The Grantha Club of Chinmaya Vishwavidyapeeth (CVV) hosted a session on 15 August 2020 to celebrate the 74th year of independence. The theme for the session was ‘Unsung Heroes’. Students, staff and faculty of CVV joined the session and made the event joyful for all participants. They talked about freedom fighters who inspired them very much.
The first speaker was Dr. Vanishree Ramanathan, Head, School of EGCS. She spoke about her inspiration—the freedom fighter, Smt. Kamala Devi Chattopadhyay. “Devi is a freedom fighter, social activist, youth leader and an artist. She contributed diversity to our country, India. In my words, I can say she is a legendary social reformer and cultural queen of India,” were some of the things that she said inspired her about Kamala Devi.
Next, Aditya Anshuman, a student of BBA, talked about the leader who inspired him. He spoke about Swami Chinmayananda, the visionary behind the Chinmaya Mission and Chinmaya Vishwavidyapeeth. He spoke about Gurudev’s Life story, his experiences, struggles faced by him as a freedom fighter and how finally he became a spiritual master.
We also had Dr. Sandhya Shankar, Assistant Professor, School of LLS, talk about Velu Nachiyar, the queen of Shivagangai from Tamil Nadu. She started the freedom struggle in the year 1772, one of the earliest freedom struggles witnessed in India. She also had a women commander in charge, Kuyili, who though sacrificed herself, led a successful charge against the British. These brave women are indeed inspirational.
Havisha Machiraju from B.A Applied Psychology spoke about her local hero Alluri Sita Ramaraju. He was one of the prominent freedom fighters from Andhra who led a rebellion against the British along with the tribals. He was one of the persons who used guerrilla warfare as a strategy. He was given the title, ‘Manyam Veerudu’.
After that, we had Dr. Venkata Raghavan, Assistant Professor, School of PPSH, who hinted on the importance of preparation. He narrated an incident which, though witty, caused a huge set-back for India and paved the way for a major breakthrough for the British.
The last speaker was our Vice Chancellor, Prof. Nagraj Neerchal who spoke about the importance of independence. He emphasised the need to preserve our ‘swatantrata’ and act responsibly, using it for the right cause. Independence is both valuable and expensive and we must be consciously aware of the price we paid for it. Setting a purpose for ourselves will help us do the right thing.
The session ended with us saluting all the leaders and unsung heroes of the independence movement. Havisha, member, Grantha Club, was the MC. She thanked all the participants for joining in and closed with the shanti mantra.
The Grantha Club of Chinmaya Vishwavidyapeeth, renewed itself for another season with the first session of the academic year 2020, on 24 July.
To lend an auspicious start to this first online book talk, the presenter, Vice Chancellor Prof. Nagaraj Neerchal, chose Self Unfoldment, a book written by Pujya Gurudev Swami Chinmayananda. The book presented was a special edition released for the western audience with a powerful foreword by Rudite Emir.
Dr. Nagaraj started with a brief bio of the author and went on to talk about what makes the book special and an important addition to one’s life. The book explains the fundamentals of Vedanta in such a manner that helps a common person to understand it better and incorporate these lessons in their lives.
All the book lovers in CVV—students, staff and faculty—joined in for the Friday night discussion of a truly wonderful book.
