Eastern Railways to celebrate “Pratyabartan Diwas”.

Vide a Press Release: 2025/02/59, Eastern Railways has announced to celebrate the 129^th. ‘Kolkata Return Day’ of Swami Vivekananda.

It was on this very day Swamiji returned to Kolkata enroute Budge Budge after spending nearly four years abroad, spreading the teachings of Vedanta and Hindu philosophy, finally delivering his historical address at the Parliament of the World’s Religions in Chicago, conquering the minds and hearts of the millions.

Although much details are not known about the events occurred on that day i.e., 19^th. February 1897. He arrived Budge Budge by boarding a ship from Madras (now Chennai). During his voyage huge numbers of coconuts were loaded in the ship because doctors have advised Swamiji to take coconut water instead of normal water because of his ill health. However, he distributed the coconuts among his friends & co-passengers in the ship. During his voyage, on several occasions he also delivered speeches which attracted a lot of attention by the crowd.

A team, was constituted at Calcutta under the chairmanship of Maharaja of Darbhanga, to greet Swamiji. The committee decided that one special train will be arranged from Budge Budge to Sealdah. Accordingly, on 19^th. February morning, Swami Vivekananda boarded the special train from Budge Budge alongwith his followers.

A crowd of about 20,000 people eagerly waiting at Sealdah station for his welcome. Meanwhile, Calcutta’ns were apprised about the charismatic deliverance in the newspapers alongwith several thanks giving and appreciation letter from the American’s and Europeans been published in the newspapers, which were of much interest to the people.

At 07:30 hours in the morning while the public address system at Sealdah aired the announcement of approaching train a huge cheer up from the aggressive crowd echoed every corner. As Swamiji alighted from the train, everybody who were standing nearby tried to get his blessings and those who were standing at a distance chanted ‘Jai Ramkrishna Paramhansa ji ki Jai, Jai Vivekanand ji ki Jai’.

The authorities somehow managed to isolate him out of the crowd, and he boarded a horse pulled cart. But the students came forward & removed the horses from the chariot and they themselves started pulling the cart, and the colourful procession continued.

Commemorating the occasion, this year on 19^th. February, 2025 a special EMU train still starts from Komagata Maru Budge Budge Station in the morning at 11:05 hours to reach Sealdah at 12:10 hours, poned to halt at all stations enroute including the Flag & Halt stations.

Every Year Eastern Railway, by facilitating arrangement of this EMU special train from Komagata Maru Budge Budge to Sealdah on the August ‘Pratyabartan Diwas’ of Swami Vivekananda, pays tribute to this great Indian Monk for his not so much singed contribution in proliferating Indian religion & philosophy in global perspective.

According to C. Rajagopalachari ‘But for him we would have lost our religion and would not have gained our freedom’.

Team Maverick