Yogodyan

Yogodyan is a branch of Ramakrishna Math situated in 7, Yogodyan Lane, Kankurgachhi, Kolkata, West Bengal, India. It was established by Ramchandra Dutta, a householder disciple of Sri Ramakrishna, sanctified by the visit of Ramakrishna himself.

History
Ramchandra Dutta, a renowned chemist at Calcutta Medical College, came under Ramakrishna's influence around 1879. He and his fellow devotees used to perform "Kirtan" loudly in his house in North Kolkata, despite many complaints from neighbors. Sri Ramakrishna advised him to find a secluded, uninhabited place, saying, "Find a place where even if a hundred murders were to be committed, no one would even know."

This plot of land, which included a garden and a pond measuring about one acre, belonged to a Muslim man. Sri Nityagopal, a cousin of Ramchandra, paid Rs. 800 to purchase this land for him in 1883.

On 26th December 1883, Wednesday, Sri Ramakrishna visited the site around 4 pm. He drank water from the pond and then went inside the small Vedi har near the pond. Delighted by the atmosphere, he named this place "Yogodyan." He also instructed Ram to plant "Panchavati" trees here. Following Sri Ramakrishna's visit, Ramchandra named the garden "Ramakrishna Yogodyan" and the pond "Ramakrishna Kunda." A Panchavati was also planted. Later, even eminent apostles of Sri Ramakrishna such as Swami Sivananda and Swami Adbhutananda undertook religious austerities in this Panchavati. Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi also visited the place at least on four occasions.

This temple later expanded to about two acres. In 1963, the centenary of Swami Vivekananda was celebrated here, and a marble statue of Ramakrishna was installed in the main shrine. Under Swami Bhuteshananda's guidance, the main temple and prayer hall underwent major renovations in 1981.

Nityabirvaba Utsava
Sri Ramakrishna attained Mahasamadhi on Monday, 16th August 1886, a little after 1 a.m., on a full moon night of the auspicious Jhulan Purnima, at the Cossipore Garden House. His body was consigned to the flames the following afternoon at the Cossipore cremation grounds. His devotees reverentially collected his holy ashes in a copper pitcher and placed it on Sri Ramakrishna's bed in the Cossipore Garden House.

As the tenancy of Cossipore Garden House was coming to an end, and since some of the followers, who had initially taken the property on rent for Sri Ramakrishna, were not inclined to renewing the tenancy, the devotees were now faced with a problem as to where to keep the pitcher containing the holy ashes. At the proposal of Ramchandra and with the consent of Narendranath, Girish Chandra Ghosh, and others, it was decided that the pitcher would be enshrined at Yogodyan. On 23rd August 1886, Sri Krishna Janmashtami tithi that year, on the seventh day after the passing away of Sri Ramakrishna, the relics were taken on a horse-drawn carriage from the Cossipore Garden House to Ramchandra's house on Simla Street by Narendra, Sashi, Baburam, and others. There, the pitcher containing the holy ashes was received with the greatest devotion and carried in a solemn procession to Yogodyan. The pitcher containing the holy ashes was interred near the Tulsi plant before which Sri Ramakrishna had made obeisance by touching the ground with his forehead when he had visited Yogodyan for the first time. On that very spot stands today the present imposing temple of Sri Ramakrishna, and the Janmashtami tithi thenceforth is observed every year at Yogodyan as "Nityabirvaba Utsava," the celebration of the eternal presence of Sri Ramakrishna here.

In 1901, Holy Mother performed the special puja on the occasion of the opening ceremony of the new prayer hall of the main Mandir on the "Nityabirvaba Utsava" held on the Janmashtami tithi Day (the tithi in which Sri Sri Thakur's holy relics were enshrined here in 1886).