Chinmaya-Tej
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Chinmaya-Tej www.chinmaya.org Chinmaya Mission San Jose Publication Vol.22, No.4 July/August 2011 MISSION STATEMENT To provide to individuals, from any background, the wisdom of Vedanta and practical means for spiritual growth and happiness, enabling them to become a positive contributor to the society. A True Teacher A MAN firmly established in wisdom is tranquil and his equipoise is never broken even when he is investing his entire energies in the world outside for the service of mankind. The words coming from an individual can gather wings only when they spring from a heart soaked in an utmost subjective experience. The teacher will have to explain in terms of the intellect that which is beyond the intellect. This early catering to the intellect is possible only when the teacher knows the technics employed in the Upanishads by the great Rishis of old in conveying and explaining the inexplicable. However, much we may explain, the actual transference of knowledge from the teacher to the taught is not through words. For this, the power of communication must be in the teacher, and this he can discover only from his own experience. s Table of Contents s Volume 22, No.4 July/August 2011 From The Editors Desk ..................................... 2 Chinmaya Tej Editorial Staff ................................. 2 Groundbreaking Ceremony Invitation.......................... 3 Chinmaya-Tej ............................................ 6 Worship Your Teacher ...................................... 7 The First Pearl: Love & Work............................... 13 Dharma and Sampradäya ................................... 14 Inspired Leadership ....................................... 18 Swami Tejomayananda..................................... 22 Bala Vihar Locations & Choir............................... 23 Bala Vihar/Yuva Kendra and Language Classes ................. 24 Bhakti Rasamrutam ....................................... 25 BalViHar Magazine - Gita Chanting Classes for Children ........ 26 Tapovan Prasad .......................................... 27 Scheme of Study for Chinmaya Study Groups .................. 28 Community Outreach program .............................. 29 Vedanta Study Groups Adult Sessions......................... 30 Satsangs with Br. Prabodh Chaitanya ......................... 30 Prabodhji's Classes at Bala Vihar Locations .................... 31 Prabodhji's Classes at Sandeepany ............................ 31 Swami Tejomayananada’s Itinerary............................ 32 1 FROM THE EDITORS DESK Tej, is a bi-monthly publication of Chinmaya Mission San Jose. CMSJ is in the process of getting the necessary permits to build the New Facility. The City of San Jose is studying the building drawings and when they are approved we shall begin the construction of our New Building. We are happy to show you some elevation drawings of the projects. We invite you to visit the site when you can. News and events update via e-newsletter on CMSJ web-site is serving our timely announcements. Please keep us updated with your e-mail addresses and send them to “[email protected]” If you do not hear from us e-mail or Chinmaya Tej, please forward your address and e-mail to me indicated on this page. Chinmaya Tej is also available for viewing on our website. Chinmaya-Tej will be mailed to all Sponsors and Members of Chinmaya Mission San Jose. Send your subscription marked, Chinmaya-Tej, CMSJ, 1050 Park Ave., San Jose, CA 95126. CHINMAYA TEJ EDITORIAL STAFF Editor: Uma Jeyarasasingam ([email protected]) Co-editor: Rohini Joshi Electronic Editorial Advisor: Satish Joshi Contributors: Subbu Venkatkrishnan, Swami Sivananda, Swamini Vimalananda, Swami Chinmayananda Design & Layout: four waters / four waters media Printing: Bill Browning / PigMint Press, Redway, California Data Base: Kapil Vaish Mailing: Autozip, Ukiah, California Contact us: http://www.chinmaya.org • Phone: (650) 969-4389 Fax: (650)428-1795 2 Ground Breaking Ceremony Invitation from the CMSJ Board Hari Om! THE CMSJ BOARD OF DIRECTORS CORDIALLY REQUESTS thE HONOR OF YOUR PRESENCE along with family at the Ground-Breaking Ceremonies of the CMSJ New Building Facility. We are indeed blessed since these ceremonies will take place in the auspicious presence of the Head of Chinmaya Mission Worldwide, our Beloved and Revered Param Pujya Guruji, Swami Tejomayanandaji, CMSJ Board of Directors President Swami Shantanandaji and our own Beloved Acharyas, Br. Prabodh Chaitanya and Smt. Uma Jeyarasasingam. This event is the culmination of efforts that began in 2006 to secure a new property for the future CMSJ Building. Though the ground breaking ceremonies are the culmination of one phase of the project, this in many regards is the beginning of much more work to be done. To ensure that the future work is completed with out too many obstacles, we invoke the Grace and Blessings of God and our entire Guru Parampara with Poojas and ceremonies. Ceremonies will be conducted by Panditji Ravichandran. 