Shri Ram Chandra Mission
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Shri Ram Chandra Mission (SRCM) is a
non-profit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...
and a spiritual movement originating in India. It teaches the practice of " Sahaj Marg" or "Heartfulness Meditation", was registered in 1945 by Ram Chandra of
Shahjahanpur Shahjahanpur () is a municipal corporation, town and district headquarters of Shahjahanpur District in Western Uttar Pradesh, India. It is located between Bareilly and Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh. History Shahjahanpur was establi ...
, Utter Pradesh, and it has its current headquarters at Kanha Shanti Vanam, Kanha village,
Ranga Reddy District Ranga Reddy district is a district in the Indian state of Telangana. The district headquarters is located at Kongara Kalan Village, Ibrahimpatnam Mandal. The district was named after the former deputy chief minister of the United Andhra Prade ...
near
Hyderabad Hyderabad is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part of Southern India. With an average altitude of , much ...
,
Telangana Telangana is a States and union territories of India, state in India situated in the Southern India, south-central part of the Indian subcontinent on the high Deccan Plateau. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, ele ...
.


Purpose and practice

Shri Ram Chandra Mission teaches the "heart based" Raj Yoga meditation system known as Sahaj Marg or Heartfulness meditation.


Organization

Shri Ram Chandra Mission was registered in India in the year 1945 by Ram Chandra of Shahjahanpur, also known as "Babuji". He had taken the name Ram Chandra after his teacher of the system Ram Chandra of Fatehgarh, also known as "Lalaji". Babuji was succeeded as president and spiritual Master of SRCM by Parthasarathi Rajagopalachari. Following his death on 20 December 2014, Kamlesh D. Patel became president of SRCM and the fourth spiritual Master of the Sahaj Marg system. The organization was also registered as SRCM USA in California in 1997. Shri Ram Chandra Mission claims to have spread this system of meditation amongst millions of people across 160 countries worldwide. Books published by SRCM have been translated to over twenty languages and are read widely across the world. The Spiritual Hierarchy Publication Trust (SHPT) was registered on 8 April 2009, with its headquarters at Kolkata, India. The SHPT undertakes all publication activities under license from the Shri Ram Chandra Mission (SRCM) and the Sahaj Marg Spirituality Foundation (SMSF).Spiritual Hierarchy Publication Trust
/ref> Shri Ram Chandra Mission is an
NGO A non-governmental organization (NGO) is an independent, typically nonprofit organization that operates outside government control, though it may get a significant percentage of its funding from government or corporate sources. NGOs often focus ...
recognized by the
United Nations Department of Public Information The United Nations Department of Global Communications (DGC) (prior to 1 January 2019, the United Nations Department of Public Information) is a department of the Secretariat of the United Nations. It is tasked with raising public awareness and ...
(UNDPI) as a "non-profit organization" in Denmark, the United States and India.


Kanha Shanti Vanam

Kanha Shanti Vanam is a spiritual centre with integrated township located 25 kms from
Rajiv Gandhi International Airport Rajiv Gandhi International Airport is an international airport that serves Hyderabad, the capital of the Indian state of Telangana. It is located in Shamshabad, about south of Hyderabad and it was opened on 23 March 2008 to replace Begumpet ...
in Kanha Village,
Ranga Reddy District Ranga Reddy district is a district in the Indian state of Telangana. The district headquarters is located at Kongara Kalan Village, Ibrahimpatnam Mandal. The district was named after the former deputy chief minister of the United Andhra Prade ...
,
Hyderabad Hyderabad is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part of Southern India. With an average altitude of , much ...
, spanning 1,200 acres. It supports extended spiritual training and mentorship programmes. The centre also boasts of environmental initiatives including
water conservation Water conservation aims to sustainably manage the natural resource of fresh water, protect the hydrosphere, and meet current and future human demand. Water conservation makes it possible to avoid water scarcity. It covers all the policies, strateg ...
and saving endangered plant species.


Activities

In February 2020
Ram Nath Kovind Ram Nath Kovind ( ; born 1 October 1945) is an Indian politician and lawyer who served as the president of India from 2017 to 2022. He is the first person from Uttar Pradesh to serve as the president. He is a member of the Bharatiya Janata Pa ...
, the
President of India The president of India (ISO 15919, ISO: ) is the head of state of the Republic of India. The president is the nominal head of the executive, the first citizen of the country, and the commander-in-chief, supreme commander of the Indian Armed ...
, visited Kanha Shanti Vanam, the global headquarters of Shri Ram Chandra Mission, and unveiled the meditation center, which the organization claims is the largest in the world. In connection with the center there is a learning center for children between the ages of 3 and 18, and a cricket stadium. SRCM in collaboration with the
United Nations Information Centre for India and Bhutan The United Nations Information Centre for India and Bhutan is based in New Delhi, India. It is one of 59 active United Nations Information Centres (UNICs) located worldwide. These UNICs work globally under the direction of the Department of Gl ...
hosts the "All India Essay Writing Event", an annual essay writing event for school and college students across the country. Prizes are awarded for national and state level winners. In 2014, a total of 185,751 students from 11,857 schools and colleges across India took part in this annual contest. In 2017, the event was hosted with participants writing essays in English, Hindi, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Marathi, Malayalam, Oriya, Punjabi, Tamil and Telugu. Shri Ram Chandra Mission, Kanha Shanti Vanam, was awarded the "Haritha Mitra" (Green Friend) Award by the Telangana government in 2016, in recognition of exemplary contribution to the greening movement undertaken by the Government of Telangana by Deputy Chief Minister Mahmood Ali of
Telangana State Telangana is a States and union territories of India, state in India situated in the Southern India, south-central part of the Indian subcontinent on the high Deccan Plateau. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, ele ...
, India. In December 2017,
Ram Nath Kovind Ram Nath Kovind ( ; born 1 October 1945) is an Indian politician and lawyer who served as the president of India from 2017 to 2022. He is the first person from Uttar Pradesh to serve as the president. He is a member of the Bharatiya Janata Pa ...
, the then
President of India The president of India (ISO 15919, ISO: ) is the head of state of the Republic of India. The president is the nominal head of the executive, the first citizen of the country, and the commander-in-chief, supreme commander of the Indian Armed ...
, E.S.L. Narasimhan, Governor of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, visited SRCM's Kanha Shanti Vanam Ashram and planted the 100,000th tree with Kamlesh Patel under the Green Kanha initiative.


