To Light One Candle

Author(s): Pramoda Chitrabhanu
Publisher: East West Unity Press Ananda Ashram New York

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PRAMODA CHITRABHANU
Pramoda is gifted in the knowledge of Sanskpit, Jain mantras, music, and vegetarian nutrition. She plays sitar and has a refined and beautiful singing voice. After receiving her B.A. from Jaihind College in Bombay, majoring in psychology, she dedicated her life to practicing meditation and studying the teachings of the Jain prophets, under the guidance of Pujya Shri Chitrabhanu, whom she eventually married. Their two children, Rajeev, who is twenty years old, and Darshan, who is eighteen, are American citizens, and are currently at college in India, working toward their B.A. in commerce and business.
Pramoda's deep regard for the sanctity of all life has expressed itself in her willingness to teach Westem students how to become vegetarians in many series of cooking classes, and has culminated in the recently published book Foods of Earth Tastes of Heaven: Vegetarian Cuisine of Gujarat.
In Bombay, Pramoda is President of the Jain Meditation International Center which sponsors projects aimed at educating and rehabilitating the poor. She also works with a committee from Ritambhara University seeking to educate tribal women and to provide jobs for them. Pramoda actively works for the Reverence for Life Society and Beauty without Cruelty in Bombay which promote animal welfare and the vegetarian way of life worldwide.
During her ten years in New York, Pramoda gave classes in Jain mantras and meditation, exposing Western friends to the high vision, pure ideals, and potent vibrations of Jain teachings. The initial inspiration for this book was a natural outgrowth of these classes. Pramoda's Sansksit studies and open, receptive mind have led her to read and cherish original source material from the Hindu and Buddhist traditions as well. The mantras in this book are truly the living practice of Pramoda, who has turned her gifts, talents, and interests into a commitment to living both the introspective and compassionate life, personalizing the universal, and universalizing the personal.