Sadhana Vidyalaya Annual Day School Function - 2015

Sadhana Vidyalaya, a day school for rural children celebrated its 11th Annual Day School function on 23rd December 2015 (Wednesday) with great enthusiasm and vigor. 

Every child has a unique quality inside and Sadhana Vidyalaya goes that extra mile so as to bring out that hidden talent in them. Celebrating this school day function involving all the classes of Sadhana Vidyalaya right from L.KG. till Standard X was one such step. The students being from rural village, these stage performances really helped the children to remove stage fear and also bringing confidence in them. 

The vision of the school which is to revive the ancient educational model of Gurukula system, in which students and teachers stay together and establish a personal relationship outside the academic zone as well, was very much evident on the day as both the students as well as teachers united together for variety of songs and dance performances. 

The theme for the annual day function was ‘Folk’ and the teachers along with the choreographers and students worked very hard to put up a great show. The result was fruitful with scintillating & sparkling performance of the children from various classes. The parents were very excited and proud of their children for their performances during the function.  The function also had prize distribution for various students for their academic performance and teachers & support staff of Sadhana Vidyalaya were also honored during the function. 

Block Education Officer (BEO) of Chennapatna District, Mr. Mallikaarjun was the chief guest and spoke very high about Sadhana Vidyalaya and its founders Guruji Pattabhiram & Jyothi ji. In his speech during the prize distributions honoring various students, mentioned that Sadhana Vidyalaya with its unique Holistic Education System for the rural children is the best school in the district providing Modern Education blended with traditional culture, scenic environment & moral values. He also appreciated school administration in giving best facilities to the rural children inspite of various challenges in setting up such infrastructure in the rural village.

He also awarded the first SSLC Batch 2014-15 Sadhana Vidyalaya students who have all passed out in flying colors.

Jyothi ji in her vote of thanks shared her experience of meeting a former student of Sadhana Sangama Institution in a park while she was having her morning Walk at Minneapolis, US. She felt immense joy to know that the student is now working in a reputed company as a software engineer. During the course of their talk, the student had thanked his teachers & masters at Sadhana Sangama, for imparting him the culture & moral values along with the modern education because of which he felt he could be a good human being and add some value to the society he belongs. Jyothi Ji also remembered how Guruji Pattabhiram, taking Yoga & Samaj Seva as Mission of his life, unmindful of Engineer-Career has devoted his entire life with a vision to create happy, healthy harmonious society through family values and holistic living principles imparted right at the young budding age along with the much required Modern Education. She finally concluded by stating that every student who gets quality education at Sadhana Vidyalaya, should work towards that vision by becoming a good citizen with moral values and help the society to make it a better place to live. 

Guruji Pattabhiram who attended the entire function inspite of his health issues, gave a brief talk starting with thanking Block Education Officer Mr.Mallikaarjun for greeting the function. He later added that for any Educational institutions to run smoothly and achieve its vision & mission, it needs able support from the students, their parents & school teachers & support staff. In that way, he said, Sadhana Vidyalaya is highly blessed in receiving all three along with able assistance that is provided by the philanthropist continuously in running the school for the rural children. He appreciated the parents from rural village in encouraging their kids in sending them to school for Education. Guruji then mentioned how with able support from the parents & philanthropist, the school could develop over the years with excellent infrastructure including new school building, solar lights, Quality kitchen facilities, Toilet facilities, library, Yoga & the Auditorium Hall. He shared his dream in providing even better infrastructure & facilities in the coming years and sought the much required humble support from all. He ended the speech by blessing all the school children and wished them all the best for their education. 

The annual function ended with the vote of thanks by School Administration & Academic Head Masters by thanking the teachers, support staff and Students for putting up a great show.

