Samiti Member Pilgrimages to India and Photo Albums

Over the years, sixteen Samiti members have gone on pilgrimage to India for intensive spiritual study, inspiration, and to visit the holy places associated with the Master Sri Ramakrishna, the Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi, and Swami Vivekananda. Visiting holy places awakens one's God consciousness. But the Master used to say: 'Whoever does not have it here [in the heart], does not have it there [in the holy places]. Whoever has it here, has it there too.' Pilgrims make places holy. Suffering people get peace in a holy place because holy people purify it with their good thoughts and spiritual vibrations. And again, a holy place loses its greatness and purity if worldly people pollute it with evil thoughts and actions. In the old days the real devotees would go through much hardship for a pilgrimage.... (Readings from Sri Ramakrishna as We Saw Him. By Swami Premananda.
Edited by Swami Chetanananda. page 113.)





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Pangot Pilgrimage, October, 2010

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Indu, Usha, Vidya, Archana, Sandra



A group of Samiti members and friends were able to accompany Indu Ramchandani, the editor of the Understanding Vedanta series, on pilgrimage in 2010. They participated in classes with Revered Pravrajika Vivekaprana Mataji at Pangot, India on the Atmabodha: Self-Knowledge of Sri Sankaracharya and also talks of Swami Vivekananda. They also met with Pravrajika Prasannapranaji who administers the Samiti's financial support of twenty deserving girls and young women engaged in educational programs.

Pangot is a small remote hill village located approximately 250 kilometers northeast of Delhi at a height of 6,500 feet.The Ramakrishna Sarada Mission established this retreat in 2002 to provide an ashrama at which the teachings of Vedanta, self study, and practice of spiritual disciplines is possible for women of the West and the East. The entire process of land selection, building design and construction was overseen by Revered Vivekapranaji. Nainital is 15 kilometers away and was visited by Swami Vivekananda, Sister Nivedita, Josephine MacLeod, and Sara Bull in 1898 during their Himalayan pilgrimage.


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Pilgrimage to Jayrambati, Shihar, and Kamarpukur, November, 2010

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Indu, Usha, Vidya, Archana, Sandra



Five Samiti members and friends gratefully accompanied Pravrajika Prabuddhapranaji of Sri Sarada Math headquarters. Prabuddhapranaji has researched and written inspiring books including: Shyamasundari Devi: Mother of Sri Sarada Devi; Descent of the Goddess at Shihar; Chandramani Devi: Sri Ramakrishna's Mother; Tantine: the Life of Josephine MacLeod Friend of Swami Vivekananda; and Saint Sara: The Life of Sara Chapman Bull, the American Mother of Swami Vivekananda.

Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi, the divine consort of Sri Ramakrishna, was born on December 22, 1853 in Jayrambati in rural West Bengal, India. Mother occasionally took her bath in the nearby Amodar River, which she described as 'my Ganga'. The presiding deity of Jayrambati is Simhavahini Devi, who is worshipped for three days in the autumn. After the Mahasamdhi of Sri Ramakrishna, Holy Mother made Jayrambati her permanent country residence from 1897 until 1920, the year of her death. Holy Mother entered her new house at Jayrambati on May 15, 1916. Holy Mother's Temple was consecrated by the Sri Ramakrishna Math in 1923. The Holy Mother declared, “Jayrambati is Shivpuri. If one passes three nights here, one's body is purified.” (From Reminiscences of Sri Sarada Devi. page 251.)

Shihar, a small village in the Bankura district of West Bengal, is adjacent to Jayrambati. Shihar was the birthplace of Shyamasundari Devi, the birth mother of Sri Sarada Devi. Shyamasundari saw a goddess descend from the Bel tree on the bank of the Ella Pukur pond at Shihar and enter into her womb. The vision was the advent of Sri Sarada Devi, the Holy Mother. The ancient Shantinath Shiva Temple is the very center of the village. It was there that two or three year old Sarada Devi saw Gadadhar Chattopadhyay, later Sri Ramakrishna, dancing on a raised platform adjacent to the Temple. When asked which dancer would be her husband, she pointed to the Master. In May, 1859, the marriage took place. Sri Sarada Math established a temple and coaching school in Shihar in 2003. The Holy Mother referred to this area as 'My place' and was very protective of it.

Sri Ramakrishna was born to Khudiram and Chandramani Chattopadhyay in the village of Kamarpukur in West Bengal on February 18, 1836. It is located four miles east of Jayrambati and seventy mile northwest of Kolkata. Chandramani stood before the Jugis' Shiva Temple adjacent to their home when a flood of celestial light issued from the image of Lord Shiva and entered her body. Later she was with child. Swami Vivekananda declared, “Ever since the advent of Sri Ramakrishna, the eastern horizon has been aglow with the dawning rays of the sun which in course of time will illumine the country with the splendour of the midday sun.” (in Photographs of Sri Ramakrishna and Sri Sarada Devi. Chennai. 2003) The Sri Ramakrishna Temple at Kamarpukur was dedicated in 1951.


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Sri Sarada Math Pilgrimage, November, 2010

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Sri Sarada Math Shrine



Four Samiti members and friends went to the headquarters of Sri Sarada Math and the Ramakrishna Sarada Mission. The Math was established on December 2, 1954 as a part of the birth centenary of the Holy Mother and is now the largest independent self-administered women's monastic order in the world. The first members were dedicated women workers of Sister Nivedita Girls' School in Kolkata. The Math is located on the eastern bank of the Ganga at Dakshineswar, near the Kali temple where Sri Ramakrishna practiced intense spiritual disciplines and Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi also lived for many years.


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Pilgrimage to Kanyakumari, December, 2008

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Pilgrimage to Kanyakumari



Two Samiti members gratefully accompanied a pravrajika and devotee of Sri Sarada Mission, Trivandrum in South India. This pilgrimage to Kanyakumari inspired us all and recalled Swami Vivekananda and the Holy Mother.

At the end of his travels all over India, Swami Vivekananda reached Cape Comorin. There he prostrated himself before the image of Goddess Kanyakumari to pray for the welfare of his motherland and all humanity. His worship finished, he swam to a rock which was separate from the mainland. At the confluence of the Indian Ocean, Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal, the shark infested ocean waters tossed and stormed about him. And there he dove into deep meditation upon the past, present and future of India. He formulated India's mission and prepared to undertake his journey to the West. After three days and nights, he returned to the mainland. This simple monk was transformed into a great reformer, nation builder and visionary for the East and West.

With the blessings of the Holy Mother, Sri Sarada Devi, he departed for America and became a delegate to the Parliament of the Worlds' Religions in Chicago in 1893. She assured him, “Do not worry. What you are doing now and what you will be doing in the future will be permanent. You are born just to accomplish this work. Thousands of people will hail you as a world teacher, a bestower of divine knowledge.”


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