Vedanta Society of Providence

Report of the Activities in the year 2007

(Presented at the Annual General Meeting held on Sun. June 01, 2008)

 

The Year began with the tradition of Boston, Providence, and local area devotees gathering together on January 1st to observe the ‘Wish-Fulfilling Tree Day’ (KALPATARU DAY), the day when Sri Ramakrishna blessed a number of devotees in the Cossipore Garden House in 1886. This year the gathering was held at the home of Raj and Dhiraj Jhaveri in Framingham MA. The program consisted of readings on the significance of that day’s happenings, short talk by Swamis Tyagananda and Yogatmananda, devotional singing and luncheon.

 

Swami Sarvagatananda has continued residing at the Boston Vedanta Center, receiving devotees from near and far. A few episodes regarding ailing health required short-time hospital stays; now he has round-the-clock professional nursing care in his room.

 

The 5:45AM – 7:00 AM morning meditation, which ends with brief chanting and a brief reading from Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, and the  7:00 PM – 8:00PM evening Aarti -music, a short reading and meditation,  have both shown increase in overall attendance. The Saturday 11:00 AM – 12:00 noon Chapel program (guided meditation, chants, music) has shown a steady increase of attendance (averaging 27 persons weekly). Also, more volunteers have joined the cleaning and other works on that day. The birth anniversary of the direct disciples of Sri Ramakrishna was observed with a chant on the morning of their ‘birth-date’ and in the evening with a devotional song, a short biographical reading, and Prasad.

 

A short puja, devotional singing, Prasad and mention of their teachings was done to honor Lord Buddha, Sri Rama, and Jesus Christ (Easter and Christmas) on their respective observance-days.

 

Swami Yogatmananda conducted most of the Sunday Service lectures (24) and Swami Tyagananda generally delivered Sunday Service Lectures here once a month (8 times).

The Tuesday study-class on Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna and the Friday study-class, (Raja Yoga till May and Bhagavad-Gita, from Sept) have seen increased attendance averaging 30-35.

 

Vedanta Centers and groups during 2007 that Swami Yogatmananda delivered retreats and/or talks to include:  Puerto Rico (Jan); Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina (March); Greater Washington DC (end March-begin April);

New York City (April); Houston Texas (May); Ganges, Michigan and Chicago IL (June); Wilmington (NC) , Berlin (NJ) and Washington DC (Aug); Atlanta Georgia(Sept); Rochester, NY (Oct) and Greenville-Raleigh North Carolina (Nov).

 

Swami also participated in and/or gave talks at: 

-Attleboro Council of Churches (March); LaSalette Shrine(Attleboro MA) Interfaith Group, an Interfaith meeting at Mathewson St Church, Prov (March); Homer Glen IL, Vishwa Hindu Parishad Camp, Tolland MA (August);  Johnson & Wales University (October), Interfaith Meeting at Holy Family Church, Woonsocket RI (November)

 

A Bhakta Samagam , to honor ‘M’, chronicler of The Gospel, was held at the home of TK Roy in North Dartmouth MA in July (28th); the yearly retreat in Connecticut was held at the home of Manoj and Sudesha Roy in Prospect CT in August (19th); and the annual day-long retreat was held at the home of Raj & Dhiraj Jhaveri in November (7th).

  

Four Day-long Retreats were conducted at Providence Vedanta with guest swamiis as main lectureres:

1)      Saturday, April 14th,  Swami Yuktatmananda, from St Petersburg FL, on ‘Devotional Mind-Set

2)      Saturday, June 09th, Swami Ishtananda, from San Diego CA, on ‘Kathopanishad

3)      Saturday, October 6th,Swami Atmajnanananda, from Washington DC, on’ The Illusion called Time’

4)      Saturday, Nov. 17th, Swami Medhananda, from So. CA, on ‘The Nature of the Divine Mother’

 All had steady attendance of between 58-68 persons, with an increase of new seekers.

These Swamis also presented the Sunday Service Lecture, (day after the Saturday retreat) on (respectively):

Other Sunday Service Lecturers during 2007 were:

 

1) Rumee Ahmed (Muslim Chaplain at Brown University), April 15th on : ‘JIHAD: The Inner Struggle’

2) Dr Ram Murty (Queen’s University, Canada), 3) Dr Kumar Murty (University of Toronto, Canada),

Noted guest lecturers for Friday night classes were:

Father Paul on ‘Reincarnation in Christianity’ (May 18) and

Chet Boncek, a “4-classes” power-point/lecture series on ‘Hatha & Raja Yoga’ (June 01, June 08, June 15, June 22) -

 

Universal Brotherhood Day, observed on Sunday, September 09, marked the beginning of the Fall session. The speakers on the theme ‘Service to man is Service to God’ were: Phil West, Former Executive Director of ‘Common Cause’ RI; Bhante Kirama Dhammananda, monk, Cambodian Buddhist Center, Revere MA; and Swami Bhaumananda, President, Ramakrishna Math, Pune India. Swami Tyagananda provided concluding remarks. Intercultural Music; a song from Father St Godard, interfaith readings by Pamela Dee, and dinner concluded the program for the approximately one-hundred thirty attendees.