Some random pics taken during the function:

Entrance to the Open Amphitheater

Parents turned out in huge numbers

Folk as a theme - students from various classes 

Guruji & Jyothi Ma along with Block Education Officer

School Annual Day Function

Guruji & Jyothi Ma along with audience watching the students performance

Kids watching the function 

SV Annual day function

Jyothi ji sharing a lighter moment with our Guruji

Eager parents watching their kids performance 

SV school annual day function

Sadhana Vidyalaya Annual school day performance

Sadhana Vidyalaya Annual School day function 

Sadhana Vidyalaya Annual School day function 

Sadhana Vidyalaya Annual School day function 

Sadhana Vidyalaya School Annual day Function performance

SV school annual day function

SV school annual day function

Parents from rural village turned up in huge numbers

Chief guest & other speakers 

Jyothi Ji addressing the audience

Block Education Officer Mr.Malllikaarjun addressing the audience

100% pass-out First SSLC batch 2014-15 students

School teachers were honored during the Annual day function

Prizes were distributed for various school students

Sadhana Vidyalaya support staff  shared the stage and were honoured

Thanks for reading this post.

- 'Bansuri'

Winter Camp - 2015

Winter Camp 2015

Venue	Kanva Reservior Road, 4th K.M., Sriramapuri, Kanva Post, Kannamangala  Village, Channapatna Taluk, Ramnagar    District (Bangalore Rural),  Karnataka – 562108, INDIA
Contact:	Mr. Sanket  +91-7760555918 (call for registration)
Other Sessions that are part of Camp:	Sessions on Yoga , Pranayama, Meditation, Guest lectures
Date:	20th Dec  (4:00 PM) – 26nd Dec (12 noon) 2015

Winter Camp 2015

Dear Sadhakas,

Blessings from the Masters of the Himalayan Tradition! 

I am extremely happy for all the generous inquiries about my health and thank you for the support that you are providing in furtherance of the cause. This is not only encouraging for my health but has instilled in me an enthusiasm to meet you all. But, as per medical advice, I am not supposed to strain my body by travelling and conducting public programmes at least for a year. Therefore, Jyothi & I came up with the idea of an annual event Winter Camp 2015 at our Ashram over the period December 20 (from 4.00 pm) to 26 (till 12 noon). This will provide me with an opportunity to meet you all. Together we can spend some quality time doing Sadhana.

I plan to take two Sessions in a day. Sessions by Mrs. Jyothi, Mr. Srinivas Murthy, Mr. Sudheendra and other prominent guest speakers also form part of the Winter Camp. Jyothi will be taking two sessions in a day where the first session will be on Tantrik approach to Tatwa Shuddhi & the second session would be on Bahiryaga – Practical approach in Tantra. There will be separate sessions on Yogasana, Pranayama and Meditation as well.

I am sure you will also be excited to be a part of the Winter Camp 2015, as I am, and hence, this advance intimation.

Hope to meet you and your family soon.

Affectionately

Guruji Pattabhiram & Jyothi

Sadhana Vidyalaya School Update

Dear Friends,

Sadhana Vidyalaya has been evolving from a humble beginning to be a school that delivers quality education with a vision and purpose. We have established several unique infrastructure facilities in alignment with that vision and purpose. We would like to share some of the infrastructural developments that have taken place in Sadhana Vidyalaya recently.

- We have completed the construction of 4 new classrooms marking the completion of the larger school building. 

-  A new dedicated multi-purpose play ground with a walking trail is nearing completion.

- Environment friendly, water-less urinals and toilets separate for boys and girls are to be made operational soon.

- Creation of an audio-visual room is underway to make the learning interesting and engaging.

Many more activities are ongoing to make Sadhana Vidyalaya a leading school in the area in line with our vision of offering contemporary education blended with spiritual values. Some of the work in progress pictures are below for your view:

New Toilet Block for school children in construction

 

Toilet block for school children in construction 

Toilet Block for School children passage

Toilet block for school children side view

Passage towards Auditorium followed by school side entrance

Open Auditorium work in progress

School construction (WIP)

School construction (WIP)

School construction (WIP)

School construction (WIP)

School Building side view

Friends, Sadhana Vidyalaya also reached a milestone when it delivered 100% passing results with its first batch of 10th standard(grade) students. The school received accolades in local community and media for this accomplishment thus raising the popularity of the school in surrounding villages and towns. This success would not have been possible without the dedication and hard work of the school staff and above all the continued overwhelming support from our Sadhakas. 

