Namadwaar Australia Feb Issue 2 - Optusmembers.optusnet.com.au/~vramanan/Namadwaar... · tas, Sri Chaitanya Ma-haprabhu and Sri Rama-krishna Paramahamsa have all shown that one CAN

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“Why should you, among

all the people, living in a

similar set of condition,

get this attitude of hard

work?” The astrologer

concluded that he gets

this attitude because of

his past good deeds which

is reflected as star signs

in the horoscope.

Likewise a longing for God

will come only by the

grace of God.

"avan aruLALE avan thAL vaNaNgi" (Saint Maanikavaasakar) “Bowing to feet of the

Lord, solely by his grace”.

So to attain God one

should have the grace of

the God. Now the ques-

tion is how to get the

grace of the God?

Every one wishes to at-

tain God. Especially after

hearing or reading the

life history of the Sadhus

and Mahatmas (true devo-

tees / saints) every one

will have a longing to at-

tain God and ever be in

the experience of that

infinite bliss. Actually it

is because of God’s grace

one gets a yearning to

attain God.

Let us take a person who

has attained a good posi-

tion in the society, who

has earned good wealth

because of his hard work.

He had worked so hard

and had struggled a lot to

attain this status.

On many days he had sac-

rificed his food, sleep etc

and had done enormous

amount of mind work as

well, by meticulous plan-

ning to succeed in all his

endeavors.

One day he happens to

show his horoscope to a

genuine astrologer, who

tells him that only be-

cause of the star signs

that is present in the

horoscope, which in turn

is the result of his past

good deeds (punya phala) he was able to attain this

position. The astrologer

says that the secret of

his success is his signs in

the horoscope. The per-

son gets a rude shock on

hearing this and laments,

“Dear Sir! With due re-

spect, you have in a few

minutes nullified all the

hard work that I have put

in during my life time and

the amount of sacrifices

that I had made to attain

this position!” He contin-

ues to ask “Were the

plans that I had drawn so

carefully, totally useless?

Did I not succeed be-

cause of my hard work?

Did my sacrifices to at-

tain this status have no

meaning? Is it all only be-

cause of the star signs

that are present in the

horoscope?”

To this the astrologer

consoles him by saying

that his success was defi-

nitely because of his hard

work, sacrifices and care-

ful planning. The astrolo-

ger then poses a question

HOW TO GET THE GRACE OF THE GOD?

Upcoming Events 2

Do you want to

host Nama Sankir-

tan

2

Nama Bhiksha

Kendra Centers

3

Satsang News 4

Yuva Kendra News 5

F E B R U A R Y 2 0 0 7 V O L U M E 1 I S S U E 2

NAMADWAAR AUSTRALIA

HARE RAMA HARE RAMA RAMA RAMA HARE HARE

HARE KRISHNA HARE KRISHNA KRISHNA KRISHNA HARE HARE

GURUJI SRI MURALIDHARA SWAMIGAL MISSION AUSTRALIA

9, Ridgemont Close Cherrybrook NSW

email: [email protected] web: http://www.ozmadhuramurali.org

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

To be continued………...

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Srimad Bhãgavatam (6:2:19)

yathaagadam viiry-atamam upayuktam yadruchchaya |

ajaanathopyaatma gunam kuryaan

mantropyudaahruta: Just like a medicine,

which when taken

even carelessly un-

aware of its po-

tency, cures the pa-

tient of his illness,

chanting the Lord's

Name, even without

knowing its value,

will give its benefit

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February 2007February 2007February 2007February 2007

