July 2010

SWAMI DAYANAND SARASWATHI Swami Dayanand Saraswathi was a great BBC Announcements: Balabhavan Coordinators scholar. He was born on Feb. 12, 1824 and died 2010 is halfway through. Bharathy Thridandam on Oct. 21, 1883 at age 59. His guru’s name What a busy time it has been Nithya Sudhakar was Swami Virjananda. He was born in a with weekly classes, Seetha Janakiraman village called Tankara near Morvi. He was presentations by parent Sriram Srinivasan praying to God one night when his family was volunteers and children, the sleeping and saw a mouse eating the God’s offerings. He thought about if the God couldn’t pujas led by Panditjis and [email protected] protect his own offerings how he could help the family picnic. the humanity. He urged his father to stop Photographs taken during any Class Coordinators praying to this helpless God in the form of of the events may be idols. He started asking questions that forwarded to us. Super-Senior Class: frightened his mom and dad. Ashok Malavalli Regular classes are [email protected] He was disappointed with classic Hinduism and suspended during the months Aparna Vemuri became a wandering monk. He learned of July and August for [email protected] Panini’s grammar to understand text. summer break. Instead, Krishna Meduri He learned from them that God can be found. we will have field trips to [email protected] He searched for God for 2 decades. He found Buddha Monastery in swami Virjanada near Mathura who became his Escondido on July 3rd and the Senior Class: guru. Dayanand stayed under Virjanada Self Realization Fellowship in Prasanna Madabhushi tutelage for two and a half years. Encinitas on July 24th. [email protected] Details will be sent about this Renuka Krishnan: Virjanada wanted Dayanand to spread the soon. Families are [email protected] knowledge of the Vedas. He decided to please encouraged to participate in his guru so he did it. He set out on the difficult this field trip. Junior Class: task and remained dedicated despite attempts Radhika Chari on his life. He challenged scholars and priests Families are encouraged to [email protected] and won every time. He believed that use this summer break to Rama Srinivas Hinduism was corrupted by divergence from help the children organize [email protected] the founding principles of the Vedas. Hindu their material, download priest discouraged common folk from reading bhajans, print copies to put Toddler Class: Vedas. He started a Hindu reform movement in their binders. Please let Archana Sampath called the Arya Samaj on 10th April 1875. us know if you would like us [email protected] to order the Shloka books. Gayathri Vidyashankar Arya Samaj condemns practices such as [email protected] polytheism, iconolatry, animal sacrifice, We will be assigning parent Priya Sarathy ancestor worship, pilgrimage, priest craft, the volunteers to teach either a [email protected] belief in avatars or incarnations of God, the story, shloka or Bhajans Ramanarayanan K hereditary caste system, unsociability and during the 2nd half of 2010 as [email protected] child marriage on the grounds that all these we update the calendar. lack Vedic sanction. Please review the calendar Registration coordinators: By Sarthak Madan online and let us know if you Krishnasamy PanneerSelvam are interested in teaching [email protected] any topic. Thank you for your participation which makes this program a huge Newsletter Coordinator: success. Krishna Meduri: [email protected] BBC Team

7930 Arjons Drive, San Diego, CA 92126 Phone: (858) 549-3940 July 2010 ISSUE 7 1 July 2010

JHELUM RIVER CHENAB RIVER SRI RAMANA MAHARISHI The five main rivers of the One of the five tributaries of Himalayas are the Jhelum, Sri Ramana Maharishi was born as the Indus River, the Chenab Chenab, Ravi, Beas, and Sutlej. Venkatraman Iyer on December30, 1879 in River runs through dramatic The Himalayas is the birthplace Tiruchuli in Tamil Nadu. At the age of gorges and stunning mountain of many important rivers. The sixteen (16) he left home to Arunachala, a scenery on its 1,087 km journey rivers of the Himalayas give a mountain considered sacred by Hindus, at to the Arabian ocean. new dimension to the beautiful Tiruvannamalai. He lived there for the rest scenic beauty of the Himalayan of his life. Even though he was born as a region. The rivers are the main brahmin, he declared himself as an source of life in those areas. It Atiasrami, state of unattchment to anything helps in the formation of the in life. forest belt and irrigation process in these regions. Venkatraman was a normal child. He was Chenab River is formed as the popular at school, good at sports, very glacial melt of the snow topped The river Jhelum originates intelligent but was lazy at school. He was Himalayas at Himachal Pradesh shooting out from a spring nicknamed "Thangakai", which means and flows in a southwesterly called Verinag which is 80 km golden hand because whichever team he direction in Jammu and south of Srinagar. Verinag is was on in sports, the team always won. Kashmir region of India. Two located in the Kothar district, When he was 11, his father sent him to live rivers Chandra and Bhaga south-east of Srinagar. It is with his uncle in Dindigul so he could go Rivers meet at Tandi forming known worldwide for its learn English and he would be able to get Chandrabhaga or Chenab River. pictorial beauty and nine good job with the government. The Chenab River was known to bridges. It is a very wide river Indians in Vedic period as and has muddy water. It flows Venkatraman was in middle school when his Asikni and the Greeks as the through Srinagar. father died. After his father's death he Acesines. The soil and the thought about his dad's body and his soul. people of this area are One of the few rivers that have One day when he going to school, a relative considered to be the richest in their origin in Kashmir itself, said the word "Arunachala". His heart was the region. Jhelum River is a beauty in filled with joy. A month later he came upon itself. The river originates in some books and started visiting the Verinag, shooting out from a Meenakshi Temple in Madurai and started to spring. The River Jhelum starts show more bhakti. from Kashmir, flows through a long stretch of Jammu before One day when he was 16, he had a fear finally surrendering itself to about his death. He pretended like he was the Indus River. dead and thought about "is he really dead". He was fascinated by the spirit, body, life The Chenab Bridge (shown The Jhelum River is the most and "I". After this event he lost interest in above) is one of the two westerly of the five rivers that school, studies, friends and relationships. highest bridges in the world traverse Punjab and flow into built by India. Chenab River the Indus River in Pakistan. He was a silent teacher. Devotees asked enters Pakistan and flows Ancient Greeks called the river him questions and he would answer in his through the Punjab plain and Hydaspes. It arises in the own unique way. Some of teachings are: meets Rivers Jhelum, Ravi, and Himalayas south of Srinagar, Happiness is what everyone wants. For you Sutlej. This confluence of flows northwest through to be happy, you need to know yourself. Rivers finally joins Indus River Srinagar and the Vale of You know yourself by asking "who am I?". His which flows downstream to Kashmir and joins with the earliest teachings are in the book "Naan Yar" Arabian Ocean. River Chenab. (who am I) in Tamil. By Akhilesh Genneri …Continued By Ananya Madabushi

