Excerpts from the Deed of Trust

A Regd Public Charitable Foundation for addressing the complex problem of the ‘inner suffering'[Dukha] in human lives, and for bringing lasting relief & liberation from such mental, emotional, spiritual[& even physical] sufferings; through the time-honored Vedic means of a thorough enquiry into the nature of the self & suffering [Atmavichara], through the means of self-knowing & self-realization [Atmavidya, Atmajnana] and through such a disciplined enquiry & understanding, bring the Prasada of ‘Atma Prasannata’ (inner peace & contentment), within the reach of individual seekers & mumukshus. Thereby also nurture ‘Loka Kalyana’ (world welfare); through these comprehensive means of teaching, guiding, counseling, preserving, researching into & disseminating: ‘the Vedic & the Hindu sacred disciplines of knowledge’.

Whereas, by the expression, ‘the Vedic & the Hindu sacred disciplines of knowledge’ is meant, the collective spiritual heritage of the Hindu world, consisting of: the Vedas & Vedangas, Jyotisha (Vedic Astrology); Atmavidya, Atmavichara & Atmajnana (as available in the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, the Brahma Sutras, Moksha & Yoga Shastras, Advaita granthas, Puranas, the Itihasas, the works of ancient & modern Advaitic Masters); Sanskrit; Vastuvidya & Ayurveda; – all of them, as the necessary Vedic means for understanding the origin of human suffering, for healing, and for the ending of these sufferings; and thereby bringing the Prasada of ‘Atma Prasannata’ within the reach of seekers & mumukshus, and thus also paving the way for true ‘Loka Kalyana'(welfare of the world).

Whereas, the Advaitic teaching ‘TAT TVAM ASI'[‘That Thou Art’] repeatedly occurs in the Chandogya Upanishad, as the summum bonum of Atmavichara, and points to the Identity of the Atman[Inner Self of man, ‘TVAM’]with the Unmanifest Godhead or Para Brahma[‘TAT’]. Whereas, the genesis of THIS DEED OF TRUST made this DAY, THE 20TH OF JANUARY, 2011, at Chennai, between the Authors of the Trust, & the Trustees of the Trust, is as set forth hereunder.

Whereas, Sri Sankara Bhagavadpada at the outset expresses his gratitude and salutations to the three illustrious Masters, no more on the physical plane: Sri J Krishnamurti, Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj and Sri Ramana Maharshi, as well as to the contemporary Master, Sri Bhagavan; for their priceless and distinctly different Upadesas – from which he has vastly benefitted at various stages in his spiritual life.

Whereas, the author & founder of THIS DEED OF TRUST, Sri Sankara Bhagavadpada has the conviction that ‘his Samkalpa to bring this Atmavichara [enquiry into the nature of the self] & Atmajnana [self-knowledge and Self-realization], into the world at this time’, is indeed the fruit of his life-long contemplative & meditative enquiry, in the spheres of Dharma and Moksha – ever since its first humble beginnings[through Sri Bhagavan’s initiation in 1963], & through a subsequent profounder plunge into Atmavichara in Mumbai[ 1972], through the meditative witnessing of ‘what is’, as taught by Sri J Krishnamurti.

And, whereas, after having entered the third Asrama of life [Vaanaprasthaasrama]; at 62, he feels, this is the timely ‘harvesting’ season of his life, as the earlier ‘tilling’ and ‘sowing’ seasons of his spiritual life are now patently behind him.