Vedanta Society of Providence

Report of Activities in the Year 2008

(Presented at the Annual General Meeting held on June 14, 2009)

The Year 2008 began with the tradition of Boston, Providence and local devotees gathering together on January 1^st to observe the ‘Wish-Fulfilling Tree Day (KALPUTARU DAY), when Sri Ramakrishna blessed a number of devotees outside the Cossipore Garden House in 1886. This year the gathering was held at the home of Himanshu and Sveta Vakil in Norton MA. The program consisted of readings, short talks by Swamis Tyagananda and Yogatmananda, devotional music, and Potluck lunch.

Swami Sarvagatananda, now 96 years of age, continued residing at the Boston Center receiving devotees when possible. His health has been gradually on the decline; he had continual (24/7) nursing care in his room.

The 5:45AM – 7:00 AM morning meditation, which ends with brief chanting and reading from The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, and the 7:00 PM – 8:00PM evening Aarti, a short reading and meditation, had attracted regular attendance. The Saturday 11:00 AM – 12:00 noon Chapel Program of guided meditation, chants, music/singing has maintained an average weekly attendance of 20-25 persons. The birth anniversary of the direct disciples of Sri Ramakrishna was observed on the morning of their birth-dates with a chant, and in the evening with a devotional song, a short biographical reading and Prasad.

A short-puja, devotional singing, Prasad and discussion of their life and teachings were done to honor Lord Buddha, Jesus Christ, Sri Rama, and Shiva on their respective observance-days.

Swami Yogatmananda conducted most Providence Sunday Service lectures (20 this year); Swami Tyagananda has continued to deliver Sunday Service lectures here once a month (10 times).The Tuesday study-class on ‘Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna’ continued to maintain an average attendance of 25-30; the Friday ‘Bhagavad- Gita study-class attendance averaged 35-40 this year.

Vedanta Centers and Groups that Swami Yogatmananda delivered retreats and/or talks during 2008 include:

Cherry Hill, New Jersey and Puerto Rico in January; Southern & Northern California Vedanta Societies in February; Raleigh-Durham, N. Carolina in March; Indianapolis, Indiana in April; Vivekananda Monastery retreat, Ganges Michigan in June; New Jersey in July; Toronto Canada and Rochester NY in Sept; Greenville & Raleigh N. Carolina in Nov and Cherry Hill, New Jersey in Dec.

Swami also participated in and/or gave talks at:

--Johnson & Wales University Psychology class (Jan) on ‘Hindu Psychology’

-- Prov. International Academy/High School (Jan) on ‘General Hinduism/Vedanta’

--Brown Univer. Interfaith Meet/List Center (Jan) on ‘Vedanta on Environment’

--Rhode Island College (Apr) on ‘Hinduism/Vedanta’

-- ‘Global Confer. on Bhagavad-Gita’ by Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan US

& Intern’l Gita Trust Fndation India at NYC (Aug) on Gita & Vedanta

--UMASS/Dartmouth (Aug) on ‘Mind, Consciousness & Time”

( 2-day symposium)

-- Vishwa Hindu Parishad Campsite,Tolland MA (Aug) on ‘kindness/compassion(Saha):

--UMASS/Dartmouth (Dec) on ‘Mumbai Massacre Memorial’

--Prov. International Academy/ High School (Dec) on ‘Cross-faith panel Q/A’ with Ba’hai member

In January 2008, Vedanta Society hosted the three-year old Attleboro-based Interfaith Group of various faith leaders, which meets monthly at a different faith-based location and discusses varied topics. Two devotees attend regularly. Swami attended when possible.

Four ‘day-long’ retreats were conducted at Providence Vedanta in 2008 as follows:

1) Saturday, April 05 ^th Sw. Kripamayananda ,Toronto, Canada on: Meditative Life as Taught by Bhagavad- Gita

2) Saturday, May 31st Sw. Prabuddhananda, Vedanta Society, San Francisco, CA on: In Search of Ourselves

3) Saturday, Oct 11^th Sw. Atmarupananda, Vedanta .Society, Hollywood on: Sound, Word, Meaning, Mantra

4) Saturday, Dec 06^th Sw. Atmajnanananda, , Vedanta Center .WASH//DC on: Vedanta Comes to Hollywood

The total attendance for all 4 retreats was 265, averaging 66 persons per retreat.

