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PROLOGUE
Ramakrishna Mission Vidyapith is an idea that emanated from Swami Turiyanandaji Maharaj, an illustrious disciple of Sri Ramakrishna. In response to his earnest call, an inspired young monastic Brahmachari Vidyachaitanya, later named as Swami Sadbhavananda, came forward to translate his vision into action. Needless to mention, Vidyachaitanya struggled hard to accomplish its arduous task. With a meager means and a high spirit he set out on a difficult journey. Collecting a few boys from needy families, he opened a boarding school in 1922. Observing Vidyapith’s successful beginning, Turiyanandaji showed his satisfaction saying, “A Brahmacharya Vidyalaya has been started there.” Deoghar is a well known ancient place of pilgrimage. It is a Shaktipith which harbours the heart of Sati the Goddess Mother of the universe as well as a place of Lord Shiva with a very old temple of His aspect Baba Vaidyanath. It is also sanctified by the hallowed memory of the holy visits of Sri Ramakrishna, Sri Sarada Devi and Swami Vivekananda in the 19th century. Today, its popularity is all the more since in it is situated the Ramakrishna Mission Vidyapith, the first residential school of Ramakrishna Mission – an institution of excellent educational attainments. The seed which was sowed 87 years ago has now grown into a mature tree with its collateral branches in the form of a premier institution, having other socially useful units added to it. The development occurred in it over the years is indeed conspicuous. Even a casual visit to Vidyapith would convince one how correct was the clairvoyant prediction of Swami Shivanandaji Maharaj, the second President of the Ramakrishna Order and a disciple of Sri Ramakrishna, who remarked during his maiden visit to Vidyapith at its initial stage: “I visualize a great future for Vidyapith. I am convinced that great work will be done through this institution”. Looking back, we do not therefore fail to see what a good deal of spade-work the pioneers did to provide a solid foundation to this institution, and, thereby, to lend a practical shape to the ideal of education given by Swami Vivekananda. Other disciples of Sri Ramakrishna such as Swami Subodhanandaji Maharaj and Sri Mahendranath Gupta, ‘M’ the writer of The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, also took a keen interest and came to Vidyapith. Swami Saradanandaji Maharaj, the then General Secretary of the Ramakrishna Mission and another famous disciple of Sri Ramakrishna extended all sorts of support, although it was not possible for him to make a personal visit to Vidyapith after it was being started. With all their affectionate blessings and the Divine grace of Sri Ramakrishna, Sri Sarada Devi and Swami Vivekananda, Vidyapith is surging ahead in spite of numerous hurdles it grapples with every moment in its way. Its organizers have voluntarily taken upon themselves the brunt of a selfless service to humanity with a sense of worship to God. Hence, the more perfectly they could perform their work the more blessed and obliged they would feel. A TRAVELOGUE Vidyapith is about to complete 87 years of its sojourn. It has witnessed many ups and downs; it had its slice of joy at times interrupted by ounces of sorrow. But within the last 87 years, should we say, Vidyapith travelled for more than a century now in terms of its achievement, the hallmark of which being the conferring of the "National Award for outstanding work in the field of child welfare". Performance of the boys in academic and extra-academic spheres has been consistently spectacular. It is for this reason that the Central Board of Secondary Education, New Delhi, had accorded Permanent Affiliation, sort of a model School Status, to this Institution. It aims at imparting education according to the educational ideas of Swami Vivekananda. VIDYAPITH TODAY As already stated the school is permanently affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education, New Delhi. At present the school has on its Roll 486 students from classes VI to XII. The Residential Section of Vidyapith has 15 Dhams (Hostels) named after the direct disciples of Sri Ramakrishna. Needless to say, this being a boarding school, boys reading in the school live in its hostels. Both the academic and the residential sections of Vidyapith take special care and lay special emphasis on