Vedanta Society of Toronto (Ramakrishna Mission) 120 Emmett Ave. Toronto, ON M6M 2E6 CANADA Tel.: 416-240-7262; Email: toronto@rkmm.org; Website: www.vedantatoronto.ca Celebrating Golden Jubilee Year 2018 Newsletter June 2018 Words to Inspire Arise, awake, sleep no more; within each of you there is the power to remove all wants and all miseries. Believe this, and that power will be manifested. In 1925, Mahapurushji again visited Gadadhar Ashrama on the occasion of the Jagaddhatri Puja. The worship went off well, and the monks and the devotees were extremely glad to have his company. Mahapurushji said to a young devotee during a conversation: We are Indians, and our ideal is plain living and high thinking. Maybe we will not ride in expensive cars, so be it. Our aim of life is God-realization. The Master, by being born in India, has made this country, once again, great in the eyes of the world. All will realize the greatness of Indian culture in the course of time. The Master s message to the whole of mankind is: God-realization is the only aim of life. Not only did the Master give his teaching, he exemplified it in his own life. He did not care for anything in this world. The whole world has been blessed by the Master s birth, and it is by making him as its centre that the world will progress. Romain Rolland, the renowned French savant, felt especially attracted to the life and teachings of the Master and Swamiji. He had first come to know of them from the book The Face of Silence, by Dhan Gopal Mukherjee, who lived in America and was a disciple of Mahapurushji. Later, after collecting the necessary material from the editor of Prabuddha Bharata, and also from other sources, he wrote the now-famous biographies of Sri Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda. These were instrumental in introducing the people of foreign countries to the Master and Swamiji. Regarding these books, Mahapurushji said: The author has portrayed the Master as a perfect man and Swamiji as an unselfish patriot. In a letter, Romain Rolland requested Mahapurushji to send him his reminiscences of the Master. In response, Mahapurushji wrote, among other things: I have not yet come to a final understanding whether He was a man or a --- Swami Vivekananda superman, a god or God Himself. But I have known Him to be a man of complete self-effacement, master of the highest renunciation, possessed of the supreme wisdom and as the very incarnation of love; and as I am slowly getting better and better acquainted with the domain of spirituality and feeling the infinite extent and depth of Sri Ramakrishna s spiritual moods, the conviction is growing in me that to compare Him with God, as God is popularly understood, would be minimizing and lowering His supreme greatness. I have seen Him showering His love equally on men and women, on the learned and the ignorant and on saints and sinners, and evincing earnest and unceasing solicitude for the relief of their misery and for their attainment to infinite peace through the realization of the Divine. And I dare say that the world has not seen another man of His kind in modern times, so devoted to the welfare of mankind. Sri Ramakrishna had the divine power to transmit spirituality to others and lift them to higher states of consciousness. This He would do either by thought, power, or touch. Like Swami Vivekananda, many of us used to visit Him and had the privilege of being lifted to higher planes of consciousness, in accordance with our capacities. I myself had the privilege of attaining to that high spiritual consciousness (samadhi) thrice by His touch and grace during His lifetime. I am still alive to bear direct testimony to His great spiritual powers. It was neither hypnotism nor a mere state of deep sleep, but deep realizations which brought about, more or less, permanent changes of character and outlook. Excerpts from the book In The Divine Realm by Swami Apurvananda Pg 238-239, 281-282
SNANA YATRA FESTIVAL Snana yatra festival also known Devasnana Purnima is celebrated on the full-moon day in the month of Jyesta. This is the day when Lord Krishna appeared in the form of Jagannatha, he was feeling ecstatic while he was secretly hearing from Mother Rohini about Vrindavan pastimes. Early in the morning the deities of Lord Balarama, Mother Subhadra and Lord Jagannatha along with Sudarsana cakra and Madana Mohan are carried in a procession to Snana vedi (platform) located in the Northeast corner of the outer compound near the Anand bazar. The Deities are bathed in 108 golden water pots filled with cool sandal scented water from the Suna-kua (golden well). This large well which is near the banyan tree was excavated by King Indradyumna upon Lord Jagannatha s request for snana yatra. This abhiseka is meant to refresh their Lordships from the summer heat. After the sunset their Lordships are dressed in Hati-Vesa (elephant decoration). After the bathing ceremony (snana-yatra), Lord Jagannatha apparently becomes sick. During this period known as Anasara or anavasara their Lordships cannot be seen by devotees. He is removed to His private apartment, where no one can see Him. At this time three Pata chitra paintings are displayed for devotees to view instead. It is said that with the Ayurvedic medication ('pnachan') administered by the Raj Vaidya the Deities recover. This is called Navayauvana. Thus for fifteen days after the bathing ceremony, Lord Jagannatha is not visible to any visitors. Hence people who cannot take darshan of Jagannatha go to Alalanath to have darshan of Lord Jagannatha.
