What is required to ensure the success of the 50th year celebrations is united effort. Swamiji used to say that we require three things to gain success in any field of activity - Participation, Involvement and Commitment, whether it is in an individual's life or an organisation's. Out of these, the final step is the most important. Even to make your marriage successful, you have to be committed, otherwise it becomes unsuccessful. A committee may be there, committee members may be there, but if commitment is not there, then the committee becomes ' Come, eat and tea' and will not achieve anything worthwhile.

If you have a dream, remember a saying which is very good "To make your dream a reality, you have to stay awake !" Sleeping or dreaming will not work. So Swamiji had a dream, he had a vision and he was committed to it. His thinking was, "Whether anybody comes, supports or not, I have to do it." and he went on. The Chinmaya Mission is proof of how much work a person can do and all this became possible only because of commitment.

The Vedantic vision is the most wonderful. Look at your life as a whole and live a whole life. We are suffering because we live a partial life. That is why the vision of Vedanta is given first and Swamiji went on doing this from 1951 upto 1993. This occasion of the 50th year Celebrations is a time where we should commit ourselves to Swamiji's vision.

Firstly, the Grand Finale in December, 2001 has to be organized successfully. For this, teamwork is essential. One idea of success is that there should be maximum participation from all our Chinmaya Mission centers all over the world. Secondly, this programme should be able to inspire all those come to do greater things when they go back to their respective centers. To make this happen hard work is required and you should not be afraid of hard work. That hard work must have a vision, an inspiration and a proper plan of action.

Some of the important aspects of the Grand Finale are accommodation, transportation and food arrangements for the delegates. Then, we must do the maximum publicity since people should know that such a programme is going on, otherwise the message will not be reached.

Another important thing is fund raising. People get frightened when you talk of fund raising. But I tell you something - every Mission member can help in his or her own way. I am sure that each one you has a group of at least 30 persons who respect you for your work. That person may not know Swamiji, may not know me or even the Chinmaya Mission, but he knows you. Right ? That person may say, "I don't know anything about the work that you are doing, but I have faith in you." At least 30 persons must be having faith and if you can approach them and tell them about the work that we are doing, I am sure you can achieve results. Because I have seen that this fund raising is only personal work.

Another area is our book sales. This reminds me of a joke. There was one centre and the Swamiji there had some disciples. All the disciples were told to sell the Geeta. It so happened that one brahmachari was able to sell a good number of books, while the others could not. So, one day a brahmachari asked him how he managed to sell so many books. He said, " I just tell them and they buy."

The second brahmachari said, " I would like to see for myself how you do it" and went along with him.

At one house, the person opened the door and the brahmachari said, " TTTTTTTThis is the BBBBBBBhagawad GGGGGGGGeeta. You need not buy, I will sssssit here and rrrrread it for you."

The other person replied, "That's okay. I will buy it !"

So, you have to find your own presentation strategies and when you are doing for a noble cause, why should you feel low?

While working towards such a big programme, the worker needs to develop certain qualities. They are : -

1. Inner inspiration (An understanding that all this is for my spiritual unfoldment)
2. The group in which you work can only provide a rough surface to sharpen your mind.
3. Any change to be brought about is within myself, not outside.

So, let us all come together and make this celebration a grand and memorable one !

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