Thank you all

Sadhana Vidyalaya School Management, Staff & Children

Let's hear from our school - Sadhana Vidyalaya school update

NTPCL Visit to our Ashram:

Chairman and Managing Director of NTPC Ltd Shri Arup Roy Choudhary visited our School on 17.07.2015. He was accompanied by his wife Smt. Sharmila and some senior members of his team. NTPC Ltd, thru their CSR [Corporate Social Responsibility] has supported the school with donations for the construction of 4 classroom in our new building and also for setting up Solar Plant for the street lights. He was very happy to see the four class rooms that are now fully functional. A small program was also organized by Sadhana Vidyalaya School Management to welcome Shri Choudhary. Below are some of the pics taken during the day:

Motivating the teachers and Children:

a. Mrs Karandikar asked teachers to involve children of all classes from 4th Std to 9th Std to organize an exhibition. Class Teacher of 6th Std, Miss Sukanya took the challenge and organized the exhibition in her class room without taking support from any other teacher and involved 30 children spanning over 4th to 9th Std. This not only gave her the satisfaction of accomplishing a task single-handed but also motivated other teachers to come forward with proposals for several activities. Children enjoyed the exhibition and are now eager to do something creative.

Teacher Sukanya with HM Shri Bhuvaneshappa and Director Smt Shailaja during the exhibition

b. Shri Kiran, a young entrepreneur who has worked in the field of organic farming, representing an NGO called School Gardenia has involved children in a project where he guides them in farming of Organic Vegetables. It was proposed to setup 20 beds but the work got disrupted by heavy rains. Children are locally guided by Shri Dhanush Narsimhmurthy and have four vegetable beds in place. Out of these four the first one has started giving results with spinach growing rapidly. The idea behind this project is to act as a nucleating agent that will encourage the mostly village children of the school to start vegetable farming in their fields.

Organic Farming Module

c. Poultry farming has been started; this activity will introduce children to another vocation. It is hoped that children will learn from the experiment being conducted by Shri Dhanush N. and profitably start their own poultry farm in their village.

Poultry Farming

3. Panch-Kosh based learning system is being implemented in the school. The program is being introduced in small steps so that teachers and children can assimilate the ideas with ease and can whole-heartedly practice the steps. The first step of the program has three parts: Primary School children are taught shlokas as before but they are now encouraged to participate in singing and dancing also. Children from Middle- and High School are taught different Pranayamas and Asanas and encouraged to participate in sports. Teachers are given exposure to the Panch Kosha System and taught Pranayama. To realize this plan we have identified first period and dedicated it to this project. Primary School children are handled by Primary School teachers guided by Shri Santosh, Middle and High School children are guided by Smt. Shailaja K and Smt Kavitha N.Teachers are guided by Shri Laxman K. Everyone is enjoying the project.

Thanks all again for your continuous support & love. Hoping to see you soon with next update on our School. Till then, Vande Guruparamparam

- Shri Laxman Karandikar
Sadhana Vidyalaya 

Guru Poornima - Message

Guru Poornima day is a very auspicious day for a Sadhaka to meditate on the Guru Parampara and seek the benevolent blessings from the guru tradition.

Guru has many shades of meaning such as search, path, destination, etc., we are all searching for that path which takes us to our destination. This journey goes through 3 stages:

1st stage - Guru as an example and a symbol

Every seeker would like to have a symbol in the mind to adore and an example to follow. Here mind likes to have a physical example as a symbol of guru. That is why every Sadhaka who begins the search would long for guru in the physical form where he experiences physical proximity, emotional security and an answer to all the problems that come up in the journey. In the beginning guru in the physical form will slowly mould the seeker to focus again and again on the path leading to destination and brings the seeker back to the path from all the distractions. So, the first stage is to experience the unconditional love, the tough instructions and the practices to be followed as instructed by the physical guru.