The above-mentioned swamis also delivered the Sunday Service lecture (day after the Saturday retreat) on:

’Spiritual Transformation’ (Swami Kripamayananda)

‘Establishing a Relationship with God’ (Swami Prabuddhananda)

’Changing Our Mythic Universe’(Swami Atmarupananda)

’The Art of Building Shrines’ (Swami Atmajnanananda)

Other Sunday Service Lecturers, other than Swami Yogatmananda and Swami Tyagananda were:

1) Father Paul on ‘’The Christian Vedanta’ on March 2^nd

2) Dr Ram Murty, Queens Univ Canada on: ‘Is Science a Religion? on Oct 26^th and

3) Fr Francis X. Clooney, SJ on:’ The Divine Motherhood’ on Dec 14^th.

The annual Middletown CT group retreat was held in the home of Mukesh and Gita Desai in Avon CT in July on: ‘The Three Gunas and Beyond’ for the fifty-plus devotees who attended. This is the sixth year of monthly Bhagavad-Gita class (currently Ch 6) at the Sri Satya-narayana Temple in Middletown CT with a steady attendance there.

While Swami Yogatmananda was in India from Oct 15 thru Nov 15^th, Tuesday and Friday classes continued as usual, with topic-related talks/lectures given by devotees. On Tues Oct 21, Pamela Dee spoke on: ’Gopala’s Mother’; on Tues Nov 4^th Christopher Sparks spoke on ‘Sri Ramakrishna on Truth & Simplicity’; on Tuesday Nov 11^th Vrishali Pal spoke on ‘Renunciation for the Householder’.

On the Friday class-nights Swami was in India, Chet Boncek spoke on ‘Karma Yoga as Taught by Different Religion’ on Oct 17^th; Parts 1 and 2 of the DVD ‘Yoga Unveiled-evolution and essence of a spiritual tradition’, (produced by Gita Desai) were viewed on Oct 24^th and 31^st respectively; a talk by Gita Desai on ’Understanding Life through Yoga: about filming Yoga Unveiled DVD was on Nov 4^th and on Fri Nov 14^th, Father Paul spoke on ‘Religion Today.’

The Puja/Worship Days observed for Swami Vivekananda, Sri Ramakrishna,and Sri Sarada Devi have developed into a regular scheduled routine with: puja, flower-offering, music, prasad luncheon, video, music-hour, symposium, Aarti, singing, meditation and prasad dinner. All these programs were well-attended by the devotees.

The speakers for the Swami Vivekananda symposium on Sun Jan 27, ‘08 were: Emily McIntosh; Arunim Roy; Vrishali Pal; and Chester Boncek. (The days’ attendance was approximately 210; averaging 52 per program)

The speakers for the Sri Ramakrishna symposium on Sunday March 9, ’08 were: Robert Smith (Ramji); Teresa Guerra; Dr. Sukalyan Sengupta and Sheila Krishnan. (The days’ attendance was approx. 240; average 60 per program) The speakers for the Sri Sarada Devi symposium on Sun Dec 21,’08 were: Anuradha Deshmukh; Naren Velez and Emily McIntosh. (The days’ attendance was approximately 200; average 45- 50 per program)

The Puja-worship for Sri Durga was conducted on Sun Oct 5^th with same schedule as above, with Swami Yogatmananda conducting the Sunday Service lecture about Divine Mother. (The days’ attendance was approx. 225; average 55 per program)

Well-attended Music Concert programs conducted in 2008 were as follows:

1) Sat. Feb 02 from 8AM – 9:30AM -- Morning Ragas by vocalist JOITA MANDAL, with Chris Pereji (tabla)

(about 40 attended)

2) Sun.Apr 06 from 6PM – 7:30 PM -- SHUCHITA RAO (vocalist); vocal accompanied by Pallavi Mehta;

Also Chris Pereji (tabla) & Ravi Torvi (harmonium) (60-65 attended)

3) Sun Apr 20 from 6PM – 7PM -- SABAD/Sikh music by vocalist & tabla player AMRITPAL SINGH;

Chris Pereji (tabla)

--SAROD by PUSHPEN DEY (approx 60 attended)

4) Sun. May 11 from 6PM – 7:30 PM --- Sitar Concert by SRINIVAS REDDY with Sameer Gupta (tabla)

(approx. 95 attended)

