Kamarpukur Ramakrishna Temple

Getting there

• By train

  Take a train from Howrah to Goghat, the next stop after Arambagh. EMU services that ran from Howrah to Arambag now run on to Goghat station.

• By road

  State Highway 7 passes through Kamarpukur, and frequent buses run to Tarakeswar, Ghatal, Chandrakona and Bishnupur. Hire vehicles are available locally.

Why devotees come here

Kamarpukur in Hooghly district, West Bengal, is the birthplace of Sri Ramakrishna. The temple holds his marble statue, and its altar stands on the spot where he was born.

Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa was born at Kamarpukur in 1836, into a poor Brahmin family. One anecdote from his childhood, when he was known as Gadadhar, says he was singing the glory of Vishalakshi, a popular deity at Anur, with a group of pious ladies. He went stiff and wept, and the ladies prayed for him. Legend also says his mother had a vision in front of the Yogi's Shiva temple, when a beam of light from the Shiva image entered her body.

The temple holds the marble statue of Sri Ramakrishna, installed on 11 May 1951, and it has been worshipped there since. Devotees and monks of Ramakrishna Math and Mission built it in 1951. Later additions include guest houses, a library, a dispensary, schools and the Haldarpukur tank, which was re-excavated.

The altar stands on the spot of his birth. Its carvings show a husking machine, a fireplace and a lamp, the things connected with his birth. Ponds, tanks, old buildings and dilapidated temples still stand around the town, a reminder of its older prosperity.

Festivals

• Chaitra (March to April)Manasa songs and the Shiva festival

  Songs are sung for Manasa and for the festival of Shiva. In the next month, devotional Hari songs are sung for three days at a stretch.

• Observed at the CentreDurga Puja and other festivals

  The Centre observes Durga Puja, Kali Puja, Jagannath Rath, Christmas Eve and Shivaratri.

Tips for your visit

• Deregram, with a Ramakrishna temple at Khudiram's ancestral cottage, lies about two miles west of Kamarpukur.
• Jayrambati, the birthplace of Holy Mother Sarada Devi, is three miles west of the town.
• The Vishalakshi temple at Anur is about 2 km from Kamarpukur.

Questions people ask