Our leadership.

The purpose of education is manifold. Literacy and employment are its primary aims. Another purpose is to make students capable of living their lives fully at all levels of their personalities. They should be able to face the numerous challenges of life and carve out a purposeful future for themselves.

At yet another level, the purpose of education is to groom students in noble cultural values. In the absence of this culture, knowledge itself and material prosperity can become a weapon of destruction instead of a means of blessing to humanity. Still higher than this aim is to create a thirst for greater knowledge in students, so that they discover the mysteries of Nature and the world around them.

The Chinmaya International Residential School at Coimbatore imparts education to students from India and abroad. Keeping all the aforesaid in view, children get modern education in an atmosphere of rich Indian culture.

Pujya Gurudev Swami Chinmayananda had laid the foundation of this school in Coimbatore, a few years ago. He attained Mahasamadhi in August 1993. To realise His cherished dream is now the sacred duty of us all — His disciples, devotees, followers and admirers. Let us come together and pay our respectful homage to Him in making the Chinmaya International Residential School a reality. May He shower His grace and blessings on us to make this project a great success.

Transcending Limitations

Life can be a stormy affair, full of challenges. But if we choose, our storms can strengthen our character and bring out the greatness in us.

Life constantly presents us with all kinds of challenges. Often, external problems mirror internal disturbances, which in turn are due to our internal limitations. Our capacity to meet them depends largely on the strength or weakness of our inner state. That is why we need to gather strength inwardly: so that we can fulfil our potential and attain success regardless of circumstances.

The values we hold dear, the virtues we choose to cultivate, the positive habits we develop, all benefit us in checking the mental chaos created by negative qualities. Replace vice with virtue. Actively cultivate noble qualities and virtues to secure inner strength and peace of mind.

Across history, people have been inspired by their difficulties to generate new and creative responses, that not only serve as a beacon to others but also become larger than themselves and benefit others even after they, as individuals, are gone.

I wish you all a wonderful year of transcending limitations.

Hari Om!

Love

At His feet

Swami Swaroopananda

Transcending Limitations

Gurudev said, “Win the Mind; win the world”. Mind alone is the cause for our successes and our failures. To train the mind to reap a heap of successes in our life is real education. A prominent business tycoon once said, “The greatest opportunities lie in the greatest challenges”.

Limitations and obstacles look staggering only for those that are incapable of handling them. For the capable and the empowered, there are no obstacles or limitations to their progress. The greatest inventions, the brightest innovations and the deepest discoveries have happened on the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles.

With steely determination and exuberant creativity, let us all march forth zealously towards our castle of true success, fulfilling us and benefitting the world around us.

Hari Om!

Swami Anukoolananda

Hari Om!

The latest and the most recent and serious concern today in Schools is DAS (Depression, Anxiety and Stress) among growing adolescents all over the world. Globally the reported rates of these mental disorders range up to an alarming 51%. The scene in India is slightly better than that of USA and Australia where one in five teenagers suffer from mental health problems. In a recent survey conducted in Chandigarh it was found that one out of 10 children are suffering from depression and it is higher among students of classes 10 and 12.

One would wonder how did these disorders creep into our glorious system of education we had in the past? This erosion is not the result of recent trends. We are responsible for slowly injecting the poison of competition over years among children. Right after independence, though the British left India physically, they left behind the Industrial mind set. Like an Industry, where the raw materials go through grinding, cutting and welding, children became the raw materials and had to go through the pain of memorizing, reproducing and taking periodical examinations. At the end when the student emerges out of the system, he is tested through an yearend examination for uniformity and any deviation found in the end product, he gets rejected and becomes like a scrap in the society. Children get branded with marks when they emerge out of the Schools. Too much of uniformity has killed creativity among children. One common examination and one expected answer; all these successfully took away the joy in learning. Fine skills like art, music and dance are all neglected and given no importance. The system focused only on scores and encouraged only cut-throat competition among children. What else can be the outcome of such an unhealthy system? No wonder we have ended up creating mental disorders in children.

We are fortunate in CIRS, that we have our Gurudev’s vision which focusses on the holistic development of Children. When children study in a stress-free environment like ours, blossoming happens naturally. No wonder every child here gets the opportunity to unleash their own hidden potential.

Best wishes,

Shanti Krishnamurthy

Dear Parents and Children,

Hari Om!

When we look at a storm, with its unstoppable immense power, we can only wonder at its might and force. Centred around a low pressure “eye of the storm” is a high pressure system of massive cloud and fierce wind, moving with great velocity, having a colossal force and enormous reach.

When one observes this natural phenomena and study the complexity of its nature one can see that, higher the pressure in the eye of the storm, lower the intensity of the winds around it and the calmer the eye of the storm is, the more massive the power it has, in the winds around it.

In the same way, the calmer we are in our mind just like the eye of the storm, the more power we will have to “storm to perform” in the world around us. For our mind to be calm, we must not get excited by the success nor be beaten down by the failure of life. For, these things are part and parcel of our lives. We must continue to look within for inner peace, train the mind to become calm and act to create a massive impact in this world. The eye of the storm, this inner peace, is the goal we need to seek in our lives.

Let us “Storm to Perform”.

With all wishes,

Rajeshwari