5) Sun. June 15 from 6PM – 7:00PM --- folk-spiritual songs: CATHY CLASPER-TORCH and STEVE JOBE

(approx. 45 attended)

6) Sun June 22 from 6PM – 7:30 PM --Devotional Hindi & Bengali Bhajans by vocalist GOPA RANI RAHA

with Chris Pereji (tabla) (approx. 50 attended )

7) Sun Dec 07 from 6PM – 7:30 PM -- Veena Concert by DURGA KRISHNAN

with Mahalingam Santhanakrishnan on Mridangam(drum) (approx. 50 attended)

The Theme for Universal Brotherhood Day observed on Sunday Sept 14^th was ‘My Approach to Vedanta’ Speakers were: Father Edward St Godard from Holy Family Church Woonsocket RI; Pravrajika Gitaprana from Vivekananda Retreat, Ridgely Manor, NY; and Prof. Dorothy Abram from Johnson & Wales University RI. Swami Tyagananda presided and also gave concluding remarks. There was Native American chanting, Indian classical music; devotional hymns; American sing-a-long songs; Hebrew folk song from Fr St Godard; interfaith readings from Pamela Dee and dinner approximately 110 attended.

Student/adult groups who visited Providence Vedanta Chapel to learn about Hinduism/Vedanta from swami include:

1) Prov College Asian Studies Group;

2) Hindi School (Brown University)-- 2 children groups

3)Moses Brown High School religion class

4) Brown Un Religion Studies students---each semester

5) ONE-Yoga Center, Foster RI teachers

6) Unitarian Universalist Sunday school (Benevolent St Prov)

7) Unitarian Universalist Sunday school (Fairhaven MA)

Swami met with UMASS/Dartmouth and Brown University student groups only a few times this year.

This year in lieu of the summer programs at the Sri Sarada Ashrama, Marshfield MA; following programs were arranged at Providence Vedanta.

An series of talks on ‘Kabbalah: The Way of the Jewish Mystic’ was offered by Swami Yogatmananda on Tuesdays from July 08 through Aug 19. Attendance averaged 40. Also, two weekend residential retreats- one from Friday, July 11^th at 6PM through Sunday July 13^th at 2PM with the main topic “Integration of Personality’ and another from Friday Aug 15^th through Sunday Aug 17^th with the topic “Ultimate Freedom” were conducted. Twenty-six devotees attended each retreat.

There was a weekend residential retreat conducted by the Boston center at ‘Green Acres’ Maine, now a Ba’hai site, where Swami Vivekananda had stayed and taught. Tyagananda spoke on ‘Swamiji at Green Acres’ and Yogatmananda spoke on ‘Prayer of Prahlada’.

On Aug 31^st Swami attended a memorial for Joe Dwyer, (who passed away on Sat Aug 10^th) at the Ramakrishna Vedanta Society of MA. Joe was a long-time Vedanta devotee who served both Boston and Providence Centers, especially noted for his singing on Sunday Services and Retreats, who also lived at and took care of maintenance at Sarada Ashram in Marshfield.

A plan for the expansion/reconstruction of the existing buildings, so as to have a larger chapel for classes and programs (also a larger bookroom, library and offices) is going through procedures with Neighborhood Association, Providence Preservation Society, architects and planners. The first plan did not meet the approval of the Providence Preservation Society. A new plan is in the making.

Swami Sarvagatananda’s continued guidance and Swami Tyagananda’s active co-operation in conducting all the various activities deserves special mention.

Revenue Income-ExpenditureAccounts Summery for 2008

Category	Total
Income Categories
Book Store (sales)	7,250.58
Collection	13,008.00
Dividends & Interest	134,471.19
Donation	119,639.15
Total Income Categories		274,368.92
Expense Categories
Advertisement	768.30
Book Store (Purchase)	4,810.68
Bulk Mail	830
Charitable Donations	500
Cleaning & Sanitation	4,320.00
Flowers	228.11
Housekeeping	10,113.32
Insurance	6,051.00
Medical	78,405.45
New Construction	7,757.48
Repairs & Improvements	2,869.16
Stationary, Printing, Postage	1,451.53
Taxes	360.48
Travel and Hon.	2,400.00
Utilities	21,317.13
Vehicle Maintenance	3,257.54
Total Expense Categories		145,440.18
Grand Total		128,928.74