BALABHAVAN NEWSLETTER VEDIC CULTURAL AND SPIRITUAL CENTER OF SAN DIEGO

N August 2013

BBC Announcements: Balabhavan Coordinators SRI MADHAVACHARYA Namaste Bala Bhavan Families! Latha Sundar Hope you have been enjoying Lalitha Krishnamoorthy your summer! And now you are Hema Rangaswamy just raring to go back to school! Nah…just kidding! Kumar Gowda [email protected] Well, here are some fun Bala Bhavan events to look forward to, before you go back to Class Coordinators school:

Super-Senior Class: UPCOMING EVENTS

Krishna Meduri - Vedic Culinary Camp – starts [email protected] Aug.10th

Madhvacharya was born on the day of Vijaya Green Art Camp – starts Aug. Senior Class: 17th Dasami in 1238 CE at Pajaka, a tiny hamlet near Udupi. He is believed to be the third -Ganesha Clay Molding & Radhika Chari Carving- August 18th and 25th, Pavani Balebail of Lord Varuna. His father, Nadillaya Bhatta, and his mother, Vedavati, named him 4pm -6:30pm, [email protected] Temple, Backyard at birth. Even as a child, he was spiritual. When he was 11 years old, he became a - Bala Bhavan Annual Field Junior Class: Trip- Sept1, 2013 Sanyasa and got the name Purnaprajna. - Bala Bhavan REGULAR Sushma Natarajan CLASSES START – Sept. 7th Rajashri Balaji ’s philosophy was Dvaita that states that Vishnu is the supreme God and that Ganesha Chathurthi – Pooja by [email protected] BB kids, Sept. 8th, 3-4pm the universe including the individual soul and matter exist with their own separate reality. This Toddler Class: Hope you are all enjoying our philosophy is placed in opposition to ’s Advaita. wonderful Summer Camp Vanitha Santhamoorthy Programs. Look for pictures Vandana Santhanam The wrote his commentaries on all from some of the Summer Uma Uralegaddi Camps - in this Newsletter!! [email protected] the 10 . He composed 40 hymns of the . He also wrote the Bhagavata Tatparya Have a fantastic rest of the Registration coordinator: highlighting the essential teachings of the . He established the temple in summer! BBC Team Kumar Gowda Udupi. ______August Birthdays: In 1317 CE, in his 79th year, on the 9th day of Newsletter Coordinator: Toddlers: the bright half of the month of Magha, Aditya Samavedam Krishna Meduri: Madhvacharya went to Badri deciding to take Lakshanya Sankaran [email protected] leave of his disciples. He assigned to them the Ojas (VISHNU) Moorthy responsibility of carrying on the tradition of his Shloka Krishna

Tattvavada. This day is now celebrated as

Madhava Navami. Juniors: Festivals of the Month: Sharan Sundararam

Shraddha Kadaba

Please visit: -Kavya Raamkumar Seniors: www.shiva-vishnu.org for Pranav Puttaparthi more details Vainavi Viswanath

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BALABHAVAN NEWSLETTER VEDIC CULTURAL AND SPIRITUAL CENTER OF SAN DIEGO August 2013

SRI RAMANUJACHARYA Editors Corner Editors Corner

Unscramble the following: “A little bit of comic relief”

1. arckah Fill in the following sentences HINT: Vishnu holds this in one of with a word that has the same his hands….guess which one. number of letters as spaces. The words rhyme, so if you 2. aaarvn need a hint, fire up that HINT: This fellow had ten times creative side of your mind. as many eyes to stare his enemies down. Ramanujacharya was born as Ilaya 1. There once was a fellow, Perumal on April 4th in the year 1017 A.D. in Maybe he was a bit yellow, 3. eotsrf the village of Perumbudur, in Tamil Nadu in But I would most definitely say HINT: If you are to spend 14 a pious family. His father was Asuri That he was not ______. years somewhere, this is Kesava Somayaji Deekshitar and his mother probably where you have been was Kantimathi. Ilaya Perumal's maternal 2. He had more eyes than a bee, sent off to from your kingdom. uncle saw his divine traits and named him More mustaches than you could (meaning 'brother of '). see, Quite early in life, Ramanuja lost his father. And occasionally prayed to He then moved with his family to _ _ _ _. Kancheepuram to pursue his study of the under Yadavaprakasha, a teacher of 3. He had a sort of evil mind, Advaita philosophy. Ramanuja was a very Torturing people, even the blind. brilliant student and was also reputed to He had this characteristic of not have liberal attitudes towards caste. He being kind, freely mingled with true devotees of God, And defeat was something his irrespective of their caste, including washing opponents could not _ _ _ _. their feet and eating their food. 4. ngaga 4. He went up against an army of HINT: The river that Shiva held Ramanuja believed in the Vishta-Advita monkeys, in his hair. (Qualified Advaita) philosophy of However, he could not put his ------and the "Sri-Vaishnavite". Ramanuja does castle up for lease, Answers: not agree with the Advita principle (Sri Fought he did, but his Shankara's View) that only the Para could not even tease, 1. Chakra (God) is true and every thing else is . He The monkeys who served Rama 2. instead groups everything into the conscious to ______. 3. Forest state, the unconscious state and the Para 4. Brahman. The conscious and the unconscious 5. Now, who is being described ------attributes belong to the Body of the Para here? Newsletter Editors Brahman who also has innumerable superior ------qualities or Gunas. The Para Brahman Answers: Keshav Tadimeti possesses the whole universe as his property 1. Mellow and so cannot be compared to anyone. 2. Devi Sankaran Ramanarayanan Ramanuja believed the Para Brahman to be 3. Find

Sriman Narayana. Ramanuja also 4. Please Topics of the Month popularized the Tamil scriptures and ensured 5. Ravana that Tamil poems become part of all Sri Kavya Raamkumar Vaishnava style pujas. Shekar Krishnamoorthy -Shekar Krishnamoorthy

7930 Arjons Drive, San Diego, CA 92126 Phone: (858) 549-3940 August 2013 Issue 8 2 Two important disciples 1. Koorathazhwan BALABHAVAN NEWSLETTER VEDIC CULTURAL AND SPIRITUAL CENTER OF SAN DIEGO August 2013 201 Balabhavan Summer Camps2 2013

7930 Arjons Drive, San Diego, CA 92126 Phone: (858) 549-3940 August 2013 Issue 8 3