9th June: Shivir – Day 9

Last day of the shivir! It is not that I am tired of it....I just want to start working at DSVV.  I really liked that campus and want to work there as soon as I can.  So this last day is welcomed. 

I went early for the yagya one last time. Despite getting their early, I was still the last one to enter the in the first group. These ladies drive me nuts! But however it was, as cramped as I was sitting for the 45 mins, I felt good afterwards.

There was only the morning session today, as it is the last day. The speaker discussed Sharma ji’s book, “What am I?” Such an interesting book but speaker was really dull. He could not discuss the topic at all – or maybe I could not understand what he was saying. The gist of the book is that we are all devatma who have been lost, he talks about becoming one with the God again through the power of meditation and concentration.

• Think more about yourself rather than other people – not in a selfish way, but more like what you yourself are and how you behave rather than how the other behaves. So you will concentrate more on your own behavior rather than judging other people.
• Situations in Shantikunj are such that a person’s “man” is tightened by forced discipline. You have to share rooms, bathrooms, get in line all the time – this also a kind of yagya.
• Change yourself from the inside – not just outside. To make your life mission useful light your inner candle and then light everyone eles’s.
• We should become aatmvaadi not sharirvaadi. Think more inward than outward.
• Family should do things together whether it is eating, cleaning, praying etc.
• A family that prays together stays together.
• A family that dines together shines together.

As it was the last speech, it could have been a more charismatic speaker- oh well…..

Personal Progress

As I was attending the shivir for nine days, I had come to recognize a number of ladies. I used to see this lady all the time, she would be writing the jap in her notebook. Once or twice I tried to speak with her but no answer. I did not push it. Well today, on the last day she came and found me and told me she (Maya) had taken a maun vrat for the 9 days. Oh my God! All nine days! And this was not the first time she has done the maun vrat…she does it once a year. Well – good for her. She did turn out to be a wonderful person and went on talking (I guess making up for all the nine days she did not speak). Her two daughters were with her who were also very nice. When a family has good values it shows in everyone. (Maya is the one on the right in the picture below)

Maya became my good friend for the next two days as she became my guide on how to attend all the activities for Gayatri Jayanti (11th June). So I took her daughter’s phone number and sat with them for the events of the next two days. It was kind of nice, for a change, to sit in someone’s company.