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| Judy Johnson's Pilgrimage to Mt. Abu Rajasthan,
India
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 Om Shanti. Greetings of peace.
This
year I spent Christmas in India with the Brahma Kumaris and the
International Youth Forum. Both daughters (13 & 16 years old)
came with me for the first time to participate with 60 youth (13-30
years old) from 60 countries. These young people have chosen a
spiritual lifestyle, practicing seeing everyone as a brother and sister
of the same human family, living simply away from drugs and alcohol,
and enjoying a life based on spiritual values such as peace, love,
happiness, honesty, etc. They practice raja yoga meditation, the simple
practice of being in the awareness of the self as a soul/spiritual
being, of BEING a soul and HAVING a body. Walking and moving around the
world in soul consciousness reduces material mindedness and brings out
the inherent virtues and qualities of the soul.
Om Shanti Bhawan (Universal Peace Hall)
At
first glance they seem just like every other teenager you'll meet
around the world, but as the days pass it becomes obvious that the
atmosphere between them is not the typical high school atmosphere. They
hang out in mixed age groups, creating dance routines for the culture
show, playing cricket, volleyball and badminton in the hottest hours of
mid afternoon, meeting to participate in the workshops focused on
choices, changes and becoming the best they can be based on their own
internal sense of potential. Their energy is light, there are no frowns
or heavy faces. They seem to dance together as they move from one
activity to another. Shown are pictures of an afternoon spent at a
local village school playing wiht the kids there. Although the
university offers free medical care and nutrition programs to the
surrounding region, the youth were best suited to offer the one thing
kids love anywhere in the world - play! Their faces show how happy they
are to be together, to have meaning and purpose in their lives and to
feel good about themselves.
The
Brahma Kumaris headquarters sits on the top of a volcanic mountain in
northern India (Rajasthan - the land of kings) and also the original
home of the world's gypsies. Once a hill station for the British Empire
to escape the heat of the plains, and the honeymoon capital of India,
the university has 3 campuses nestled into the mountain side. The
original campus was created as a home for the 400 original students who
moved from Pakistan after the partition of India in 1946. It is filled
with beautiful marble buildings, built around a central courtyard and
is a constant buzz of comings and goings of those who live here and
those who love to visit. The upper most campus was built in 1996 to
house the many students who continued to come to study there and can
accommodate just over 2000 people. This is where we stayed for 2 weeks.
At the base of the mountain is one of the largest indoor auditoriums in
the world (seating 25,000 people) and the campus is like an Olympic
village. Also a UNESCO site for alternative energy, the university
produces over 40,000 meals a day using steam from solar panels.
Most of its
students reside in India, but 30 years ago Halifax was the first place
in the Americas to be visited by a student of Raja Yoga. She, Sister
Mohini, will visit again in November of this year after 30 years to see
the fruit of the seeds planted in her original visit The centre
location is 2050 Gottingen St, phone 422, 3700. Courses introducing the
meditation practice, book groups, spiritual workshops are all offered
free of charge as a community serve. |
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Copyright © 2010 Spiritual Seekers Canada • Halifax, Nova Scotia • 902 835-3225 |
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