Special Lecture - Importance of Temples

The special lecture on day-2 of Balavihar Summer Camp 2018 was from Sandhya Didi on “Importance of Temples”, where she walked through the evolution of human from Animal Man -> Man Man -> God Man.

She touched upon the following very eloquently with visuals

• God came into existence out of fear and wonderment. As we are in the journey of Man-Man to God-Man, there is a need for super power God.
• Many magnificent temples were built when mankind felt that we need to be specially together
• Idol is the concentration of all the super natural power & positive energy in one particular form
• Essentials parts of a temple
• Similarity between structure of a temple & Human body
• Types of Idols in Temple & Idol posture
• Pooja has to be done in temple everyday to activate 5 senses
  Let's see some of them in detail

Essential parts of a temple

• Garbhagraha - Sanctom Sanctorm - the innermost sanctum of a temple where resides the murti of the primary deity of the temple
• Antarala - Main Corridor - for the Prohits to enter Garbhagraha
• Mukhamantapa - Hall - the place where devotees stand and pray
• Mahamantapa - Hall of Arts - where cultural events happen
• Vahana - Place for Gods vehicle - This shows that we treat nature as god and give equal importance to plants & animals in the forms of vehicles & offerings.
  The energy flows like this
  Cosmos -> Vahana -> Idol -> Human to become God Man
• Dwajasthambha - Pole with flags - to concentrate & bring all the energy from cosmos
• Bali Peedham - Place for daily offerings 
• Gopuram - The entry point of a temple - Ideally its in the form of fire to burn all the negative thoughts of devotees before they enter to worship the shrine with pure heart & soul.

Types of Idols in Temple

• Main idol
• Ganesha idol
• Dwarapalakas
• Vahanas
• Parivara Devatas
• Idols on Vimana Gopura
• Idols on the Entrance Gopura
• Utsav Murthy

Idol Postures

• Soumya Roopa - Godess Lakshmi & Saraswathi
• Rudra Roopa - Godess Kali, Lord Veerabadra
• Standing - Lord Subramaniya
• Sitting - Lord Dhakshinamurthy 
• Sleeping - Lord Venkateshwara
• Achala (fixed) - Moola Vigraha
• Chala (movable) - Utsava Murthy
• Chalachala (partially movable & imovable) - Hude idols used in Ratha Yatra

Temple & Community

• Utsava Murthy, the idols made of metals & used for processional & ritualistic purposes, is taken around from the temple on important days or daily.
• Rathotsava is done on very special days
• Jathre - Ratha's of many temples come together and thousands of devotees gather to take blessings.

Visit Temple to Activate 5 Senses

Pooja has to be done everyday in temples to activate 5 senses

• Smell - Nose - Doopam (incense sticks / agarbati)
• Touch - Skin - Gandha 
• Vision - Eye - lamp 
• Taste - Tongue - Theertha & Prasad 
• Sound - Ears - Bell (ghante) 

Thanks to Sandhya Didi for making the children's initial steps to the Spiritual journey more stronger.

Swami Aparajitanandaji's Lecture on "Mastering your mind"

Swamiji addressed the children on Mastering your mind, elaborating with real life examples on how to train and discipline your mind to be your best friend to guide you in righteous path.

Bhagawad Gita - Chapter 6; Verse: 5 

uddhared ātmanātmānaṁ nātmānam avasādayet

ātmaiva hyātmano bandhur ātmaiva ripur ātmanaḥ

Let a man lift himself by his own Self alone and let him not lower himself; for, this Self alone is the friend of oneself and this Self is the enemy of oneself.

Your own mind is your best friend and worst enemy. So train and discipline your mind to be your best friend & harness the power of your mind. You should have control over your mind and not the other way around.
Children were encouraged to talk about their life experience where the evil spirits in your mind misguided to degrade or defame you.

Examples from Acharya & Students:

• An indisciplined mind can give-up easily
• An uncontrolled mind can put both your moral image and social image at stake
• Exam time or elocution competition, how the tensed and stressed mind can pull you down.
• Likes and dislikes for the junk vs nutritious food.  

How we develop habits in life?

• Repeated actions leads to habits.
• Repeated good actions leads to good habits.
• Repeated bad actions leads to bad habits.

A person conquered by monstrous mind will be an utter failure in life.
At temptation, we take unrighteous path and be in misery as slaves of our mind.

Our children are for sure liberated from being slaves of their mind and instilled with good habits after the revered lecture from Swamiji.

Chinmaya Sandeepany Ashram at Chokkahalli

Chinmaya Sandeepany Ashram is a home away from home in a serene atmosphere.

The Ashram

Chokkahalli is about 7 km from Kolar on Kolar-Chikkaballapur route. 'Chokka' means that which is beautiful, neat and tidy.
When you diverge from Kolar-Chikkaballapur route towards Chokkahalli, a small road leads with beautiful lake on the right, completely surrounded by greenery. The same road leads further with Gulmohar trees on one side & Cashew farm on the other side taking us to the heavenly above of Lord Omkaleshwara, Chinmaya Sandeepany Ashram of Karnataka, which is widespread in 12 acres of land.

The ashram’s Vedanta Institute & Veda Vidya Peetha - were known to offer rich Vedanta & Purohita courses in Kannada to facilitate the performance of rituals with an understanding.

The ashram has two residential buildings - Maitreyi for women and Yajnavalkya for men – which can accommodate 120 persons. The dining hall is named as 'Annapoorneshwari' and can accommodate more than 150 people at one time.

The flora and fauna of the ashram is breathtaking. In addition, there are a number of fruit bearing trees like mango, jackfruit, chikku and gooseberry.

