Parijnan Parivar and the Igatpuri project- Update, A report by Ajay Jayant Nadkarni.
During the Swami Parijnanashram Satya Rathotsav at Dahivali this year, we had pledged to help orphanages and old age homes to cope up with their huge electricity bills utilising eco friendly inventions of (Retd) Col. Vivek Mundkur mam, viz, the Pedal Generator and the Wind Mill.
After the Rathotsav, the summer months of April and May proved too difficult for Anusuyatmaj Matimand Niwasi Vidhyalay. They fell short of water as the municipal supply was just once in a week. They had to completely depend on water tankers, each tanker costing about Rs 700 and the home needing water tanker every alternate day. With Param Pujya Parijnanashram Swamiji’s blessings, Parijnan Parivar could support the supply of water tankers for two months.
On account of Parijnanashram Swamiji’s Birthday on 15th June, Parivar volunteers visited the Igatpuri home and donated two Pedal Generators built by Col. (Retd.)Vivek Mundkur mam. The pedal generator is an ex-bike which turns a 100watt alternator. It can charge the 26 AH battery in 4 hours. This is enough to run 50 LED cluster lights all night to illuminate the main hall, the dining and living areas of the Anusuyatmaj Matimand Niwasi Vidyalaya. Also 8 CFL bulbs are also connected to this arrangement. The children now enjoy their bicycle rides and also generate electricity for themselves.
On 27th June, Vivek mam visited Igatpuri, stayed there for 4 days and completed the installation of Windmill. The wind turbine is a 10 ft diameter three blade 1000 watt model. It charges a bank of Four 210 AH batteries which are connected to the mains through a 3.5 KVA inverter. This inverter is powerful enough to run all the lights and fans, plus the computer, TV etc. The inverter will also suffice to supply power to the Audiometry room equipment and now will be able to carry out different programs for the hearing/speech impaired inmates of the home anytime not depending on the irregular supply by the MSEB. In short, the Igatpuri home will now be independent of the MSEB supply of electricity.
We thank Col. (Retd.) Vivek Mundkur mam from the bottom of our heart, for staying in Igatpuri and personally installing the windmill. He has taken pains not only to install it but also to train the local electrician to maintain it and regularly check its’ output.
We also wanted to make the orphanage self sufficient in its water requirement. And for that we had planned to dig bore wells in the premises itself. Unfortunately, just when we were about to start digging, it started raining and it had to be abandoned. We were dejected. But Swamiji’s grace never leaves any project half done. The local municipal authority has given them a bore well to share with another similar organization and now they have unrestricted water supply from that bore well. We will however, pursue our promise of giving them a bore well of their own next summer when digging resumes.
Punyatma Prabhakar Sharma Seva Mandal’s Anusuyatmaj Matimand Niwasi Vidhyalaya at Igatpuri near Nasik, was a dream project of Rukmakka Tallur for children with special needs from the tribal areas around that area. It houses 53 mentally challenged children and 50 children with hearing impairment, who stay and study there.
This residential school is fully equipped and has all the infrastructural facilities for educating the children but has been facing major problems with regard to water and electricity. Due to load shedding by the Maharastra Electricity Board they get electricity once in 3-4 days if they are lucky, sometimes they go without it for days. They also face water crisis and have to face problems for weeks at a time. The children are taken once a week to a river a few kms away for washing their clothes etc.
With Blessings of Param Pujya Parijnanashram Swamiji, Parijnan Parivar, Mumbai decided to help the school with alternate eco-friendly methods of providing electricity. Col.Vivek Mundkur has been a god sent and has agreed to help us out with his eco friendly inventions Pedal Generators and low cost Windmills. The Parivar is installing two pedal generators in the school on 20th June 2010. The work for installing two windmills will start as soon as the pedal generators are installed.
Last month the Parivar approached a water diviner and geologist from Pune, Dr Lalwani, who surveyed and plotted two points inside the school premises. The boring of the wells will be taken up in a few days.
At the moment, the school is entirely dependent on water tankers which costs Rs 700 per tanker . The cost of meals for the school children, each month comes to around Rs 62,000/-. The managing trustee Smt Sheetal and Shri Kishore Pandit request any help they can get to meet these needs. It is run by able, dedicated and hardworking staff and headed by Shri. Naval Sonar, Principal. They welcome visitors. Request you all to go through their website, details of which are given below.
