Dayaananda SmaraNam

Arsha Vidya Families and AIM for Seva Houston

Invite You to

Dayaananda Smaranam

दयानन्द-स्मरणम्

Reflection and celebration of the life of

Pujya Swamiji Dayaananda Saraswati (1930- 2015)

dayänandarüpam madäcäryameede

दयानन्दरूपं मदाचार्यमीडे 

(I worship my Guru Swami Dayananda Saraswati who is an embodiment of Compassion and Ananda)

Pujya Swamiji Dayaananda Saraswati was a visionary, thinker, humanitarian, author, composer, and one of the foremost authorities of Vedanta of our times. This event will feature presentation of Swamiji's life, tributes to Swamiji by Houston community leaders and vocal and dance recital of Swamiji’s compositions.

India House,
8888 W Bellfort Blvd,
Houston, TX 77031

Sunday - Nov 15th, 2015 - 4:00 PM sharp

All are welcome!

Agenda:
(1) Invocation
(2) Vedic Chanting
(3) Short Video on Pujya Swamiji's Life
(4) Brief talks by devotees, interspersed with song and dance recitals of Pujya Swamiji's compositions
(5) Group recitations of Dayaananda Panchakam and Bhaarata Desha Hitaaya songs
(6) Prasaadam

Thank you, Houston !

Thank you, Houston !

The AIM For Seva Houston Chapter Volunteers would like your valuable feedback and encouragement!

While new pledges and donations are still coming in and hence we don't know the final figures yet, as of now, we raised $122,771 for educating the under-privileged children of India, thanks to your kindness and generosity!

Article from the Indo-American News

SUNDARA KAANDAM raises $ 121 K in Houston for the rural kids of India !

SUNDARA KAANDAM ARTISTE DETAILS

Newspaper Review from Chennai

TRAILERS:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDVUmapl_o8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoG6P8Ai7Ac

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2Y8cJOgqzQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnhvQ-zHgkA

Friday August 28, 2015 @ 6:30 PM @ Stafford Centre (Cash Rd).

AIM For Seva gets the coveted 4-STAR Charity Rating !

Which other city in the USA will be hosting Sundara Kaandam in 2015?
Sending a Personal Check for your Contribution?

Please make check payable to "AIM For Seva" and mail to:
AIM For Seva
1130 Cambrian Park Ct
Sugar Land
TX-77479
Send an email to aim4seva.houston@gmail.com indicating no. of VIP passes required.

For online secure donation, please click here.

AIM FOR SEVA raises $ 140 K in Houston through MEGHADOOTAM 2014!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OyCRrjBBSgs  - The dance1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCPm_9exsCY - The dance2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8kNHqzZwus - The dance3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfRdLChA7hg - The music
In the words of Bombay Jayashri ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5d57wfXL41s#t=91
Article from The Hindu,  The Indian Express,  The Hindu,  The Hindu (again)

It's never too late to donate to AIM For Seva!
For online secure donation, please click here.

Photos from Houston event on Saturday, September 6, 2014 are here!

Meghadootam transcends Cloud Nine

Seshadri Kumar • India Herlad - Wed, Sep 24, 2014

Kalidasa, the poet of all poets, wrote Meghadootam, centuries ago. It was a love letter from a man separated and far away from his wife.

Meghadootam, the cloud messenger passed through the Houston area and made a short stop at Stafford Center on Sept. 6.

The All India Movement for Sewa, an integrated community development program reaching out to rural and tribal children across 15 Indian states, founded by Swami Dayananda Saraswati of Arsha Vidya Gurukulam, presented the classic as a fundraiser.

The Cleveland Cultural Alliance produced the ballet, with music by Bombay Jayashri Ramnath, while Shijith Nambiar and Parvathy Menon provided the script and choreography.

The very title, Meghadootam, triggers one’s imagination in this age of “Cloud computing” as if Kalidasa had presaged the use of clouds as a mode of communication. The poet’s imagination seems to have aptly portended the futuristic science.

Leaving the science apart, how the clouds, constantly moving, fickle phenomenon of nature, can be captured on stage by humans and captivate the audience is a valid question.

Kalidasa’s unparalleled poetic prowess and his lyrics imbued with thoughts and emotions, of the plants, the animals and the humans, already accomplished this ardent task, but how the artists would depict the clouds remained an enigma, until they actually did it.

