MyBalavihar Portal Teachers/Admin Only
Photos
Videos Main Menu
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Newsletter - May 2008 | Chinmaya Mission Orlando - www.chinmayaorlando.org | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Everybody exists. It is only the few who live. To live, you should have an ideal. - Swami Chinmayananda |
GURU BRAHMA RUPA JANO, On May 8th we celebrated Guru Jayanthi by offering our pranaams to Sadguru Swami Chinmayananda and sought his blessings to live the values he taught. Children sang about the glory and importance of Guru in our life and adults shared their experiences with Gurudev. A small poem in Gurudev's remembrance Ganges begins mission from Himalayas |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
| PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE
Blessed Self Adorations and Salutations, This beautiful world is the divine temple of God, and "He" only exists as the supreme reality. Great spiritual giants such as Sadguru Swami Chinmayananda can only awaken the spirtual power in seekers. We owe our lives to such Masters who have ignited the flame of spritual seeking within us. Let us strive to seek the highest in this life alone. We are blessed with these sweet little children as sparks of divinity amongst us. We are planning to expand the building and add more classrooms and a prayer hall. Let us give them the best through our selfless and pure love. In "His" Service Love, |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Summer 2008 Balavihar Teachers Training |
|
Summer 2008 Balavihar Teachers Training During Summer 2008, Chinmaya Mission Orlando will conduct Balavihar Teachers Training program that will provide an opportunity for the interested members, parents and also existing teachers to learn and improve their proficiency in teaching the invaluable knowledge of Vedanta to the Balavihar children. This program not only helps one to become a better teacher but at the same time become a better parent. If the kids plan to come along with parents, they can engage in other activities (Chanting, Arts & Crafts, Music - Tabla and Philosophy study) conducted by our volunteers.
The highlights of this training program are
If you are interested in this program, please sign up by CLICKING here |
| Summer 2008 Tabla Classes by Pandit Nandkishor Muley |
|
Chinmaya Mission of Orlando is starting TABLA classes from Sunday, June 1st, 2008. This will provide an oppurtunity to the interested members, youth and children to learn or improve their proficiency in playing the popular Indian percussion instrument. The Tabla classes will be conducted by world renowned Tabla Maestro Pandit Nandkishor Muley. These are beginners classes and all participants above the age of 8 years are welcome to attend this 10 week course. Each class will be 1 hour long and will be conducted every Sunday from 11:00AM-12:00PM. Participants will receive a 'Certificate of Completion' by Pt. Muley ji after the successful completion of the course. The course fee is $200.00 for the whole 10 weeks. The fees are due at the time of the first lesson (June 1st). Participants are required to bring their own Tabla set. If you don't have a Tabla set, please send an email to info@chinmayaorlando.org so we can assist you in the purchase of Tabla set at a discounted price. If you are interested in this class, please sign up by CLICKING here |
| New Balavihar building project |
 The plan for the new Balavihar classroom expansion Project was unveiled at the Fundraiser Banquet at Bahia Shrine, Maitland on April 12th 2008. As you remember Bhoomi Puja for this new building happened on December 23, 2007, with blessings of Swami Tejomayanandaji and various other Swamijis. The plan is to build 22 class rooms and a library spanning about 18,000 sq.ft of building space. This facilitates accommodating more students, classes and activities. The project has realistic goals that will be developed in multiple phases. (Click for more info...)First Phase
Second Phase
|
| Excerpts from “Manah Shodhanam’ |
|
The Mind: Our best friend and worst enemy - Swami Tejomayananda Regardless of whether a spiritual seeker is following the path of action, devotion, knowledge, meditation, or renunciation, the sole obstacle is one’s own mind. As we have seen, this is equally true in the secular field. All our spiritual practices aim at tackling the mind. Otherwise, knowledge by itself is so simple. The scriptures say that we are not the limited body or mind but we are the infinite Self, Atman, of the nature of absolute Bliss. I do not have to produce the blissful Self; it is already me. I must only drop my identification with the body and mind and discover this fact. Yet the mind does not allow this to happen very easily, and as long as we do not understand our true nature, we continue to condemn the mind. In the Bhagavad Gita and Upanisads, it is clearly said that the mind alone is our best friend and our worst enemy. The