The newly installed Dual Slice Spiral CT Scan Unit at Vrindaban hospital was inaugurated on 21 September.

On 26 October, Swami Smarananandaji, Vice-President, Ramakrishna Math & Ramakrishna Mission, inaugurated two medical instruments at Vrindaban hospital: (i) D10 Hemoglobin Testing System for testing hemoglobinopathy conditions such as thalassemia, sickle cells, etc, and (ii) fully automated Blood Chemistry Analyzer.

Durga Puja (in image) was performed at our centres in Durban (South Africa), Geneva (Switzerland), Mauritius and Toronto (Canada), and the following nine centres in Bangladesh: Baliati, Barisal, Chittagong, Comilla, Dhaka, Dinajpur, Habiganj, Narayanganj and Sylhet.

At Dhaka centre, Ms Sheikh Hasina, Prime Minister of Bangladesh; Mr Shamsul Haq Tuku, State Minister for Home Affairs; Mr Ahad Ali Sarkar, State Minister for Sports; Mr Sadeque Hossain Khoka, Dhaka City Corporation Mayor; Mr Suranjit Sengupta, Presidium Member, Bangladesh Awami League, and several other distinguished persons attended the Durga Puja celebration.

The following centres organized various programmes to commemorate the 150th birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda.  (Main programmes conducted by them are given against their names.)

Belgaum: Screening of a film on Swami Vivekananda for one hour every evening from 16 to 27 October; about 700 persons watched the film.

Chandigarh: Talk on the life and teachings of Swami Vivekananda at a school in Patiala on 13 October, which was attended by about 300 persons.

Delhi: On 23 October, Sri Ajay Maken, Union Minister of State for Youth Affairs and Sports, released a five-episode animation film on the life of Swami Vivekananda.  In the same meeting, Sri Maken also handed over Swami Vivekananda Award, instituted by Delhi Ashrama, to four NGOs for their service to the poor and downtrodden in India.  The centre also conducted a classical music concert on 30 October.

Madurai: Installation of pictures of Swami Vivekananda and brass plaques (inscribing write-ups in English, Hindi and Tamil about Swamiji’s visits to Madurai) at Madurai railway station on 2 October.

Palai: Competitions in chanting, drawing, sports, etc in which 200 students from 5 schools and 2 colleges participated.

Salem: Competitions in recitation, oration, essay-writing, Gita chanting, devotional music, drawing and quiz from 14 and 24 October, in which 1390 students from 43 schools took part.

UNESCO Headquarters at Paris inaugurated an exhibition on Swami Vivekananda on 13 October at the Town Hall of Paris.  The inauguration was followed by a seminar in which many dignitaries, including Swami Vitamohanandaji, Head of Gretz (France) centre, participated.  

Chandigarh: Talk on the life and teachings of Sri Ramakrishna at Patiala on 13 October, which was attended by about 100 persons;

Lucknow: Musical performance on 1 October;

Raipur: Spiritual retreat on 2 October in which 120 devotees participated;

Taki: Devotees’ convention on 16 October in which about 200 devotees participated;

Thiruvananthapuram: Daylong Japa-yajna on 5 October, reading from The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna on 6 October from morning to evening, discourses on the Bhagavata from 8 to 15 October, and devotees’ convention on 15 and 16 October;

Vijayawada: Four quarterly three-day residential spiritual retreats during the year.

Swami Atmasthanandaji, President, Ramakrishna Math & Ramakrishna Mission, underwent treatment at Seva Pratishthan hospital, Kolkata, for the retina of his eyes from 17 to 19 October and from 28 to 31 October.  He is keeping well at Belur Math.

Swami Gitanandaji, Vice-President, continues to be under medical care at Kankurgachhi Math.

Swami Smarananandaji, Vice-President, returned to Belur Math on 1 November after his visit to Jammu, Vrindaban and Delhi.  He will be visiting Mumbai and Lucknow from 9 to 23 November and Madurai, Chennai and Nagpur from 29 November to 16 December.  He is in good health.

Telephone Numbers:  Puri Mission Ashrama has discontinued its telephone connection 220407.

Salem centre has got an additional telephone no. (0)94883-15602 for the Ashrama office.

Email IDs: Salem centre has got an addition email ID <ashrama@rkmasalem.org>.

Sinthi (Beni Pal Udyan) centre has got an email ID <rkmbnp@gmail.com>.