Vivekananda Rock Memorial and Vivekananda Kendra, Kanyakumari

At the southern tip of India, on a rock off Kanyakumari, Vivekananda meditated in December 1892 before setting out for the West; the Vivekananda Rock Memorial now stands there. Its sister organisation, Vivekananda Kendra, is based at Vivekanandapuram on the mainland and describes itself as a spiritually oriented service mission working in education, health and rural development. As well as receiving the pilgrims who visit the memorial, it runs residential yoga camps, certificate courses and spiritual retreats, taught mainly in English and Hindi, under the motto that they alone live who live for others.