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Dear Blessed Souls,
Service is providing assistance to others while Charity is giving voluntarily to those in need. Ideally, Service and Charity (Seva and Dhanam) should go together as virtues of the heart and hand for best results. Service must be extended with sincerity (Shraddtha) and humility (Samvidha), befitting one’s capacity (Shriya). Charity must be done to the deserving.
There are three kinds of service. Material service- helping others with material resources, physical service –helping others manually, and the third, service with the mind- helping people with good wishes, prayers etc., It is obligatory for everybody including Saints and Seekers to be engaged in service and charity for the welfare of the humanity and to earn the blessings of the Almighty which makes one godly and helps progress in the spiritual path.
Our Sadhguru Srimath Shanthananda Swamigal spent His entire spiritual life span doing service and sacrifice, in all their manifest forms, for the good of the Society. Swamigal established Asrams at Pudukkotai, Salem and lastly Chennai Om Sri Skandasramam, in Selaiyur, Tambaram (all in Tamil Nadu) where He
i) installed benevolent Deities for the purpose of ennobling every soul through prayers and spiritual practice,
ii) conducted Homams and Yagna Karmas with appropriate Moola Mantras for giving mundane relief to the aggrieved, and
iii) fed the devotees without discrimination with free food as Devi Prasad.
We, the Trustees of Chennai Om Sri Skandasramam at Tambaram, Chennai consider ourselves blessed to continue the noble objectives of our Master (after His Siddhi) with grit and determination, as a visit to the Asramam would testify. Invoking the blessings of our Guru, we have since enlarged (from January, 2005) the erstwhile Annadanam Scheme to cover all days arranging to give a full fledged meal around noon to every devotee in our Annapoorani Bhojana Sala. The food is served after the completion of Sri Pratyankara Saraba Soolini Homam and attendant pujas (performed daily without fail as per the ordain of our Guru). In line with the Vedic script ‘Athithi devo bhava’, all visitor-devotees are well fed and treated with dignity, sincerity and as members of Skandasramam family.
Towards making the above Annadanam Scheme work for long without fail, we have proposed a Permanent Annadhanam Deposit Account in a Nationalised Bank whereby the interest accruals would go to meet the expenses of the Scheme. May we appeal to ardent devotees and kind hearted socially conscious public men of charitable disposition to join the Annadanam Scheme in a big way with munificent donations in their names or others’, probably marking a birth day or a wedding day or any day of remembrance or importance, and get the blessings of Sri Matha Bhuvaneswari, our Sadhgurus and the good wishes of humanity at large.
Incidentally, Annadanam is easily the only act to combine service, sacrifice and charity and where both the giver and the recipient are wholly satisfied.
Pleasantest of all ties is the tie of willing host and satisfied guest.
Join us to make things pleasant for all. Jai Bhuvaneswari
Secretary & Trustees of Chennai Om Sri Skandasramam,
Selaiyur, Tambaram. Ph 044-22290134/
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