Instructions:

As one of the prescribed 9 point code of conduct activity, “Devotional singing/prayer with family members once per week” this sadhana offering will enable families to at least host one bhajan session at their home or attend center together as an collective offering for Swami’s 95 birthday offering

1. We will count all the regular center meetings as part of the daily bhajan activity
2. The rest of the days in the week will be open for devotees to host bhajan at their home.
3. Families can keep the bhajan session to their family members only or can invite near by family members or can invite the center devotees. It’s their discretion and call.
4. Currently we have bhjans hosted on Sundays (Flushing), Saturdays(S. OZone park, Bronx, Metropolitan), Fridays(Brooklyn), Thursdays(New hyde park, Manhattan). Therefore we will encourage the devotees to host bhajans on any Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday to ensure continuity of 95 non-stop daily bhajans.
5. The first bhajan will start on Thursday August 20th 2020 and the final bhajan session will conclude on November 23rd 2020.
6. All devotees from all centers can get back on their dates of selection by their devotees and we will maintain the details to ensure we have daily at least one bhajan session taking place in the entire NYC area.

Purpose:

people born in this yugaare more fortunate than those that lived in the other three yuga.But, unfortunately, people today are not able to follow such an easy path. You are unable to sit steadily even for a couple of minutes. Then what sort of penance can you perform? It is impossible. Therefore, take refuge in na-masmarana. There is no greater spiritual dis-cipline (sadhana)than this. When you continuously sing the Divine Name, it drives away all your evil qualities. You yourself can see how blissful you be-come when you sing the Divine Name. That is why God is described as Ganalola and Ga-napriya (lover of music). Sage Narada always sings the Divine Name of Lord Narayana. This is his main task. The Lord becomes ecstatic listening to his singing. There is so much bliss in singing. It captivates one’s heart so that one is lost in ecstasy. That is why singing is considered most valuable. One may not knowthe nuances of music like sruti, laya, raga, and tala(pitch, rhythm, tune,and beat), but one should sing whole-heartedly with feeling.There are three ways to utter the Divine Name. You can pray in words, “Oh Rama, please protect me” or the same can be said in the form of a poem also. However, they are not very pleasing to hear. But when you ex-press the same prayer in the form of a song, it directly enters the heart, because there is so much of sweetness and bliss in singing. That is why Narada continuously sings the Divine Name, “Narayana, Narayana…” Once,Sage Narada approached Lord Naraya-na and prayed to Him to explain the efficacy of Rama Nama(repetition of the name Ra-ma). “Narada! Look, there is a parrot on the tree. Go and ask the parrot to chant Rama Nama once,” said Narayana. Obeying His command, Narada went to the parrot and asked it to chant the Name of Rama. The moment the parrot heard the Divine Name of Rama, it dropped down dead from the tree. Narada went back to Narayana and said, “Oh Lord!As per Your command, when I asked the parrot to chant Rama Nama, it breathed its last.”Narayana said, “Oh Narada! Do not worry about the death of the parrot. Just now, a cow has given birth to a calf. Go and ask the calf to chant the Name of Rama.”Narada was afraid lest the calf should also meet the fate of the parrot. However, obeying the command of Narayana, he asked the calf to chant the Divine Name of Rama. As soon as the newborn calf heard the Name of Rama, it also dropped down dead. When Narada informed Narayana, He again commanded him to go to the palace of a king who was blessed with a son and ask the prince to chant the Divine Name of Rama. Narada was fear-stricken, but Narayana insisted that Narada obey His command. Narada went to the palace and asked the newly-born prince to chant Rama Nama once. The prince saluted Sage Narada and informed him that by the mere listening to Rama Nama just once, he was transformed from a parrot to a calf and from a calf to a human being as a prince. He expressed his gratitude to Sage Narada for initiating him into Rama Nama. Thus, the Di-vine Name confers human birth, which is considered a rare gift