Volume 5 Issue 1

April 2016 - May 2016

V I S H WA B H A N U
A Bi-monthly bulletin of Vivekananda Kendra Vedic Vision Foundation

WHY YOGA?

IN THIS ISSUE

Editorial

PDC I

PDC II

Vimarsha

Samskar Varga Prashikshan
Shibir

Once a week Ayurvedic
treatment

Regular activities

Didis programmes

Balancing the Earth and
Womens Role : Article by
Didi

n view of the globalisation of yoga, every indian should

become aware of the true significance of this magnificient technique of self development.

Yoga is that unsurpassed system developed by the indian rishis by which an individual (vyashti)can merge with the
totality of Existence (samasthi). Yoga reveals to us the interconnectedness, interrelatedness and the interdependence
that exist in the cosmos and allows us to absorb the fullness of the Whole. The yoga postures we practice normally
can be taken as very small windows which open up to the
immensity of the total existance.
When we learn yoga with this awareness we slowly get
transformed into yogis. Automatically our activities (karmas)
take the hue of Karma yoga, our thoughts and feelings get
transformed into Bhakti yoga and the process of acquiring
knowledge leads us to Jnana yoga. That would be the real
test of yoga having entered into our very being.
Each and every wave or vibration in the universe is the
expression of the Divine - the working of our five sense organs as well as organs of action, expansion of the mind, capacity for subtle penetration of our intellect - all are in one
way or other yoga helping us to connect the individual with
the Supreme. it is this ever present union of the many with
the One that yoga should make us aware of. Through yoga
as we delve deeper and deeper into ourselves we discover
the interrelatedness of all that exists. I, we, you - all merge
into One. Just imagine what would happen, if this awareness is shared by the whole world irrespective of caste,
creed, religion and race!!!!

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April 2016 - May 2016

Personality Development Camp I

PDC I started from 1st April and concluded in the evening of 7th April, (Thursday). The camp
was formally inaugurated by Mananeeya Lakshmi Didi. The theme of this camp was Make in India". 57 children from the age group of 11years to 15 years, attended.
Even though the duration was just a week, the children could enrich their capabilities, discover their potential through various activities meant for them during the camp. There were lectures
on i) Personality development by the well-known professor Sri Harishankarji, ii)'Belief' that what
the human mind conceives , it can achieve, by Sri Mohan Nair iii) on 'Memory power' by Sri
Sudhakarji, iv) Sri Sujith Sir's workshop on values, and v) Mural painting class by Sri Aji Jayachandran. Apart from this, craft classes taken by Su Bindu and class on the importance of environmental conservation by Sri Anoop, Suryanamaskar, games, group songs and chants were also
part of the schedule for the participants.

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April 2016 - May 2016

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April 2016 - May 2016

Personality Development Camp II

A six-day non-residential PDC for children of classes III to V was conducted at Anandadham
from 13th April to 19th April. 40 children enrolled. Children were divided into 5 groups namely
Dhruva, Nachiketa, Prahlad, Unniarcha and Abhimanyu. Story telling based on Indian Culture, our
patriots, crafts including drawing, painting and paperwork, games, Suryanamaskar and Sanskrit sloka chantings formed part of everyday schedule. 19th April, was the concluding day. Parents of the
participants were invited for the concluding session. Smt Jyothi Unniraman, a close well-wisher of
Kendra was the Chief Guest. Guided by their group leaders who had attended the previous camp
held for classes VI to IX, the campers put up a short and sweet programme which was well appreciated by all.