value-based education. Boys are given regular instructions in Meditation, Gita-Chanting and other spiritual practices. Boys attend morning and evening prayers in the shrine daily. They manage their affairs themselves silently and efficiently. In the day-to-day activity of the Institution, lots of innovations are worked out to enable the boys to keep pace with the time without being cynical. A sincere attempt is being made to combine the ancient with the modern - VIDYARTHI VRATA, a reminder of our ancient Gurukula system on the one hand and CYBER EDUCATION symbolic of HI-TECH modernism on the other. COMPETITIONS During the period under review, a series of competitions were held. To promote and foster a sense of healthy contest, the inter-dormitory competitions were carried out for every term; the best dham, senior group, was awarded Vivekananda Memorial Cup, while the best among the junior dhams was awarded Rathindra Rudra Memorial Cup. Other Memorial Trophies given for Games are as below :
For the Secondary Section : In order to facilitate all round development of a student, balanced stress has been laid both in academic as well as in extra-academic sphere. As such, the boys have been exposed to various other competitions like debate, recitation, elocution, quiz, creative writing competitions and to organising seminars, science clubs, discussion on dissertations etc. A culture of wall magazines has been introduced in the school; each section now has its own display boards where the boys put up their wall magazines, which exhibit their interest in different fields. ACHIEVEMENTS Every year our students participate in National Science Seminar, Science Olympiad, Cyber Olympiad, International Olympiad for Astronomy etc. Sriman Vikram Aditya of class IX of our institution has become the National Champion at the National Science Seminar organized jointly by the National Council for Science Museum and the Birla Industrial and Technological Museum under the aegis of the Ministry of Culture, Govt. of India. This is the conseutive 3rd year that the students of Ramakrishan Mission Vidyapith, Deoghar have been wining these Champion’s Trophy. At the State Level he was awarded a cash prize of Rs. 50,000/= by the State Government, of which he contributed 50% to the flood relief fund through Ramakrishna Mission, Belur Math. One of our students participated in the 15th All India Essay Competition on Road Safety (in Manipuri language) conducted by CBSE under the aegis of the Ministry of Shipping, Road Transport and Highways, Department of Road Transport of Highways, Government of India and secured the First Prize. He was awarded a Gold Medal, Rs. 5000.00 cash and a certificate of honour. Another student of our institution participated in the 10th All India Essay Competition on Vehicular Pollution (in Bengali language) conducted by CBSE under the aegis of the Ministry of Shipping, Road Transport and Highways, Department of Transport, Govt. of India and secured the Second Prize. He was awarded a Silver Medal, Rs. 3000.00 cash and a certificate of honour. Following is the detail of performance of our students in different competitive examinations during 2008-09: CBSE PMT-06, CBSE Medical-01, IIT-04, AIEEE-05, Jharkhand Engineering-01, Orissa Engineering-01,Kalinga Institute of Technology-01, B.Architechture (through AIEEE)-02, West Bengal Medical-02, West Bengal Engineering-01, Manipal Engineering-01, Manipal Medical-02. 8 students were selected for final test in the 8th National Cyber Olympiad and 9 students appeared in the final test of the 11th National Science Olympiad. Our 4 students were awarded the 3rd prize in Inter School Quiz Competition conducted by the Association of Francerians, an alumni association of St.Francis School, Deoghar. Our two boys were awarded the first prize in General Knowledge competition, one the 2nd prize another the 3rd prize in debate competition organised by Devsangha National Public School, Deoghar. In the Inter School Competition conducted by Dipser College of Education, Deoghar, one of our students was granted the 1st prize and one the 2nd prize in Essay Writing Competition. VALUE EDUCATION Value education has been imparted more by maintaining a pious atmosphere than by regular classes. Congregational prayers, devotional songs, meditation, fortnightly Ram Nam Sankirtan, Janmastami, Shiva Ratri, Holi, Sri Sri Saraswati Puja, Viswakarma Puja, birthday