Work Outside India

The centre in Sydney, Australia, the Ramakrishna Sarada Vedanta Society of N.S.W. conducted regularly spiritual and cultural activities in and around Sydney. Religious festivals were observed, and lectures and retreats conducted in Adelaide and other places. Pravrajika Gayatriprana, head of the centre participated in meetings of the Women’s Interfaith Network (WIN) and the World Conference of Religions for Peace (WCRP), now renamed “Religions for Peace”. A Sunday class for children was conducted regularly to acquaint them with Indian culture; weekly Sanskrit classes and yoga classes continued. Young People’s Forums (age group 17–35) were organized occasionally for personality development and integration, while members of the Vivekananda Book Club met once a month to study in-depth selected letters of Swamiji. ‘Spiritual Evenings’ on alternate Fridays were continued.
The Society maintained the Sarada Tapovan at Burwood Heights where the monastic sisters lived, the Vedanta Hall at Croydon, where the Vedanta Book Agency as well as classes and other activities were conducted, and the Bharati Retreat Centre at Darama, Robertson, a two hours’ drive from Sydney. Collection of food and clothing for donation to the needy via the Sydney City Mission continued as before. As in the previous years, visits to an old age home twice a month continued.

The centre at Colombo, Ramakrishna Sarada Mission (Lanka Branch) conducted regular worship, bhajans, Pradeep Puja, spiritual and cultural classes, lectures, a Bal Mandir etc. Special Puja was performed on the birthdays of Sri Ramakrishna, Sri Sarada Devi and Swami Vivekananda as well as on Thai Pongal, New Year and Deepawali days. The centre conducted the Matri Mandir, an old age home for women with 10 inmates, Sri Sarada Balika Mandir, a children’s home in Colombo with 30 children and also an orphanage at Matale with 22 orphans, where a Sunday School is also conducted to inculcate moral and ethical values in the children (average attendance : 40). Other charitable activities like distribution of clothes, study materials to needy students etc. continued as before. Pravrajika Sushantaprana and Pravrajika Atmadevaprana are in charge of the work as President and Secretary of the centre, respectively.

Pravrajika Bhavaniprana and Pravrajika Divyanandaprana were invited to conduct retreats by Sri Sarada Mahila Samiti, California. They reached San Franscisco on 7th May 2024 and conducted 2 retreats at the Mercy Centre, Auburn. On 1st June, both spoke at the Unitarian Church at Oakland and also gave parlour talks at different places. On 4th June, Pravrajika Bhavaniprana returned to India. On 6th June, Divyanandaprana proceeded to Asilomar, where she spoke at an international conference and conducted a retreat organized by the Vedanta Society of Southern California. She returned to Delhi on 15th June 2024.

Pravrajika Divyanandaprana travelled to Japan from 4th to 24th April, 2024 as she had been invited by the University of Tokyo to present a paper on “The study of Consciousness in Indian Philosophies”. She also addressed the students on “Vedanta and Bhagavad Gita”. Her talks were well received. During her stay she could visit Hiroshima and the cultural city of Kyoto.