The Order that came into being after Sri Ramakrishna's passing away to keep alive his ideal has now 160 branches in and outside India, with its Headquarters at Belur Math. From the legal point of view, the Organization has two distinct wings - the Ramakrishna Math and the Ramakrishna Mission. But this distinction is tenuous, often overlaps, and therefore, more theoretical than real. The Math and the Mission are closely related: the Governing Body of the Mission is made up of the Trustees of the Math and the administrative work of the Mission is fully in the hands of the monks of the Math. Though the origin of both the Math and Mission can be traced back to the days of the Baranagar Monastery, the Math was registered as a Trust only in 1901, and the Mission, a registered society, in 1909, twelve years after it had been started by Swami Vivekananda on 1 May 1897. People, however, loosely use the name "Ramakrishna Mission" to mean both the Ramakrishna Math and the Ramakrishna Mission.

Though, both the Math and the Mission take up charitable and philanthropic activities, the former lays emphasis on spiritual development of people and the latter gives priority to welfare work. The motto that the twin organizations follow is the same, one that Swami Vivekananda put before them, "Atmano mokshartham jagaddhitaya cha" - doing good to the world with a spirit of worship and thus paving paths for one's own salvation.

Activities the Math and Mission follows to carry out the ideal of Swami Vivekananda into practice:

RELIEF

The Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission have been from their very inception doing relief services in times of natural calamities like flood, famine, drought etc. The prime importance given to relief work in times of crisis lies in the fact that once Swami Vivekananda had thought of even selling of the Math land to gather resources for relief during the plague epidemic at Calcutta.

MEDICAL SERVICE

As a part of their programme of service to the sick and the ailing, the Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission run indoor hospitals, out-patients' dispensaries, mobile health units, etc. The Mission also runs a T.B. Clinic in Delhi, 5 Nurses Training Centres, a Medical Research Centre attached to Ramakrishna Mission Seva Pratisthan - one of the leading hospitals of the city of Calcutta and a T.B. Sanatorium at Ranchi, in the state of Bihar. Besides, there are 14 other hospitals, 93 out-patients' dispensaries and 30 mobile dispensaries conducted by the Mission. These serve people in some of the remotest parts of India.

WORK FOR WOMEN

"All nations have achieved greatness by paying proper respect to women' and a country can't progress by neglecting its womenfolk, just as a bird cannot fly only on one wing", said Swami Vivekananda. Therefore, the Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission, do not neglect or look down upon women. Relief and medical services are rendered to men and women alike. A women can visit a shrine of a center, attend its public celebrations, classes and meetings, enjoy library facilities just a man does. Besides, some of the centres have units working exclusively for women. To name only a few of them:

• Maternity sections at hospitals in Calcutta, Trivandrum and Vrindaban,
• Domiciliary and Maternity Clinics at Jalpaiguri and Khetri,
• Invalid Women's Home at Varanasi,
• Sarada Vidyalaya at Madras,
• Three Girls' High Schools at Jamshedpur,
• Sarada Mandir at Sarisha,
• Four Training schools for nurses at Trivandrum, Vrindaban, Itanagar, and Calcutta.

Through literature and preachings, the monks of the Ramakrishna Order keep men reminding of their duties towards women, of the respect they ought to show them. But keeping in mind Vivekananda's views that the womens' problems could be handled best if they were taken care of by women themselves and that male inference in woman's affairs might do more harm than good, they work for women only in a limited way. The major portion of this task they leave to be accomplished by the Ramakrishna Sarada Math and Sarada Mission, which is exclusively a women's organization, having the same ideals but completely separate from the Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission.

WORK FOR YOUTH

Vivekananda's hope and confidence lay in the youth of the country. The Math and the Mission, therefore, pay special attention to the youth, to their moral uplift in particular. Besides a good number of schools and colleges they run, the monks always try to keep in touch with the youth. Through study circles, seminars, and youth forums, the youth are made acquainted with the message of Swami Vivekananda.

Special mention should be made in this connection of Vivekananda Study Circle of the Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture, Calcutta. It is a youth forum which meets once in a fortnight at the Institute and organizes youth conversations in Calcutta and rural areas at weekends.

ATTENTION TO WEAKER SECTIONS

While providing education, medical services and distress relief, the Ramakrishna Math and Mission pay special attention to those who are weak from both material and cultural points of view. The centres at Along, Narottamnagar, Itanagar and Narainpur are fully dedicated to the welfare of the tribal people and a few more centres do the tribal welfare work as a part of their activities.

The Pallimangal Section of Ramakrishna Math, the centres at Belur, Narendrapur, Ranchi, Puruliya and Raipur are engaged in rural development work on a large scale. Besides, other centres are engaged in this work too. The aim is to make the poor and the backward people stand on their own feet, to expose them to the mainstream of Indian culture and to raise them to a status of equality with the rest of their countrymen.

All these services are done in no spirit of pity but in a spirit of worship, the receiver being considered God while the giver as the blessed worshipper. Another distinctive feature of the Ramakrishna Math and the Ramakrishna Mission is that they never hurt the religious beliefs of the people whom they are serving. To this Order of monks, all religions are equally true, and therefore, religious conversion is unnecessary and undesirable.

SPIRITUAL AND CULTURAL WORK

Both the Math and the Mission lay emphasis on dissemination of the spiritual and the cultural ideas of India. They do this through regular classes, meetings, public celebrations, publication of books, etc. Attempts are made by these means to make people aware of their moral and spiritual legacy, of the fact that life becomes worthwhile when one lives for others. In case of religion, they preach only the universal truths of the Vedanta as exemplified in Sri Ramakrishna's life and teachings. People are made to understand that they are potentially divine and they have immense possibilities. They are also taught to respect all religions as valid paths to the same God and love all beings as their own selves.

These messages are carried to a larger section of the people through the publication of books and journals on Ramakrishna-Vivekananda, Vedanta and Indology. More than ten centres publish books in English, Bengali, Hindi and other Indian Languages.