2nd stage - Guru as a philosophy

As a seeker continues staying closer to the physical guru, lot of doubts-conflicts-frustrations do arise by looking at the behavioral pattern of guru. Seeker will start wondering if this Guru is a hypocrite!? He says something and does something else. He utters something and acts entirely different. The mind full of trust slowly turns into mind of doubts, starts revolting, questioning and reacting. This experience slowly makes the seeker to detach from the personal-emotional life of guru and starts contemplating or starts entering into the domain of philosophy that guru is trying to communicate. Philosophy of the guru will slowly start sinking into the various levels of seeker and makes him to contemplate on the very philosophy of life. It opens up the seeker into many layers of his own existence and he starts understanding the subtle connectivity of life-living-behavior and the whole host of parameters working in the complex dynamics of life. Physical guru slowly starts disappearing and the guru as philosophy will start expanding and take the seeker to the dimensionless horizon of contemplating life. The arguments slowly lose their power and internal dialogue starts expanding in the inner dimension of the reality.

3rd stage- Guru as ultimate experience

The seeker’s life starts with the exploration of physical guru which slowly leads to the philosophical ground of reality. This will inspire the seeker even to detach from philosophy because he sees the limitation of same philosophy where many genuine questions are unanswered. This will inspire the seeker to experience the ultimate Absolute-that which is sacred, eternal, all pervasive bliss. This transformation will start creating chidakaasha (space filled with consciousness) and antarmouna (the fathomless inner silence) in which he listens to the whispers of inner guru which is nothing but absolute freedom filled with creative intelligence and unconditional bliss. There, the question of the seeker dissolves completely.

‘ I’ consciousness merges with the cosmic joy and only that shines in him. Seeker becomes the guru and seeking disappears.

So on this day of Guru Poornima, let us meditate to merge the 'I' consciousness with the cosmic joy and to experience the ultimate Absolute - that which is sacred, eternal, all pervasive bliss. Once we do that we will automatically get connected with our Guru Parampara, the epitome of spiritual integrity, infinite bliss and ocean of knowledge.

For this, I personally request you to devote sometime for yourself and do the following practice, starting from the day of Guru Poornima on a daily basis:

PRACTICE:

1. Sit in a comfortable posture – in padmasana or ardha padmasana or sukhasana or vajrasana or in any other comfortable position – by keeping your back, neck and head along the same straight line. You need not tension your face and back to sit straight. Your sitting posture has to be a relaxed one.

2. Gently scan through your body and relax from head to toe.

3. Step 1: Focus your attention on stilling the body. Stop all conscious movements in your body like scratching, moving the fingers, contracting the body muscle, etc.

4. Step 2: Listen to the sounds that is coming from outside and inside you. Make it a point not to get disturbed by the sounds that you hear. Do this activity with full involvement and awareness – to accustom yourself with your environment.

5. Step 3: Shift your awareness and bring it on to Shushumna Kendra – Shushumna Kendra is located at the root of the nose (not the tip) the place where the middle wall of the nose and upper part of the lip meets. Staying in shushumna Kendra, feel that while inhaling you are inhaling the pure, divine cosmic consciousness and while exhaling feel that all your spent and impure energies are coming out of you. This pranayama definitely works if you do it with feeling. It cleans your system. Do this for 5 minutes.

6. Step 4: Focus your attention on the Ajna Chakra (eyebrow centre). Ajna chakra is located in-between your two eyebrows. Staying in Ajna chakra, observe your thoughts. You should consciously practice to separate yourself from your thoughts – you are not your thoughts. Do this for at least 5 minutes.

7. Step 5: Come to Guru Chakra which is just above the Ajna Chakra. Focus on Guru Chakra for 2 minutes and gently relax. Invoke Guru in energy form, or in paduka (two feet) form, or in physical guru form (face of your Guru), or in the form of light, etc. The short point is keep an image in the Guru chakra in which your concentration can stay for a longer time without getting disturbed.