For further details contact-
Smt Sheetal Pandit
9-11/12, Saraswat Colony,
Santa Cruz (West),Mumbai- 400 054.
Telephone number: 022-2660-1837
E-mail:
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With Parijnanashram Swamijis blessings ,we are very sure that the problems of electricity and more importantly water that the school is facing will be solved very soon .
Parijnan Parivar was registered in 2006. Since then, we have been trying to complete HH Parijnanashram Swamiji’s dreams of social-welfare activities after HIS Mahasamadhi in 1991.
Every year we celebrate HH Parijnananshram Swamiji’s Birthday on June 15th, His Punyatithi, His Shishya Sweekar day and some others. We try and attach a social welfare activity to every celebration. Highlights of these activities are given below:-
Distribution of Notebooks, Pens, Pensils other school stationary to 180 Anganwadi school students of Dahiwali Village, Karla. Also provide dresses, saris, Warm blankets to Adivasis of Lohagad near karla.
Visits to Central school for Deaf ,Byculla every year on account of PP Parijnanashram Swamiji’s birthday, distribution of sweets and lunch to all students. On the same day another batch of volunteer visits Kamla Mehta residential school for blind Girls for cake cutting, distribution of sweets and Lunch to all students sponsored by Parijnan Parivar..
Every year visit is made to Paramshantidham, an old age home at Taloja. Sponsor of breakfast, lunch. Supplying napkins, toiletries to all inmates, also Sponsor lunch for the day of visit. Also arrange cultural program for entertainment of old inmates of the ashram.
Donation of good quality wooden benches to Zilla parishad school at Dahivali village. Recently benches were also provided to Anganwadi section of the school.
Every year on account of punyatithi of HH Parijnanashram Swamiji,Lunch- breakfast is sponsored to DN Sirur Balakashram , an orphanage for boys at Vileparle.
Very recently, Parivar provided Drinking water tankers for Mentally/physically handicapped children of “Anusuyatmaj Matimand Niwasi school, Igatpuri.
We hold medical camps every year at Dahivali school for villagers who don’t have any medical facility nearby. Pediatric medical camp, Gynaecology medical camps have been held till date with requests from villagers there. The required medicines were also given at the time of camp as per patients’ requirements.
Medical and Distress Relief for the poor and needy Bhanap families ( Help given so far Rs.11.15 lakhs worth).
Recently paid annual fees of 11 financially weak but well deserving students of Sundatta high school,tardeo.
The Parivar is now working on providing Electricity to Anathashrams, produced by Alternate Methods which are environment friendly.
The Parijnan Parivar has obtained the 80G Income Tax rebate certificate for the years starting from 2006, and continues for ten years.
By the Grace of Swami Parijnanashram we have never failed in any Social Activity that we have undertaken. We pray that we continue to serve as the social and secular wing of this society.
As part of celebration of 62nd Birthday of our Param Poojya Parijnanashram Swamiji ,The Parijnan Parivar held a medical camp for kids of Dahivali and neigbouring villages at the premises of Zilla parishad prathamik school of Dahivali on 27th june 2009.
The volunteers and Four Doctors left Mumbai for Dahivali early morning on 27th and the volunteers on reaching the venue immediately began preparing for the camp.The setup was done in two classrooms of school ,the doctors examined all the kids .Most were students of pre primary and primary school and also a few from the villages nearby.In one room students lined up for medical examination and in another room according to case papers tonics and medicines were distributed free.Dr.Uday Andar and Shri Nitin katre had arranged for medicines and tonics from Raptakos Brett and Praj Pharma.The parivar gave a pack each of Parle-G to all the kids.
As time passed by Kids kept coming and got themselves examined. At the end 85 kids benefitted from this medical camp.The camp which was started at 10 am went on till 1 pm.After lunch at Gurushakti complex we all went to Karla mutt For Darshan of HH swamiji's poojya samadhi and Devi Durga Parmeshwari and thanking THEM for making the camp successful. We are thankful Dr Mahesh Gurav, Dr Sandeep and Dr Ashish all from Bhatia hospital who were part of this medical camp.We are also thankful to Principal of School Shri Bhavar Sir for giving premises of school for the camp and the teachers and staff of the school.
