Prabuddha Bharata

In News: Prabuddha Bharata is the Ramakrishna Order’s monthly journal initiated by Swami Vivekananda in the year 1896.

About Prabuddha Bharata or Awakened India

Prabuddha Bharata or Awakened India is an English-language monthly journal of the Ramakrishna Order, in publication since July 1896.
It carries articles and translations by monks, scholars, and other writers on humanities and social sciences including religious, psychological, historical, and cultural themes.
It has a section of book reviews where important publications from university presses from around the world are reviewed.
It is edited from Advaita Ashrama, Mayavati, Uttarakhand, and published and printed in Kolkata. Prabuddha Bharata is India’s longest running English journal.

Genesis of Prabuddha Bharata

Swami Vivekananda fell on the world like a sword blade after his success in the Parliament of Religion in 1893.
His fiery lectures abroad and his epistles to his acquaintances, inspired people everywhere. In Chennai his admirers started a journal, Prabuddha Bharata, or Awakened India.
In July 1896 the first issue of the journal rolled off the press. It has been published uninterruptedly every month since then.
Swamiji, then resting in Almora after his nation awakening tour from Colombo, asked his English disciples, Captain Sevier and his wife to revive the journal. The Captain had a press, type and ink transported from Kolkata.
Captain Sevier was in the meanwhile, at the behest of Swamiji, looking for an ideal place, deep in the Himalayas, for the Advaita Ashrama. He finally found one in Mayavati in the district of Champawat, 6,400 feet above sea level.
In 1914 a separate building was erected nearby exclusively for the journal and the press.
Thus from 1923 the printing was done in Kolkata, while the editorial section stayed back. Manuscripts were unfailingly sent, despite wars, natural calamities, strikes, etc. This practice has remained unchanged till the present day.

Role Of Prabuddha Bharata

The greatest role Prabuddha Bharata played was that of publishing the Ramakrishna-Vivekananda and Vedanta literature.
Bit by little bit, a vast body of excellent spiritual literature, brought out tirelessly by sannyasins of sterling qualities, came into being. This literature is now published by Advaita Ashrama, which acts like a beacon light for millions of people the world over.
The journal was also a recorder of sorts of the renaissance of Indian monasticism and religion that was now playing an active role in society.
While scientific thoughts were smashing superstitions and religious beliefs, amazingly, Vedanta philosophy was getting more resurgent by finding newer grounds for its expressions.
Prabuddha Bharata brought out the common ground between philosophy and science. This was a direct boon to scores of philosophers, scholars and religious people all over the world.
This also opened the door to the study of comparative religions, making fanaticism less pronounced.

The Ramakrishna Order

Iis the monastic lineage that was founded by Ramakrishna, when he gave the ocher cloth of renunciation to twelve of his close disciples, in January 1886 at the Cossipore House.
The Ramakrishna Order should not be confused with the Ramakrishna Math, which is the legal entity that trains young monks and directs the spiritual duties of the Swamis of the Order.
There is also a parallel organization, the Ramakrishna Mission, which performs the charitable work including, orphanages, hospitals, clinics, primary schools, high schools, colleges, and universities – as well as disaster relief and economic development in villages

Ramakrishna Math

Is the administrative legal organization of the Ramakrishna Order, considered part of the Hindu reform movements.
It was set up by sanyasin disciples of Ramakrishna paramhansa headed by Swami Vivekananda at Baranagar Math in Baranagar, a place near Calcutta (now Kolkata), in 1886. India.
The headquarters of Ramakrishna Math and its twin organisation, Ramakrishna Mission is at Belur Math (in West Bengal, India).
Although Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission are legally and financially separate, they are closely interrelated in several other ways and are to be regarded as twin organizations.
All branch centres of Ramakrishna Math come under the administrative control of the Board of Trustees, whereas all branch centres of Ramakrishna Mission come under the administrative control of the Governing Body of Ramakrishna Mission.
The Ramakrishna Math and the Ramakrishna Mission have 214 centres all over the world.

Ramakrishna mission (RKM)

Is a Hindu religious and spiritual organisation which forms the core of a worldwide spiritual movement known as the Ramakrishna Movement or the Vedanta Movement.
The mission is named after and inspired by the Indian saint Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and founded by Ramakrishna’s chief disciple Swami Vivekananda on 1 May 1897.
The organisation mainly propagates the Hindu philosophy of Vedanta–Advaita Vedanta and four yogic ideals–jnana, bhakti, karma, and Raja Yoga.
Apart from religious and spiritual teaching the organisation carries out extensive educational and philanthropic work in India. This aspect came to be a feature of many other Hindu movements.
The mission bases its work on the principles of karma yoga, the principle of selfless work done with dedication to God.
The Ramakrishna Mission has centres around the world and publishes many important Hindu texts.
It is affiliated with the monastic organization. Vivekananda was greatly influenced by his guru (teacher) Ramakrishna