celebrations of spiritual leaders are some of the means adopted to maintain this atmosphere. Boys take part in the shrine work and worship to imbibe our traditional values. The students clean their hostel by sweeping and mopping in the morning and the gardens during the Sundays. Vedic Chanting practice is also regularly done for the junior boys. The Senior Secondary students chant the Hanuman Chalisa every Tuesday and Saturday out of their own after the Evening Prayer. Even organisations like NCERT, CBSE etc. sometimes look to us for guidance, feed back and input while formulating National Policy and curriculum in VALUE- EDUCATION. PHYSICAL EDUCATION Physical Education of the boys has been imparted under the supervision and guidance of a monk. He is being assisted by qualified physical instructors and senior students. This year we got a few qualified coaches in football, basketball, gymnastic, yoga, band etc. Boys participated in regular drills in the morning and games in the afternoon, being divided on 18 playgrounds for football, cricket, basketball, volley ball etc. Some of them took regular exercises and practices in gymnastics, karate, band, table tennis etc. Tournaments were held in football, cricket, table tennis, volley ball and basket ball. The Annual sports events were held with usual éclat. Our Parade troops and band kept thousands of people spellbound with their smart turnouts and rhythmic displays both at the Vidyapith premises and at the District Parade Ground of Deoghar on the Independance Day as well as on the Republic Day. LITERARY ACTIVITIES Vidyapith, a printed Annual Magazine, is published every year with the articles from students, staff and monks. Special wall magazines are prepared by the boys for each section and displayed on glass-panelled boards outside each classroom and dham. These have made interesting reading with articles, cartoons and other features as usual. The teachers have occasionally met together to share their valuable literary and scientific talents. Our boys almost regularly secure Merit positions in the All India Cyber Olympiad, All India Science and Astronomy Olympiad. Three students of Class X this year were invited by the Bhaba Atomic Research Centre to get training for International Astronomy Contest at NASA and one of them became fourth in position and just missed the opportunity. LIBRARY Vidyapith has splendid libraries for the students and staff in each of the Secondary and the Senior Secondary Sections. As on date there are 22817 books in all (18862 books in Secondary library and 3955 books in Senior Secondary Library) on different subjects in Sanskrit, English, Bengali, Hindi, etc. The libraries provide 51 periodicals and 10 Newspapers to their readers. COMPUTER, VOCAL & INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC AND FINE ARTS These departments are given under qualified teachers who teach the boys regularly. Separate well equipped laboratories are maintained to keep the boys well posted about their latest developments. As of the Fine Art section boys arrange Art Exhibitions using their own art works from time to time. Sri Apurba Manna, Pakhoaj player of international repute has of late started teaching our students play pakhoaj. He organized a percussion recital with Pakhoaj, Tabla and Ghatam during the evening program on 15th August, 2008 with internationally reputed artist Somnath Roy and others. FLOWER GARDEN, DAIRY, BAKERY AND POULTRY Each of the Dhams maintains small flower garden of its own. The boys are encouraged to develop and maintain these gardens for the development of their aesthetic sense. A big dairy with mechanical milking facility (average yield is approximately 475 Kg. per day) and cows of exquisite breeds is maintained for the Vidyapith inmates. There is a bakery to meet the requirements of loaves, biscuits, cakes and other confectionaries for the internal consumption of our Ashrama. A poultry farm is also running at our Salona site to meet the requirements of our boys. EXCURSION Excursion is an essential part of education. The Vidyapith students other than the candidates for AISSE went on Educational Excursions to places like Kolkata, Belur Math, Jayrambati, Kamarpukur, etc. They gathered useful knowledge and information from the visits of these important places. A picnic for Staff, teaching and non-teaching was arranged on 24th December, 2008 at a beauriful place called Khandoli near Madhupur. PUBLICATION Vidyapith has a number of religious publications. A lit of titles it has so far brought out is given below:
1) Sangeet Sangraha - A collection of songs in Bengali; VIVEKANANDA BALAKENDRA Swami Vivekananda visualised that a new India would immerge “out of peasant's cottage grasping the plough, from beside the oven of the fritter seller”. A band of dedicated monks of Vidyapith started Vivekananda Balakendra with a view to translating his vision. It caters to the needs of underprivileged children, mostly from ST, SC and OBC communities around. Vivekananda Balakendra offers Vocational trainings to boys and study coaching to the boys and girls of the alluded sections. The total strength of its children as on date is 220. One can see for oneself how Swamiji's words as mentioned are being translated into action here. They are given vocational trainings in:
Electric Motor Winding Electric Wiring EXPENDITURE ON SCHOLARSHIPS & STIPENDS, CHARITABLE DISPENSARY AND VIVEKANANDA BALAKENDRA During the year 2007-2008, we awarded scholarships and stipends worth of Rs. 6,37,622/= to deserving students. An amount of Rs.6,75,771/= was expended towards the maintenance of Vivekananda Balakendra and an amount of Rs. 8,38,773/= was spent for the sake of our Charitable Dispensary. HIGHLIGHTS OF THE YEAR Results of our candidates at the AISSE - 2008 (Conducted by the C.B.S.E., New Delhi) have been marvellous. 76 boys out of 78 students got star marks in aggregate. 90% marks in aggregate was secured by more than 60% of the total boys who appeared at this Exam.. Their aggregate average was 90.1% - highest for all schools under the C.B.S.E. board in the country. As has been mentioned earlier, results of 7th batch boys of class XII at the AISSCE-2008 have also been excellent. It is a matter of joy to note that a long cherished desire of a Swimming Pool in Vidyapith has been fulfilled. It has been inaugurated by His Holiness Srimat Swami Smarananandaji Maharaj, Vice President of Ramakrishna Math & Ramakrishna Mission, Belur Math on 22nd January, 2009. We are much thankful to the engineers, namely Shri S. K. Chatterjee - for architechtural and engineering design, Shri Saumendra Nath Bhowmik, General Manager, Electro Steel Castings Pvt. Ltd, Kolkata and Sri Shekhar Banerjee - for proficient coordination and overall technical support for the execution, Shri S. N. Goswami, Executive Director, Rashmi Metaliks Ltd. - for general coordination, Dr. Suchandra Bardhan - for landscape designing and interior and exterior decoration and for overall technical coordination. They have given their best efforts to acomplish the project in such a short time. We are very much thankful to TATA STEEL for their contribution e.g. almost entire steel used for the Swimming Pool. Swami Amritarupanandaji maharaj, Secretary, Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda Society, Jamshedpur helped us immensely for this great help from TATA Steel. Mr. K. S. Bagchi, Managing Director, Bengal Peerless arranged for the over-head tanks for the water supply to Swimming Pool free of cost. CHARITABLE DISPENSARY Our Sarada Charitable Dispensary serves the local poor. Many qualified doctors are attached with it. In all 12579 patients have been treated in its Allopathy and Homeopathy sections during the year 2008-09. It contains pathology, ECG and X-ray units in its diagnostic department, where patients from both indoor and outdoor departments are being attended. It has a well equipped dental clinic. The pathological tests in its laboratory are done in a Semi Auto Analyzer. It also contains an eye clinic with modern facilities, a well equipped physiotherapy unit, ENT department along with the departments of General Medicine, Cardiology, Orthopedics and Gynaecology. Besides, the services of EEG, USG and TMT machines are also available in it. There are two sections of the indoor department in our dispensary, one in the Senior Secondary section and the other in the main campus which has a small Ward of 12 beds that meet the emergency arising in our Ashrama. We are indeed grateful to all those who have assisted us to procure equipment and have given logistic support to be able to offer modern and useful health services to the needy through this charitable medical work of Vidyapith. An Important Addition From September 2008, we have started a Mobile Medical Unit to serve the poor patients of