In the ancient scriptures of India, it is written that the Goddess has promised to come to Earth in human form when Her children need Her. And indeed, throughout history, there have been living Goddesses in India who have embodied that motherly ideal with the power to relieve human suffering and point us to the way of uncovering our divine nature. A Glimpse of Sri Karunamayi Born in 1958 to very devout parents in South India, Sri Karunamayi was recognized immediately as a divine child. Even before her birth, the great sage of modern India, Ramana Maharshi, revealed to Sri Karunamayi’s biological mother that she would indeed give birth to the Divine Mother. And so it came to be that Sri Karunamayi was born on Vijaya Dashami, the most auspicious day of the year, the day that commemorates the victory of everything that is virtuous over the negative forces of the universe. Today Sri Karunamayi is revered as an incarnation of the Divine Mother throughout the world. Meditative as a child, Sri Karunamayi clearly displayed signs of advanced spiritual attainment even while quite young. After completion of her studies, Sri Karunamayi traveled to a remote forest in South India. She remained there for over a decade immersed in deep meditation, practicing many severe austerities on behalf of all humanity. Charitable Projects At the conclusion of this decade Sri Karunamayi immediately began Her humanitarian mission by founding the Sri Mathrudevi Vishwashanthi ashram on the outskirts of the Penusila forest. The glorious inauguration of the “Tri Shakti Pitha” and “Bharat Mata Mandir” took place on February 29th, 2004 at the Manidweepa Mahsamsthanam, Amma’s Penusila ashram. Today, thousands of people are fed at the Penusila Ashram. She also has an ashram in Bangalore, “The Karunamayi Shanthi Dhama”. Homas and Abhishekam are performed regularly at both of Sri Karunamayi’s ashrams. Her several charitable projects include a Free Hospital, Free Tribal School, Free senior citizens home, and a degree college. Amma’s Teaching Sri Karunamayi is the embodiment of compassion and forbearance. She does not ask that we accept her as a teacher or guru, or that we change our spiritual path or religious persuasion or philosophical orientation. Rather She comes to us as our own near and dear loving mother; a loving mother who has come to educate everyone in human values such as kindness, humility and tolerance. Sri Karunamayi’s mission is universal peace and the spiritual elevation of humanity through meditation, knowledge, service and selfless love. Sri Karunamayi says, “ All religions should be honored. They all teach truth and they all teach us to seek and realize divinity”. Daily practice of these precepts will make one’s life peaceful and happy. World Wide Tours Since 1995, Sri Karunamayi has been reaching an ever-growing number of spiritual seekers in the West through Her public programs and meditation retreats. Now on Her twelth annual tour, She is once again visiting major cities across the United States. Programs consist of group meditation, Amma’s divine discourse and individual blessings. Sri Karunamayi often advises us to listen to Her words with an open heart, for only then can we understand Her completely. As She discusses a particular topic, She pours deep wisdom deep into the hearts of those who are listening. Many have experienced new insights and understanding simply from sitting in Amma’s presence. It is the devotees’ spiritual hunger and thirst for true knowledge that keeps drawing Her back to the West year after year. Amma has made great efforts to come to us here in the West in order to offer us the fruits of Her wisdom and divine knowledge in such an easy, accessible manner.