 

The Summer Programs at Marshfield campsite began with the annual July 4th Independence Day program. Three day-long retreats were held there, with Swami Yogatmananda discussing  Bhramar- Gita (Bhagavatam) on July 07; Swami Tyagananda discussing ‘Work as a Spiritual Discipline’ on July 21 and Swami Yuktatmananda teaching about ‘Fulfillment through Work’ on August 18.  The children had a one-day camp program with Swami Tyagananda teaching ‘Mindfulness & Harmony’. Guru Purnima was observed on July 29 with readings, music and brief talks.

Krishna Festival’s main speaker was Swami Yuktatmananda, on ‘Sri Krishna’s Life & Message’, Swami Bhaumananda from Pune India, Swami Tyagananda and Swami Yogatmananda also spoke. Swami Parameshananda(from Vedanta Society Toronto Canada) was also present.

 

The Worship/Pujas for Swami Vivekananda (Sat Jan 13) included an evening reading and music program

The Worship/Puja for Sri Ramakrishna (Sun Feb 18) included an afternoon Video, then evening reading and music.

The Worship/Puja for ‘DURGA’(Oct 21) was followed by an evening music program

 

The Worship/Puja for Sri Sarada Devi (Dec 30)was followed by a video, a 4PM music hour, a ‘four-Speaker Symposium’ with Father Paul, Vithoura Phat, Jamuna Prakash and Ramkrishna Chatterjee presenting talks and concluding with Sri Sarada Nama Sankirtanam and Aarti/meditation. Dinner for all followed these programs.

 

Devotional Music programs have been a regular happening during 2007. Artists include:

1-Ashwin Rode (Indian classical vocalist) & Amritpal Singh (Tabla) on Sun March 11

2-Pradip Shukla (Indian classical vocalist) & Amritpal Singh (Tabla) & Marc Rossi (Keyboard) on Sun April 15

3- Cathy Clasper-Torch (Viola, Violin and Er-hu) on Sun May 08

4- Milind Raikar (violin) & Adity Kalyanpur (Tabla) on Sun June 24

6- Phil Scarf (Saxophone) & Amritpal Singh (vocal &Tabla) & Anshul Parulkar( Tabla) on Sun Oct 07

7- Pushpen Dey (Sarod) & Amritpal Singh (Tabla) on Oct 21

8- Anurag Harsh (Indian Classical Vocalist) & Nikhil Tikekar (Tabla) on Sun Nov 18

9- Durga Krishnan (Veena) & Gaurishankar (Mridangam) on Sun Dec 09

 

This is the fifth year Sunday discourse on Bhagavad-Gita at the Sri Satyanaryana Temple in Middletown CT, with a steady attendance.

Student/adult groups who visited Providence Vedanta Chapel to learn about Hinduism and basic Vedanta from  Swami included:

Teachers from ‘Yoga-ONE’ in  Foster RI;  Moses Brown High School  Religion class; Unitarian Universalist Sunday School children/parent (Fairhaven, MA); and Brown University Religious Studies students.

 

Swami was installed as the first Hindu Chaplain at UMASS/Dartmouth on Wed February 14th.

An article and photo on that happening was written in the newspaper: INDIA New England  issue March 1-15, 2007

 

On March 17th, Swami attended the memorial service for Fred Huyghue (who passed away after a long illness);

who was a  long time devotee and Secretary of Boston Vedanta Society. On November 02, Swami attended the memorial service for Swami Adiswarananda, who had served at the Ramakrishna Vivekananda Center, New York for over 30 years and was also a trustee & Vice President of Vedanta Society of Providence. 

 

Major renovation/addition to the building was installing the stained-glass Swan-Symbol- emblem in the chapel window facing Angell St. This was created and molded by devotees Richard and Lina Leheney. Richard did a great job in getting the window re-sized and fixing the wonderful art-work. The sound-system was upgraded with a new power-mixer, 4 new speakers, and the related accessories. The whole work was carried out with great, devoted efforts by Chet Boncek. 

 

Swami Sarvagatananda’s continued guidance and Swami Tyagananda’s active co-operation in conducting all various activities need special mention. We are thankful to them.

 

Income and Spending:  Jan 01, 2007 through Dec 31, 2007

 

Category

Total

 

 

Income Categories

 

Book Store (sales)

5,848.35

Collection

11,970.50

Dividends & Interest

132,874.32

Donation

73,046.06

Total Income Categories

223,739.23

 

 

Expense Categories

 

Advertisement

797.74

Book Store (Purchase)

2,702.51

Bulk Mail

775

Cleaning & Sanitation

3,234.50

Equipment

2,131.10

Flowers

438.11

Furniture & Equip

703.79

Hardware Repairs

12.75

Honorarium

1,701.00

Housekeeping

6,566.11

Inspection

60.00

Insurance

5,976.00

Investment

200,000.00

Medical

14,480.06

Miscellaneous

52.00

Repairs & Improvements

5,824.19

Stationary, Printing, Postage

2,173.74

Taxes

329.29

Transfer CZ-->Capital

0

Travel & Honorium

6,895.25

Utilities

19,158.28

Vehicle Maintainance

3,281.82

Total Expense Categories less Investment

77,293.24

 

 

Income over Expenditure

146,445.99