Volume 24, Issue 1 September 2015 Inside this Issue 68144 NE, Omaha, Street, Arbor 13010 President’s Message 3 Chairman’s Message 4 Hindu Temple Committee Members 5 Importance of Om and Mantra 6-7 Photo Gallery 8 Financial Report 9 AMD Form 10 Photo Gallery 11 A Note From Balvihar 12 Balvihar Registration Form 13 Upcoming Puja Events 14 Shri Ganesh Chaturthi Utsava Flyers 15-17 Editors Corner 18 Ganesh Chaturthi-2015 Advertisements 19-20 Page –1 Volume 24 Issue 1 Page -2 Message from the President Om Sri Ganeshaya Namaha. Dear Devotees, I am honored to be writing on behalf of Hindu Temple Executive Commit- tee. The Hindu festival season has started in India with the advent of the month of “Shraavana”. There are several major Hindu festivals such as Srikrishna Janmashtami, Ganesha Chathurthi, Navarathri/Dasara and Deepavali being celebrated in the next 2-3 months in India and the rest of the world. As in previous years, all these festivals are being celebrated at Hindu Temple in Omaha, NE as well. On behalf of the Hindu Temple Executive Committee, I would like to kindly request all devotees to take part in these auspicious cele- brations in the upcoming months through the 3 D’s - Devotion (Mana or Bhak- ti), Dedication (Thanu or Seva) and Donation (Dhana). Please visit the Hin- du Temple website at http://www.hindutemplenebraska.org/ or subscribe to the Email list to receive communications regarding temple activities. May the Lord Prasanna Ganapathi shower his blessing upon all our devotees and the community. Loka Samastha Sukhino Bhavantu Namaskara, Murali Deshpande President, Executive Committee (2015-16) Be an Active Participant of the Temple Activities Volume 24 Issue 1 Page –3 Message from the chairperson Dear Devotees, It is a great honor and a privilege for me to be elected to serve as a Chair of the Board of Trustees for the Hindu Temple. I would like to thank our outgoing Chair of the Board Dr. Shailendra Saxena as well as outgoing President of Executive Committee Suresh Seshadri for their exemplary service to the Temple. Both these leaders, their committee chairs and its members have served the Temple with distinction. They engineered celebra- tion of Mahakumbhabhishekam as well as Navakaebara, an ancient ritual associated with total replacement of idols of Lord Jagannatha, Balabhadra, Subhadra and Sudarshan with new ones. Since inception of the Hindu Temple, its volunteer leaders have developed and maintained the mission, vision and values of our faith. The progressively growing Hindu community has posed challenges and opportunities for the temple leadership which they have met extremely well. Among others, some examples of their achievements are: ex- panded needs for religious ceremonies both at the temple and patrons homes, excellent liaison with interfaith community and temple visitors, superb activities for our children and youth through Balvihar, Youth group, Yoga for children. One of the crown jewel of our temple is the Vedanta Center. Its leader have successfully supported discourses and re- gional meeting for spiritual enrichment for diverse cultural groups. Finally, the spirit of vol- unteerism, a foundation for our success at all levels is alive and well and is growing. The devotion and hard work of our volunteer workforce is admirable. I communicate my heart- felt thanks to all volunteers. I also want to thank our priests for their services to the temple. As an ambassador and trustee, I would like to share with you some of my goals for our temple for the upcoming year. These are: alignment with Vision 2022 plan; promote financial stability and security of the temple; support need based long range plan driven expansion of foot print of the temple; encourage greater engagement and collaboration of our community; secure greater liaison with local interfaith community and outreach to the needy and to serve as a positive model for the Omaha community and to create a positive image of our temple; maintain transparency and receptivity to innovative ideas from our temple patrons and finally enhancement of religious services to meet the need of our di- verse Hindu community. I would like to draw from the wisdom of our past and present leaders and more im- portantly all of you. Please feel free to share through personal visits or through notes in the suggestion box. In addition, I will request your generous financial support for our Beautful Temple. Thank you! With the blessing of the Lord Prasanna Ganapati and your support, I am sure we are going to have great year. Regards, Shashi K Bhatia Chairwoman, Board of Trustees Volume 24 Issue 1 Page –4 COMMITTEE MEMBERS Volume 24 Issue 1 Page -5 Your Brain on Om: The Science of Mantra Mantra is a Sanskrit word for "sound tool," and Om is one of the myriad