Swamiji is a spiritual humanist striving for Universal Integration and Peace, and is an embodiment of Divine Love. His teachings are directed towards changing individuals to be good persons, with Love and compassion towards everyone. He takes care of the welfare of anyone who approaches him, providing solace, guidance and determination and courage to face difficult situations. Sri Viswamjee was born on the 5th March 1944. From his early childhood he gave much importance to human values. He became a high school teacher at Guntur, teaching Mathematics and English. At the same time he did penance for 21 years, and acquired spiritual powers. Now he is a cosmic body bestowed with supreme divine miraculous powers, and is using these powers for the welfare of humanity. Sri Viswamjee proclaims that self-realization is the best realization, which means to say that God resides in you, which you must realize through Spiritual Practice. With such a blessed realization they can achieve an identity of purpose, which props human welfare. Eventually one world consciousness can be fostered. This alone is the only way to establish one world family. This must be the ultimate aim of mankind, where all God's creation can live in peace, harmony and prosperity. The science and art of Divinity, divine living and spirituality have to be made a way of life for every human person on earth. Thus everyone may be made to realize how efficacious spiritual living is, to mould men as citizens of the world. This is Sri Viswamjee's solemn aim. He vows to develop five-fold enlightenment in every human being namely · Self Confidence · Self Discipline · Self Control · Self Enlightenment · Self Sacrifice Living for others is thus learnt by every person through the practice of these eternal values in everyday and everybody's life. UNIVERSAL INTEGRATION & PEACE : SWAMIJI’S MISSION In Viswanagar, everyone’s attention is drawn to the Universal Integration Pillar, constructed under guidance and with divine blessings of Swamiji. This pillar proclaims the oneness of all religions. The universal integration pillar in its three floors can house nearly a thousand devotees in one sitting. People who come here to pray and meditate understand the truth that the people of the world are one family irrespective of the distinctions of caste, religion, color, language and caste. The pillar recalls, the cultural heritage of India bringing to our minds the echoes of Sanaatana Dharma, the highest form of equity and divine justice. The pillar is seated on an eight-petal Lotus and flower shaped base highlighting intelligence and reason, as also laying bare that the eight boundaries of the universe, circumflex the pillar. Humanity, its well knit and integrated existence is the theme of the pillar. The intellectuals with their intellect must endeavor to integrate humanity into a common culture, which is another name for kindness, compassion, and which ushers in, one world family. UNITY IN HUMANITY is the enshrined slogan of this consecrated Pillar conducive to human welfare, its ultimate aim. The slogan's message inspires humanity to integrate themselves into one living organization belonging to only one god who is real. The pillar is a concretized, constant reminder that unity of mankind saves mankind from extinction. "Foster unity among the children of MOTHER EARTH" is the credo of and is the ideal point of view of the message. In his efforts to improve the quality of life for the less fortunate persons of our society, he is building a super specialty hospital, Viswayogi Institute of Medical Sciences. For the past 5 years, medical camps are being held in premises of Viswanagar on the 3rd Sunday of every month, where free treatment, medicines and follow up is provided to the needy people. Doctors and specialists come to these camps to offer their free services. The nature of Viswayogi is Purity. The creed of Viswayogi is Love, Love and Divine Love. The function of Viswayogi is selfless help to the needy, the sick, the under privileged and to every aspirant, who tries to attain self-realization through surrender to God. He is verily the gem of purest ray, Serene inhabiting the earth today to unite humanity. His mission on earth is to make peace attainable and spirituality, a realized reality and objective of humanity. VISWAYOGI INSTITUTE OF MEDICAL SCIENCES SWAMIJEE’S VISION : Sri Sri Sri Viswayogi Viswamjee Maharaj wishes to reform the society establishing the true values of Sanaatana Dharma(Universal human values) and His mission is to achieve this through self-reform. Family is the basic unit of society and Mother & Child are the backbone of the family unit. Both of them are to be treated with care and respect for making a sound family unit and for building a healthy society. For achieving this ideal, Swamijee aims at rendering high quality medical service free of cost at VIMS - Mother & Child Care Hospital under the aegis of Viswayogi Institute of Medical Sciences. FREE MEDICAL CAMPS AT VISWANAGAR. As part of Swamijiee’s desire to render free medical services of high quality, free medical camps are being conducted at Viswanagar since 3-3-1998. On every 3rd Sunday of the