• February 16th- Nama Sankirtan

Venue: M/S Annette Williams’ residence

50, New Farm Rd, West Pennant Hills NSW

Time: 8-9pm

Phone: 9945 0042

• February 25th - Bhajans by children and Nama Sankirtan

Venue: Smt Manjula and Sri Ram Reddy’s residence

19 Blundell St, Marsfield NSW

Time: 4-6pm

Phone: 9888 2382

UPCOMING EVENTS FOR FEBRUARY 2007

All the great Saints right from the Azhwars and the Nayanmars to Thyagaraja Swami, Panduranga Bhak-tas, Sri Chaitanya Ma-haprabhu and Sri Rama-krishna Paramahamsa have all shown that one CAN at-tain liberation through mere chanting of the Divine Name. Even today we find Sadhus who have attained the highest state through mere chanting of the Divine Name. This is the glory of 'Nama Kirtan' -- An abso-lutely easy, simple path suited to the Age of Kali. The chanting of Divine Names is a free path. It has no ‘binding’ of rules and regulations. Namasankirtan can be done by anybody, anytime and anywhere. It involves no cost. It is a path that requires no parapher-nalia but leads one to the very Lotus Feet of the Lord. While mental repetition of the Divine Names leads to the good of the individual, chanting the Divine Names loudly purifies the singer, the listener (the scriptures say “Shrotrunapi punati cha”) and the very place where the chanting is done.

Do you Want to Host NAMA SANKIRTAN

Our Satsang conducts regular Nama Sankirtan at various loca-

tions around Sydney throughout the year. If you would like to

host a Nama Sankirtan at your home, either to mark a special

occasion or on some other convenient date.

Need more information for any of the above program ?

Please contact our Satsang Co-ordinator

Kavitha Bhaskaran on 9836 2354 / 0434 514 245/Or

email:[email protected]

The Sydney satsang encourages chil-

dren to write Rama Nama every year for

the Rama Navami festival. Over the last few

years an ever increasing number of children

participate enthusiastically meeting and exceed-

ing the targets for the Rama Nama count set for

their age. This year, the celebrations fall during end of

March. We invite all parents to nominate their children for

the event.

Rama Nama

Writing

Competition

3

The chanting of the Maha Mantra "HARE RAMA HARE RAMA

RAMA RAMA HARE HARE HARE KRISHNA HARE KRISHNA

KRISHNA KRISHNA HARE HARE" is done during fixed hours

at the below listed locations. All are welcome to participate in

the Nama Sankirtan.

Name Address Contact No. Nama Sankirtan Timings

Sri Guruva Reddy No. 26 Salisbury Ave Gelnfield 0421 890 310 Wed 7:15-8:15pm

Sri Narayanan No. 37 Windamere Av, Woodcroft 0404 866 146 Thur 8-9:00pm

Sri Rajagopalan No. 4 Broadoak Pl, Castle Hill 0418 569 841 Sun 8-9:00am

Sri Rajaram No. 5 Northcott Wy, Cherrybrook 0404 992 403 Fri 8-9:00pm

Sri Ramanan No. 113 Adderton Rd, Telopea 0430 487 780 Sat 8-9:00am

CHAITANYA MAHAPRABHU NAMA BHIKSHA KENDRA CENTERS AUSTRALIA

Shankar Sridharan

69 Innisfail Drive

Point Cook

Vic 3030

Ph: 03 9395 6839

Mob: 0417 374763

Every Second Sunday of the month at 6pm.

SYDNEY

MELBOURNE

Click to view the World Wide Nama Kendras: http://www.namadwaar.org/

Cut the reins. Cut them with the sword of God's name. The shackles of kaala, time, are cut by KAli's name. The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna

4

Jan 21st 3:00-5:00pm: Nama Sankirtan at Smt Meera and Sri Jagadeesh’s residence. About 25 people participated in the Nama Sankirtan.

Jan 26th 3:00-4:30pm: Nama Sankirtan at Shiva Vishnu Temple Canberra .

It was a nice sunny Australia Day morning.

Satsang members gathered at Chitra and

Ravi’s residence to go on a day trip to

Canberra, the Nation’s Capital to perform

Nama Sankirtan at Shiva Vishnu temple.

The bus arrived around 8:15am and once

all the families arrived, the 3 1/2 hour

journey to Canberra commenced around 830am.

For the first half everyone did Nama Sankitran. Kids chanted Hanuman Chalisa and

other slokams. Even the driver got enthused and started chanting the Nama. Around

mid day, we reached Canberra. We were greeted with fan-

tastic Australian summer weather with no cloud in sight. The

first stop in Canberra was at a park near the Parliament

House for lunch. After lunch, we headed straight to the

Shiva Vishnu mandir. Once at the temple, preparations for

the Nama Sankirtan began, the musicians prepared their

instruments.

