For Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the first visit to Belurmath — the headquarters of Ramakrishna Mission — after assuming the high office, was an intensely personal and spiritual experience.
Mr. Modi spent more than an hour, walking barefoot across Belurmath on Sunday and praying in different temples of the mission headquarters.
Swami Subhakarnananda Maharaj, a monk who took Mr. Modi around at Belurmath, quoted the Prime Minister saying: “Where would I get this opportunity to relive the days of my boyhood?”
The monks of Ramakrishna Mission treated Mr. Modi to Vedic chants. So delighted was the Prime Minister that he asked the monks to repeat it all over again. He also took a photograph with them outside the main temple of Belurmath. “When Suhitananada ji Maharaj offered a bouquet, he [Prime Minister] said when a boy of the house returned to his home does he need a reception,” a monk said.
Mr. Modi turned visibly emotional when he went inside the room where Swami Vivekananda photographs and footwear were kept, said the monks.
The Prime Minister reflected on how he considered the ideas of Swami Vivekananda and Lord Ramakrishna an inspiration and had decided to join the order as a monk and had visited Belurmath as a youth.
Mr. Modi visited Dakshineswar temple, located on the other bank of river Hooghly, where Sri Ramakrishna used to live and worship. He offered floral tributes and performed ‘aarti” at the temple.
The temple’s trustee and secretary, Kushal Chowdhury said the Prime Minister urged them to get in touch with his office for upgrading the temple.