of such mantras. Sanskrit and some other ancient languages such as Tibetan, prototypical Egyptian and ancient Hebrew evolved as complex systems of onomatopoeia, where the sounds evoke movements of energy. This evocation is qualitative and subjective and is linked with interoception (inner body sensations) and emotional sense of self, both predominantly represented in the right hemisphere of the brain. Conversely, the narrative strand of sounds in which we give them meaning is done predominantly through the left hemisphere. What is fascinating about mantras is that from a physics standpoint, the sounds themselves, before they are assigned meaning, will resonate in different parts of the body and mind, creating actual interactions or events. Mantras are infor- mation, in the literal sense of informing: the creation of form, or interactions. The Sanskrit language is an infor- mation sequencing system that mimics the process of nature's repeating patterns. As the Sanksrit scholar Dr. Douglas Brooks has said, "Sanskrit tells us what Nature shows us. A limited number of rules gives an arbitrarily large number of outcomes. The way Nature goes about its business, Sanskrit goes about its language." Much like the emotive quality of immersing oneself in music, mantra uses sound to evoke movement of physical and emotional energy through stimulation of the nervous system, from which emerges meaning and narrative. The Brain in Four Dimensions In order to have insight into and validate a mantra for ourselves, it must be experienced and felt through introspection. Let's take the mantra Om, or Aum, one of the most common in Sanskrit and Tibetan. If Aum is indeed onomatopoeic, then performing it can create an event inside the nervous system, which can then become an object of concentration and meditation, and thereby a focal point for expanding physical and emotional awareness. In terms of phonemes, we notice that it does not have any plosives or fricatives, only sonorants. From the types of solid-object physical events that the brain evolved to perceive, this respectively corresponds to an absence of hits and slides, and the presence of only rings. A, U and M are sonorants or rings, so this particular mantra qualifies an object that inherently has no interactions (hits or slides). In terms of physics, this means our object is formless. Try resonating the mantra aloud, allowing air to flow through the nasal passage, smoothly transitioning between the three sounds. If you do not wish to disturb anyone that may be around you, you can whisper the sounds subvocally. The A (pronounced ä, as in "car") can feel like a wide opening and has a broader vibratory effect on the physical body, approximating the gross consciousness of the waking state. The U (pronounced oo, as in "soup"), has a funneling effect, narrowing the consciousness into subtler sensations such as thoughts and impressions, approximating the dream state. The more nasal M sound is like the drone of a bee; it makes the cranium vibrate in a kind of undifferentiated and ubiquitous earthquake over the convolutions or valleys in the cerebral cortex, approximating the deep dreamless sleep state of con- sciousness. Traditionally, Aum represents and has the capacity to progressively open up the practitioner to the ever-present formless and timeless reality, the background radiation of the cosmos that echoes the Big Bang. Aum is found in the form of Amen in Christianity, Judaism and ancient Egyptian, where it also codes for the im- mutable eternal aspect of consciousness. Benefits of Yoga: How Different Types Affect Health The feelings and symbolic representations of the sounds will differ from person to person because, like any tool, the effects of the sounds depend on the user operating them and the object of use, namely the condition of the body and mind. The practitioner should first develop a state of relaxation through proper breathing. It is also important to take interest in or to have a healthy curiosity for the practice so that the effect of actually enjoying the learning process may help the mantra get a foothold in the system. Mantras can be done vocally, sub-vocally (whispering) or silently in the mind. It is recommended to start aloud, and then pro- ceed with the more silent variations. Silent repetition does have an effect; when the frequency of any sound is high enough, it extends beyond the human range of hearing and eventually achieves stillness, which is be- yond sound itself. It has been demonstrated in a double-blind study that ultrasound probes applied to the skull can improve. Gabriel Axel, From U.S. News World Report Volume 24 Issue 1 Page -6 Volume 24 Issue 1 Page –7 Volume 24 Issue 1 Page –8 Hindu Temple, Omaha NE (April 2015 thru July 2015) INFLOW OUTFLOW