mind is the cause of our bondage and is also the means of our liberation. One should not think either of fighting or of conquering the mind, for such ideas inherently make it one’s enemy. What we really need to do is make the mind our friend, which it already is in reality; we just do not realize it. All ideas of fighting, winning over, or conquering the mind are nothing but our attempts to understand it. When we do understand it, all impurities vanish. The person possessing a pure mind will be the most successful in any given field of life. Therefore, as spiritual seekers, we need to pay much more attention to this fact. One thing which I have learned from my own experience is that every aspect of life demands attention; nothing happens automatically. We may study Vedanta, the Upanishad-s, or other scriptures, but if we do not pay any attention to our physical health then we will definitely suffer from physical problems. Just because one is a Vedantin does not mean that one is physically healthy. Similarly, if one pays a lot of attention to the physical body and not to the mind, one may be physically healthy but not necessarily mentally fit. In short, if we pay attention to our body, mind, and intellect equally, there will be a total and perfect integration of our personality. For this integration to take place, the only solution is to understand our own mind. When we do so, a great peace will be experienced which cannot be described in words. Once the mind is purified for the highest spiritual purpose of life, all other purposes are automatically taken care of. |
| Discourses on Ashtavakra Gita Chapter 1 by Br. Vimal Chaitanya (June 13 -14, 2008) |
|
Date/Time: June 13th 2008 Friday , 7:30pm to 9:00pm June 14th 2008 Saturday, 9:00am to 10:30am and 11:00am to 12:30pm (followed by Aarati and Lunch) Venue: Chinmaya Mission Orlando, Casselberry Details : Ashtavakra Gita is contained in the epic Mahabharata as a dialogue between Maharshi Lomasa and the Pandava King Yudishthira just as Srimad Bhagavad Gita appears as a dialogue between Sanjaya and the Kaurava King Dhrutrashtra. In Srimad Bhagavad Gita, Sanjaya narrates the entire episode of how Arjuna was lifted from dejection and despair to a state of liberation by Shri Krishna through an exhaustive and logical application of the Vedantic principles. In Ashtavakra Gita, we find that as soon as Ashtavakra begins his discourse in response to King Janaka’s queries about knowledge and liberation, Janaka begins to chime in with perfect harmony indicating he just needed a little nudge in the right direction from his Guru. It is often pointed out that Ashtavakra Gita can significantly help only those who are advanced seekers such as Janaka who have purified their minds and are engaged in deep reflection upon the universal truth and that for others it’s true significance will be summarily lost. Yet the directness of the message, the absence of any room for the mind to maneuver and the sublime profundity with which the subtle knowledge is conveyed is all so charming that once exposed any real seeker will find it difficult to turn away and not be drawn to it again and again as if by some unseen force of attraction. About Br. Vimal Chaitanya Br. Vimal Chaitanya is a disciple of Swami Chinmayananda. He taught Bhagavad Gita, Upanishads and other Vedantic texts at the Chinmaya Mission of Orlando while in residence there. He has also given discourses at many U.S. centers in English, Hindi and Gujarati. Br. Vimalji has vast experience in teaching and is currently VP of Research at New Mexico State University. |
| Gita chanting competition 2008 | ||||||||||||||||||||
|
Gita Chanting Competition is conducted annually for Balavihar children at Chinmaya Mission Orlando. This event has grown in popularity with enthusiastic participation over the years. This year it was conducted on May 4 2008 at Kaivalya Hall and there were around 50 student participants ranging in age from 2 - 15 years! The topic of the competition for this year was Chapter 15 of Bhagavad Gita. The philosophy behind Gita Chanting Competition is explained as follows Judgment Criteria for Gita Chanting Competition was 2) Clear and proper Pronunciation 4) Overall Effect And the Prize winners of Gita Chanting Competition for Year 2008 are ....
|
| Youth Corner - Riddles |
|
Q1) What is the easiest way to throw a ball, and have it stop, and completely reverse direction after traveling a short distance? Q2) Whoever makes it, tells it not. Whoever takes it, knows it not. Whoever knows it, wants it not. What is it? Q3) Which is correct to say, "The yolk of the egg are white," or "The yolk of the egg is white?" |
| Youth Corner - Riddle Answers |
|
A1) Toss it in the air. A2) Counterfeit Money. A3) Neither, because egg yolks are yellow. |
| If you wish not to receive this newsletter please send a blank message to info@chinmayaorlando.org with "unsubscribe" as the subject line. |
| Copyright © 2008 Chinmaya Mission Orlando |