month many specialists and super specialists are rendering their services to the needy. Medicines are given away free of cost. Thousands of people have benefited by the cataract operations that were performed freely. If required, people are referred to experts for further investigation and treatment. Women out-numbered men among the beneficiaries of these camps. Hence Swamijee identified the need for expert medical services for women and children in this area. This led to the establishment of the proposed free medical care center as Viswayogi Institute of Medical Sciences(VIMS) – Mother & Child Care Hospital. MOTHER AND CHILD CARE HOSPITAL MODEL OF VIMS – Mother & Child Care Hospital VIMS – Mother and Child care hospital, with plinth area of 60,000 Sq. ft is being constructed at Viswanagar, 16 K.M from Guntur on Guntur – Chennai National Highway(NH –5). The in-patient block will consist of fully equipped Maternity and Pediatric departments with neonatal and premature care units. The out patient block houses clinics for specialties like Dental, Ophthalmic, Medical, Surgical, Orthopedic and Causality and Emergency Care units. Immunology, Blood Bank and Diagnostic facilities with latest equipment and technology will be established. Pediatric surgery facilities will be made available with Pediatric intensive care units. All these services will be made available on par with national and international standards, totally free of cost. Sri Rayasam Venkatramiah IRS, Chief Commisioner of Income Tax, A.P laid the foundation stone on March 25th 2003 with the divine blessings of Sri Swamijee. The construction is in progress and the inauguration will take place very soon. VIMS - Mother & Child care Hospital under construction VISWAYOGI GRAAMINA VIKAASA PADAKAM Viswayogi Graamina vikasa padakam affiliated to Viswa Manava Samaikyata samsat, works for the providing necessary services for development of the rural areas. One of the recent services is the construction of a church and handing it over to Baptist Association of Naadimpalem. Church Inauguration With the divine blessings of Bhagwan Sri Sri Sri Viswayogi Viswamjee Maharaj, and putting into practice the teachings of Swamiji that all religions are one and that there is only one God for everyone, the "Viswayogi Graamina Vikaas padakam", affiliated to Viswa Manava Samaikyata Samsat has constructed a new church "Parisuddha Prarthana Mandiram" for the Telugu Baptist Association of Nadimpalem, Prattipadu district in Andhra Pradesh. The newly constructed church was inaugurated by His Holiness Bhagwan Sri Sri Sri Viswayogi Viswamjee Maharaj on Sunday, February 19th 2006 at 10:45 AM. and handed over by Mr. Akula Koteswara Rao, Jt. Convenor, Viswamanva Samaikyata to Telugu Baptist Sangham, through Mr. Rayapadu Sambasiva Rao MP, Guntur, and Mr. Venkatramana M.L.A, Prattipadu. DIVINE MARCH Of Bhagwan Sri Sri Sri Viswayogi Viswamjee Maharaj For Universal Integration and Peace With the aim of bringing India and America closer together for achieving His mission of world peace, Swamijee has visited USA many times since 1997. During His visits Swamiji addressed people across the country, met with students in universities, addressed people in churches and temples and also met with people in the government to spread his message of Universal Integration & Peace. Swamiji addressed people of all sections of society and also met with many distinguished persons from different fields and has urged them to join Him in His mission of world peace. Swamiji Speaks ....... · Coming from India to America for me is just like coming from one room of a house to another. If you ask me which room I like the most, I will tell you that I like my house very much. This must be the view of each and every person on the earth. · Compare the whole world to the human body. For the human body there is only one brain, one nervous system, one respiratory system and one blood circulating. There is only one heart controlling the body. If head is America, Heart is India. Heart beating is Divinity. Only if the brain and heart work together and in harmony, one meets with success, in true sense of the world. · We are fighting over country, caste and religion, but we are neglecting mother earth and humanity. Mother earth is basis for all nations, and humanity is basis for all religions. On the basis humanity we have to unite all people on earth for Universal Integration and Peace. · You Indians who are living in the USA should consider yourselves very lucky. People should treat India as their motherland, and at same time treat America as their adopted motherland. You should salute the flag of India and also the flag of America; you should respect and obey the constitution of India and America. You should try to bring India and America closer, and unite and work, to do something good for the world. Only such thought and action will bring about Universal Integration and World peace, which is a necessity for today’s world. Viswayogi Viswamjee’s Morgan Hill Peace Declaration (October 29th, 2004, City of Morgan Hill, California) This is Viswayogi Viswamjee Maharaj’s Morgan Hill Peace Declaration. Declaration of the whole world, it