A Yaksha, a divine attendant, displeases his master, Kubera, and he is exiled to the wild forests of central India. As the Yaksha pines for his wife, who remains in Alaka, their home in the mountains, he could have used a smart pone, landline, Internet, even a pony express or a dove to send his message, but he could not as the gadgets were non-existent in the age of Kalidasa. That did not deter the poet. He calls upon the cloud to carry the message.

Kalidasa’s love-lorn hero transcends the emotions of love and describes the nature, the landscape that the cloud would traverse in its journey, day and night.

The persistent imagery and the protagonist of the play, the cloud, could we say, stole the thunder, as the artists recreated the clouds in a myriad veils, waving and weaving all over the stage, and with the dynamic artists up and down the landscape.

The deliberate use of silky, white veils symbolized the clouds in abundance and convincingly so. Should you feel that the veils were overwhelming or used in excess, maybe the imagery of cloud, clouded your imagination. The artists may be allowed this stage excess as a poetic license.

The supple vines of the lady love, the glances compared to a startled doe, the tresses similar to the peacock’s plumage, the ripples of water and the fallen dried leaves in the river Sindhu, resembling the emaciated form of the Yakshi, later the swans dancing in the rain, flowers blooming and rejoicing, city dwellers performing Siva Pooja in a celebration, the clouds forming a rainbow after the rain and inviting the peacocks and deers in the forest to dance, and finally, the two souls uniting, at least in the imagination of the Yaksha, through the clouds as love sustained their souls, the cloud completed its task successfully as a messenger.

It was a dramatic challenge to depict the swans, peacocks, deers, blooming flowers and so on, and the dancers ably did it all.

Shijith Nambiar and Pavithra Srinivasan as the lead dancers lifted the whole performance to great heights, wherever the cloud could reach, including “cloud nine.”

PRABHAVATI raises $ 130,000 for AIM For Seva Kids !!!

India-Herald Article is here.

More photos taken at the event ...

A POEM ON PRABHAVATI !!!
by Gauri Mehta

Ten US cities hosted ‘Prabhavati’ 

a beautiful love story, in divinity

Choreography by sweet Rukmini 

of the Raadhakalpa dance company

The dancers were graceful

The events were successful

There was much applause

Aim for Seva was the cause 

A fundraiser with a mission

To empower with education

the bright rural children of our nation

 in chatralayas, through graduation

Volunteers worked together and hard

To bring more awareness in this regard

Holding up high the pledge card

At every event in the Indo-US yard

AIM for Seva was their call

Handing flyers, posters on the wall

Donations they got big and small

To enable kids to stand up tall

Six months went by in this way

The movement got stronger everyday

Until ten events were done in array

2000 children supported - hooray!

Now’s the time to acknowledge those

because of whom the events arose

Srini, national coordinator, kudos!

The Prabhavati troupe - to you, bravos!

New Jersey team, like Mahalakshmi

Big donors many she brought to see

The AIM work for our country

A vision of Pujya Swamiji

Pramod and Lata hosted the first show

In Elmira,where  the artists bowed low

Last year Nayani and now Prabhavati

An impressive audience of 650

Srini and Savithri, pro at hospitality

Organizing for a decade, in Detroit city

Relentlessly, with the AIM committee

Growing awareness like leaves on a tree

Raleigh-Durham, Boston and Albany

Guru, Kumar & Kumar, and Gauri

East coast outreached in harmony 

 to the Indian and American community

Dr Siva’s team in Washington D.C.

Emailed and called many joyfully

Donors and Purna Vidya family

Came together in unanimity

The Philly team was led by Nagesh

Dedicated outreach for our desh

With unified voice the team expressed

The crowd gave and the event impressed

In Houston, Prasad, Suma and volunteers teamed

‘Sold out show!’, with big smiles they beamed

Together with Arbindoo and his Dallas team

All made the Texas events flow like a dream

Many volunteers led by Sudhakar

Awesome video played on projector

The tech teams, no glitch did hinder

Divine blessings poured beyond measure

Pujya Swamiji’s grace is vast

Janet’s dedication is the mast

AIM for Seva message was broadcast

 The crowds expectations were surpassed!

Everyone is feeling the glow

of this successful 2013 show 

The AIM leadership led by Sheelaji

Avantikaji and Piyushji,  

Graciously i thank all of thee

From that heart of a devotee

In which all of us and Prabhavati

Blessings of Pujya Dayananda Saraswati

Merge as ONE in AIM for Seva

in US of America