It was my third Advanced Course last week and I'm pleased with the new depth of silence and stillness experienced during the meditation guided by the voice of Guruji. Unlike Jin's quieter mind, meditation hasn't come to me that naturally. I recall my mind used to be so busy and noisy, like a short-circuited TV confusingly flashing flipping channels on its screen. The mind tends to get busier when constant stimulation of the 5 senses from our environment adds to the replaying of memories from the past and projection of hope and worries into the future.
On reflection, it's interesting to realize that I'd actually been 'ruled unconsciously' by this busy and often confused mind for much of my 45 years. It was only over the last half decade that I've begun to grasp, bit by bit, how to quiet my mind through meditation. Since young, I've been programmed to believe that I have to do something in order to get something. My secondary school's motto from Victoria School is 'Nil Sine Labore' which means 'nothing without labor' in Latin. This a common belief in many of us so we do more and more, and look for even more things to do, in our attempt to get ahead in life.
Meditation is a complete anti-thesis. I realized one cannot do meditation. Meditation is a state of non-doingness - 'I do nothing, I want nothing, I am nothing.' While I'd known that for a while, it was not easy to actually experience that state of non-doingness due to the stubbornness from over 4 decades of mind programming. With practice, it got better and I found my mind wanders less nowadays, which correspondingly means that with calmness, focus in thoughts and action becomes sharper, which then translates to higher productivity. Last week, I entered into a new level of stillness that I had not experienced before. A little sign of progress is motivating. We are like wavelets on the surface of the ocean, tossing ceaselessly. When we are in an unaware state, we tend to blame the other wavelets, the under-current, the winds, etc for the toss and turn. In meditation, we become conscious that all wavelets are not separate but joined in oneness, that all individualized wavelets are part of the whole as the ocean, that when we are willing to go deep within, we descend to a point in the ocean depth that silence and stillness allow each of us to become the very 'observer' and appreciate our own tossing and turning from a point of non-moving. In that instant, the bipolar states of moving and unmoving become the same moment of Now. Opposites complement each other and exist simultaneously. Then, love unveils.
The Divine Karnataka Project: Sponsoring Sports Clubs in Rural Villages
One of the social transformation initiatives of DKP is to form Sports Clubs for the kids and youth in rural villages. Dr Seema and Yogendra are 2 inspirational volunteers who oversee 10 sports clubs in rural villages in the ashram vicinity. Yogendra is a 2nd year college student in engineering but he spends his weekend doing seva as a sport coach shuttling among the rural villages. The sports that these kids and youth play are football, volleyball and badminton.
Last week, Dr Seema told us there are 3 new sports clubs waiting to be started once fund is available to purchase the sports items. We decided to help find sponsors from amongst our friends back in Singapore. Jin's DBS colleague, Sharon, promptly agreed to raise the sponsorship amount. So let's start them right away, we told Dr Seema!
21 Mar 2011 - The day after the completion of our courses at the ashram, we sprang into action for our seva. Alvin and Robyn went to Bangalore city with Yogendra to purchase the sports equipment. We went by local bus and the conductor punched our tickets that reminded Alvin of the kind of bus tickets he used to get during his primary school era, over 3 decades ago in Singapore.
It took us a while to locate Jayanagar Sports Depot in Bangalore city, and then waited an hour for the owners to return from lunch. But it was worth the wait as we managed to purchase all the required sports equipment there.
The sports shop owners were very kind to offer discount when we told her that the money used to pay her was donated funds. We also decided to introduce a new sport to the kids here - Frisbee. So we bought enough to equip all 10 sports clubs. And Robyn would be responsible to 'train' Yogendra till he is frisbee-certified!
24 Mar 2011 - We went to a rural village called Vaderhalli with Dr Seema to observe a woman support group and to launch one of the new sports club at a primary school. Robyn gave a crash course on frisbee to Yogendra, and soon after that he tested his newly acquired skills with a bunch of kids there.
Robyn the frisbee teacher
Yogendra the frisbee student
Frisbee students of Yogendra
The children had a whale of a time playing with the bright orange frisbee. It proved to be a hit and guaranteed to get the kids run around enough to tune up their fitness!
They flew the poor frisbee twice into the filthy drain and immediately ran off to get it washed, and resume playing happily after that.
Robyn pronounced Yogendra as frisbee-certified.
We donated some sports equipment and game sets to the children in this primary school in Vaderhalli village.
Dr Seema made specific children responsible for the different donated items.
The children were so excited and they yelled a big THANK YOU to the kind sponsors from Singapore - Sharon and friends.
24 Mar 2011 - At Vaderhalli, we observed a women empowerment program that Dr Seema started. Commercial artist Seema (same name as Dr Seema) is DKP volunteer who travel for over 2 hours from her Bangalore city home to Vaderhalli village, twice a week, to impart her needlework skills to a group of 15 women.
There was no seminar room or any hall for the group to gather and learn. All there is is a bare 2-room dwelling rented by DKP equipped with 3 sewing machines. inside, the woman folks sat around Seema on the cement floor and the class began...
