Belur Math
Belur Math is famous as the headquarters of the Ramakrishna Math and Mission. It is founded by Swami Vivekananda who was a chief disciple of Ramakrishna ‘Paramahamsa’. Basically, it is situated on the west bank of Hooghly River, Belur in West Bengal, India. Belur Math is one of the significant institutions in Calcutta and is the heart of the Ramakrishna Movement. The temple is remarkable for its beautiful architecture that amalgamates Hindu, Christian and Islamic motifs as a symbol of unity of all religions. Belur math railway station was also inaugurated in 2007, which is basically dedicated to Belur math temple.
Aarti Timings:
Belur
Math Aarti and Sandhya Arati:
The time for the Evening Aarti is 5:30 PM.
Places To Visit Near To The Temple:
Ramakrishna
Museum
Swami
Brahmananda temple
Holy
Mother’s temple
Swami
Vivekananda Temple
Sri Ramakrishna Temple
How To Reach:
Belur Math is situated in the Northern part of
Howrah and is about 4 km from Howrah Railway Station. Hence, all the modes of
transport are accessible from outside the Howrah railway station and bus stand.
Tourists can travel by auto, bus or taxi. From Howrah, you can take bus number 54 to reach Belur. The Local trains also go to Belur Math. However, it is more
convenient to travel by bus, auto or taxi as they drop you off at the entrance
to the Math. Although, it takes around half an hour to reach there from the railway
station or the bus stand.
History
Swami
Vivekananda reached Colombo in January 1897 along with his small group of
Western disciples. He founded two monasteries, one at Belur, which became the
headquarters of Rama krishna Mission and the other one at Mayavati on the
Himalayas, in Champawat District which is at Uttrakhand and thus called the ‘Advaita
Ashrama’. The main objective of these monasteries was to train young men who to
eventually become ‘Sannyasis of the Ramakrishna Mission, and to give them training
for their work. The philanthropic activity was started in the same year and
relief of the famine was carried out. However, Swami Vivekanand’s days as a
Parivrajaka i.e wandering monk before his visit to Parliament of Religions, took
him through many parts of India and he visited several architectural monuments
like the Taj Mahal, Fatehpur Sikri palaces, Diwan–e–Khas , palaces of
Rajasthan, ancient temples of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and
other places. Whilst, he was in his tour in America and Europe, he came across buildings
of architectural importance of Modern, Medieval, Gothic and Renaissance styles.
It was noted that Vivekananda incorporated these ideas in the design of the
Belur Math temple. A brother monk of Swami Vivekananda- Swami Vijnanananda and
one of the monastic disciples of Ramakrishna Mission, who was, in his
pre-monastic life, a civil engineer, designed the temple according to the ideas
of Vivekananda and Swami Shivananda. Hence, then President of Belur Math laid
the foundation stone on 16 May 1935. The enormous construction was handled by
Martin Burn & Co. The mission declared the Belur Math as A Symphony in
Architecture.