Focusing on that image chant

“Hiranya Garbhaa Aarabdhaam, 

Seshou Vyaasaadhi Madhyamaam

Swami Shree Rama Paadaanthaam, 

Vande Guru Paramparaam, 

Vande Guru Paramparaam, 

Vande Guru Paramparaam”.

After the above prayer, make a sincere Sankalpa from the bottom of your heart that, “Let all the seekers of truth get connected with the Guru”

Then start chanting (minimum one mala - 108 times)

“Om Shreem Gurudevaaya Namaha “

by focusing on Guru in Guru Chakra. Don’t chant the mantra too fast, don’t drag also. Maintain a steady rhythm. You find your comfort level. The important thing is do this japa with the understanding and with feeling. Let your awareness and attention follow the mantra each time you chant.

8. After completing chanting of mantra, sit silently for one or two minutes without doing anything and experience the presence of Guru in the form of light, etc. Feel as if they are offering everything to that light which is there in the form of Guru and praying from deep within that I seek nothing but your Grace, your Presence and your Blessings.

9. Feel your individual consciousness is merging with GURU Consciousness and that is pervading everywhere. In that feeling you offer the following prayer to the Universal Consciousness:

Om Sarve Bhavanthu Sukhinaha, Sarve Santhu Niraamayaha

Sarve Badraani Pashyantu, Maa Kaschit Dhukka Baagh Baveth

Loka Samasthaa Sukhinou Bhavanthu, Loka Samasthaa Sukhinou Bhavanthu

Samastha Sanmangalaani Bhavanthu, Om Tat Sat

Akhanda Mandalaakaaram

Vyaaptham Yena Charaacharam

Tat Padham Darshitham Yenaa

Tasmai Shree Gurave Namaha

May Gurudev bless you all.

Vande Guru Paramparam

Jyothi Pattabhiram

Sri Guru Charanam - Story Series - Part 1

Sri Guru Charanam 

"Attention! Wake up!! This is the time to listen to the music of the Lord. If you close your ears & sleep, how are you going to listen to the music of the Lord? Wake up, start preparing and surrender yourself to THAT and let the music of the Lord flow through you"...

My morning mobile alarm finally woke me from my daily routine sleep not before I snoozed it numerous times postponing my realization from the dream world. If only it had voice, it would have asked me 'Why do you trouble yourself hitting me every 15 minutes when I dutifully try my best to wake you up since you asked me to? You could have straight away set the alarm at your desired time instead of ambitious 5:00 AM?'

We don’t want to give voice to things which can question us, isn’t it? – The Morning Alarm, resolution that I take every year to be regular in my yoga Sadhana, resolution to do daily 10 rounds of Surya Namaskar, determination to sit for meditation daily at same time etc. etc., good that these things never come back to me asking why I make such resolution when I have already decided deep inside that I am never going to follow them!

With these so called philosophical thoughts when I woke up, I realized I am not in my cozy bed in my dream house, but actually in Sadhana Dhama Ashram. Oh well! I realize now. I have come here to spend few days in Ashram to strengthen my Sadhana!!! I still vividly remember my last year experience at Dhyana Mandir, where I had a great dharshan of a saint, whom I felt is a personification of Lord Hanuman…. 

Though outwardly I do not expect to see any miracle this time, I had to admit there was an inner desire within me to look out for some similar miracle this time too. That gave me a quick push to finish my morning duties in no time and I was read to take my morning stroll outside my room. 

The weather was pleasant and sweet music of birds were filling my ears which wasn’t used to this for quite some time as I was feeding them with gibberish electronic sounds.

I first went to Dhyana Mandira, did my prostration to Lord Anjaneya and sat there for some time. I could sense my mind was restless and my eye lids were repeatedly trying to open up even though I had ordered to keep it closed. I could sense what my feelings are! 

It is looking out for M I R A C L E S! 

After few minutes, I could feel someone sitting next to me. Is it the same person whom I met last year whom I still believe is the personification of Lord Hanuman. I could feel strong presence of him near me. Unable to resist, I opened my eyes and saw who is sitting next to me. 