Environmental Initiative


Tree Conservation

At Kanha Shanti Vanam, the Tree Conservation Center's project was launched by Union Agriculture Minister Mr. Narendra Singh Tomar. The centre undertook plantation of 50,000 plants over the years. A contemporary
tissue culture Tissue culture is the growth of tissue (biology), tissues or cell (biology), cells in an artificial medium separate from the parent organism. This technique is also called micropropagation. This is typically facilitated via use of a liquid, semi-s ...
laboratory has been built to aid in the propagation of critically endangered plant and tree species. Tissue culture is used in addition to the traditional methods of seed propagation, cutting, and layering.


Rainforest

The
Rainforest Rainforests are forests characterized by a closed and continuous tree Canopy (biology), canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforests can be generally classified as tropi ...
in Kanha Shanti Vanam, which is grown in the formerly arid Nandigama Mandal, covers five to six acres, claims to have increased the area's green cover and has become home to vulnerable and endangered species in the past four to five years.


Water Conservation

There are twelve water harvesting ponds built to replenish the
groundwater Groundwater is the water present beneath Earth's surface in rock and Pore space in soil, soil pore spaces and in the fractures of stratum, rock formations. About 30 percent of all readily available fresh water in the world is groundwater. A unit ...
surrounding the site. The year 2017 saw the first significant rainfall in the area after 120 years of drought-like conditions. The increased green cover is claimed to be the reason for this change in climate.


Facilities


Meditation Hall

Kanha Shanti Vanam claims to have the largest meditation centre in the world, accommodating 100,000 people at a time for meditation.


Medical Center

The medical center has adequate medical facilities to assist the local populations and visitors. Shri Thaneeru Harish Rao, the
Telangana government The Government of Telangana also known as Telangana Government, is the governing authority of the States and union territories of India, state of Telangana in India. It consists of an executive branch, executive, a judiciary and a legislative. ...
's honourable minister of finance, health, medical care, and family welfare, officially inaugurated the Kanha Medical Centre.


Heartfulness Learning Center

As part of its educational activities, the Heartfulness Institute has established the "Heartfulness Learning Center," which intends to offer children from Pre-KG through Grade 8. Mr.
Suresh Prabhu Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu (born 11 July 1953) is an Indian politician. He served as a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1996 to 2009, representing Rajapur in the Lok Sabha. He was also a member of the ''Rajya Sabha'', representing Andhra Pradesh ...
, Union Minister for Commerce and Civil Aviation, and his wife Mrs. Uma Prabhu attended the inauguration of the Learning Center.


Events


2022


= Rising for Kindness

= The seminar took place between 12 and 14 August 2022. As per Heartfulness Institute, the goal of the "Rising with Kindness" conference was to promote acts of kindness for oneself, others, and the environment. In addition to raising understanding of
Indian culture Indian culture is the heritage of social norms and technologies that originated in or are associated with the ethno-linguistically diverse nation of India, pertaining to the Indian subcontinent until 1947 and the Republic of India post-1947. ...
and heritage amongst youth, the programme aimed to connect young leaders for
sustainable development Sustainable development is an approach to growth and Human development (economics), human development that aims to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.United Nations General ...
and offer more possibilities with Heartfulness through
yoga Yoga (UK: , US: ; 'yoga' ; ) is a group of physical, mental, and spiritual practices or disciplines that originated with its own philosophy in ancient India, aimed at controlling body and mind to attain various salvation goals, as pra ...
,
meditation Meditation is a practice in which an individual uses a technique to train attention and awareness and detach from reflexive, "discursive thinking", achieving a mentally clear and emotionally calm and stable state, while not judging the meditat ...
, and interfaith conversation.


= International Health and Wellness

= The first ever international conference on integrative health and wellbeing (IHW), took place in Kanha Shanti Vanam between 16 and 18 December 2022. The conference combined traditional with integrative holistic approaches to health and wellness that are supported by research. Several prestigious national and international institutions provided support for the conference. Dr. Mansukh Mandaviya, the then Union Minister for Health, Family Welfare, and Chemicals and Fertilisers, delivered the conference's keynote address alongside Shri Kamlesh Patel, the Global Guide of Heartfulness Meditation.


References


External links

{{wikiquote
SRCM (Official site)

Sahaj Marg

SMSF

Kanha Shanti Vanam

"Shri Ram Chandra Mission: The MIVILUDES Loses a Court Case"
by
Massimo Introvigne Massimo Introvigne (born June 14, 1955) is an Italian sociologist of religion, author, and intellectual property attorney. He is a co-founder and the managing director of the Center for Studies on New Religions (CESNUR), a Turin-based nonprof ...
at ''Bitter Winter'' (March 22, 2024) Non-profit organisations based in India Organizations established in 1945 Spiritual organizations Yoga organizations New religious movements established in the 1940s