Bodhananda Sruti Seva Trust (BSST), a registered charitable Trust established in 1999, is engaged in many humanitarian and spiritual activities with the guidance and blessings of our Guru, Pujya Swami Bodhananda.
History
The Bodhananda movement in Ernakulam began in 1994 with the Bodhananda Seva Society, with Sri S Ananthasubramania Iyer (retd. District Judge) as President. At a meeting with Pujya Swamiji at ‘Geetanjali’, Broadway — the home of Dr P K Karunakara Pillai — on 28 February 1999, it evolved into the Bodhananda Sruti Seva Trust, constituted on 26 March 1999 with Dr P K Karunakara Pillai, Sri B Das and Smt Padma Nayar as founder Trustees.
In 2000 the trustees of Vidya Kuteeram, Onamkuttichira Road, Chottanikkara, donated its property to the Trust; Smt N Ammukutty Amma, Sri Appu Menon and Smt Radha Nambiar (now Swamini Ma Jyotirmayi) were instrumental. The ashram, first named Bodhananda Vidya Kuteeram, is now Sree Bodhananda Sreevidya Peetham, with regular poojas.
After Sri Krishna Vijoy Arora passed away in 2005, his family donated his collection of over 4,000 books on Vedanta and Indian tradition; the Krishna Vijoy Arora Memorial Library opened on 21 May 2006. With the opening of BIFIRD at Silversand Island, Vyttila — on land donated by Sri B R Ajit in memory of his father, the late Sri K B Unnithan — the Trust's registered office and the library moved there.
Programmes
We organise annual Gita Jnana Yajnas and lecture series by Pujya Swami Bodhananda across Cochin. Every year uniforms, umbrellas and bags are distributed to students of the Government School, Chottanikkara, and for more than a decade we have supported financially weak students to prevent high-school dropouts, as well as helping the needy with medical expenses.
From 2000 to 2010, as part of Rishi Vision, we organised the annual Mammen Mappillai Memorial Lecture on economics, management and leadership, delivered by speakers including Justice P K Mohan, Smt Lakshmi Venkatesh, Sri Gurcharan Das, Sri A Damodaran, Dr P C Alexander, Sri K T Balakrishnan IAS, Sri C V Ananda Bose IAS, Sri Narendar Pani and Dr B P Mathur. The late Dr K G Nayar was key to these, and to Swamiji's management talks at Kochi Refineries, HOCL, CUSAT, Cochin Shipyard, SBI, FACT, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Hindustan Insecticides and the Kerala Management Association. Past programmes also include seminars on the Mahabharata and Chanakya's Arthashastra.
At the Sreevidya Peetham
- Siva Sakthi Archana on every Amavasi and Pournami
- Ganesa Gayatri Archana on the first Tuesday of each month
- Navagraha Pooja on second Saturdays
- Siva Sahasranama Archana on Pradosham
- Celebrations of Gurudev's birthday, Navaratri, Guru Purnima, Ashtami Rohini, Gita Day, Rama Navami and Sivaratri
Siva Sakthi Ishta Siddhi Samashti Archana
In the line of the events of 1995 and 2005, BSST organised the Siva Sakthi Ishta Siddhi Samashti Archana on 19 February 2017 at the Ernakulathappan Ground, with five associated poojas at centres in Ernakulam. Event details (PDF)
Trust
- ChairmanH H Swami Bodhananda Sarasvati
- PresidentSri B R Ajit
- Vice-PresidentsSmt Padma Nayar, Sri M K Ranjit
- SecretarySri P S Radhakrishnan
- Joint SecretarySri K S Sasidharan
- TreasurerSri K N Anilkumar
- Joint TreasurerSmt Ammu Ajit
- PatronsDr P K Karunakara Pillai, Sri Susil Kumar Arora, Sri P G Pillai, Sri Sathish Mittal, Sri E R Menon, Dr P Sreekumar, Sri S Ayyappan Pillai, Sri T P B Panicker, Smt Pushpa Arora
Other trustees: Sri K Muralidharan, Dr Prakash Chandran, Sri M V Padmakumar, Dr Sreekumari, Sri K T Mohanan, Sri V N Chandramohan, Smt Meena Viswanathan, Sri Arun L Menon and Sri S Kesavankutty Nair.
Service to the community
Every year on Lok Seva Day the Trust distributes study materials, umbrellas, school bags and uniforms to selected children, who come with their parents. It runs yoga classes for children — to improve concentration, memory and physical and mental health — and for adults, and under the Rural Skill Development Mission (2016) it has trained women in making umbrellas and paper bags.
Pictures