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April 2016 - May 2016

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Volume 5 Issue 1

April 2016 - May 2016

Vimarsha I
It was a good fortune to start our Vimarsha series with Acharya A.K.B Nair. Sri A.K.B Nair is a renowned exponent of spiritual literature in Kerala. After a long and spotless career in the Indian Revenue Service, he took up studies in Sanskrit and Spiritual literature and emerged as an extremely
well-versed speaker on Bhagavata, Devi Bhagavatam, Ramayana and so on. Of special interest to
him is Ezhuthacchans Adhyatma Ramayana in Malayalam. He has produced a well-studied commentary on this Malayalam Ramayana, which he calls as , the Holy Book of Keralites.
The talk on Ramayana on 18th April, from 4pm to 6.30p.m.was based on the innumerable anecdotes which make it a manual for self-unfoldment and societal well-being, It was an enlightening
exploration into the Dharma as depicted in the life of Maryadapurushottam Sri Ramachandra. One
could easily understand why Sri Rama was called 'Vigrahavan Dharma'. How Rama behaved as an
elder brother, as a husband, as a son, as a friend and as a King, and manifested the dharma of a
brother, a husband, a son, a friend and the rastra dharma of a King. Hence he opined that if the
reading and understanding the meaning of Ramayana becomes a part of the life of each family, life
will be smooth and without failures.

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April 2016 - May 2016

Samskaravarg Prashikshan Shibir

'Be and Make', is one of the well-known sutras of Swami Vivekananda. What can be a more relevant message for the budding Samskarvarga teachers who are given training or prashikshan to train
the kids in and around their locality, in inculcating good samskaras, which would help to build up
their all-round personalities.
A three day nonresidential Samskaravarg PrashikshanShibir was conducted from 28th April to
30th April, at Anandadham, under the able guidance of our resource persons and also jeevanvrati karyakartas,- Sushree Lalita Didi, Sushree Sumitra, Sri Raghuji and under the overall
support and guidance of Mananeeya Lakshmi Didi. 17 children from the age group of 11years to 18
years and 3 mothers from 8 localities in and around Kodungallur, were trained. From 9 a.m. to 3.30
p.m. every day, they were trained in different skills like art of storytelling, based on Indian Cultural
values like Satya, Tyaga, Seva etc., Slogans or ghosas, Agnyas or commands for disciplining the Varga, and many games through which they could develop their life skills both physically and mentally.
Dr Ashalatha BJP Counsellor of the 41st ward of Kodungallur town was the Chief Guest for the
concluding session. She spoke to the children and their parents as to the importance of good samskaras. 'Though it was the concluding of the camp, yet it was just the beginning because this handful of children could make a mark in the society by spreading Swamiji's message to the nook and
corners of Kodungallur' said Mananeeya Lakshmi Didi in her ashirvachanam.

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April 2016 - May 2016

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Volume 5 Issue 1

April 2016 - May 2016

REGUL AR ACTIVITIES
Weekly Ayurvedic Camp
Inauguration of a highly specialized Ayur Vedic Camp at Anandadham was done on 20th April.
Treatment will be available on every Monday from 6.30 a.m. to 3 p.m. by Muttikulangara Vaidyan
and family. This hereditary vaidyan family is well known for their massage oil Muttikulangara Oil.
Ten to fifteen patients are coming every week and getting benefitted through their oil massage.

Yoga Satra and Varga

6 ladies were enrolled in the month of April. 4 ladies regularly attended the yoga varga.

Sushree Lalita Didi, in-charge of Vivekananda Kendra, Thiruvananthapuram, spoke with the ladies of yoga Varga on 29th April.

Bhagavad Gita Swadhaya Class

Sri Girishji conducted Bhagavad Gita class in the month of April only.

Ganapathi Homam and Sri Chakra Puja

Both were conducted by the Karumatra group during pournami days on 22nd April and 21st May.

Samskar varga
At Anandadham Samskarvargas are being conducted with full vigour by those trained in
Prashikshan camp. 22 children are regularly attending the varga.
At P.Vemballur too, 15 children are regularly attending Samskarvarga class conducted by Smt
Mridula.
At Vellangallur, five Samskarvargas under the guidance of VKVedic Vision, at five are being
conducted every week, by housewives who were trained at VK Vedic Vision, Anandadham. Each
Varga has an attendance of 20-25 children.

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Volume 5 Issue 1

April 2016 - May 2016

DIDIS PROGRAMME
April
1st

Bharatiya Vidya Niketan,Perinkottamanna,Valluvanad-25th Anniversary

6th

Mahabharatam Hindu Sammelan Kozhikode.

22nd

30th

Thiruvanchikulam temple for honoring Sri Jayadevan, the first person who started Anna
dana programme in the temple.