4.00 p.m. Tea-Coffee-Snacks 6.00 p.m. Devotional songs by Dr. (Mrs.) Shailesh Srivastava. 7.00 p.m. Deep Namaskar 7.15 p.m. Film on Sheeshya Sweekar made by Srikala Hattangadi 8.15 p.m. Aarti & Prasad Bhojan 9.15 p.m. Music program by Kum. Mrudula Kulkarni & group. 11.15 p.m. Naam-smaran 12.00 a.m. Cake cutting
15-6-2009 (Monday) Celebrating Swamiji’s Birthday in D. N. Shirur Balakashram, Vileparle & Central School for Deaf, Agripada.
27-6-2009 (Saturday) Medical Camp (Pediatric) at Dahivali.
28-6-2009 (Sunday) visit to Residential school for mentally challenged adivasi children (Anusuyatmaj Matimand Nivasi School) founded by Late Tallur Rukmabai at Itgatpuri.
All are cordially invited with their friends and relatives. Those who wish to work as volunteer in a Medical Camp may give their names to Bossmam at the earliest.
The Pediatric Medical Camp scheduled for the 14th June 2009 and the programme to be held by Shreekala Hattiangadi are routine annual programmes held by
Parijnan Parivar on the occasion of H.H.Parijnanashram Swamiji”s birthday and have been wrongly included in the Shree Trust programme that has been recently circulated by them.
This year, Chaitra Poornima (Shri Hanuman Jayanti) Rathotsava was celebrated on the 9th of April at Gurushakti complex, Dahivali village Karla with great devotion and enthusiasm by Parijnan Parivar.
The preparations had started earlier, about 15-20 volunteers had reached the Gurushakti complex 7 days in advance to give final touches to the 16 ft. teru. The holy padukas of Parijnanahsram Swamiji too reached the venue a few days prior to the actual date of the ceremony. The place was decorated to give a festive look to the entire complex, including a beautiful pandal put up. The teru was polished and all ready for the function.
This year Smt and Shri Kishan Hemmadi were the yajman couple to perform the poojas on behalf of the Parivar. The event began with Samuhik Prarthana followed by Guru Ganesh poojan, Punyavachan, Ganesh poojan with abhishek of tender coconut water (shiyala) and milk. Bhavanishankar and Guru paduka poojan, Rudrabhishek, Mahanaivedya and Mangalaarti. About 2 busloads of devotees and a dozen vehicles had come from Mumbai and Pune to attend this unique and divine function.
After Ratha-poojan, Swamiji’s holy padukas were taken in a small procession and installed in the teru with vedic chants by Ved. Dattatrey Kaikini Bhatmam who was in charge of all the rituals and poojas of the day, Ved Honnavar Yogesh Bhatmam, Ved Guru Kalbag Bhatmam. After the rituals and bali, the beautiful teru was pulled for a few yards as a mark of Ratha-rohana amidst chanting of Swamijis Jaijaikars which made the atmosphere divine. As if in acknowledgement of the devotees’ shraddha and symbolizing H H Parijnanashram Swamiji’s blessings, two garudas came hovering over the ratha just when the ratha was pulled by devotees. All felt His presence making the atmosphere more divine and His assurance because of which this Satya-Sankalp of rathotsav made by Parijnan Parivar had turned from mere dreams to reality. After this, the 300 odd devotees headed to the pandal near Naimpalli Mohanmams bungalow for Prasad bhojan.
This year a Sangeet seva by Shri Ravindra Bijur was organized from 3 pm to 4.30 pm. The program brought out a treasure of his experiences with Param Poojya Parijnanashram Swamiji and he decided to sing the songs which Swamiji liked the most. This enthralled the audience and brought back many memories bringing tears to many present. A naamasmaran in true sense. He was accompanied by Shri Gurudatt Heble on Harmonium and Shri Vivek Kaikini on tabla, the same duo which used to accompany Ravindramam many times during his performances at Khar mutt in His presence.
It was the Parivar’s desire to honour a Bhanap who has made an outstanding contribution to society in any field. Our Swami Parijnanashram III also used to honour outstanding achievers during “Abhinav Sammelan” during Rathotsav at Shirali. Keeping in tune with our Swamiji’s scientific bent of mind it was decided to start this initiative by honouring a nuclear scientist of international fame – also a bhanap – Shri Suresh Kati, for his contribution to Atomic Research. Accordingly, on behalf of Parijnanashram Swamiji, the Parivar Chairman, Dr Uday Andar, honoured Shri Suresh Kati with shawl – Shreephal and a silver plaque with ‘Saraswat Ratna’ engraved on it. Shri Dayanand Balse, secretary of Parijnan Parivar gave a brief introduction of Shri Suresh Kati and his outstanding achievements and research in the field of nuclear energy for which he was recently honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the hands of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Shri Suresh Kati was indeed very happy to get such an honour and thanked the Parivar for the same which he felt was much more than any other honour he had ever received. He gave all credit of his success to God and his dear wife Smt. Malati Kati for her faith in him and untiring support.
