THE HOLY SOULS

O Adorable Holy Souls !
Embodied with purity,
With selfless devotion and chastity.
You form the pioneers of the humanity,
Spreading the new light of prosperity.

Preaching for peace with filled enthusiasm,
Enchanting ambience with positive vibration,
Shown the world with instances of self-transformation,
The new era’s worthy denizens !
To all of you, heartfelt salutations.

Holding powers divine
In the reservoir of heart fine,
Considering companion as Supreme Soul,
Showing us the very goal
You are the real creators.
You are the waymakers and preceptors.

This poem is dedicated to B.K.s(people) of Brahmakumaris World Spiritual University who are changing the world with spiritual powers i.e. love, peace, knowledge, etc.

Trip to MountAbu

It was in my mind from a long time to visit Madhuban, MountAbu. But for every task, we can say opportunity should be there or in other words God’s willing should be there. Even if we try the fullest from ourside, sometimes the thing doesn’t happen what we want. So to go to God’s own place, though in my mind strong attraction was there, ambience was not conducive all the time (due to work in office or some other reason). Finally when the SpARC (Spiritual Applications Research Centre) conference schedule (5-Sep-09 to 8-Sep-09) was known, I decided to go in that time. SpARC is the 13^th Wing of ‘Brahmakumaris Godly University’ and it is mainly research oriented. I had told to my boss regarding the leave. But he was bit hesitant on this as there was no proper back up resource created by that time. But I knew everything would go properly. I had booked the ticket one month earlier. The time came nearer and I got approval for leave. I left my house at 7 am on 3^rd Sep as flight time was at 10 am. I went alone with no company of known people. But to my utter surprise, I could see at least 20 people from Brahmakumaris(BK) were going on the same flight. It was a feeling of ownness. I could hear “Shivbaba ki Jay” inside the plane when it started to take off. My health was not good as I was suffering from cold, cough and fever. Body was not assisting me, but I was determined to go anyhow. Baba is there with me always.

Flight took off from Bangalore to Ahmedabad and in 2 hours I landed there. For the first time, I was travelling to North India. The environment in Ahmedabad was already familiar to me as in other cities apart from Bangalore. It was a bit hot. I moved to Railway station from Airport via auto-rickshaw. The traffic in Ahmedabad is as usual in other cities. The rickshaw driver was telling me about some nearby tourist places. After reaching in railway station, I called home and got to know that my cousin brother is there in the town. I moved to his house with some sweets. There aunt and uncle were there. It was a good homely situation there. I took rest there for 3 hours and came back to station for travel to Abu.

In the railway station, as usual Indian mob was packed everywhere. I went to my compartment and could see there was no place at all to sit. Gradually I could find my seat. After having interaction with the other people in the same compartment, I got to know that almost everyone was travelling to Abu. In my side, one elder people(BK) was sitting and he was full of excitement and enthusiasm. The time has not taken the energy out of him. He was speaking about his endeavors/experiences and giving advices/suggestions regarding the life. He was noting down all stations name which he already crossed. Later we all got friendly environment in that compartment and shared their experiences.

When the AbuRoad station came at 9:15 pm, almost the train became empty although it was going to Delhi. As I was new to the place, prior to my reach, B.K. Srinivas brother had come to pick me up as informed from our previous conversations over phone. He is basically from Orissa and he has been dedicating his life for past 15 years in Seva in Brahmakumaris. He guided me towards the bus from where we would go to ShantiVan. In the bus, I could hear some were speaking in Oriya. I was very happy to meet all those people. In 10-15 minutes, the bus entered ShantiVan campus. Srinivas Bhai took me to the accommodation office and did all the arrangements. Then we moved to Rishi Bhavan which is in the campus for our stay. I got freshed and he took me for dinner. After dinner, we went for walk. He gave me some information about ShantiVan. It’s having more than 65 acres of area. Whole campus is properly planned and built. It can easily accommodate 25 thousand people including all their food, lodging, etc. We moved into Diamond Hall which is the largest pillar-less hall in Asia and accommodates 25 thousands of crowd. The weather in Abu was really nice similar to Bangalore climate. My health was still not good. I went to bed around 11:30 pm. For the early morning meditation around 4 am, I didn’t go to the meditation hall due to illness. Srinivas Bhai came around 6:30 and I got ready and he took me to big conference hall for attending Murli class. When I entered the hall, I saw all BK brothers and sisters sitting silently and listening Murli. I got a seat and listened carefully Baba’s saying. After this class, I went to Dining hall. I saw many BK sisters were busy in preparing breakfast. After breakfast, Srinivas bhai took me to visit all the places in ShantiVan. Manmohini Complex – What a beautiful building! and other beautiful areas. I did some shopping too.

