You are Invited to our Annual Durga Puja

Monday, October 7, 2019 at 6:00 pm

 Worship to be officiated by Ramen Chakrabarti
Sri Chandi Recital by Indira (Ann) Bulkin 

Cultural Integration Fellowship

2650 Fulton Street, San Francisco

Durga Puja is a major festival in Bengal, celebrated all over India in worship of the Goddess Durga, Ma Durga, the Mother Goddess, who protects and redeems in situations of utmost distress. She has been empowered by the gods and is honored with devotion. The Cultural Integration Fellowship has been offering a Durga Puja celebration since 1971, officiated by Ramen Chakrabarti.

The Cultural Integration Fellowship was founded in 1951 by Dr. Haridas Chaudhuri and Mrs. Bina Chaudhuri as a center of universal religion and to promote the interchange of ideas between east and west. Seeking a dynamic synthesis of the cultural and spiritual values of all people, the Fellowship teaches the complementarity of the world’s great religions and philosophies and celebrates our unity in diversity.

Hilary Anderson, PhD
California Institute of Integral Studies
Professor Emeritus
Asian Philosophies & Womens Spirituality
Philosophy and Religion Department
School of Consciousness and Transformation

Friends will gather to share remembrances and honor the life of Hilary Anderson, a long-time devotee of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother and a student of Dr. Haridas Chaudhuri. Hilary worked with Dr. Chaudhuri in the founding of the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco and was a former professor, dean, and founding board member of the university. A well-known lecturer, scholar, therapist, and seminar leader, Dr. Anderson utilized a rich synthesis of East-West mythology and psycho-spiritual symbolism to promote healing and a deep cross cultural understanding of the human condition. Her unique perspective was rooted in a deep appreciation of our common cultural values and ideals expressed in the language of myth, symbol, and ritual. She recognized gods and goddesses of the great world myths as archetypal energy patterns, and developed a profound process through which we can identify the major mythic themes that play in our daily lives. 

Hilary made her transition on Wednesday, December 27, 2017 in Castro Valley, California in the San Francisco Bay Area. She will be dearly missed by her students, friends, and colleagues.

Cultural Integration Fellowship
Saturday, March 31, 2018 from 2:30 – 5:00 pm
2650 Fulton Street, San Francisco, California

415.668.1559 | culturalfellowship@sbcglobal.net

Presented by Bay Area Gitanjali, this program celebrates the life of Swami Vivekananda (Narendranath Datta) (1863-1902) commemorating the anniversary of his birth. Regarded as India’s first great spiritual ambassador to the West, Swami Vivekananda is perhaps best known for his inspiring speech which began, “Sisters and brothers of America …” delivered at the Parliament of the World’s Religions in Chicago in 1893.

We have selected Songs, Shlokas and Bhajans reflecting the philosophy of Swami Vivekananda, generating a secular social order through Religious and Ethnic Pluralism that would transcend differences of caste and creed and result in a unique place for India in the World.

Our singers this morning are Sonali Bhattacharya, Aditya Das, Ashidhara Das, and Shyamoshree Gupta Diamond, with Anoop Bhattacharjya on tabla. All are outstanding artistes who have received praise and recognition for their performances and concerts both in India and in the United States.

a mini-series led by Ted Nordquist, PhD

Sunday mornings, from 9:30 – 10:30

October 22 & 29 and November 5 & 12, 2017

Cost: $10 per person, per class.

• The human mind is an instrument designed to help you navigate temporal reality.
• We are, like all that we experience in the universe, a manifestation of One Source.
• Ultimate reality can be experienced when consciousness unites with Being.

These meditation classes are held in the spirit of Sri Aurobindo and Dr. Haridas Chaudhuri. There is no “method” other than surrendering the consciousness to That Divine Manifestation which we are. We will focus our attention on the breath and the present moment towards uniting consciousness with That One Source which created and runs this universe.

We will open each class with 40 minutes of discussion and then surrender to Being for 20 minutes. As in previous classes, the second class will be open to discussing the experiences we had during the first class and reflecting on how Being expresses itself in our daily lives.

Dr. Chaudhuri said that “prayer is talking to God while meditation is listening to God.”

Ted Nordquist worked with Dr. Haridas Chaudhuri from 1971 – 1973 at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS), then the California Institute of Asian Studies (CIAS). In addition to Asian Studies, Dr. Chaudhuri was Ted’s spiritual guide beginning in 1969. Other influences in Ted’s life were Mahatma Gandhi, Ramana Maharshi, and Sri Aurobindo.

