The Institute was conceived in 1936 as one of the permanent memorials to Sri Ramakrishna (1836-1886) on the occasion of his first birth centenary. It was formally established in 1938 as a branch centre of the Ramakrishna Mission founded by Swami Vivekananda to propagate the message of Vedanta as propounded by Sri Ramakrishna, whose basic teachings stressed: (i) the equality of all religions; (ii) the potential divinity of man; and (iii) service to man is a way of worshipping God-a new religion for mankind.