Seema is very positive with the progress made by her students. She is confident that with just 3 more learning sessions, they would be ready to take orders for income generation work.
Jin interviewing Seema on her motivation to do seva as a volunteer over a simple sandwich lunch.
Robyn and Jin with the fantastic DKP volunteers and Yuvacharyas led by Dr Seema.
22 Mar 2011 - At a slum in Takkarayanak, a group of women met for the first time to form yet another DKP women self-help group. Dr Hema and Rukmani patiently introduced the concept and set out the rules and regulation, while Yuvacharya and businessman Swamynathan encouraged them to work together and support one another, with DKP's assistance, towards self-reliance.
The DKP Team guiding the women from the slum in Takkarayanak to form a women self-help group.
Yuvacharya and businessman Swamynathan urging the women to work together for self-reliance.
A face of hardship from the slum...
Alvin and Jin with kids from the Takkarayanak slum.
Faces in the Slum
Will tomorrow be better?
A smile of hope...
Joy amidst hardship...
Lines of toughness...
Connection of innocence
Will you help him grow out of the slum?
22 Mar 2011 - After Takkarayanak, we joined Dr Hema and Rukmani at Sriramapura slum where they conducted an evening training session for another woman support group. It was so inspirational to see their inexhaustible dedication to help the women from the slum. As the evening session progressed, we also admired greatly the determination of the woman support group members to learn and work towards a better life. All they need is a belief in them and a little lift from people like Dr Hema and Rukmani. You can help too.
Dr Hema and Rukmani conducting an evening training for the woman self-help group in Sriramapura slum.
Rukmani, the tireless DKP volunteer who is able to blend tender loving care with no-nonsense toughness.
The woman folks were definitely keen and determined to learn so as to break out of the poverty cycle.
They shared how pranayama helped them gained calmness in mind and enhanced concentration.
24 Mar 2011 - Today, Siva Shankar took us to a DKP Tailoring Centre and two DKP Computer Training Centres situated in the slum area of JJR Nagar where women and youth from the slum are equipped with tailoring livelihood skills and computer skills to help them in school work and to gain better employability.
Siva Shankar has a full time job in the IT industry but seems to have a fuller time seva in DKP. He's dedicated to helping the women and youth in the slum by setting up vocational skill centres like tailoring and computer learning centres.
One of the computer training centres situated in the slum area of JJR Nagar.
Jin addressing the youth at the end of a class in another DKP computer training centre in JJR Nagar.
26 Mar 2011 - Thanks to Mr Yezdi for so graciously taking us to a wonderful lunch at the Pai Restaurant. I'm simply amazed at the capacity of this man to oversee an organization so enormous as Art of Living and its many social trust as its Chairman. We are eternally grateful to him for our opportunity to do seva with Art of Living.
27-28 Mar 2011 - Inauguration of Bridge Construction at Chikmagalur - We travelled with Nagaraj-ji, Pathikji, Ravindra, Ganga and Venkat to Chikmagalur, some 370km away from Bangalore, for the inauguration of a bridge to be built in a tribal community, funded by DKP. As this is an area with Naxalite influence, this bridge carries a special significance in bridging ties and promoting peace by DKP. Enroute, we took the opportunity to visit some temples and in particular two famous ancient temples dating back to 12th century.
We began our journey at 6am on 27 Mar, enjoyed some sightseeing and finally arrived in Sringeri at 12.30am on 28 Mar - 18 hour over 370km.
The Halebidu temple was built in the 12th century and has thousands of amazing stone carvings that depict the epics of the Hindu gods.
< Robyn with amazing 12th century stone carving.
The carving details were impressively refined.
Yes, the water pump actually works.
The 900 year old ancient temple at Belur was equally impressive and was also built in the 12th century.
Refreshing coconut.
Beggars at Sringeri.
Friendly hello with students at Sringeri.
Breakfast at Sringeri.
The chief and lead pillars of DKP.
Alvin with old friends.
< This cow chose to wear my pair of sandals!
The stream over which the bridge will be built.
Nagaraj-ji and the headman of the beneficiary community with his extended family.
< As this is a Naxalite area, a security force armed with M16 and AK-47 was deployed to safeguard this event.
Earth breaking ceremony for the bridge inauguration by the Superintendent of Police.
"Thank you for building us this precious bridge." >
This meaningful DKP project is yet another inspiration from Guruji, made possible by Nagaraj-ji.
Superintendent of Police meeting the beneficiaries of the bridge to be built.
Nagaraj-ji and his Yuvacharyas.
Superintendent of Police with Nagaraj-ji.
Robyn with AK-47 assault rifle.
Praveen with AK-47.
On our way back to Bangalore, Nagaraj-ji kindly invited us to his home in Hasan for a poori dinner home-cooked by his wife assisted by his 3 children. It was an honor to meet with his family and enjoyed his wife's cooking.