SAMBODH FOUNDATION India
INSPIRED & LED BY Swami Bodhananda

Bodhananda Sruti Seva Trust , a registered charitable Trust established in 1999 is engaged in several humanitarian and spiritual activities with the guidance and blessings of our Guru Pujya Swami Bodhananda.

History
The Bodhananda movement started at Ernakulam in the year 1994 with the formation of Bodhananda Seva Society ( Regd No. 108/94) with Sri. S Ananthasubramania Iyer ( Retd. Dist Judge ) as President, Sri K Vidyadharan Thampi as Secretary, Sri P S Radhakrishnan as Jt. Secretary and Dr.Sumam Nair as Treasurer. Later this movement evolved into the Bodhananda Sruti Seva Trust, as guided by Poojya Swamiji in a meeting held at ’Geetanjali, ‘Broadway ,Ernakulam ( Residence of Dr P K KarunakaraPillai ) on 28.02.1999 and the Trust was constituted on 26.03.1999. Dr. P K Karunakara Pillai, Sri B Das and Smt Padma Nayar were the founder Trustees. Subsequently a board of Trustees was formed as follows: Chairman : Swami Bodhananda Sarasvati President : Dr. P K Karunakara Pillai Vice Presidents : Sri B Das & Sri Krishna Vijoy Arora Secretary : Sri S Ayyappan Pillai Jt. Secretary : Sri P G Pillai Treasurer : Smt Padma Nayar Jt. Treasurer : Smt V V Pushpalatha Trustees : Sri T P B Panicker, Dr. K G Nayar and Smt Lalitha Pillai The Regd. office functioned at “Bhadra”, Vazhakkala, Thrikkakkara P.O. (Residence of Dr. K G Nayar and Smt Padma Nayar) Sri S Ayyappan Pillai and Sri P S Radhakrishnan took over as President and Secretary of the Trust on 15th April 2007 as decided by the Executive Committee meeting held on 28.02.2007 presided over by Poojya Swamiji. Later in a meeting held on 30.01.2010 , Swami Bodhananda nominated Sri B R Ajit as the President of the trust and Sri S Ayyappan Pillai was made the Working President.

In the year 2000, the trustees of VidyaKuteeram (Onamkuttichira Road, Chottanikkara P O) decided to donate its property to Bodhananda Sruti Seva Trust. Smt N Ammukutty Amma, Nellikkappillil, and Sri Appu Menon, brother of Smt Ammukutty Amma were among those who took the initiative. Smt Radha Nambiar (presently Swamini Ma Jyotirmayi) played a pivotal role in this donation. The name of the ashram was changed to Bodhananda Vidya Kuteeram and poojas started there on a regular basis. Later the name of the ashram was changed to Sree Bodhananda Sreevidya Peetham.

In 2005, Sri Krishna Vijoy Arora passed away and his collection of over 4000 books on Vedanta and other Indian tradition were donated to BSST by his family. On 21st May 2006, the Krishna Vijoy Arora Memorial Library was opened at Chottanikkara.

On 14th April 2016, Bodhananda International Foundation for Inter Religious Dialogue( BIFIRD ) was inaugurated at Silversand Island,Vyttila on land donated by Sri B R Ajit in the fond memory of his father, the late Sri K B Unnithan. Subsequently the Regd office of the Bodhananda Sruti Seva Trust and the Krishna Vijoy Arora Memorial Library were shifted to BIFIRD.

Current Leadership of BSST
The present set up of the Trust is as follows:
Chairman : H H Swami Bodhananda Sarasvati
Patrons : Dr. P K KarunakaraPillai, Sr iSusil Kumar Arora, Sri P G Pillai, Sri Sathish Mittal,Sri E R Menon, Dr P Sreekumar, Sri S Ayyappan Pillai, Sri T P B Panicker, & Smt Pushpa Arora
President : Sri B R Ajit
Vice President : Smt Padma Nayar and Sri M K Ranjit
Secretary : Sri P S Radhakrishnan
Jt . Secretary : Sri K S Sasidharan
Treasurer : Sri K N Anilkumar
Jt. Treasurer : Smt Ammu Ajit
Other Trustee Mmbers : Sri K Muralidharan, Dr. Prakash Chandran, Sri M V Padmakumar, Dr. Sreekumari, Sri K T Mohanan, Sri V N Chandrahohan, Smt Meena Viswanathan, Sri Arun L Menon and Sri S Kesavankutty Nair.

Programmes
We organize annual Geeta Gnana Yajnas and Lecture series conducted by Pujya Swami Bodhananda in various parts of Cochin.Regular annual programmes are organised in the Ashram for the distribution of uniforms, umbrellas, bags etc to students studying in Govt school, Chottanikkara. We have been extending financial support and educational aid to financially weak students for more than a decade with the mission of preventing dropouts at high school level. We have also been extending financial aid towards meeting medical needs of the needy.

From 2000- 2010, every year we organized the MammenMappillai Memorial Lecture on Economics, Management and Leadership as part of Rishi Vision (during Swamiji’s visit to Ernakulam ). Eminent personalities like Justice P K Mohan, Smt Lakshmi Venkatesh, Sri Gurcharan Das, Sri A Damodaran, Dr. P C Alexander, Sri K T Balakrishnan IAS, Sri C V Ananda Bose IAS, Sri Narendar Pani and Dr B P Mathur delivered the memorial lectures. The late Dr K G Nayar was the key person in organizing these management programmes. The past programmes also include seminars on Mahabharata and Chanakya’s Arthasasthra.

The late Dr K G Nayar was instrumental in organizing several management talks by Poojya Swamiji in various reputed organizations like The Kochi Refineries Ltd, The Hindustan Organic Chemicals Ltd, The Cochin University of Science and Technology, The Cochin Shipyard Ltd, State Bank of India, The Kerala Management Association etc. We also organise interactive seminars and Management talks by Gurudev in various Institutions and Companies in Ernakulam like, Kochi Refineries, Bharathiya Vidya Bhavan, F.A.C.T., Hindustan Insecticides, Cochin Shipyard, Hindustan organic Chemicals etc.

Various spiritual programmes are being conducted at the Ashram on a regular basis at the Vidya Peetam such as: Siva Sakthi Archana on all Amavasi and Pournami days; Ganesa Gayathri Archana on the 1st Tuesday of every month; Navagraha Pooja on all Second Saturdays; and Siva Sahasranama Archana on Pradosham day. Apart from these regular programmes, we also celebrate our Guru Pujya Swami Bodhananda's birthday, Navarathri,Gurupoornima, Ashtami Rohini,Geeta Day, Rama Navami, Sivarathri etc with chantings,poojas and archanas.

Inter-faith Dialogue, Lectures and Cultural Programmes at BIFIRD, Vyttila
BIFIRD organized an inter-faith meet and dialogue on 25.12.2015 at BTH, Ernakulam during Poojya Swamiji’s visit during December 2015. The speakers were Poojya Swamiji, Prof K V Thomas M P , Sri M A Arif MLA,Fr. Robin Kannanchira Sri Ibrahim Khan, Sri K L Mohana Varma-Sri B R Ajit and Swami Adhyatmananda saraswati. Sevaral other events like paper bag making, umbrella making etc are also being organised. We also organized at BIFIRD, Vyttila ,lectures by eminent personalities like Sri Harhara Iyer, Prof Mavelikara Subramaniam on Sangeetha-Mokshamargam, Sri E H Gopalakrishnan on Zen Buddhism and an interschool debate with participation from various schools across Kerala, and ghazal concert by Kerala Kharana.