At 3pm the Nama Sankirtan began. The

Nama Kirtan went till 430pm. About 10

people participated in the Nama Sankirtan

from Canberra. The Nama Sankirtan went

really well with all enjoying it thoroughly.

After the Nama Sankirtan, Dinesh gave a speech on the impor-

tance of Nama Sankirtan.

Sri Thamo, the temple co-ordinator and

organiser for this event, thanked our Sat-

sang for coming and doing the Nama

Sankirtan in the temple. He showed keen

interest to organise more Nama Sankirtans

in the future. Around 5:30pm everyone packed up for the return

journey and reached Sydney around 10pm.

Satsang News

5

Yuva Kendra News

"School holiday fun with Hanuman and friends" was a day

program for kids aged from 6 to 15, organized by the Syd-

ney Satsang, and held in Cherrybrook in the north-west of

Sydney. A total of 24 children attended and and was a great

success with the kids enjoying themselves immensely. There

were 8 adult facilitators for the day and 4 more who helped

with certain activities. Mahesh and Saranya co-ordinated

the Camp registration which started at 8am. At 9am,

Mahesh welcomed all the kids to the camp " School Holiday fun with Hanuman and friends"

The day commenced with chanting of "Hare Rama..."; throughout

the day, several time slots were allocated for more nama chant-

ing. Furthermore, the kids were divided into 2 groups - Anjaneya

and Maruthi, with points being awarded for the best chanting,

ensuring that the Rama namam was chanted with maximal enthu-

siasm and vociferousness everytime.

The morning session began with storytel-

ling by Smt Saroja Narayanan. Small stories, incorporating the

birth and childhood of Hanuman, Hanuman's exploits in Kishkinda,

Hanuman's meeting with Rama, the infiltration of Lanka and Hanu-

man's meeting with Sita, the war in Lanka, and Rama's return to

Ayodhya, were all meshed together to form one big story about

Hanuman.

Inspired by the Sydney kids chanting the

Maha Mantram, two little kids from Singa-

pore have started chanting the Nama. Want

to know how? Well, Shreya Sridharan (8 yrs) Visvesh Sridharan ( 2 1/2 yrs)

chant the Nama while bathing their little friend Krishna. They dress him up

and apply sandal paste and kumkum and offer the dishes their mum makes

at home. Little Visvesh takes care of his mate so well that, he tells Krishna

that if he is too naughty he will call Super Nanny.

INSPIRATION

6

After the morning tea, Smt Jayashree Ramakrishnan taught Ha-

numath Stuthi. There was some initial difficulty due to the

change of tune that occurs part-way through the Hanumath

Stuthi, but soon enough, everyone got the hang of it and

chanted in unison.

After the Sloka session there was a quiz

which focussed on the events discussed in the storytelling ses-

sion. The quiz was hotly contested by both groups, with both

teams looking to get into a lead on the points board. But so at-

tentive were all the kids that the points were eventually equally

shared.

Then came the most popular activity. Games were organised by

Chitra, Uma and Meera. All the chil-

dren enjoyed the games very much.

During the lunch break, the Ramayana

cartoon video proved to be extremely

popular amongst the younger kids,

whilst some of the older ones opted for a game of cricket in-

stead. After lunch came the music and drama session. Krishna

Ramarathinam taught the popular Australian folk song,

"Waltzing Matilda" to the kids. The Drama session was organised by Mahesh and the

kids performed short pantomimes. The pantomime group that portrayed the birth of

Hanuman and the bestowal of Brahma's boon took the bonus points for a fantastic per-

formance.

After a short break, the next session was devoted to bhajan

singing. Smt Ganga Kasinathan taught the bhajans.

Finally, the program came to a con-

clusion with the announcing of points

and distribution of prizes by Dinesh.

An impromptu cricket game ended after a succession of

sixes that exhausted the supply of balls. The younger chil-

dren jumped tirelessly on the trampoline, whilst the older

children sat in the cool breeze (a welcome relief on a hot

summer evening) for a chat.