7930 Arjons Drive, San Diego, CA 92126 Phone: (858) 549-3940 July 2010 ISSUE 7 2 July 2010

JHELUM RIVER…..continued Balabhavan summer field trip: July Birthdays: The river is famed for its nine : old bridges. The length is 725 Toddler: kilometers(450 miles). In Balabhavan is excited to announce the Ahalya Ratnavel Pakistani Punjab the Jhelum is first summer field trip to Metta Forest Amisha Kandi the basis of an extensive Praseedha Sai Maddipatla irrigation and canal system. In Monastery.

1901 the Jhelum canal colony Juniors: was established, with the About Metta Forest Monastery: None intention of irrigating 457,000 hectares, and it quickly Metta Forest Monastery is a meditation Seniors: brought prosperity to the monastery in the of the Thai Deepika Vuppala settler-farmers. Forest Tradition. Founded in 1990 by Vinod Krishnamoorthy , it is currently The hydrology of the Jhelum headed by Thanissaro (Ajaan Super Seniors: River is largely controlled by Geoff). Thanissaro Bhikkhu is a renowned Akhilesh Sai Vemuri snowmelt in the spring and the Satish Chandran Indian monsoon that brings scholar and teacher on . The monastery is situated near Ramesh heavy rains from June to Sankaran Ramanarayanan September. The highest flood Valley Center, California, at the end of a discharges on the Jhelum road in an avocado orchard surrounded by exceed 1,000,000 cubic feet the mountains and chaparral of northern ______per second. Little rain falls San Diego County. during the winter and river Newsletter Editors level is substantially lower than There are a limited number of seats in the summer months. (about 30 kids), due to the size of Anugraha Panneerselvam Monastery premises, on first come first Over the years the Jhelum Kalyani Ramadurgam River has emerged as a major serve basis. Please RSVP immediately. tourism attraction. The Topics of the Month Mangala Dam built on the river Location: Ananya Madabushi is one the largest earth-fill Karthik Kumar 13560 Muutama Lane dams and a great tourist Sarthak Madan destination. The wonderful Valley Center, CA 92082 lakes of the city are mostly fed http://www.watmetta .org/ Akhilesh Genneri by water from Jhelum. ______Date & Time: July 3rd 2010 – 4:00 PM The River Jhelum in its path takes the form of a stream and Festivals of the Month: act as lovely camping sites. The nine bridges over the River July 25: Guru Poornima Jhelum also serve as a hot tourism sites. You must visit Please visit the temple website these places to feel the real essence of the areas. www.shiva-vishnu.org for more details

By Karthik Kumar

7930 Arjons Drive, San Diego, CA 92126 Phone: (858) 549-3940 July 2010 ISSUE 7

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July 2010 Balabhavan Annual Picnic

What a way to kick off the summer! A fun filled picnic on a beautiful warm sunny day by a picturesque lake park with over 50+ families of kids, moms, dads and grandparents. All this while enjoying mouth watering dishes and delicacies followed by some friendly competition and games. We hope everybody had a blast !

We would like to extend a big thank you to each and every one of you for making the picnic this afternoon such a memorable event. Special thanks to all the food volunteers who spent so many hours preparing all the tasty treats! Big kudos to kids and adults game coordinators who motivated all of us to participate and conducted the games without any controversies (did the men really win the tug of war?). There were so many others who helped on a timely basis from setting up the table to cleaning up, which made it all possible today. We will be sending out the pictures that captured today’s memorable moments. Please share any pictures you might have taken. It was very nice to see the entire Balabhavan family come together, have fun and enjoy a great day outdoors!

BBC TEAM

7930 Arjons Drive, San Diego, CA 92126 Phone: (858) 549-3940 July 2010 ISSUE 7

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7930 Arjons Drive, San Diego, CA 92126 Phone: (858) 549-3940 July 2010 ISSUE 7

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