It was a few months before the buildings of the new monastery were completed and the
monastery was finally removed to its present site. The date of the momentous occasion
was January 2, 1899. The Bengali monthly magazine, the Udbodhan, was first
published on January 14 of the same year, and regarding its policy, the Swami declared
that nothing but positive ideas for the physical, mental, and spiritual improvement of
the race should find a place in it; that instead of criticizing the thoughts and aspirations
of ancient and modern man, as embodied in literature, philosophy, poetry, and the arts,
the magazine should indicate the way in which those thoughts and aspirations might be
made conducive to progress; and finally that the magazine should stand for universal
harmony as preached by Sri Ramakrishna, and disseminate his ideals of love, purity,
and renunciation.
The Swami was happy to watch the steady expansion of the varied activities of the
Order. At his request Swami Saradananda had returned from America to assist in the
organization of the Belur Math. Together with Swami Turiyananda, he conducted
regular classes at the Math for the study of Sanskrit and of Eastern and Western
philosophy. Somewhat later the two Swamis were sent on a preaching mission to
Gujarat, in Western India, and for the same purpose two of the Swami's own disciples
were sent to East Bengal. Swami Shivananda was deputed to Ceylon to preach
Vedanta. Reports of the excellent work done by Swamis Ramakrishnananda and
Abhedananda in Madras and America were received at the Math. Swami
Akhandananda's work for the educational uplift of the villages and also in establishing
a home for the orphans elicited praise from the Government.
One of the most remarkable institutions founded by Swami Vivekananda was the
Advaita Ashrama at Mayavati in the Himalayas. Ever since his visit to the Alps in
Switzerland, the Swami had been cherishing the desire to establish a monastery in the
solitude of the Himalayas where non-dualism would be taught and practised in its
purest form. Captain and Mrs. Sevier took up the idea, and the Ashrama was
established at Mayavati, at an altitude of 6500 feet. Before it there shone, day and
night, the eternal snow-range of the Himalayas for an extent of some two hundred
miles, with Nanda Devi rising to a height of more than 25,000 feet. Spiritual seekers,
irrespective of creed and race, were welcome at the monastery at Mayavati. No
external worship of any kind was permitted within its boundaries. Even the formal
worship of Sri Ramakrishna was excluded. It was required of the inmates and guests
always to keep before their minds the vision of the nameless and formless Spirit.
Swami Vivekananda in the following lines laid down the ideals and principles of this
Himalayan ashrama:
'In Whom is the Universe, Who is in the Universe, Who is the Universe; in Whom is
the Soul, Who is in the Soul, Who is the Soul of man; to know Him, and therefore the
Universe, as our Self, alone extinguishes all fear, brings an end to misery, and leads to
infinite freedom. Wherever there has been expansion in love or progress in well-being
of individuals or numbers, it has been through the perception, realization, and the