SEVA WEEK 2 (14-20 Mar 2011)

The Divine Karnataka Project

No organization runs on its own. Whether an organization has a life depends on the people behind it. What inspired me so much about the Divine Karnataka Project is none other than the human spirit behind it. In just 2 short weeks, we have had the opportunity to know some of the inspirational people that move the entire DKP engine for social transformation in this huge state. Here are some of the warriors...

Nagaraj	Pathik	Dr Hema	Siva Shankar	Rukmani	Bale
Dr Seema	Yogendra	Shankar	Kavya	Nagaraja	Sarita
Praveen	Shobha	Swamynathan	Ganga	Seema	Deepak

Mr Nagaraj, Director of DKP, is one of the most inspirational persons we have met thus far. From Mangalore, he once owned a watch manufacturing business but sold it off to follow his heart to do seva full-time in Art of Living, under the grace of Guruji. It is simply amazing the scale and extent of social impact that Nagaraj-ji is leading his DKP Team of volunteers in achieving across Karnataka.

Nagaraj-ji is the most humble leader I've come across. He lives in the DKP office! While he has been provided with a room in the Art of Living Ashram, it is inconvenient as the ashram is 1.5 hr away from the DKP office in Bangalore city. So in order to be ever ready to work on the DKP social causes, he chooses to sleep on the floor in the office's meeting room. His family home where his wife, Rekha, and 3 kids live is in Hasan, 200km away from Bangalore. He meets them only once a month.

I call Nagaraj-ji Superman as he seems to be everywhere and often appears at places faraway from Bangalore city and far apart from one day to the next. He cares so passionately and deeply over every aspects of life for so many segments of people in Karnataka state. He wonders aloud to me how to transform the lives of people in Karnataka to be like that in Singapore. I'm so inspired by the bigness of his heart. Nagaraj-ji gives unconditionally, without expectation and his faith in Guruji is total.

It's also amazing how many of these people are doing seva voluntarily without any financial compensation or with just a small stipend. Mr Pathik got out of retirement to volunteer full time for the upliftment of the less privileged. Professionals like Dr Hema, Dr Seema and Siva Shankar seem to be everywhere in the slum and rural villages, everyday. Others are youth volunteers known as Yuvacharyas who underwent a 21 day youth leadership training at the ashram before being deployed to work with the people in slums and rural villages.

I asked most of them about their motivation in doing seva and the challenges they faced in their areas of work in DKP. Not a single person shows any sign of stress, not a single complaint, no one focuses on problems, and no one claims any credit for himself/herself. All shared with me that they are inspired by Guruji to do the good work, but the results are not their doing and that they are merely vehicles to Guruji's grace. Now, the meaning of seva as Selfless Service is truly being lived out in DKP. We are so honored to have known these wonderful sevaks and friends.

Mr Pathik arranged for us to visit slums and villages with initiatives led by Dr Hema, Rukmani, Siva and Dr Seema.

Slums in the city - there are thousands of slum communities within the Bangalore city. A slum is a poor area within the city where poor people live in tiny dwellings crammed together. As people from faraway rural villages come into the city to look for work, the poorest of the laborers or jobless end up in the slums. There is no water supply to the homes here. Water is collected at specific supply points and available only at specific times. DKP works hard to help the slum people learn about hygiene and organize themselves for self-help and self-reliance.
A typical back lane.	Streetside vegetable sellers.	Water collection point.
Slum children at play.	A canal of rubbish...	An elderly woman in the slum.

10 Mar 2011 - Dr Seema showed us Salhunsi Village where DKP has set up a tailoring centre to help woman folks learn sewing skills for self-empowerment. The ladies made jute bags for sale at the rural shop in the ashram. Nearby is a nursery where lovely village children begin their education. DKP Yuvacharyas support many schools with moral value education and learning of meditation.
Women learn sewing skill for self-help.	A nursery school for village kids.
Learning to write on a chalk board.	Kids are so natural when they sing and dance.

