BELUR MATH Temple

Today I went to the Temple of Belur Math with Deep and Mimi, first you had to get a car ride to the docks where you would take a boat to reach the temples which was pretty cool.

Video of car ride to Belur math temples.

Then we had to take a Boat ride to temples to reach our destination it was great fun. Deep and me in the back groud along with a lot of other Indian's. :)



Mimi is deeps Girl Friend in purple shirt

which are "Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission are twin organizations which form the core of a worldwide spiritual movement (known as Ramakrishna Movement or Vedanta Movement), which aims at the harmony of religions, harmony of the East and the West, harmony of the ancient and the modern, spiritual fulfillment, all-round development of human faculties, social equality, and peace for all humanity, without any distinctions of creed, caste, race or nationality.

RAMAKRISHNA MATH is a monastic organization for men brought into existence by
Sri Ramakrishna (1836-1886), the great 19th century saint of Bengal who is regarded as the Prophet of the Modern Age.

RAMAKRISHNA MISSION is a registered society in which monks of Ramakrishna Math and lay devotees cooperate in conducting various types of social service mainly in India. It was founded by Sri Ramakrishna's chief apostle, Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902), one of the foremost thinkers and religious leaders of the present age, who is regarded as 'one of the main moulders of the modern world', in the words of an eminent Western scholar A. L. Basham.

Although Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission are legally and financially separate, they are closely inter-related in several other ways, and are to be regarded as twin organizations."

There are 171 branches of this org. in India and though out the world.

The Headquarters are in Belur Math. All branch of Ramakrishna Math come under the administrative control of the Board of Trustees, I can only imagine that a religion has a board of trustees :) only in our world would we do this.


Here is a video of the temples trip.

video 2

The motto of Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission is:
Atmano mokshartham jagad hitaya cha,
"For one's own salvation, and for the welfare of the world".


For more info look at this blog http://www.dakshineswar.com/

"EPILOGUE

When the Gods lay exhausted after warring with the demons, the evil-natured demon king Mahishasura took the opportunity to assemble an army and declare himself Lord of Heaven, Ruler of the Universe.

This blasphemy reached Vishnu's ears and, in anger, he shot forth a terrible light from his forehead. Shiva, too, was angry. ascended from his lofty state of meditation and beamed a sharp ray of blinding light in the same direction as Vishnu. Brahma, Indra and the other mighty Gods did likewise, each issuing forth piercing rays of light. All the Gods' rays joined at one point and, slowly, the blazing concentration of light took shape in the form of a woman.

The light of Shiva formed her face; Yama gave her hair and Vishnu her arms. From the light of Chandra, the moon God, her two breasts were formed. Indra modeled her waist and Varuna her thighs. Earth gave her hips and Brahma gave her feet. The light from the fire God, Agni, fashioned her three eyes. Thus, all gods contributed their power to manifest the auspicious Devi, the great Mother Goddess ("Devi" is derived from the Sanskrit root word "div" which means "to shine" - the Shining One)."