Shrikala Hattangadi who was recently conferred with All india Manik Puraskar for Best serial ‘Dam Dama Dam’ on Sahyadri channel and her contribution to Marathi Televison, was also honoured with Shawl and Shreephal and photo of HH Parijnanashram Swamiji.
Dr Uday Andar, Chairman of Parijnan Parivar thanked everyone present especially Shri Suresh Kati and Shri Ravindra Bijur and gave a brief background of Parijnan Parivar and its social activities. He elaborated on activities held in the span of last three years which had details of our visits to many social organizations working for various causes, the details of all Medical camps held, the details of Aid distributed to needy Amchi families and individuals in their distress and sickness. Lastly he thanked our only source of inspiration, our strength, Param Pujya Parijnanashram Swamiji, without whose blessings nothing could have been achieved and with prayers at HIS HOLY FEET to give us similar strength to support more amchi brothers/sisters in need of help in the future.
At about 4.45 p.m. the teru was taken around entire Guru Shakti complex and the neighboring complex comprising of bungalows belonging to many amchi familes. All the devotees holding on to the rope, pulling it, singing bhajans and Swamiji’s jaijaikars arrived in Gurushakti complex an hour later. This time Nashik Dhol–Tasha was arranged from the neighboring Dahivali village and Maharashtrian traditional dhol sounds made all devotees dance to their wonderful tunes. The teru was stopped at the entrance of each bungalow in the Gurushakti complex to be received by the families for their traditional offerings and aarati. ‘Vokulli’ was played and sweets and dry fruits were thrown towards devotees by our senior parivaris, Chandavarkar brothers, fondly known as ‘Trimurty’. It was fun to see young and old scrambling for the prasad and competing for the most collected, bringing sweet memories of olden days where in HH Parijnanashram Swamiji would toss dry fruits and sweets as Prasad from the balcony of the math during the Chitrapur teru.
Devotees were served panak-panawar before the two buses left for Mumbai. Six bungalows, Shirur’s, Andar’s, Naimpalli’s, Karnad’s, Chikermane’s and Hemmady’s were beautifully lit with floating diyas for the ‘Deepotsava’. After Deepnamaskar, the sky was brightly illuminated by fancy fireworks and some kandeel – kite flying by the youngsters. With the blessings of Lord Bhavanishankar and the grace of our Poojya Parijnanashram Swamiji and the untiring efforts of all the volunteers, this year’s Rathotsav too was a grand and memorable event.
14th June dawned to the hustle and bustle of activity. Each one was given a task towards the preparations of the celebrations for Srimat Parijnanashram Swamiji’s 61st birthday. The venue was “Anandashram” Khar, the place where HH Swamiji had camped for many years in His life. We were graciously offered the premises by Shri D.A. Bijur free of cost for the occasion. We ’parivaris’ had planned to celebrate Ved. Kaikini Dattabhat’s 75th birthday and also to felicitate this senior bhattu of our community along with his family thus showing our appreciation to his dedicated services as Purohit.
This year, we Parivaris celebrated Chaitra Poornima ( Shri Hanuman Jayanti ) Rathotsava on 20th April at Gurushakti complex, Dahivali village Karla like last two years with great enthusiasm and Guru-bhakti.
It was nearly six months after our Pediatric camp in November 07, and we were still unsure about handling the Gynecology camp requested by the women of Dahivali village.
Every time we visited the village we were greeted by the pleading and forlorn faces of the women. We were a little low on courage as it is a very sensitive issue which would need really careful handling. Finally our determination took over our fears and we decided that something had to be done for them. We decided to ask for advice from various doctors and NGOs.
We invite all the devotees to come with their families for Rathotsav on 20th of April 2008 (Sunday) at guru Shakti complex, Dahivali near Karla. those who wish to avial of 'to and fro' bus service, one startting from Wadi and other from Matunga, may give their names to Mohan Naimpalli (9820552159) or Vasant maam Chandavarkar (24223460, 9819062533) by 10th April.
NOTE: Return ticket priced at Rs 100 per head. All meals will be served as Prasad Bhojan at no expense.
Parivar Activities
