.
After more than a hundred years of Vivekananda'sdeath, Ramakrishna Mission succeeded to take occupation of his birth-place. Since the early morning puja, yojna, havan were started under the guidance of Swami Bidyanathananda, the main priest of Belur Math. At about 9 a.m. Swami Ranganathananda, the present president of Ramakrishna Mission, formally inaugurated that room where Swami Vivekananda was born.
The house was renovated by modern technology without disturbing its original structure. Renovation was started in 1999 when the Ramakrishna Mission occupied the house and the adjacent areas. The Mission rehabilitated more than a hundred families by offering them new flats in place of the ones they had vacated.
In the religious function, the first speaker was Swami Swarananda. Swami Ranganathananda said, in his short speech, ?The world can achieve harmony and peace if we follow the teachings of Swami Vivekananda.? Three senior vice presidents including Swami Gahananda, Swami Atmatsthananda, Swami Geetananda and other sanyasis and brahmacharis were present on the occasion.
Swami Bisokananda, well known as Partha Maharaj, who was in charge of the renovation programme expressed his gratitude to the Government of India, to the state government of West Bengal, to Shri Abheek Sarkar, the head of Anand Bazar Patrika, and to the Kolkata Municipal Corporation for their help by way of donations in cash or in kind.
An unusual sight was the presence of three political personalities?Mayor Subrata Mukherjee, Ajit Panja and Sudop Banerjee who happen to be political adversaries. Only for a moment did Asim Dasgupta, a cabinet minister of West Bengal came on the stage. Though their was an unexpected rush of people, the entire programme was conducted in a disciplined manner.
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