3 4 A parts of the ground breaking ceremonies, there will be a three day discourse series on the Shiva Mahimna Stotram given by Swami Shantanandaji. Discourses begin on July 22nd from 7:30pm-9:00pm, July 23rd and July 24th from 8:30am to Noon. Further details available at www.chinmaya-sanjose.org. It goes without saying that we would not have reached this stage of the CMSJ New Building Project without the tireless and unwavering support of the entire CMSJ community. For this, we are ever grateful. We humbly seek your presence at these ceremonies. Please join us. Thank You and Warm Regards, CMSJ Board of Directors 5 Chinmaya ~ Tej Thank you for asking about Chinmaya Tej. Pujya Gurudev initiated and launched the CMSJ Newsletter in 1988. Later, finding the CMSJ Newsletter to be, in his words, “like a catalog”, i.e., woefully inadequate for the purposes he had in mind, he gave detailed guidelines to transform it into a formal, informative, useful, and high-quality publication. Thus Chinmaya-Tej was born. The manifold purposes of Tej, as laid out by Gurudev, are as follows: 1. It is the voice of CMSJ. 2. Gurudev wanted CMSJ’s publication to be of high quality and comparable to CMW’s Mananam and other Chinmaya Mission Publications. 3. It is the official publication of CMSJ. When CMSJ was first registered as Non-Profit Organization, there were queries from various government agencies as to whether CMSJ had an official publication, from which they could learn about CMSJ, our history, mission, and values. Tej served that purpose. 4. Tej is CMSJ’s mode of outreach and communication to spiritual seekers beyond those who are able to attend CMSJ’s discourses in person. Extra copies of each issue of Tej are printed so as to be available for new seekers. 5. Gurudev also instructed us to cover Vedanta topics in the Tej. Accordingly, Tej has articles on Vedanta topics for beginners as well as advanced readers. Other Details about Tej: 1. The annual cost to produce 6 issues of Chinmaya Tej is $21,000. It is paid for by CMSJ’s Annual Membership contributions, Bala Vihar revenues, and general donations. 2. Chinmaya Tej is also available online. Hard copies of Chinmaya Tej are distributed only to members of CMSJ who reside in California. 6 WORSHIP YOUR Swami Sivananda (Reprinted from Science of Yoga, Volume One) BE FREE from desires. Thirst for the knowledge of God. Engage yourself in performing selfless service. The Divine Vision and intuition will dawn in you. Worship your father, mother and teacher. Worship the guests. Look upon all of them as the Lord Himself, without regarding them as mere human beings. Pay them due reverence. Serve them with great respect. 7 Do not yield to fatalism. Change You should have a keen longing to your habits. Lead a virtuous life. meet a Guru and be initiated by Eradicate greed and anxiety. Give him. Then God Himself will provide up vanity. Be devoted to the Lord. a Guru for you. Good books written The Divine Light will dawn in you. by realised Yogis, who have trodden The worship of saints has been taken the path successfully, will help you more or less as a necessary Sadhana greatly. Mere talk will not do you in the life of an aspirant. Even the must practise. Upanishads declare that the Sadhaka Learn Yoga under a Guru. Then only should have the same devotion to will you be able to understand the his Guru as he has to God. The subtle points. Get practical lessons idea is that by constantly thinking also from him. Then alone will of his Guru, the Sadhaka is kept you grow rapidly. He will remove on the right path, away from evil, your doubts and show you the and moulds himself on the pattern right path, because he has already of his teacher. trodden the path himself. He will When a Sadhaka superimposes on point out the pitfalls and snares that his personal Guru the characteristics tempt aspirants on the path. He will of the impersonal Absolute, as in the inspire you. case of idol-worship, his devotion Just as electricity flows from a reaches the Supreme. God, the positively charged battery towards Indweller, understands the devotion the negative pole, even so, power, of the Sadhaka and guides him along energy, love, wisdom and spiritual the proper path. currents flow from the master-mind Even wise men often lack this broad of a Yogi towards the lesser mind of outlook and argue that the human the disciple. figure of a saint should not be Books also can assist you. They will adored with the devotion due to inspire you. They can guide you God. As with God, so with the only to a certain extent and to a Guru -- the way to the Impersonal certain point. You have to practise lies through the personal. the rules of right conduct before A Guru is necessary. But you must you approach a Guru. You can first prepare the ground well for the start the minor practices -- Asanas, reception of the seed of knowledge Pranayama and some concentration from the Guru. He cannot do this exercises, with the help of books.