Vedanta Society of Toronto Golden Jubilee Celebration Saturday, September 15, 2018. Please be seated by 4:00pm Location : Hammerson Hall, Living Arts Centre, 4141 Living Arts Dr., Mississauga, ON L5B 4B8 To commemorate the Golden Jubilee Celebration of Vedanta Society of Toronto, a souvenir will be published. Sponsorships, Advertisements and Donations are solicited for this unique occasion. Sponsor s / Company name: Address: Telephone # Email : Souvenir Pages - Advertisement options : Back Page (Color) : $5000 Back Page Inside (Color): $4,000 Front Inside (Color): $3000 Full Page Inside (B/W) : $1000 Half Page Inside (B/W): $500 Quarter Page Inside (B/W): $300 One Line Message on Inside Pages (Exclusively for Members): $100 *Cheques should be made payable to: " Vedanta Society of Toronto" *Please provide templates or information about your business. GOLDEN JUBILEE CELEBRATION Tickets details Vedanta Society of Toronto completes 50 years in 2018 since its inception in this country in 1968. To celebrate this 50th anniversary, we are hosting, throughout the year, Retreats and Seminar by Swamis from the West as well as from India, culminating in Golden Jubilee celebration being held in the Hammerson Hall of the Living Arts Centre, Mississauga, Ontario on September 15, 2018. You are all encouraged to join in these celebrations with your friends and family throughout the year and especially for a stellar Event on September 15, 2018. Below are ticket details of the big Event in September: The tickets priced at $50, $100, $150 can be purchased at the Living Arts Centre with their service charge of additional $2 per ticket, or online with their extra fee of $6 per ticket. If you want to purchase the tickets from the Vedanta Society, please pay the amount (say 2 x $100 tickets = $204), either issue cheque on Vedanta Society of Toronto and mail OR pay through PayPal on Vedanta Society website. Email your full name, category of tickets, number of tickets paid for, & details of payment to toronto@rkmm.org. After receiving your payment, Vedanta Society will buy these tickets for you from LAC. You may collect the tickets in person from Vedanta Society OR collect tickets on the gate on Sept-15 between 2.30 to 3.30pm. Kindly note that NO TAX RECEIPTS will be issued for tickets purchased. Donations for the Golden Jubilee celebration can be made separately, for which Tax receipts will issued as usual. Please order and UPCOMING collect your tickets EVENTS as early as MARK possible YOUR to avoid CALENDAR disappointment, since these will be sold on first come first served basis and we do not have any control on this process, it being managed by Living Arts Centre. THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!
