Founder
Vidyashala was founded in 1953 by Swami Shambhavananda, a Ramakrishna Math monk born in Kodagu.
Shambhavananda, an early president of Sri Ramakrishna Ashrama, Mysore, was an educational pioneer who sought to offer younger students in their formative years a "man making education" which Swami Vivekananda had described as a "total development of man which includes the physical, mental and spiritual." Vidyashala would operationalize Vivekananda's calls for a higher intellect through sound health.
Vidyashala was preceded for at least three decades by the Ramakrishna Students Home, a boarding facility for poor students of whom some, such as the writer K.V. Puttappa, went on to gain eminence in pre-Independence Mysore. Vidyashala began in a small house in the Vontikoppal ward but shifted to its present campus in Yadavagiri after Shambhavananda purchased for the institution a patch of barren wasteland that he went on to transform into a verdant green.
In the early 1950s, Shambhavananda physically led the building construction despite his advancing age. A legend is that he walked around Mysore's Yadavagiri ward seeking bhiksha on behalf of the new school. Seeking bhiksha is a Hindu tradition of begging for alms with the purpose of self-effacement or ego-conquering.
Read more about this topic: Sri Ramakrishna Vidyashala
Famous quotes containing the word founder:
“A restaurant is a fantasy—a kind of living fantasy in which diners are the most important members of the cast.”
—Warner Leroy, U.S. restaurateur, founder of Maxwell’s Plum restaurant, New York City. New York Times (July 9, 1976)
“The creation of “strong-minded” women, so-called, is due to the individualism of men, to the modern selfish and speculative spirit which absorbs everything within itself and leaves women nothing but self-assertion for their protection and support.”
—“Jennie June” Croly 1829–1901, U.S. founder of the woman’s club movement, journalist, author, editor. Demorest’s Illustrated Monthly and Mirror of Fashions, p. 44 (February 1870)
“We have ourselves to answer for.”
—“Jennie June” Croly 1829–1901, U.S. founder of the woman’s club movement, journalist, author, editor. Demorest’s Illustrated Monthly and Mirror of Fashions, pp. 24-5 (January 1870)