Sri Ramakrishna once asked: “If God can be worshipped through an image, why shouldn’t it be possible to worship him through a living person?” “Does He exist only when I think of him with my eyes closed? Doesn’t He exist when I look around with my eyes open?”

Sri Ramakrishna answered the question by expounding his doctrine of serving God in humanity.

The history of the Ramakrishna Order’s relief services is as old as that of the Mission. The Ramakrishna Mission promptly organizes ameliorative services whenever the nation confronts calamities caused by freaks of nature, the follies of men, or epidemics.

Inspired by this philosophy, the Indore Ashrama has been conducting various relief activities such as garment distribution among the poor, the afflicted, the ill and downtrodden by contributing donations from local devotees. The Ashrama organizes winter relief work by distributing blankets, food grains, edible oil etc.