Saturday, October 4, 2014

Where life is a celebration!

This long weekend on account of Gandhiji's birthday and the ensuing weekend, I packed my bag and left for The Art of Living International Center in Bangalore. After an arduous 15 hours journey from Trivandrum to Bangalore, I reached the ashram on 2nd Oct afternoon. It was the last day of Navratri (a nine days festival worshiping the divine in form of a mother) and a homa (fire ceremony) was going on in the ashram. Sri Sri Ravishankar (founder of the Art of Living) was sitting in the Yajna Shala and Vedic mantras were chanted by brahmins. He was sitting in meditation and his eyes were closed (I could see that on the projector screen only as there was a crowd of more than 15000 people).
After the homa, when it was the time for him to leave, the scene I witnessed left me dumbfounded. People were getting crazy to touch him and nobody was allowing his car to move.

Throng of People around Sri Sri's car                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                


Let me tell you, these were not the uneducated people who can be fooled (as people generally say). But I saw all kinds of English speaking smart guys, fashionable ladies who were behaving no lesser than an uneducated devotee. May be, devotion makes all equal , who knows!

The same evening, there was a satsang (a gathering of people). Mellifluous voices could be heard singing the bhajans. Sri Sri Ravishankar (popularly called as Guruji) came and sat.  A large number of International devotees were present. Guruji asked them to sing their songs. Groups from South America, Taiwan, China, Japan and many others sang with bubbling energy. The atmosphere was electric.

It seemed to be a very informal joyous gathering to me. Guruji also danced on the beats of a bhajan. Amidst the happenings, a loud cry from a corner came, "Gurujiiiiiiiiiiii, I loveeeeeee uuuuuuuuuuuuu". Such scenes are common in his satsangs.

Then in his soft and serene voice, guruji spoke for about ten minutes on faith and importance of yajnas. They also presented one presentation on aura study which was done by a research center on the changes in aura of the yajna shala when homas were performed for nine days. Altogether it was a good experience. Hope to have many more such trips!

In front of Vishalakshi Mandap- the meditation hall

Magnificent Vishalakshi Mandap - glittering in night