2010 Global Akhand Bhajan…. Theme: God Is! Date: Saturday, November 13, 6:00 PM to Sunday, November 14, 6:00 PM Rudram Chanting in Unison: Saturday, November 13, 5:15 - 5:45 PM Location: Double Tree Club Hotel, 720 Las Flores Road, Livermore, CA WebSite : Please visit for current information!

Accomodation Please use this link to make your reservations: Double tree is offering better / lower rates than last year - Room with 2 Dbl. beds: $65.00/nt. Room with one King bed: $59.00/nt. Please make your reservations at the earliest to take advantage of these lower rates.

Devotion Led by Satish Lagisetty, Sunita Pattibandla and Raj Purushottaman Saturday Sri Rudram Chanting 5:14 - 5:45 PM Regional Slot 6:00 - 8:30 PM Stockton 8:30 - 9:30 PM Sacramento 9:30 – 10:30 PM Oakland 10:30 – 11:15 PM Central San Jose 11:15 – 12:15 AM Sunday San Jose 12:15 – 1:00 AM Peninsula 8:15 – 9:15 AM Young Adults 1:00 – 3:00 AM Regional SSE9:15 – 11:15 AM Special GAB SLOT 3:00 – 4:00 AM Fresno11:15 – 12:00 PM Walnut Creek 4:00 – 5:00 AM Elk Grove12:00 – 1:00 PM Suprabhatam 5:00 – 5:30 AM San Francisco1:00 – 1:45 PM Pleasanton 5:30 - 6:30 AM Monterey/Santa Cruz1:45 – 2:15 PM Fremont 6:30 – 7:30 AM Center of Freedom2:15 – 2:45 PM Marin County 7:30 – 8:15 AM Central San Jose2:45 – 3:30 PM Regional Slot / GAB Conclusion 3:30 – 6:00 Pm

Devotion Led by Satish Lagisetty, Sunita Pattibandla and Raj Purushottaman Bhajan Lyrics will be projected this year. The Devotional Team will send the template to the center Devotion Coordinators soon. Centers are responsible to put together their own slides and send it back at least a week before the event, so that the audio /video team has enough time to compile, edit and put it in the order of the center slots. In case the center is not able to turn in the slides in time, we request the center members to bring slides on a stick and plug it into the computer before their center slot and project on the set system for use. Centers will be responsible for bringing the slides and operating the slides on that day. Special Request for Center Devotion Coordinators – Please make sure that everybody gets a chance to participate in the Regional singing. A humble suggestion is to not give preference to same singers in all the slots. e.g. – If a member is singing in the Special midnight slot or YA slot, please make sure that someone else gets a chance to sing in the Regional slot or Center Slot. The idea is to give everyone a chance to participate in this sp. Offering. For the center slots, please make sure the bhajans selected are simple to follow and everyone can participate.

Devotion Led by Satish Lagisetty, Sunita Pattibandla and Raj Purushottaman Practice Sessions – Individual singing for Regional Slot - First Practice session was held on Oct 2 nd in Pleasanton. Second Practice session will be held on Oct 16 th in South Bay. Paired Singing for Regional Slot This year we will be having paired singing in the Regional Slot towards the closure of GAB. Practice session for that will be held on Oct 23 rd in Livermore. For any questions please contact members of our Devotion Team, Satish, Sunita and Raj.

Devotion Led by Satish Lagisetty, Sunita Pattibandla and Raj Purushottaman This year we are planning a Special Slot from 3:00 am – 4:00 am There will be lot of high energy bhajans, variety and many Suprises !!!! You definitely don’t want to miss this !!! Please come and join us!! Please encourage all your center members to sit through the night for the bhajans.

