COMMUNITY


Three-day moorti sthapana at Yamunotri from August 28

Chicago: Chinmaya Mission Chicago’s newest center, named Yamunotri, will be hosting a once-in-a-lifetime event, Sri Radha-Krishna moorti sthapana during August, 28, 29, and 30. The event is open to all for participation and to get to know about the Mission activities.
Chinmaya Mission was started by His Holiness Swami Chinmaya-nanda in 1953. He is lovingly known as Gurudev in the Chinmaya Mission family. Today there are more than 300 centers all over the world, including 40 centers in the USA. The purpose of Chinmaya Mission is “to provide to individuals from any background the wisdom of Vedanta and the practical means for spiritual growth and happiness, enabling them to become positive contributors to society.”
Within Hinduism there are special ceremonies where sacred images in the form of idols are formally installed in temples and other places of worship. These installation ceremonies are generally given two names — moorti sthapana and prana pratishta. The word moorti means sacred image and “sthapana” means placing, and so the moorti sthapana ceremony is the “placing of the sacred image.” The other term, prana pratishta is a little less common, but still prevalent. prana means breath and pratishta means establishing, and so the prana pratishta ceremony is literally “establishing the breath” within the sacred image. In other words, it is bringing the sacred idol to life. Chinmaya Mission undertakes elaborate moorti sthapana ceremonies that lasts for several days and includes many priests. Such ceremonies, include immersing the sacred image in water, rice, and flowers; bathing the sacred image in milk, yogurt, clarified butter (ghee) and other sacred substances, and performing many havans (fire rituals) and pujas (worship).
There are two ways to understand the moorti sthapana ceremony. The first is as a contract. An agreement is established between the deity and the Chinmaya Mission congregation: the deity agrees to “descend” into the sacred image, and the congregation agrees to care for the deity in the form of service or seva. The ceremony is literally the bringing and awakening of the deity within the idol image. The other view is more theological. By definition God is all-pervading and omni-present and so the idea of establishing the breath of the deity within an image is impossible, God is already there! The purpose of the ceremony is not to establish the deity within the image, but to awaken the mind of the participant, through the power of ritual, to the presence of divinity within the sacred image.
At the beginning of the ceremony, people see only the idol, but at the end they see God! The real installation takes place not in the idol, but in the minds of the participants. This is the power of ritual.
Swami Tejomayananda, head of Chinmaya Mission Worldwide, will be presiding over all the events in the Chicagoland and NW Indiana area during the week of August 25-30. Swami Tejomayanandaji, known as Guruji in the Mission, presided over the groundbreaking ceremony of Yamunotri on July 10, 2005 and construction began on Guru Purnima day in July 2006. The 19,000 sq. ft. facility was inaugurated on December 1, 2007. The facility includes classrooms, Acharya’s quarters, a bookstore, a kitchen, and a dining hall. Now, Pujya Swamiji will perform Radha Krishna moorti-sthapana during August 28-30.
Swamiji will delivery his melodic discourses on selected topics from the Srimad Bhagavatam. The Chatuh Shloki Bhagavatam is the discourse topic at Badri center in Willowbrook, IL. Befitting the occasion of Sri Radha-Krishna sthapana, the lyrical beauty of the mystical love of the Gopis in Gopika Geet is the topic for the three-day discourses at Yamunotri in Grayslake, IL. NW Indiana center in Merrillville, IN, will be performing bhoomi puja and will have a discourse on the topic “Life is a Gift, Living an Art.”
Following are the details of the schedule:
August 25 and 26, 7:30--9:00 p.m: Chatuh Shloki Bhagavatam at CMC Badri.
August 27, Bhoomi Puja and discourse on “Life is a Gift, Living an Art” in Indiana.
August 28, 29 and 30, 7:00 a.m--noon: Pujas for moorti sthapana at Yamunotri
August28, 29 and 30 noon: Lunch will be served
August 28, 29 and 30 , 6:45 - 9:15 p.m: Moorti sthapana and discourses on Gopika Geet at CMC Yamunotri.
Yamunotri is located at 30877 N. Fairfield Road. in picturesque Grayslake, Illinois, one hour north of Chicago and one hour south of Milwaukee. For more information please call 847-740-1215; or visit Web site: www.chinmaya-yamunotri.org