Chinmaya Mission :

Chinmaya Mission Madurai successfully hosted the 18th Year Summer Camp - LEAD 2023: Learn Eagerly; Act Dynamically. This event took place from April 29th to May 4th, 2023, with Swami Sivayogananda providing guidance. Approximately 135 children, aged 6 to 13, from various areas of Madurai enthusiastically participated in this enriching camp. The inauguration was graced by Sri. Janakiraman, Managing Director of Madurai Silver Palace Pvt Ltd. The camp's agenda encompassed a range of activities, including daily worship (Pooja), yoga sessions, value exploration, art and craft workshops, Vedic chanting, bhajans, talent development, and a glimpse into Indian traditions. As part of an educational excursion, the campers visited Arittapatti Village near Melur, Madurai. On the final day, the children paid tribute to their parents by performing Mathru Pooja, followed by diverse cultural performances. The camp provided lunch for both the participants and their parents. The Valedictory function welcomed Dr. Rajakumari Jeevagan, Managing Director of Waalai Foods and GMS Foundations, as the Chief Guest. The feedback received from parents and children alike was incredibly positive. Prominent newspapers such as Dinamalar, Dinamani, and The Hindu covered the camp extensively. Thanks to the diligent efforts of Chinmaya Devi Group, Chinmaya Yuva Kendra members, and the guidance of Swami Sivayogananda, the summer camp was a resounding success.

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Wednesday, 17 May, 2023. 06:20.

Introduction-4.

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To people who study this Upanishad at random, it may appear to be a hotch-potch of contents, as it incorporates diverse ideas, many thoughts, and several schools of thought are impregnated into the body of this scripture. But, in fact, it is so profound that to discover the sequence of thought present in it one requires some time and also some patience. There is a sequential development of thought of the Upanishad right from the beginning to the end. It is not an irrelevant jumble of various concepts of meditation or philosophical thought put into a single omnibus body.

There is, really, no spiritual truth which is not contained in this Upanishad; it is a complete scripture by itself, and every other Upanishad repeats only what this has said in some way or the other. There is nothing new in any other Upanishad that is not found in the Brihadaranyaka. It is really ‘Brihadaranyaka'—a great forest of wisdom, a real ocean where you can find any kind of treasure, provided you are able to dive deep into it.

If we can arrange all the thoughts of the Upanishad in some sequence, we shall find that the First Chapter of the Upanishad is actually the thesis of the whole Upanishad and the Second Chapter, to some extent, continues the same tradition, so that commentators are of the opinion that the First and the Second Chapters constitute what may be called the fundamental doctrine, of the Brihadaranyaka. This Section is also called the Madhu-kanda or the book dealing with the essence of the whole scripture.

The next two Chapters, the Third and the Fourth, are a logical development of this thought in a more polemical manner or philosophical way. These are thoughts which are not entirely new, but which have been already explained in a precise form in the first two Chapters, only now elaborated in a philosophical way in the next two Chapters, called the Yajnavalkya-kanda, or the Muni-kanda, as, sometimes, it is also called. So, we have in the first Four Chapters the entire philosophy in its basic sense—the thesis proclaimed in the first two Chapters and argued about in the next two Chapters.

The practical meditations which may be regarded as the natural outcome of this philosophical study are expounded in the Fifth Chapter. The Sixth Chapter is a very essential appendix to the whole body of the Upanishad, so that in these Six Chapters the entire objective of human life, the four Purusharthas, as we may say—Artha, Kama, Dharma and Moksha—all these aims of existence, are beautifully blended in their completeness and told as to how they stand in a mutual relation one to the other, how these objectives of life, Artha, Kama, Dharma and Moksha are four approaches necessarily incumbent upon every individual at some time or the other, in some degree or the other for the purpose of the highest integration which is Self-realisation or God-realisation.