R.K.Sammelan meeting.

May
1st

Talk with a group of 50 students and teachers from Hindu Dharma Patshalanear Muvattupuzha who visited Anandadham.

3rd

Talk on Swami Vivekananda at Kodungallur to the members of Religious Harmony, who

visited Anandadham with Father Frank of St Thomas church Azhikode.

6th

Alappuzha Chinmaya Mission for Chinmaya Centenary Programme.

8th

Palakkad Chinmaya Mission for Swamiji's birth Centenary celebration.

11th

Sankara Jayanthi Celebration at Guruvayur.Topic for discourse- Bhaja Govindam

14th

Ambalapuzha Hindu Dharma Sammelan. Didi spoke on Grhasthadharmam

21st

NSS Programme at Thazhekat Temple near Kallettinkara

27th

Vinayakapuram - Varshik pratisthan divas of Ganapathi temple.

28th

Programme at Anandadham- Samskarvarg prashikshan workshop.

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April 2016 - May 2016

Balancing the Earth and Womens Role

Dr. M. Lakshmi Kumari

On June 5th every year, we ceremoniously observe the Environment Day, with seminars,
conferences, tree planting, so on and so forth. No doubt such things can create an awareness and it
may be the first step in saving the environment and hence a necessity. More than creating an
intellectual awareness what is needed urgently is to generate a feeling of oneness, of genuine
concern, a clear understanding based on the knowledge of the deep unbreakable interdependence
between man and nature. To strengthen this aspect would be the duty of women, specially of
mothers.
Time is not on our side. The tragedy is, the earth is losing its balance, as elaborately described
by the American Vice-president, Al Gore, in his remarkably thought-provoking book Earth in the
Balance .
Why should the Earth Lose Its Balance?
One is reminded of the meaningful story full of highly relevant symbolism from our Puranas,
centred round the incarnation of Lord Vishnu as the boar to restore Mother Earth that had tilted and
slipped into the depths of Ocean. The moral is when human beings become oblivious of their
responsibilities consequent on their interconnectedness and interdependence, God Almighty
incarnates as Yagnavaraha --symbol of the principle of sacrifice. When our actions become selforiented and disjointed, breaking the natural interrelatedness, Truth gets devalued and there is a tilt.
Yagnavaraha comes to remind man of the urgency of bringing the sense of sacrifice into his actions,
of raising them into Yagnas, so that harmony and strength are restored as also the balance.
When the side of Truth and related values including natural relationships become heavily
overweighed on the other side with untruth and injustice, when our thoughts, words and deeds
become shallow and superficial not expressive of deeper levels of our being, the individual, family and
society suffer. With each act of injustice we perpetrate, the scale is tilting further and further,
distancing us from our roots in the earth, snapping one or more links in our connectedness with the
rest of nature. As nature is one _ internal and external it takes us away from ourselves, from our inner
joy, harmony, fulfilment and life itself. Each ignorant and irreverent act of omission is fragmenting
what is and should be a Whole.
When humanity loses its balance, naturally the Earth also loses its balance. With every
generation the tilt becomes more and more conspicuous. The net result is a spiritual crisis, as is
happening in our generation.

