Fifty Years of Kendrayanam
In a brief speech, Late Eknath Ranade, then General Secretary of Kendra, placed before the members present on the occasion, the need for starting a cadre-based, spiritually oriented Service Organisation to carry the message of Swami Vivekananda to the nook and corner of India. He said that the Motto of the organisation will be “Serve Man – Serve God” – with the twin objectives of “Man-making and Nation-building”.
He said young men and women, who are ready to dedicate their whole life for this cause will be selected and trained for undertaking national regeneration programs, especially in the economically backward and tribal areas of Bharat. Thus began the Kendrayanam – a long march towards fulfilling Swami Vivekananda’s dream of making Bharatmata – Jagat Guru.
“I do not see into the future; nor do I care to see. But one vision I see clear as life before me, that the ancient mother has awakened once more, sitting on her throne rejuvenated more glorious than ever. Proclaim her to all the world with the voice of peace and benediction.
--Swami Vivekananda
Though the keel for the Vivekananda Kendra was laid on 7th January 1972, it took more than one year to translate it into reality. Eknathji undertook a country wide tour to discover right type of human material to undertake this gigantic task of national reawakening and reconstruction work. After interviewing 800 odd young men and women, he could get only 16 persons for the first batch of Shikshartis. The training for this group of workers was started on 2nd September 1973. Thus began the first step of Kendrayanam towards a long journey.
Eknathji was very clear in his vision, that Kendra should undertake, its service activities in the two main constituencies, which are Aartha and Vipanna Seva – for the poor, fallen and down trodden people of India. 1) Aartha means poor and needy, poverty stricken, diseased, alienated and socially boycotted people. 2) Vipanna means, fallen ones, western educated, moved away from the main cultural stream of India, carrying the baggage of whatever comes from the west is best, sneering and side lining anything and everything which are Bharateeya in origin.
Eknathji felt that both these sections need immediate attention. Priority was given to the most backward North East region of India comprising of 8 states viz. Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, Meghalaya and Sikkim.
Simultaneously, he also planned to setup Branch Centres of Kendra in all metropolis of India. He was of the view that all the universities and colleges to be targeted with programs to attract young minds. He felt that young boys and girls can be attracted only by implementing regular Yoga classes and cultural competitions. By this methodology, young minds will be attracted towards Kendra and they can be gradually made Kendra workers. He also felt that yoga must be made a popular Kendra activity to attract the western educated people from upper strata of Hindu society, who are enamoured by the westernization that was seen and understood as modernization in those days.
Eknathji’s vision of establishing multi-purpose educational institutions, took shape first in Andaman Island, when a pre-primary school was started in 1976 in Port Blair in a temporary shed. That was followed by seven residential schools in Arunachal Pradesh, one in Assam and another in Kanyakumari. Over the years, the number of schools have risen to 82. Some are still in the pipeline.
Along with Education, Eknathji wanted to create awareness about Hindu way of life among the village people of southern Tamilnadu which resulted in very intensive and extensive countrywide Rural Development Programmes. Though initially it took roots in the southern districts of Tamilnadu, gradually, over the years it spread to Maharashtra, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam and Odisha. Through this Swamiji’s message of Man-making and Nation building reached to the village level by attracting many youths to the Yoga Camps, Spiritual retreats, Personality Development Camps and Sthaniya Karya Kartha Prashikshan Shibir.
Health awareness camps and mobile medical camps through rural development programme, gradually led to setting up of 3 hospitals in Numaligarh (Assam), Bina (MP) and Paradip in Odisha and one Nursing school in Numaligarh (Assam).
In the educational field most of the schools rose to Higher Secondary level, but few remained in Secondary and middle school level for want of qualified teachers. Setting up a B.Ed., college at Nirjuli in Arunachal Pradesh, paved way for training the teachers for the need of our own schools and also enabled us to give Kendra orientation to all of them. This was a real turning point for getting local Arunachal teachers for Kendra Schools and also to Government schools.