Ted taught at the University of Uppsala, Institute of Religious History, from 1976 to 1985. He founded Sweden’s first tofu manufacturing plant in 1980 and Northern Europe’s first non-dairy soy-based frozen dessert in 1988. Ted moved his Swedish family, his wife Anne-Marie and their three children, to Sonoma, CA in 1994. He continues to work developing non-dairy yogurts.

No reference materials are necessary for these classes.

You are Invited to a Special Presentation

by Pradip Kumar Das

Saturday, July 29, 2017 at 3:00 pm

Cultural Integration Fellowship

2650 Fulton Street, San Francisco, CA 94118

Ragamala paintings are pages from a garland (mala) of visual melodies (ragas). Many centuries before the Islamic invasions of India, perhaps as early as the third century, or even earlier, there existed short poetical descriptions of ragas, usually in the form of brief prayer verses. Although these verses did not indicate pictorial representations of the ragas they show the trend towards musical/poetical/pictorial associations. The paintings are suggestive of the time of day, season and a variety of moods. The presentation will outline the origin, symbolism and representation of Ragamala Paintings, its development as a function of environment and interpretation and resultant impact on culture.

Pradip Kumar Das graduated with Honours in History from the Presidency College Calcutta and the London School of Economics and Political Science, University of London. After a career in the corporate sector in India, he now devotes his time to Indian Classical Music, Research and Writing. His published works include “An Introduction to Classical Hindustani Music,” “A Scent of Clover” a collection of his own memoirs, “A History of the Tollygunge Club since 1895” co-authored with his wife, Dr. Amita Das and “Colonial Calcutta-Religious Architecture as a Mirror of Empire.”

Welcome Reception to Follow

Please rsvp to Rita Pease or Sandy Kepler at 415.668.1559 or culturalfellowship@sbcglobal.net

Please join us for this celebration in honor of Rabindranath Tagore (7 May 1861–7 August 1941), poet, novelist, musician, painter, playwright and philosopher who reshaped Bengali literature and music. Tagore was the first non-European to be awarded the Nobel Prize. His profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse was viewed as spiritual, and he became the voice of India’s spiritual heritage. His songs, popularly known as Rabindrasangeet, have an eternal appeal and are permanently placed in the heart of the Bengalis. Tagore was a social reformer, patriot and above all, a great humanitarian and philosopher. The national anthems of both India and Bangladesh are taken from his composition.

Our singers this morning are Sonali Bhattacharya, Aditya Das, Ashidhara Das, and Shyamoshree Gupta Diamond, with Anoop Bhattacharjya on tabla. All are outstanding artistes who have received praise and recognition for their performances and concerts both in India and in the United States.

Celebration in honor of Swami Vivekananda, with Bay Area Gitanjali artistes Sonali Bhattacharya, Aditya Das, Ashidhara Das, Shyamoshree Gupta Diamond, and Anoop Bhattacharjya

This program celebrates the life and times of Swami Vivekananda (Narendranath Datta) (1863-1902) commemorating the Anniversary of his birth. Regarded as India’s first great spiritual ambassador to the West, Swami Vivekananda is perhaps best known for his inspiring speech which began, “Sisters and brothers of America …” delivered at the Parliament of the World’s Religions in Chicago in 1893.

We have selected Songs, Shlokas and Bhajans reflecting the philosophy of Swami Vivekananda, generating a secular social order through Religious and Ethnic Pluralism that would transcend differences of caste and creed and result in a unique place for India in the World.

Our singers this morning are Sonali Bhattacharya, Aditya Das, Ashidhara Das, and Shyamoshree Gupta Diamond, with Anoop Bhattacharjya on tabla. All are outstanding artistes who have received praise and recognition for their performances and concerts both in India and in the United States.

The question of guidance is a major issue in contemporary yoga practice. The mainstream of yoga culture seems to favor living gurus. In Sri Aurobindo’s own life, there developed a mythos of God-guru around him and the Mother; and after their passing, their followers normatively consider them as immortal beings who continue to guide them. We ask if there are other forms of guidance available to those interested in the Integral yoga. Or is it necessary to join an initiatic circle marked by the acceptance of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother as God-gurus? Should we look rather at the text of their words, the Shastra, to derive a compass for travelling the vast terrains of their thought? What are the advantages and dangers of such compasses? Finally, we consider the praxis of intuition, the purificatory path to the Daemon of Socrates and a reciprocal relationship with the integral consciousness, which is the vanishing point of all perspectivism.

Debashish Banerji is the Haridas Chaudhuri Professor of Indian Philosophy and Culture and the Doshi Professor of Asian Art at the California Institute of Integral Studies, San Francisco; PhD Indian Art History, University of California, Los Angeles; MA Computer Science, University of Louisville, KY; BA English Literature, Elphinstone College, Bombay University. Since the 1970s, Banerji has been a student of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother’s teaching.