is coming from my mouth. What is it? We the people who are living on the earth, on mother earth, in the world, we from this moment onwards work only for world peace, to make this world an abode of peace. Inspite of all religions, castes, languages and nations we unitedly work together spreading the divine love, spreading peace everywhere, we work only to get world peace. We work first for peace and then anything. Whatever religion may be, whatever the language may be, whatever the nation may be, first of all we are human beings. We think that we are human beings and we at all times, every moment, every second we respect the country in which we are living. We respect all the countries and we work for Universal Integration & Peace. And we declare whole-heartedly this. What is that? There is only one God who is omnipotent and omnipresent. We worship, we adore only one Lord who is omnipotent and omnipresent. There is only one religion, the religion of love; we follow the religion of Love. We follow our religion and we respect other religions also and we follow the universal religion that is the religion of love. There is only one language the language of the heart. There is only one caste the caste of humanity and there is only one law the law of duty. We the people who are living in this world on this earth, we at any time should not neglect and ignore humanity and the mother earth. We must follow the humanity to enlighten the human values in every heart and to make each and every individual to be peaceful and to live with peace of mind and to fill the heart with divine love. Unitedly we work for world peace, to make the earth and abode pf peace. O God who is omnipotent & omnipresent, who has created the whole universe, who created the man, who created all the creations and who made the man efficient, intelligent, to lead and guide and navigate the whole creation. We use our intelligence only for construction and welfare of the society and to make the world peaceful. We at any time don’t use our mind for destruction or anything bad to society. We use our intelligence, we use our property, wealth and any art only for construction and welfare of society. We work together for raising the human values in every person and world peace. Peace, Peace, Peace. There should be peace in the mind, there should be peace in the home, there should be peace in the country, and there should be peace in the world, in the universe. This is our vision and aim and our wholehearted wish and desire. This is the desire of all yogis and even the Lord himself. We work for that. We promise to work for that. All of you repeat after me. We work only for that. We work for world peace. There should be no violence, there should be no terrorism, there should be no hatred, there should be no violent actions in the world, and there should be no war, no struggle. We want only peace and we work unitedly for peace. Peace Peace. We want Peace Peace Peace. O Lord unitedly we promise you, we will work on your path, the path of divine love. We walk on your divine path to reach your kingdom of love. May the world be in peace. “P-E-A-C-E” not “P-I-E-C-E”. We want only Peace. Divine blessings to you all. Wish you all grand success. There is no danger to America; there is no danger to India. There is no danger to the world. The whole world must be in peaceful condition. This is the desire of all the yogis and realized souls and the omnipotent and omnipresent universal Lord who is only One. I bless you one and all, and I wish world peace. Bhagwan Sri Sri Sri Viswayogi Viswamjee Maharaj

It is difficult to be the friend of the masses, the guide of the spiritual aspirant and a philosopher par excellence at the same time. Sadguru K. Sivananda Murthy of Anandavan in Bheemunipatnam is that and much more. He is a happy blend of Sanatana Dharma and `yogakshemam'. On one hand he is a scholar with a grip on every aspect of life, and on the other he is like the innocent child expressing his deepest concerns on matters of patriotic interest. ``Anandavan'' as the name implies is a haven of peace and the serene ambience speaks volumes about its architect who resides within. The Sadguru had a turbulent childhood. He was born into a zamindar family. But that was the time when his father was consistently losing court cases in the Privy Council and his estate, and the lad soon realised the transitory nature and `maya' (illusion) of wealth. To his young mind, the picture was clear that money is the root cause of all of man's problems. He had the software within him to ferret out this truth, and chose to relinquish his home and riches. He set out to eke out his own destiny. Armed with only a basic degree and a good communication skill, young Sivananda walked into the office of the Inspector-General of Police for a job. To him this IG, Gen. Khot, who had an illustrious background during the Telangana uprising, was the hero who could lead him on in life. The IG was impressed with the boy's regal stature and genuine intere! st to work. Thus Sivananda became an employee of the Police Department till the day he retired from service. A voracious reader, he had spent 23 years from the age