manuṣhyāṇāṁ sahasreṣhu kaśhchid yatati siddhaye

In the Bhagavad Gita Chapter 7, Lord Krishna says among thousands of people hardly one strives for perfection. This verse came alive as we experienced the presence of Bramhacharini Shweta Chaitanya on Feb 2nd 2020. Brahmacharini ji visited Chinmaya Mission at both Andover (1 Union Street, Andover) and Metrowest (a satellite center of Chinmaya Mission Boston that conducts Bal Vihar at 117 E. Main St, Westboro every Sunday from 2:15 to 5 PM) locations. 

Brni. Shweta Chaitanya's Vedantic journey began when she joined Bala Vihar in Chinmaya Mission Houston at the age of 6. As Aditi Deshmukh, she progressed steadily until she graduated in 2009. After her undergraduate degree from University of Texas, Austin, she completed the Vedanta course at Sandeepany Sadhanalaya, Mumbai, in August 2014. She later returned to Columbia University to complete a Masters specializing in Sanskrit.

She led the assembly with a beautiful Ram Dhun that kept the children and adults captivated. The Adult Satsang that meets every Sunday got to hear a wonderful discourse from Brahmachariniji that left them wanting more. She talked about the preparation for Vedanta and the solution that Vedanta offers. With stories and examples she covered the typical way we think and deal with situations and suggested alternate techniques to help us understand ourselves. She said that these techniques can be practiced by us to fine tune our minds to completely get what Vedanta has to offer. Brahmacharini ji also addressed the youth separately and spent a good amount of time with them listening to their concerns and challenges. The children at Bala Vihar felt very comfortable with her.

Brahmacharini ji is currently a Fellow at the Harvard Divinity School. This program at HDS has two main objectives: to enrich the HDS community, and to enable the participating monastics to return to their communities with expanded horizons. We are fortunate to have her within easy driving distance for some more time and she assured us that she would visit us again.

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