Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission are twin organizations forming the core of a worldwide spiritual movement (known as Ramakrishna Movement or Vedanta Movement), which aims at harmony of religions, harmony of the East and the West, harmony of the ancient and the modern, spiritual fulfilment, all-round development of human faculties, social equality, and peace for all humanity, without any distinctions of creed, caste, race or nationality.
Ramakrishna Mission is a registered society in which monks of Ramakrishna Math and lay devotees cooperate in conducting various types of social service mainly in India. It was founded by Sri Ramakrishna’s chief apostle, Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902), one of the foremost thinkers and religious leaders of the present age, who is regarded as ‘one of the main moulders of the modern world’, in the words of an eminent western scholar A. L. Basham. The Headquarters of these centres are situated in Belur Math, Howrah, W.B. All branch centres of the Ramakrishna Math come under the administrative control of the Board of Trustees, whereas all branch centres of the Ramakrishna Mission come under the administrative control of the Governing Body of the Ramakrishna Mission.