Swami Vivekananda had stayed in this building (picture on left) for nine days in 1897 — February 6-15 — on his return to India four years after the address to the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago. The first branch of Ramakrishna Math in the country was started in the building the same year.

Chennai, April 22: The Ramakrishna Math has been asked to return Vivekananda House, a landmark building in Swamiji’s life, to the Tamil Nadu government by Thursday, two years before the lease expires.

Swami Gautamanandaji, who heads the Ramakrishna Math in Chennai, said he was “shocked” when he received a “high-level message” through an industrialist well wisher that the M. Karunanidhi government wanted the premises back by April 24.

“There is nothing on paper as of now, but word has reached us from the highest quarters in the government to hand over the house and the land by April 24,” Swami Gautamanandaji said.

A spokesman for Swami Prabhanandaji, general secretary of the Ramakrishna Math and Mission, said at Belur Math: “We would never like to part with historic buildings where Swamiji had stayed. The Tamil Nadu government had initially leased the building to us for three years in 1997 and then the lease was extended to 2010. So the lease is still alive. We would like to request the Tamil Nadu government to continue the lease.”

The state wants the building to house a proposed centre for Tamil classical language. Swami Gautamanandaji said engineers from the public works department had visited Vivekananda House and told Math authorities that the government would provide them with alternative land.

On his return to India in 1897 after his path-breaking address to the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago four years earlier, Swami Vivekananda had stayed in the building for nine days, from February 6 to 15.

Before leaving for Calcutta, he sat in meditation and delivered a series of lectures following up on his legendary Chicago address on India’s civilisation and spirituality.

A hundred years later, and after decades of efforts, the Ramakrishna Math, founded by Vivekananda, took over and renovated the decaying building in 1997. The three-year lease was extended by another 10 years, ironically by the previous DMK regime of Karunanidhi, up to February 2010.

The building has a built-up area of 28,000 square feet spread over an acre of land facing the sea.

As mandated by the state when the premises were given, the Math has set up a permanent exhibition on India’s cultural heritage and a rare photo exhibition on Swami Vivekananda in the building.

The lease agreement requires that the Math be given at least three months to vacate Vivekananda House — and that too only if any of the lease conditions has been violated, Swami Gautamanandaji said.

In 1999, the Math had spent Rs 65 lakh to renovate the building, which now has a statue of Swami Vivekananda in a meditative pose facing the sea. The house is quite a draw among tourists.

Karunanidhi, who was chief minister in 2000, had inaugurated the renovated Vivekananda House.

The building used to be known as “Ice House” till an attorney by the name of “Pedigree” Iyengar bought it and rented it out to a Colonel Kernan. The building then earned the name “Castle Kernan”.

“It has an added historical significance for us since the first branch of the Ramakrishna Math in the country was started in Chennai in that very house in 1897,” said an anguished Swami Gautamanandaji. In 1906, the Math moved to its present premises in Mylapore.

The government was on the defensive when asked why it had told the Math to vacate the premises. “We have only asked them (the Math) when the lease period ends,” said an official in the public works department.

Flummoxed by the government’s sudden change of heart, the Math has begun consulting legal experts. It is contemplating approaching Madras High Court with a petition seeking “security and protection” for Vivekananda House.

If the Math moves court, it is likely to argue that the house holds deep spiritual meaning for thousands of people and that the Math is under no obligation to vacate it since the lease period has not expired.

It is ironical that the Tamil Nadu government wants the premises back. The state had played an important role in Swami Vivekananda’s life.

In 1892, two years after he began his journey across India, Swamiji had reached Kanyakumari where he swam across the sea and started meditating on a lone rock.

He then travelled to Madras and spoke about his plans for India and Hinduism to the young men of the city. Impressed, they urged him to take part in the Chicago parliament.

Swami Gautamanandaji said that the governments of the places Swami Vivekananda had visited — be it Belgaum in Karnataka, Limbi in Gujarat or Khetri in Rajasthan — had gifted the houses where he had stayed to the Math.

Even communist-ruled Bengal had acquired the house in which Swami Vivekananda was born in Calcutta, spent around Rs 22 crore to renovate it and given it to the Math to be preserved as a monument.