Belur Math

World headquarters of the Ramakrishna
Mission, a modern religious organization. The Ramakrishna Mission was
founded in 1897 by Swami
Vivekananda, the most famous disciple
of the nineteenth-century Bengali
mystic Ramakrishna. The Mission is
equally dedicated to both social service
and spiritual uplift, based on
Vivekananda’s realization that India
needed concrete development as much
as religious teaching. Belur Math was
constructed in 1899, two years after
the Ramakrishna Mission was founded.
It is located just north of Calcutta on
the west side of the Hugli River, quite
close to the Dakshineshwar temple
where Ramakrishna lived for most of
his adult life.