remote villages around Deoghar district of Jharkhand State. We receive appreciations from many corners for this facility extended to the poor. LEGAL AWARENESS CAMP and INTERNATIONAL RABIS DAY . The Secretary of District Legal Service Association organized a Legal Awareness Camp in our campuS on 20th July 2008. Our teachers and students of Senior Secondary Section as well as guardians have been amply benefitted from this camp. Additional District Judge of Deoghar District along with other Magistrates of Deoghar Judiciary participated in it and interacted with the public, in order to make the public aware of the implications of the legal matters and also to answer their queries in a befitting manner. To observe the International Rabis Day on 28th September, Dr. P K Paul came from Patna to demonstrate by Powerpoint presentation to the students of Vidyapith on 27th September, 2008. The junior students attended the Seminar. NARA-NARAYAN SEVA
OUR IMMEDIATE NEEDS 1. We have to face a lot of problem due to scarcity of a moderate guesthouse at Vidyapith. Hundreds of devotees are coming every year to stay here and we have to regret in many cases, which is very disheartening for them as well as for us. The ex- students’ association is constantly demanding a good Guesthouse for which they will try their best. But it is a team work, no doubt and the budget being Rs. 60 lakhs, it is our appeal to all well wishers to contribute their might for this purpose. The contributions may be in the sweet memory of the dear ones of the contributors which will be mentioned on marble plaque at a prominent place to be noticed by one and all. 2.The unprecedented rain for two weeks without break in 2007 as well as in 2008 caused a little bit of disastrous situation in Vidyapith. The hostel roofs were leaking and altogether 25 buildings were found to have damaged roof with seepage of water. Consequently the students had to sleep on wet beds. The wardens also were no exception to this. The school building in the Higher Secondary Section has been badly damaged because the roof of the Chemistry Laboratory got cracked and the Laboratory Apparatus were all wet for two weeks. Recently the rain has stopped though; there is no certainty that it will not come again. Some experts were called from Kolkata to give advice regarding roof treatment and waterproof lamination - the best of its kind for old buildings. The lamination will cost about Rs. 46.55 per Sq. ft. and the total cost for all the damaged roofs will cost approximately Rs. 34.5 lakhs, plus other contingency expenses. 3.The boundary wall of Vidyapith campus is severely damaged in many places. On the outside of the Boundary wall there are wonderful messages of Sri Ramakrishna, Swami Vivekananda and Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi. But unfortunately most of them have been withered away and have become illegible. It is urgently needed that the boundary wall be repaired and the banners get recovered to be legible clearly. We want to replace the damaged portion of the wall with new construction and for this an amount of Rs. 12 lakhs is required. 4. We have started an awareness project called "Rainwater Harvesting Project" in Deoghar district of Jharkhand state. We are demonstrating this project in rural areas also by constructing check dams, special water tanks. Deoghar is a hilly area and there is no way to store the rainwater without knowledge of Rainwater Harvesting. In previous years we had constructed 10 Special Water Tanks and 3 Check Dams. Rs. 10 lakhs is required to make a corpus fund to run this project. 5. We have a small poultry farm at our Salona Tanr campus. At present it is situated in a building that is not suitable for Poultry Farm. We want to shift it in the same campus but at different place by constructing a new shed professionally used in any big poultry farm and for this about Rs. 5 lakhs is required. We want to use the vacant building for awareness programmes for the development of personality for rural youths. 