of ten in assimilating the knowledge of 13,000 books from his father's library, and this penchant is his greatest strength. He even remembers reading the covers of sweet packets if he had nothing else to read. Thus he is a knowledge bank in English, Telugu and Sanskrit. The last few years in service saw him mature into a symbol of Gnana and he was the softer aspect of the tough policeman. Colleagues would gather around him for information, advice and education, and Sivananda always felt the pulse of their every requirement. He was the perfect gentleman whose enchanting smiles matched the toughness of the policemen. Sivananda was in his final year of degree when India woke up to Independence. August 15, 1947, remains etched in his mind. The entire country was celebrating freedom, but for him it was the day of mourning. Our country had been split into two and the Hindu-Muslim instability and gruesome massacres on the border only foretold the future unrest. He strongly believes even today that the Independence Day should be mourned and not celebrated. ``It is the bloodshed, violence, hatred and intolerance that divides the nation even today. The circumstances of the division of India still remain,'' he points out, ''the Hindus have a natural sense of tolerance - this quality is a virtue where human values are concerned but a weakness when politics and material life are concerned. That is why the Indian system had the Brahmin and the Kshatriya or valour and wisdom together. This essence is now lost. We have now to wake up people from their deep slumber. Most of the new generation have lost their respect for their religious identities. This apathy, selfishness and attitude of living in our cocoons is leading the original Aryan Hindu into the pits. We are ignorant and have strayed from our tradition because of our education system. The neo-intellectuals look down on traditions as bunkum.'' Commenting on the border situation, the Sadguru strongly feels: "Our enemies will teach us tolerance, but we should not tolerate intolerance from them.'' Remembering the brutal attack by Ghazni and the way in which he was so easily pardoned by the Hindu king reiterates the fact that Indian history is replete with this ideation. And Ghazni showed his gratitude in being pardoned by repeatedly attacking and destroying the same kingdom. "Disagreement is the way of the world. Don't hurt or destroy. And this also means don't destroy your self-esteem or hurt your religion. Hypocrisy is the key factor that is destroying our country. Schizophrenia and the split personality of every citizen are ruining us. People should learn to speak to the dictates of their conscience. India is an ancient brand...it is nothing more, nothing less. Our constant effort should be to uphold the tenets of this brand.'' He has travelled all over the country, trained his own devotees and performed almost 300 yagnams for the welfare of mankind. Not even a rupee was collected from anyone. "Charity was never institutionalised in India as it is being done today. In fact, there seems to be no charity at all! You are only repaying.'' True to the spirit of his words, he has been charitable in every sense of the term. The religious disturbances in most parts of India are because most Indians have stopped understanding the limits of responsibility. The Sadguru's advice to youth is that they should read between the lines. "Always compare two reports and learn to discriminate. Understand the motive of the language used and always use logic. Question every aspect, weed out, and only then accept. The youth of today are susceptible because of their readiness to be misled.'' The Sadguru is critical of the lack of citizenship which, in his opinion, is the major cause for the present malaise. Here too, he shows the way by functioning as an active citizen in every possible way, as the perfect blend of antiquity and modernity. He wears a number of caps: a successful homeopath, he behaves only as a doctor to his patients; to those who come to him for astrological consultation, he responds only as an astrologer; as the scholar beyond compare he is the expert on the Vedanta and Sastras and the nuances of spiritual India come naturally to him; he is also a good choreographer with a flair for creativity and had presented the Ashtapathi from Jayadeva's 'Geet Govind' with his devotees on many platforms; to the ardent spiritual seeker, he is the master. He is widely travelled and the highlight of many an event. His impeccable speech and profound knowledge on different themes cast a spell on the audience. He is the expert on Indian culture, heritage and Dharma and has a number of devotees from all walks of life, including the late Vice President of India, Krishan Kant. Inspired by him, poet Sirivenella Sitaram Sastry, in his latest dedication, describes the Sadguru as "Vilasaanga Sivananda Lahiri''. Indeed, Sadguru Sivananda Murthy is a whiff of fresh air amidst our crumbling cultural and traditional systems. He is a kindly father or an irrepressible friend or a dear uncle to anyone. In short, he is a beacon of good hope happily beaming radiantly from neighbouring Bhimili. -MEENAKSHI ANANTRAM