On the Avirbhav Divas of Swami Sri Yukeswarji, bhumi pujan (ground-breaking ceremony) for new buildings to be constructed at the YSS Educational Campus at Jagannathpur was held on May 10, 2019. The function included bhumi pujan, havan, a period of meditation and chanting.
The Chief Guest and main speaker of the function was Sri Harivansh Narayan Singh, Deputy Chairman of the Rajya Sabha. Along with him on the dais were senior SRF sannyasi and YSS Board Member Swami Vishwananda, YSS General Secretary Swami Ishwarananda, and Swamis Suddhananda and Nirvanananda.
This project is part of the 125th birth anniversary celebrations of Sri Sri Paramahansa Yogananda (author of the Autobiography of a Yogi), which started in the year 2018. The Ministry of Culture, Government of India, instituted a National Implementation committee (NIC) to undertake various programmes to honour and commemorate this event. One of these initiatives was to upgrade the infrastructure and facilities of the YSS educational institutions at Ranchi.
The Construction Plan
Eight buildings, and a complex of 24 classrooms, with a total built-up area of 84,000 square feet will be constructed under this scheme. While the Government of India is funding the construction of all the ancillary buildings, YSS is directly funding the construction of the classroom complex.
The classrooms have a unique design, wherein the students will be able to remain in touch with outside nature, which provides an ideal learning environment to unfold their innate potential. Gurudeva Paramahansa Yoganandaji encouraged this form of classroom learning.
The eight buildings include independent blocks for Administration, Science Laboratories, Library, NCC activities, and classrooms for Yogoda Satsanga Vidyalaya; and a multipurpose hall, which can seat about 1000 persons, for the Yogoda Satsanga Mahavidyalaya. The multipurpose hall will also have large classrooms on the ground floor, each of which can accommodate around 250 students. The total cost of the project is estimated to be Rs. 11 crores.
The Programme
Upon their arrival at the venue, the YSS/SRF sannyasis were welcomed by NCC cadets. Swami Ishwarananda and Swami Vishwananda laid bricks from Guruji's Ranchi ashram at the foundation. The sannyasis participated in the havan. Children from the school prayed before the public address. The gathering was addressed by Swamis Suddhananda, Nirvanananda and Vishwananda.
Speaking to those present, Swami Ishwarananda recalled that Paramahansa Yoganandaji had started a Brahmacharya Vidyalaya, in Ranchi more than a hundred years ago with only a handful of boys. Today, that humble initiative has grown to around 20 YSS Educational Institutions across India, including three colleges in Ranchi - a girls’ school in Chutia, and a boys’ school and a degree college in Jagannathpur. He expressed gratitude to the Government for this benevolent support to the school in improving the quality of education provided to students.
Swami Vishwananda said it was a pleasure to see the work of Yoganandaji reaching far and wide, and urged the teachers, and faculty to nurture the students on Paramahansa Yoganandaji’s ideal where modern educational methods were combined with yoga training and instruction in spiritual ideals.
YSS “serves mankind as one’s own larger self” through its many educational institutions, free dispensaries, eye and medical camps, scholarships to the needy, and aid to those affected by natural calamities.