6. A “ Staff Welfare Fund” has been created with a corpus of Rs. 10000.00 /- donated by the Ex-students of Batch 2003 pass out. This is meant chiefly for Medical treatments of casual staff and their families who do not come under the purview of the Medical reimbursement facility extended by the Head Quarters at Belur Math to the staff members of any institution of the Ramakrishna Mission. This fund may be used for some other emergency reasons disastrous to the said incumbents. We fervently appeal to all our well-placed Ex-Students to contribute liberally to this fund which will be deemed as to repay their debt to their preceptors i.e. Rishi-Rin as mentioned in the Shastra. The members of the Vidyapith family shall remain ever grateful to people who will kindly contribute the whole or a part of the total project so that we can serve the people in better way. Any contribution made to this organization is exempted from the Income Tax under Section 80G of I. T. Act. All Drafts/cheques in this regard should be drawn in favour of "Ramakrishna Mission Vidyapith, Deoghar" payable at any service branch at Deoghar. With our best wishes and namaskar. Looking forward to your co-operation as early as you feel convenient. DISTINGUISHED VISITORS This year we are delighted to have received a lot of distinguished monks and dignitaries of whom Dr. Manish Ranjan, Ex-DC, Deoghar, Smt. Anita Ranjan, Sri A. K. Dutt, Income Tax Commissioner, Bhagalpur, Srimat Swami Vagishanandaji Maharaj, Trustee, Ramakrishna Math & Ramakrishna Mission, Belur Math & President, Ramakrishna Math & Ramakrishna Mission, Mumbai, Srimat Swami Tattwabodhanandaji Maharaj, Trustee, Ramakrishna Math & Ramakrishna Mission, Belur Math & President, Ramakrishna Math, Cossipore, Kolkata, Dr. Ram Chandra Purve, Ex-Education Minister, M.L.A.& Leader of Opposition, Bihar Legislative Assembly, Sri Nalin Jain & Sri Anil Jain, ex-students of Vidyapith, presently serving Merchant Navy in Arabian Country, Shri Abhay Shankar Mishra, Additional District & Sessions Judge, Deoghar, Shri Mithilesh Prasad, A.C.O.M., Deoghar, Shri S. K. Pandey, S.D.J.M., Madhupur, Sri Kamal Kumar Srivastava & Shri Amaresh Kumar, Judicial Magistrate, Deoghar, Shri Umesh Prasad Singh, S. D. O., Deoghar, Sri Mastaram Meena, IAS, Deputy Commissioner, Deoghar, Sri Surendra Nath Mandilwar, Deputy Development Commissioner, Deoghar, Shri Narendra Kumar Mishra, Additional Deputy Commissioner, Mrs. Shobharani Basu, Chief Income Tax Commissioner, Jharkhand, Smt.Geeta Kora, wife of ex-chief minister Jharkhand, Shri Ananta Vijay Singh, Director, Jharkhand State Legal Service Authority, Shri Narendra Srivastava, District & Sessions Judge, Deoghar, Shri Pinaki Chandra Ghosh, Judge, Kolkata High Court, Smt. Rupam Prasad, Jailor, Deoghar, Shri Manoj Kaushik, IPS, Superintendent of Police, Deoghar, Shri Raj Paliwar, M.L.A., Madhupur, Shri Pradeep Kumar, Conservator of Forests, Deoghar, Col. Navin Jha, Central Command, Shri A. K. Basu, Chief Secretary, Govt. of Jharkhand, Shri A. K. Mukherjee, Regional Deputy Director of Education, Daksini Chhottanagpur Division & Principal Coordinator, National Science Seminar, Jharkhand, Ranchi, Srimat Swami Jitatmanandaji Maharaj, Secretary, R. K. Mission Swami Vivekananda’s Ancestral House & Cultural Centre, Kolkata, Honourable Justice S.P. Pathak, of Rajasthan High Court, His Holiness Srimat Swami Smarananandaji Maharaj, Vice President, Ramakrishna Math & Ramakrishna Mission, Belur Math, Shri K. N. Jha, Ex-Minister, Govt. of Bihar & Patron, Hindi Vidyapith, Deoghar, Col. R. K. Debnath, CO 5 Girls (I) Coy, NCC, Dhanbad, Lt. Col.P. K. Singh, Ranchi, Sri H K Mishra, IGP, Dumka, Sri Sudin Chattopadhyaya, FIFA Referee, Sri Kameswar Nath Das, M.L.A., DeogharSwami Raghunathanandaji Maharaj, Chapra, Bihar, Shri Romen Ghosh, Arjun Award winner, (Badminton-1974), Md. Masudur Rahman, International Swimmer, Kolkata, Shri Biswajit Roy Chowdhury, Eminent Violinst (Kolkata), deserve mention. VIDYAPITH PRAKTANI Every year Vidyapith arranges an “Ex-students Reunion” for the passout students. The Re-union always offers an opportunity to existing students for a healthy interaction with the ex-students. This year about 45 ex-students from different parts of the country participated and presented an attractive cultural programme in the evening. OUR THANKS We offer our hearty and grateful thanks to our donors and well-wishers and our highly learned faculty member and dedicated team of non-teaching staff and the Ex-students of this Institution which was an unforeseen distant germ in 1922 has now grown upto this stages with all their support, co-operation and assistance. We hope it will further grow and develop if the support it is getting continues to come without any interruption. |
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