The Temple

Sri Omkareshwara Temple

This beautiful temple has Lord Shiva engraved amidst Kailash. An idol of Lord Ganapati occupies the position below Sri Omkareshwara.

Chinmaya Ganapati

A captivating feature of this ashram is the 45 feet idol of Lord Ganapati.

Lord Omkareshwara

Chinmaya Ganapati

 Special Poojas in Temple

• Daily Rudrabishekam & Siva Sahasranamam pooja in the morning
• Twice a month Pradosha pooja & once a month Sankashti - 6:00am to 8:00pm 
• Maha Shivaratri: 
• Ekadasa Siva Sahasranamam Laksharchana in morning & evening for 7 days.
• Devotees come from other cities like Bangalore, Mysore, Bangarapet, KGF, Kolar to perform Laksharchana
• On Shivaratri day, Akhanda Shiva Nama Japa for 24 hours starting from 6:00am to 6:00am next day.
• Ganesha Chaturti: 
• Special Pooja for Chinmaya Ganapati
• Sahasra Modaka Havana i.e. homa offering 1001 modakas
• Goshala 
• There 25 cows are in Goshala
• Holy scriptures says that paying respects to cows is like paying respects to our dear mother. 
• To erase our sins and to get rid off from evil forces, one should perform Go seva, Godhana. Such holy and heavenly rituals can be done in Chokkahalli Sandeepany Ashram - Goshala.
• Priests and necessary infrastructure are available for it.
• Nitya Pooja 
• For the interested and registered devotees, Nitya Pooja will be performed and prasadam will be sent for their birthdays & anniversaries. 
• Devotees can also sign-up for Annadhana on special occasions. Food will be cooked in Annapoorneshwari Hall & served to school children.

Goshala

• There 25 cows are in Goshala
• Holy scriptures says that paying respects to cows is like paying respects to our dear mother. 
• To erase our sins and to get rid off from evil forces, one should perform Go seva, Godhana. Such holy and heavenly rituals can be done in Chokkahalli Sandeepany Ashram - Goshala.
• Priests and necessary infrastructure are available for it.

School & College

Swami Chinmayananda sought to complement the positive aspects of modern education with ancient wisdom obtained from spiritual scriptures of India. He made a bold attempt to create a system of education that integrates the best of both. The vision of the management was to nurture and create students with a difference, with the help of Inspiring Principals, Dedicated Teachers and Cooperative Parents.
Chinmaya Grameena Vidyalaya & Chinmaya PU College, Chokkahalli are the fruits of proven Chinmaya Mission's academic institutions with students strength of 870 & 80 respectively.

Chinmaya PU College

Chinmaya Grameena Vidyalaya

Photo Gallery: 

The Ashram

The Temple

School & College

Valedictory Function - Skit Performance

In the beginning, entire camp children were divided into 7 groups in the name of Krishna as Govinda, Gopala, Achyuta, Mukunda, Keshava, Madhava and Murari.

From the start to end, all the activities were planned around these groups and the crown to all was the Skit Performance by camp children on the Krishna stories.

Here you go with the Krishna stories alotted to each team

Team Name	Krishna Story
Govinda	Kaliya Mardana
Gopala	Govardhana
Achyuta	Krishna creates copies of himself, the gopas and cows
Mukunda	Krishna and Sudama
Keshava	Arjuna and Duryodhana go and seek Krishna's help
Madhava	Tying Krishna to the mortar - liberation of twin trees
Murari	Tulasi Tulabhara

Photo Gallery

Kaliya Mardana by Govida Team

Govardhana by Gopala Team

Krishna creates copies of himself, the gopas and cows by Achyuta Team

Krishna and Sudhama by Mukunda Team

Arjuna & Duryodhana go and seek Krishna's help by Keshava Team

Liberation of Twin Trees by Madhava Team

Tulasi Tulabhara by Murari Team

The Story - Tulasi Tulabara

Tulasi Tulabara story answers the question "Why Rukmini’s Tulsi weighed more than Satyabama’s wealth?"

Rukmini and Satyabama were wives of Krishna but the two were poles apart. Rukmini was humble and her love for Krishna was genuine. And Satyabama, who took pride in her wealth, gave more importance to external beauty and love that was just skin deep.

The Tulabharam story will tell you why Rukmini’s Tulsi weighed more than Satyabama’s wealth:

One day, Narada Muni, tells Satyabama that Krishna loves Rukmini more than her. This angers Satyabama, who takes pride in her beauty and believes she has control over Krishna’s heart more than anyone else.

To prove her wrong, Narada uses a trick to lure Satyabama by asking to accept a challenge.

Narada tells Satyabama to accept the Tulabharam challenge failing which she would have to give Krishna as charity to him. This would make Krishna Narada’s slave.

He tempts her by saying that if Satyamaba succeeds in completing the challenge, then Krishna would love her the most.

Satyabama, who gets instigated by Narada’s words, accepts the challenge. She believes her wealth will outweigh Krishna and thus prove her love for him.

She puts her wealth on one of the scales of balance (tula) and asks Krishna to occupy the other one. After making several attempts and putting her entire wealth on the Tula, she fails in outweighing Krishna.

On seeing her husband on the Tula, Rukmini steps in. On learning about the challenge, Rukmini plucks a leaf of Tulsi and places it on wealth piled on the tula. And finally, Krishna gets outweighed by Tulsi.

Moral of the story:

God needs true devotion of his devotee and not wealth.

Devotion is what one needs to attain enlightenment. Ego will destroy morality and peace of mind.

Being humble nurtures love; taking pride and nursing ego leads to destruction.

Source: from internet