Event International Yoga Day Conducted by Ashutosh Sanghvi Art of Living - Talk on the Ashtanga Yoga followed by Asana, Pranayama, Pratyahara, Dharana and Dhyana ANNUAL RETREAT Uddhava Gita by Swami Prapannanada Vedanta Society of Sacramento, USA Date & Time June 10 11am June 16 and 17 6am to 5pm Guru Purnima Celebration July 27 6.30pm REGULAR PROGRAMMES SCRIPTURE CLASS: Friday Scripture Classes begin at 7:30 pm, following the regular evening prayer at 6:00 pm. The class, held at the centre, is open to all interested persons. For details, please see the Calendar of Events on the next page. VIGIL: A vigil consisting of japa and meditation will be observed, from 6:00 am to 6:00 pm, for date kindly see Calendar of Events, on next page. To participate, please call the centre at 416-240-7262. RAM NAM: For the date and time of the monthly Ramnam, please see the Calendar of Events on the next page. BOOK STORE: The Book Store has re-opened and books are available for purchase. DAILY BREAD FOOD BANK: Daily Bread Food Bank has actively started. We would like to encourage people to donate. INTERVIEWS/INSTRUCTION: Swami Kripamayananda will be happy to give Interviews to those interested in knowing more about Vedanta and meditation. Individual interviews are also given for Spiritual instructions. Appointments for interviews should be made in advance with the Swami at 416-240-7262. DAILY MEDITATION: Meditation is done at the Centre every morning from 6:00 am to 7:00 am. Devotional singing and meditation time in the evenings is from 6:00 pm to 7:30 pm. SOUP KITCHEN: has now started at the Vedanta Society, please see the Calendar of Events on the next page for details. KARMA YOGA ACTIVITIES It is a great opportunity to provide your services to the Vedanta Society of Toronto. We have started creating groups of volunteers to administer and take care of few operations - maintenance related work in the ashram. Kindly come forward and volunteer time towards maintaining and managing the facilities. Services, to be performed weekly basis, involve: Janitorial (cleaning carpets, floors, washrooms, Shrine area, Meditation room, dusting furnitures, etc.) Garbage / Recycling waste (preferably on Wednesday or Thursday every week) and dining hall cleaning (cleaning the walls, floor, arrange chairs, table, arrange various utensils in correct place, replenish stock) Book-store assistance (arranging the books, helping out with stocks, replenish, inventory check) Library assistance (arranging the books, chairs, calling for book return) Lawn mowing, gardening, watering plants (during summer) participation (cutting vegetables, preparing salads and soup, delivering soup to the designated places) Vedanta Vidya Mandir activities (clean the ashram after the classes are over) If interested in volunteering, kindly send email or contact Abhijit Bhattacharya on 416-569-9401, indicating the Services that you are interested in and days you can be available for volunteering. THANK YOU AGAIN!
3 11:00am Lecture: Vedanta Society of Toronto CALENDAR OF EVENTS Minister and Teacher- Swami Kripamayananda, Ramakrishna Order of India June 2018 Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat 1 7:30pm Scripture Class: Vivekachudaman i Mind reading the mind' 4 5 6 7 8 7:30pm Scripture Class: Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna 2 9 6:00am to 6:00pm VIGIL 10 11:00am International Yoga Day conducted by Ashutosh Sanghvi,Art of Living 5:00pm RAMNAM 17 6am 5pm ANNUAL RETREAT Uddhava Gita by Swami Prapannanada, Vedanta Society of Sacramento, USA 24 Summer Vacation Begins 11 12 18 19 25 26 13 14 20 21 27 28 15 7:30pm Scripture Class: Vivekachudaman i 22 29 No Scripture Class No Scripture Class 16 6am 5pm ANNUAL RETREAT Uddhava Gita by Swami Prapannanada, Vedanta Society of Sacramento, USA 23 30 AN APPEAL FOR DONATION Vedanta Society appeals to the devotees and well-wishers to kindly come forward and donate generously, so that we can pay-off all loans and build up funds to secure ourselves for our regular operations. Donations are required for ongoing maintenance of Ashram, facilities and functions, as well as repayment of interest free loans of $165,000 from our members in coming years. For those who wish to donate full or part of the loan amount to receive donation tax receipt for 2017 may do so by sending email to the Swami <kripamayananda@gmail.com> with cc to Anupam <talwar.anupam@yahoo.ca>.