Through The Eyes of a CHYK

            The hustle and bustle of excitement began on Monday evening itself, as everyone got ready for Guruji’s inaugural address. It had been a few years since I had been to a camp in the US but I still remembered how my spine tingles when Guruji (Sw. Tejomayanandaji) walks into the hall for the first speech. In eager anticipation I watched as the other acharyas were introduced and seated on the stage. The hall was jam-packed, and in that hall of joy entered Guruji. He began his speech in the memory of our dear Dr. Shyam Nadkarni, and telling us all that true to his words, Dr. Nadkarni was there amongst us that night. Setting the audience in such an uplifting mood, Guruji started his first lecture of the week on Chapter 2 Bhagavad Gita. Taking down on paper as much as I could while also catching glimpses of his most pure smile of knowledge and understanding, I came to realize that this camp would be more magical than any Disney ride in Orlando ;).

            The hotel itself was wonderful, as I was sharing a room with other fellow CHYKs. Because we had come together for a Chinmaya camp, we automatically became family. It truly happened that way. Within five minutes of meeting my roommates we were talking to each other as though we had known each other for ages—it’s a bond that will last a lifetime.

            The next morning and each of the five days afterwards had a similar schedule. Each morning brought us to Br. Prabodhji’s meditation class, which was a great start to the day. Soon after breakfast we had class with the all-loving Sw. Prakashananda, whose bright smile I can still see in my mind’s eye. His talks were on “Eastern Mind and Western Living” and how the ‘generation gap’ has been created. He said that the best solution is for us to see the  deeper meaning behind what our parents tell us, and follow that to the core. That is the essence of our scriptures as well. This is only a glimpse of what Swamiji took us through that week. Following a short break we had a class with Br. Prabodhji on different topics each day starting with “The Purpose of Life” and spending the last three days on “Basics of Vedanta”. He spoke wonderfully on what is it that we really are searching for, and took our minds to a higher level. I found that, throughout the week, his class was more analytical in terms of the foundation of knowledge that we have, while Sw. Prakashananda’s lectures were mostly about the application of the knowledge that we have learned so far through the mission. Both of them were delights in their own way and I feel that all of the 75 CHYKs who attended the camp, enjoyed each of the classes, as we got more time to ask these acharyas the questions that we had in our mind. We questioned the cycle of life and death, what happens to the karmas after we drop them and go into samadhi, and if we say samadhi is the ultimate goal—then isn’t that an end to the cycle? These are only a few of the questions we asked, and everyone is already anticipating the next camp so that we can clarify more doubts in our minds. It was just exhilarating for me to be amongst my own peers in age and intellectual thinking, another reason why these camps are so great.

            The afternoons were very light, and in the evening we had Guruji’s common lecture on Ch. 2 being like the light of the setting sun. Following dinner each evening there was a special cultural show for the whole audience, and the most special one (to me at least) was the show put on by the CHYK group. Entitle “Cabbie Krishna Cabbie Gham”, it was a skit of a “Cab driver” named Krishna and each scene had a different “Arjuna”. Creatively scripted in one day and practiced with everyone in another, the skit also had “commercial breaks” between scenes, similar to the ones we see on TV but with a Vedantic message. One of them was a mock of the “Zales Diamond” commercial; their motto is “Diamonds are forever”, and ours was “Nothing us forever”. It was pure laughs and more laughs as we mocked Br. Prabodhji’s classes in one of the scenes, and some of the Swamiji’s wonderfully cute accents. It always is a delight for me to be a part of the show, but I had made such great friendships by the time the show came around, that it meant so much more to me.

            It is very hard to describe everything that happened at the camp, as each person came with their own ideas, and experienced their own camp, but I know for a fact that it is very hard to find an event like the Chinmaya Camps to meet people of a similar mindset, and also to have such wonderful satsang with our beloved acharyas and Guruji. This is why I hope that by reading this other families and CHYKs, like you, will be enthused to come to the camps this year and the years to come. I know I am!

Hari Om,
Bhavana S
(CMAA, MI)