Altar Led by Sudha SaiKrishna Anyone who is interested in helping out with the Altar, please contact Sudha SaiKrishna

SSE Led by Sudha Rajagopalan and Deepak Naidu SSE bhajan Practice session was completed successfully with energetic participation on Oct.9 th. Morning session was held from 9am-12 pm in South Bay and afternoon session was held from 2:00 pm- 5:00 pm in San Ramon. SSE teachers, please make sure that your children practice the bhajans many many times before they offer it to Swami on the day of Akhand Bhajan.

SSE Led by Sudha Rajagopalan and Deepak Naidu SSE Slot – Sat - 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm and Sun 9:15 am – 11:15 am Children are not allowed to loiter in the hallway or anywhere outside. At all times, they have to be either with their SSE teachers / volunteers, who will be engaging them in activities or they have to be with their parents. SSE coordinators have arranged exciting activities for the kids.

Volunteers Led by Rashmi Sawhney and Latha Swamy This event will not be possible without your dedicated help. We need many volunteers like you to help in different areas. Anyone interested in volunteering, please contact Latha Swamy or Rashmi Sawhney at your earliest. Or use : to sign up as volunteer in area of your interest!

Volunteers Led by Rashmi Sawhney and Latha Swamy We need more volunteers. This year we plan to setup Bhajan & Dinning Hall on Friday, Nov. 12th. We will meet 4:30 pm on Friday at the hotel to start the setup. Please come and join us, we need your help. With your help we will finish the setup quicker. Please call Latha S. or Rashmi S. with your names.

Volunteers Led by Rashmi Sawhney and Latha Swamy The volunteers will have an orientation where they will be told about their roles / responsibilities. Volunteers are requested to attend this session without fail. Details on orientation will be sent out soon. Please direct your qs. for volunteering to Rashmi and Latha

Service Activity This year being Swami’s 85 th Birthday, what is the best gift that we all can give HIM? Swami always says “Be Happy” because in our happiness lies his happiness ! Swami has encouraged us to lead a life of purity for last 85 years! This purity will come when we let go of all the unwanted qualities within us, when we “LET GO, AND LET GOD !”.

So, let us all come together and try to get rid of our unwanted qualities. This is not a one- time service, but this will be an ongoing service. With the yearning and determination to achieve and Swami holding our hands, let us take one unwanted quality to offer or surrender and practice daily. We are sure this will make him happy!

Swami says “These unwanted traits make their appearance from time to time, they should be immediately cast off. This calls for continuous internal yajna, as against the external yajna which is performed only once a year at one particular place. The internal yajna has to be performed at all times, in all places and under all circumstances. The sacrificial altar for this yajna is within each one of us. Whenever an evil thought or desire occurs, it should be mercilessly scotched. It is only by constant vigilance and continuous endeavor that Divine grace can be earned. Only when evil traits are banished can Divinity manifest itself in all its glory. This is the real purpose of yajnas ----to enable man to achieve purity in order to realize Divinity. "

We request Center Officers to collect at least one reminder or unwanted trait from each member that they want to dedicate (you can distribute flash card for them to write during one or two words to describe their unwanted trait during Study circle and collect in a basket discretely). These collected thoughts can become a unique guidelines for center to practice as we take small steps toward our lord. Please type them as a collective offering (presentation style) from your center and give it to one of the Event Coordinators at GAB. We will collect and compile final presentation and will mail this to Swami as a special gift from our region, with a letter asking HIM to guide and help us in our pursuit to win his heart.

Apart from this – we will have other service activities like – Distributing blankets / gloves / caps / sweaters /fleece jackets / socks to the less fortunate. Center can choose any of the above and either get together and make it, or buy it. They can either hand it over to the Event Coordinators or if they want to give it to some shelter home themselves, they can do so Else items will then be distributed in SFO to the homeless. More details to follow…

Your ideas are all welcome! We have a call everyone pm. This call is open to all, please join us. Please bring your new ideas to share with all of us, together we can make this event successful! When we say “Making event Successful”, we mean everyone coming together and participating in this Akhanda bhajan with unity and harmony, deriving the benefits of Constant Namasmarana that Swami reminds us, God Is!......