Brni Gomati of Madurai is now Brni Vedavati Chaitanya.

March 20 1965

Celebrating the 50th anniversary since

H.H. Swami Chinmayananda

set foot on American soil for the first time.

Chinmaya Mission Kasargod conducted a unique twin programme – Sarvaiswarya Puja and Sapthalaksha Geeta Shloka Samarpana Mahayajnam on the 22nd February, 2015 at their Vidyangar Centre.Both the programmes witnessed participation of a large number of people right from the morning.The Sarvaiswarya Puja, performed for the fulfillment of one’s desires was the first of its kind held on the campus with Swami Sharadananda officiating and heading it in the traditional manner. Hundreds of people participated in the Puja under Swamiji’s guidance and instructions. A great sense of satisfaction and fulfilment prevailed among the participants.

The Puja was followed by a grand recitation of the complete Bhagwad Geeta by children and adults alike numbering over 1000 at the Chinmaya Tejas auditorium.Thus the programme was named Sapthalaksha Geeta Sloka Samarpana Mahayajnam.It was inaugurated by Swami Viviktananda in the presence of Swamini Kashikananda, Swami Vishwananda and Swami Tattwananda. It was organized as a forerunner to the forthcoming mega event of CBCC launch at Cochin in May this year where 10,000 people will gather to chant the entire Bhagawad Geeta.

A group retreat was organised at Chinmaya Vibhooti for the King George English School (now Chhatrapati Shivaji Vidyalaya) 1964-11F graduating class of Ravi Nene from 3rd to 5th March 2015. A group of 16 participated, including alumni, wives and friends, all new to Vedanta and Chinmaya Mission.

With no acharyas present on campus, a programme was designed with presentations of videos that included Poojya Gurudev’s “Logic of Spirituality”, “Ecology – A Modern Day Confusion”, Poojya Guruji’s Hindi discourse on Shrimad Bhagawata – the story of Raja Parikshit, and two episodes of Upanishad Ganga. The talks were introduced with brief commentaries by Ravi and Nandini Nene.

All participants were instantly and completely engrossed. A sampler of the enthusiastic feedback : “… enjoyable and enlightening, and it was the enlightening part that was most enjoyable”, “… the whole experience was out of this world”, “We are totally inspired by the activities and goal of the Mission.” “Two things are most impressive: One, how the whole campus is eco-friendly, and, two, how youngsters from local villages have been trained for jobs in Chinmaya Vani, Chinmaya Jeevan Darshan, and Swagat Team.”

A key learning was that even when Acharyas are not present in person, a video-based retreat for 2 or 3 days can be extremely effective to introduce newcomers to Vedanta and Chinmaya Mission.