In order to mobilise the youth of Bharat, many awareness camps, were organised in different states.
The Vivekananda Bharat Parikrama, organised during 1992-93, on the occasion of the Centenary of Swami Vivekananda’s historic meditation on the Rock in Kanyakumari, was a gigantic mass awareness country-wide programme. It started from Kolkatta on 12th January 1992 and concluded at Kanyakumari on 24th December 1992. This character building exercise extending to 347 days, covered 22000 kms., before reaching Kanyakumari. Programmes were organised in 150 cities, towns and rural hubs to take Swamiji’s message.
In order to attract elites and further to make them participate in Kendra work as per Eknathji’s vision and mission, Centres of Eminence were started for the educated class of people. Such centres are:
Vivekananda Kendra Institute of Culture at Guwahati, with chapters at Itanagar, Shillong, Imphal and Agartala.
Vivekananda International Foundation, New Delhi.
Vivekananda Kendra Vedic Vision Foundation, Kodungallur.
Vivekananda Kendra Academy for Indian Culture Yoga and Management at Bhubaneswar.
Kendra take to wings:
Before Vivekananda Kendra was started the Publication wing of Vivekananda Rock Memorial Committee started its Publication wing by bringing out the monumental book titled “India’s Contribution to world Thought and Culture’, in September 1970. This was released by the then Vice-President of India, Sri G.S. Pathak to spread the Kendra’s message of selfless service through a cadre of dedicated workers. Eknathji started a monthly magazine, titled “Yuva Bharati” the voice of youth, in August 1973. To continue further, Eknathji decided to bring out a thematic, half yearly magazine, titled “Vivekananda Kendra Patrika” and very soon it became popular. Over the years, Kendra has opened its publication wing in various regional languages, such as Marathi, Tamil, Malayalam, Hindi, Assamse, Bengali, Gujarati, Oriya, Kannada and Telugu.
Periodicals, monthly, quarterly and yearly in different languages were also started to spread the ideals and reports of Kendra activities to different sections and regions of Bharat.
Vivekananda Kendra International Foundation and Vivekananda Kendra Institute of Culture had their own share in bringing out number of books highlighting their specific fields and the nature of the activities.
Kendra projects such as, National Resources Development, Rural Development Programme have added colour and richness to the publication by their respective activities. NARDEP’s Green Rameswaram, and restoration of age old teerthas, in and around Rameswaram were a major contribution of Kendra. Besides, their works in alternative energy, low cost housing and indigenous medicine and farming have gained worthy support from the local people.
In order to extensively spread the organizational network of Kendra to other States, Kendra re-organised its methodology of work. Our Karyapadhati included, Yoga Varga, Samskar Varga, Swadhyaya Varga, and Kendra Varga in addition to various Shibirs and Spiritual Retreats. The organisational structure was also suitably changed to properly blend them with local level Adhikaris as Pranth, Vibhag and Nagar level into a well-greased team. This galvanisational approach created individuals to merge with the Kendra team and thus the team at various levels generated enormous team spirit, which is the foundation stone of all cadre based organisation.
Kendra created an All India team and that, enabled decision making easy and fast. All India Karyakarani team met periodically and assessed the various activities for its fruitful, purposeful, and useful implementation. Thus the expansion of Kendra and its consolidation went side by side.
Taking into confidence the various Adikaris at different levels, and ascertaining their views by active participation in the periodical meetings has enabled Kendra taking decisions by consensus. The team spirit and every link in the chain is important to strengthen Kendra is understood by one and all.
Today, when Kendra is completing “50 Glorious years”, we can look to the future with more determination and increased will power, to carry the great message of Swami Vivekananda.
Arise, Awake! Stop not, till the goal is reached
Swami Vivekananda
Charaiveti! Charaiveti! Kendrayanam Charaiveti!
A.Balakrishnan
President
Vivekananda Kendra,
Kanyakumari
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