Pravrajika Mokshaprana

Pravrajika Mokshaprana, born Renuka Basu (9 December 1915 – 30 August 1999), was the second President of the Sri Sarada Math and the Ramakrishna Sarada Mission. In Hinduism, Sri Sarada Math is the monastic Order for women established as an independent counterpart to the Ramakrishna Order.

During a 26-year career of spiritual ministration, she initiated thousands of people. Before she became President of the Sri Sarada Math, she was headmistress of Sister Nivedita's Girls' School from 1946 to 1948, part of a life-long interest in women's education, as envisaged by Swami Vivekananda. Under Pravrajika Mokshaprana's presidency, the Sri Sarada Math and the Ramakrishna Sarada Mission continued the expansion which had started in the time of Pravrajika Bharatiprana, with new centres opened across India. As President, Mokshaprana visited all the branch centres in India. Brajendranath was an employee of Calcutta Corporation. In childhood, Renuka visited Dakshineswar Temple and Kankurgachi Yogodyan, both dedicated to the life and work of Sri Ramakrishna. After her father died, Renu moved to her maternal uncle's house in Rajabazar with her family.

In 1942 she passed a Master of Arts in Ancient Indian history and decided to lead a life of celibacy.

Sri Sarada Math Brahmacharin In 1953, on the 100th birthday of Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi, Renu was one of seven staff at Sister Nivedita Girls' School and other affiliated organizations to receive the vow of Brahmacharya (celibacy). During this period, Renu received letters from many well-known monks of the Ramakrishna Order, including Swami Premeshananda, the head of Ramakrishna Mission Sevashrama, Sargachi. She relinquished her posts in the Nivedita school and joined Sarala, later known as Pravrajika Bharatiprana, the first president of Sri Sarada Math, as a spiritual inmate of the newly established Math. The new monastery was formed in Dakshineswar, and Renuka was one of the first dedicated workers. In 1959 she received the vow of Sannyas from Swami Shankarananda, president of Belur Math, and took on the name 'Pravrajika Mokshaprana'. In 1962 Ramakrishna Siksha Mandir, the second branch of Ramakrishna Sarada Mission, was established in Baruipara Lane near Alambazar, with Mokshaprana as the director and main organiser behind the project. It included a daycare, a junior primary school and a mother teachers' training centre. During the Naxal movement in the 1960s in Bengal, when her school was attacked, she confronted the armed attackers.

President In 1973, after the death of Pravrajika Bharatiprana, she became the second president of Sri Sarada Math and Ramakrishna Sarada Mission, responsible for every affair of the Math, as well as the spiritual growth and development of the new Brahmacharins and Sannyasins in the monastery.

Under her stewardship, Sri Sarada Math and Ramakrishna Sarada Mission rapidly expanded. On 14 February 1975, a Sri Sarada Math branch centre was opened in Pune, followed by new centres in Arunachal Pradesh, Bangalore, Trivandrum, Indore, Bhuvaneswar, Haridwar, Almora and one in Australia. New Mission centres were opened in the rural areas of West Bengal like Burdwan, Midnapore and 24 Parganas. As President, Mokshaprana visited all the branch centres in India.