It was a full house at Krishnaalaya during the Thanksgiving weekend, from Nov 23rd to the 27th.  Every single accommodation was taken.  The ‘No Vacancy’ sign was put up weeks before the event!   Some of the participants were even willing to commute each morning from nearby motels as long as they could attend the activities at the camp eah day!

 The text that our Acharya Prabodh Chaitanya had chosen for his lectures – chapter 10 of “Panchadasi” by Swami Vidyaranya, with commentary by Swami Tejomayanandaji, set the stage for the  camp’s activities.  This chapter uses the metaphor of the theater lamp in a theater to describe the omnipresent nature of Sakshi or consciousness.  Just as the lamp in a theatre or stage, staying in one place, illuminates the presence or absence of the performer, the orchestra, the chief guest and the audience without any discrimination, so does consciousness illuminate the trio of our world – the actor, the object and the act of knowing.

Though a text for the advanced student of Vedanta, Prabodhji made the message of Panchadasi comprehensible with his simple language and appropriate examples from the everyday day life of the average, questioning seeker of today.

Starting with creation, where the Lord through his Maya Shakti, created and permeated the world of manifold expressions, the text moves on to describe how the Lord then took up two roles and levels of conditioning.  He first became Vishnu and the other devatas, and the same Paramatma, having entered the human being with limited conditionings, became the Jeeva.  So He became both the worshipped and the worshipper. The difference that we perceive between the worshipped and the worshipper comes from the conditioning. Getting rid of the conditioning through self-enquiry about our true nature is what Swami Vidyaranya inspires us to do in this text.  He says that to see the self as separate from Ishwara is bondage.  But knowing oneself as inseparable form Ishwara is true liberation.

How does the Jeeva understand the union of the Self with the Supreme?  Through many births of devotion – bhakti, the surrender of action and doership and when the maya or illusion is destroyed by self-enquiry, the Self alone remains.  This self-enquiry involves a very good observation of this world and listening to the Scriptures (Shravana) which prompts us to think about this aspect constantly.  Since Consciousness cannot be “known” through the sense organs, mind or intellect, it can be experienced only when these aspects of our personality are completely quiet.  Just as we do not need another lamp to see a lamp, we don’t need any other instrument to recognize the Self or Consciousness.  What we do need is the guidance and blessings of a teacher who will give us a clear understanding about the Self through the study of Vedanta.  After having understood the nature of the Self or Consciousness through the grace of a teacher, the Jeeva then has to strive to experience and realize the Self through meditation.

Prabodhji gave us several questions to discuss in our study groups each day, after the Panchadasi classes.  These were lively sessions where the time just flew and it was wonderful to see many newcomers and first –timers participate in the discussions with great enthusiasm.  On the last day of the camp, one spokesperson per group presented the group’s responses to each of the questions, to the rest of the camp.

While the adults were trying our best to keep our voices to tolerable decibel levels, the children at the camp were kept busy as their teachers planned lessons and activities around the Chinmaya Mission pledge.  The youngsters analysed the main ideas of the pledge, played the game of “Life”, did an art project, and even took part in four plays to demonstrate what was significant to them about the pledge.  It was a treat to watch them!

On the last day of the camp, after morning meditation, we participated in Gurudev’s Paduka puja before heading back to the bay area.  The weekend had passed so fast.  It was a wonderful five-day retreat, away from the pressures of work and routines, where we got to pray, meditate, work and bond together as one large Chinmaya family!