10 Mar 2011 - After Salhunsi, we met Pathik in Bangalore city and went together to visit a Government High Primary School in Sriramapura where DKP Yuvacharyas augment the school formal education with moral value, creativity and meditation teaching. We experienced at first hand the impressive impact on the children by the DKP assistance.
Rukmani explaining to us about the dire needs of government schools in slum areas.	Thanks to Sarita (Yuvacharyas), the girls are now so happy and motivated to learn.
Yashodha, 11, shares so expressively how meditation has helped her and her classmates attained calm and better concentration. They no longer fight or argue in class or skip school. School is now fun for them.	The Yuvacharyas conducts meditation, moral values and arts programs to augment the formal school teaching. The outcome has been so positive that the program ought to be scaled up to more slum schools.
Sarita is a role model for the girls in this school. When I asked Chaithra, 11, (right) to share her dream, she replied without hesitation that she aspires to be a Yuvacharyas like Sarita when she grows up.	To our pleasant surprise, the entire class raised their hands expressing their wish to be Yuvacharyas so they can help many more poor children like them to have a chance in life. Hope is alive here!
The headmaster, Mr Venkatesh, was very appreciative of DKP's assistance to the school. He attributed the kids' improvement to meditation and also the counseling provided by DKP to the parents.	We are grateful for the chance to interact with the DKP volunteers, the Yuvacharyas, the headmaster and teachers of the school, and especially the children themselves. It's been eye- and mind-opening for us.
We then visited a computer learning centre started by DKP to bring IT skills to the people in the slum. The setup is minimal. There's much room for improvement when funds from donors come in.	Rukmani explains the challenges faced by the people in the slums from skill training and employment opportunity, and how she was inspired by Guruji to devote herself to help in slum development.

11 Mar 2011 - Siva Shankar took us to V.V. Giri, another slum within the Bangalore city, to visit a woman self-help group. Here the woman folks come together to learn sewing from a teacher. Businessman Swamynathan is a Yuvacharyas who not only organizes the women but also helps to secure orders from a bag wholeseller to create income-generating activity for the women. He also imparts money management skills and helps them open bank accounts to keep track of their earnings, working towards getting micro finance to fund bigger jobs in the near future.
In V.V. Giri, women learn and cooperate to sew and produce lunch bags for self-reliance.	Shankar and Swamynathan inspecting the women's bank books for their latest earning and saving.
Alvin and Robyn having a chat with the ladies.	Robyn observing a lady in action.

13 Mar 2011 - Yogendra is a DKP volunteer who goes around rural villages to motivate kids to take up sports to develop healthy lifestyle and keep them off smoking and other undesirable habits. He studies hard as a 2nd year college student in engineer but devotes all his spare time to doing seva with Art of Living. Yogendra's hometown is in Rajasthan but he was inspired by Guruji to come to Bangalore to do his part in rural development. Guided by Dr Seema, Yogendra has formed 10 sport clubs in 10 rural villages.
Yogendra manages 10 sport clubs in rural villages.	Thanks to DKP, the youth in Golakmalli enjoy playing cricket.	Alvin having a go in cricket, coached by the youth.
Robyn enjoying a volleyball game with the children.	Thanks to DKP, Seenu and his friends get to play volleyball every weekend.	Shivakumar is so cute when he plays with the football.

The Golakmalli cricket field where the youth meet every weekend for the game.	Sporty kids are healthy. Yogendra is doing a great seva to get the kids into healthy habits in rural villages.
See their determination to be a champion team?	These kids are so expressive and lovable!

On Course

17-20 Mar 2011 - Alvin and Jin attended the Advanced Course on 17-20 Mar while Robyn attended the YES! Course in the same period in the ashram. This was a precious period of self growth through meditation, 3 days of silence and receiving of knowledge and wisdom from our Advanced Course teacher Swamiji Manikantan. Robyn also enjoyed her course and learnt pranayama and kriya meditation skills.

Once our courses were over, we moved from the ashram to the Aurobindo Ashram in the city to be close to the DKP Team and continue our seva work.

> Week 3: Singapore Sport Sponsorship for Divine Karnataka Project...