Seva — the charity work of Sambodh

Inspired and guided by the vision of our founder and spiritual Guru, Swami Bodhananda Sarasvati, Sambodh Foundation India supports the underprivileged with the basic needs of food, clothing and education.

Alongside this, Sambodh maintains rural farming, tree planting and a goshala; works for the empowerment of village women; and runs awareness programmes on cleanliness and health for rural children and women. It supports village and government schools — with buildings, solar power and borewells for drinking water — gives annual scholarships to poor students, and organises medical camps. The work is carried out by Sambodh Foundation, New Delhi, the apex body for all Sambodh institutions in India, and by its centres, with the help of well-wishers.

• Annadanam
• Scholarships
• Rural schools
• SCLV — trees & goshala
• Women's empowerment
• Varagur school
• Medical & spiritual care

Annadanam — food and clothing for the poor

Sambodh began its Annadanam programme — feeding and clothing the poor — during the Covid-19 pandemic, for the families of migrant labourers and construction workers, house maids who had lost their work, visually challenged people and their families, and destitute women and children. The programme continues, supporting very poor families with regular monthly rations and household supplies:

• Rice, atta and dal
• Sugar, salt and spices
• Cooking oil
• Milk, and mangoes in season

New clothes for children and women, and toys for the children, are given too. In winter, Sambodh Foundation's Delhi centre gives woollen clothes and blankets to poor people living in slums and under flyovers.

Annual scholarships

The Annual Scholarship Donation Drive is committed to primary education and vocational training for children and students in need. Sambodh gives its attention mainly to students of rural schools and to the children of construction workers, daily labourers and very poor families, with merit scholarships and classroom materials each year.

Rural schools — Government School, Amruthahalli

Sambodh Foundation Bangalore has stood with the Government School at Amruthahalli, Bengaluru, through its stages of growth: new buildings, a playground, sanitation, furniture, indoor and outdoor sports equipment, mid-day meals and snacks, weekly ration kits, warm clothing, school uniforms, inspirational literature, and books and stationery for the children. Computer classes and vocational training have also been held at the school.

At a public function at the school on 18 August 2018, Sambodh gave twenty steel desk-benches — seating for eighty students — a steel storage almirah, and a full set of sports equipment: a basketball system, volleyball and badminton sets, a cricket set, skipping ropes, carrom and chess boards and a training ladder. The school's teachers and students, the School Management Committee and members of Sambodh Foundation Bangalore were present.

Since 2016 Sambodh has held an Annual Sports Day at the school, with medals and certificates for the winners, and it donates sports and play materials to other rural and government schools. Free medical camps have been organised for the villages around Doddaballapur.

SCLV — Nakshatra Vanam, goshala and sacred grove

At the Sambodh Centre for Living Values, Doddaballapur, more than five hundred medicinal and indigenous trees are conserved, with fifteen varieties of fruit trees, organic farming of corn, millets and vegetables, a goshala that cares for cows including the indigenous Hallikar breed, and a Nakshatra Vanam — an ethno-medical garden. The tree-planting initiative “Green the Ashram, Save the Village” continues, with the goal of helping farmers become self-sustaining. Annadanam meals are held at the centre for the villagers.

Women's empowerment and community awareness

Community awareness programmes at the Sambodh centres support the empowerment of women and of families, through spiritual values and an orientation in India's Vedic heritage. On 27 March 2021 — the Foundation Day of Sambodh — a programme for the poor village neighbourhoods around SCLV honoured twenty-one women; new saris and clothing were given to them and their families, with face masks and guidance on hygiene in daily life during the pandemic, and an Annadanam lunch was served to the villagers. Sewing machines are given to help women find self-sustaining work, and during the pandemic villagers received medical supplies and guidance on keeping healthy.

Solar power and water for a school at Varagur

Through Sambodh Chennai, Sambodh has provided a solar power reserve and a borewell for the staff and students of the Government High School at Varagur, a village in Thanjavur district, Tamil Nadu. The solar lighting keeps classrooms lit during power cuts, and the borewell gives water even in summer, when others in the village have run dry. Sambodh has also supported a local group that cares for old and dry cows.

Medical support and spiritual care

Sambodh gives medical support, continuing care and financial help to the underprivileged. With the help of Gurudev's teaching and Advaita Vedanta, it also offers spiritual counselling at all its centres — to elders, to people facing illness or physical challenges, and to families going through the distress of a life-threatening illness. The Bhagavad Gita and other texts are chanted regularly.

Through its educational, medical, environmental and spiritual work, and its support for women, Sambodh Foundation — with the help of its well-wishers — is dedicated to the welfare of society, and above all of the underprivileged.