It was ‘NOTHING’

Dhyana Mandir was looking the same as I entered. There was only presence of majestic Lord Anjaneya statue in meditative pose and myself in front of him. There was no one else. So how could I feel there was another person presence in the hall? Is it my own illusion? It didn’t take much time for me to realize that my mind is trying to play games with me. It is trying to project those things which are my inner desires. I desired to see some miracle this time of the visit and I desired to have Sadhu’s presence. So the mind played trick and made me believe that they were available right near me. Oh! My mind, quit playing games with my Heart… isn’t it a famous English song… Quit playing games with my heart, Before you tear us apart (my heart), Quit playing games with my heart, I should've known from the start…

Oh Stop! Where am I? Did I came here to sing my favourite pop songs or meditate? How easily mind can trick and take me far away from the reality! I realized I am not in right mood to sit even for few minutes. So I stood up, apologized to Lord Hanuman for having abruptly walking away from my meditation and left the room (not before I had a quick glance of the room still desiring if I could see any presence of that mysterious ‘sadhu’ anywhere!)

I did not expect my first morning in the Ashram would start like this. I had expected to be more aligned with the Satvic nature of the Ashram but instead I felt I am worse than I used to be earlier. I could not decide whether I am still interested to continue my morning Meditation or go back to room to continue my morning sleep which is ever ready to hug me. In the confused state of mind & few minutes of struggle, I could realize that I am heavily influenced with confused state of mind called ‘Manas’. Luckily I could recollect what Swami Rama had said about ‘Manas’ in one of the articles I had read over the internet:

Manas is called the doubtful faculty of your mind. Before you do something, first manas says, Shall I do it or not? That is why mind is called samkalpa-vikalpatmakam mana. Manas has no power to decide. Sometimes you want to decide, but you wait. You want to see; you want to judge; you want to understand. 

If you learn to control samkalpa and vikalpa, the opposing sensations will cease tormenting you. Samkalpa means “determination;” vikalpa means “lack of determination.” Sometimes you want to do something, yet you do not want to do it. You are continuously experiencing conflict. Shall I do it, or shall I not do it? Conflicts arise in your mind because you do not know how to decide things on time. The nature of manas is to argue and to pose questions, but it has no power to decide, to judge, or to discriminate. These are the functions of the faculty called buddhi. Manas, the doubtful part of your mind, puts both sides before buddhi, the decisive faculty, and immediately buddhi makes a decision.

You have the capacity and the potential to train the buddhi. Once you start training the buddhi, you will not waste time in judging, deciding, or doing things as you should. You will have clarity of mind, clarity of intellect. Your intellect will immediately make decisions and you will receive the fruits according to your desires. That means doing things skillfully. When you learn to do your actions skillfully, the next step is to do them selflessly—to dedicate the fruits of your actions to others.

Hmm! Baba is right (when he is not?) and at the same time I pitied myself for the inability to conquer my delusional mind. 

I was thinking, what is the use of learning so many text, reading Swami Rama’s books or listening to Guruji’s lectures, if one like me cannot even take a single step ahead in the path of Sadhana as suggested by the Himalayan sages?

After coming out of Dhyana Mandira, I was now standing in front of the Sadhashiva cave with double mind whether to go inside or retire back to the room. My thought was interrupted by some object which fell down by a nearby tree branch right in front of Rajarajeshwari Shikharini meditation room. 

The object which fell was of no interest to me, but it helped me to drop both the ideas and instead walk towards Rajarajeshwari Shikharini meditation room. I often ignored this place for some strange reason and today I decided to spend some time out there.

It was bolted from outside. I opened thinking probably the place would need some cleaning to sit and whether if it was a good idea to come here first.

However When I opened the room….

(to be contd...)

- 'Bansuri'

(Please note that the views expressed in this fictional story series are the views of the author's own imagination taking reference from various sources which includes but not limited to Swami Rama & Guruji Pattabhiram's teachings. If you find any text inappropriate, the author seeks humble apologies)