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April 2016 - May 2016

Another great tragedy is, we are losing connection with our future! Partly it is due to the
uncertainty introduced by the highly destructive nuclear weapons. When we lose faith in the future,
we are cutting ourselves off from the lives of our children. _ Every day we reach deeper into the
storehouse of earths resources, put more of these resources to use and generate more waste of
every kind in the process. We are living on overdrafts and our children will have nothing to live on or
live for. Frustration and anger will be their only inheritance.
The coming generations may never realise the beauty and fullness which exist in the Whole.
Already many children do not know that the origin of the milk they drink is in the cow, which feeds on
the green grass on our land which in turn receives its energy from the sunlight and nourishment from
the air, water, earth and from the dung of the same animal! Nobody tells them that an act of
reverentially sipping milk makes us also part of this wonderful Divine Lifecycle of Existence,
Knowledge and Bliss and with each act of love and reverence we are acknowledging and emphasising
the interconnectedness and interdependence, characteristic of Truth and thus making our life also
part of that Eternal Truth. This is true of each and every act of ours where we use the gifts of life
which are part of our being, or the products of nature which Mother Earth offers freely and
unstintingly for our well-being.
How to Restore the Balance
We have to recognise and empower the abodes of Truth wherever we can locate them,
In the love of a chaste woman for her husband,
In the love and sacrifice of an unselfish motherhood,
In the innocence of little children as yet unspoiled by the evils of life,
In those rare men and women for whom Truth is not a tool to play politics but a
value of life,
A New Empowerment
To restore the balance, the weight of Truth in our life has to be increased, emphasising the
vision of undivided. Reality, thus enhancing spiritual awareness and holistic ideals to put together
fragmented pieces of our individual and collective life. Every decision we take in life has to be clearly
in the direction of Truth _ whether to keep the forests or to smoke them away as cigarettes, whether
pure water is okay or Cocacola is better, whether half a ton of organically prepared food material is
valuable or tons of food impregnated with chemicals and pesticides __the choice at every level has to
be _Spiritual_, shifting the emphasis from ones own self to the welfare of the whole of humanity.

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April 2016 - May 2016

The empowerment should start in helping people to expand their ecological perspective and
making them understand how the various parts of nature interact, create patterns of balancing, and
how reverentially they have to be preserved to maintain the balance. Earth and nature are not
separate from human civilisation. We are part of the whole and the whole reflects all of us.
It must all start from home -this transfer of holistic feeling and action. This wisdom should
reach the children through the love in the heart of the mother who alone understands the meaning
and fullness of love based on oneness and how it should be taught through her own acts of sacrifice
and service. Educating women to behave with responsibility towards Mother Earth and environment is
the best investment for a secure future.
One of the finest examples of feminine concern, certainly an eye-opener to the world
community, which set many a Government and voluntary agency pondering over, was the
magnificent book Silent Spring written by Rachel Carson in 1962. The thought waves created by
Schumacher through his Small is Beautiful received an additional impetus through this book.
Suddenly, the health of planet earth became the topic of conversation everywhere. Presently, series of
campaigns spearheaded by women are taking shape in different parts of the world.
In Kenya there is a remarkable woman named Wangari Malthari who founded the Green Belt
Movement. She has discovered the power inherent in the simple act of planting trees and by
organising women to plant trees to stop erosion. The movement has now planted more than 8 million
trees in less than a decade.
In India, under Dr. Bahuguna, the tribal women of the Himalayas brought world attention to
the destruction of Himalayan forests through the Chipko Movement. Christine Sterling, a housewife of
Tennessee, along with her husband Woodrow Sterling, took up the case to prevent dumping of toxic
materials near their place and won one of the biggest legal battles. Today, in India, we have several
women in the forefront adding their voice to the feeble voices of thousands of women who are
fighting for ecological causes. For all of them moral support has come because they have sided with
truth.
How to go about this great job of balancing the earth?

Al Gore who was the Vice President of U.S, puts it thus: By educating ourselves and others, by
doing our part to minimise our use and waste of resources, by becoming more active politically and

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demanding change in these ways and many others, each one of us can make a difference. Perhaps,
the most important, we each need to assess our own relationship to the natural world and renew,
at the deepest level of personal integrity, a connection to it. And that can only happen if we renew
what is authentic and true in every aspect of our lives.
Realising and re-establishing the authentic and the true in every aspect of our lives mean
bringing a spiritual awareness of Oneness to play in our day today life. Only from this depth can
right decisions, meant to be a benediction for all humanity, can be made. This is the job women
have to prepare themselves for. This is the empowerment that women should seek urgently.
No wonder that our great visionaries have said, Where women are honoured, there reside
all prosperity. None other than Hillary Clinton, has echoed the same during her visit to India,
putting on it the seal of modernism and authority. To quote her, One lesson the experience of the
last several decades teaches us is that where women prosper, countries prosper.
In continuation, we may add that the future of the World would undoubtedly be safer in the
heart of mothers than in the brain of fathers.
ABBBBBD

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