In the afternoon, Brother guided me to go to Gyan Sarovar which is on the top of the mountain Abu. There was a rush for this. Around 3 buses went and still people were waiting to go up. Another bus came and we remaining people got inside and went to the top. While going up, scenery was very beautiful. Sylvan beauty can be easily found everywhere and when the bus entered Gyan Sarovar, I felt very happy. The campus is properly built and flowers, trees everywhere enhancing the embellishment of the area. I called B.K.Chhaya Sister who is from Bangalore and she did all the arrangements for me. I stayed in #43, Raj Rishi Bhavan. I met B.K. Murali who shared the same room with me who is a software engineer from Hyderabad. Nearby many hills are there. It is very peaceful and cool ambience.

That date was 5^th Sep. In every BK center, meditation starts at AmritVela (4 am to 4:45 am). I attended group meditation in the morning. I felt very relaxed. On that same day, my younger brother B.K.Sureswar reached along with his friends. I met my brother quite after a long time. Then we all went for breakfast. People from throughout India had come there to attend SpARC conference. It was 10 am. My brother was the guide as he used to come to that place frequently and being familiar. He took us to visit nearby places like Dilwara Temple, Pandav Bhavan, Peace Park and GuruShikhar.

First we moved ahead towards Pandav Bhavan through bus. There we sat in Meditation room (Baba’s room) for some time and everybody wrote a letter to God. Next we visited History hall where the history of Brahma Baba’s life is depicted. Nice collections of old pictures. I could see a foreigner was getting some information from one of the BK sister. Near to that Peace of Tower is there which is the Samadhi of Brahma Baba. In the marble, it was God’s saying written ‘Abu is the greatest pilgrimage where God directly comes and gives his knowledge’. We took lunch there only.

Next we booked a jeep and a group of 9 people went for site-seeing. First came Dilwara Temple – A jain monument. What a really amazing and beautiful art carvings on marble! I had never seen such a marvelous sculpture earlier in my life though I love to visit places. There are around 108 statues of Mahaveer with open eyes and a star in the forehead between the eyebrows representing the Soul consciousness. Earlier experiences have seen only close eyes (sitting in meditation). But that one with open eyes illustrates the Rajayoga meditation which is the supreme one. I was unhappy as camera was not allowed inside. Really, this kind of sculpture is rare !

Our next site-seeing place was Peace Park. What a park it is ! Full of beautiful flowers of various kinds. Some children were playing in the ground, some were enjoying swinging. Some members (girls) of our team also went and enjoyed there. Everywhere we used to take photos. Gurushikhar was seen from there which was at the peak of the other mountain. It was already evening and suddenly clouds covered the sky. We took a break and had tea/pudina drink. Suddenly rain started and we went into jeep half-drenched. We moved onwards to Gurushikhar. The turnings of the road and watching the below areas while going up was great ! In 15 minutes, we reached Gurushikhar. There again we climbed 150 steps further. Two temples (Dattatreya temple) were there at the top. We went to the top and it was a feeling that we’re in the sky. Other hills and mountains were lying below us. Everybody was cheerful to have a look from there. After spending some time there, again we moved back to Gyan Sarovar. We’re already running late as inauguration of SpARC was about to start at 5:30 pm. We reached there at 6:30 pm. When we entered into the conference hall, session was already started. For that day, the topic was “Reflections & Realisation In Research”. Some scientists were on the dais along with our BK sisters. Everybody spoke about the topic and the session got over through realization (mediation). It was a great day to enjoy and gain knowledge from eminent personalities.

Next day, 6^th Sep 09, my brother came and woke me up in the morning 3:45 am for meditation session. I woke up and went to class. After the meditation got over around 4:45 am, I came back and took a nap. Next I got ready for Murli class at 7 am. As we two (myself and my brother) were BKs (brahmakumar), we attended Murli class. For non-BKs parallel session were going on. We attended that also around 8 am. The ongoing session was “Discovering my Spiritual Identity”. After that breakfast and again plenary session started at 10 am on the theme “Integrating God’s Power in Research”. One scientist from ISRO and one professor from IIT were guests. It was a gainful lecture from all the people. It got over around 12:30 followed by lunch. Further session was at 3pm-5pm on “Spiritual Applications in Medicine, Natural Sciences, Management Sciences, Humanities & Behavioural Sciences and Agricultural Sciences”. It was good information to collect. Further session was from 5:30pm-8pm based on the topic “Widening the Horizon of the Researcher” .The guests were : Architect of PARAM Supercomputer and a scientist from DRDO. The topic and the lectures were so good that audiences were enthralled. In the meantime, it was announced that Dadi Hridayamohini wass coming to meet us. By hearing that, I felt that my trip to Abu was fulfilled if I could see and get blessings from Dadi. In present days, Baba(God) comes to her body and speaks. Everybody who were on the stage came to the audience to receive the Dristi and blessings from Dadi. It was so peaceful and everybody got a heartfelt happiness. The session again continued after the departure of Dadi and it got over at 8:30 pm. Next session was cultural program at 9 pm. So it was announced that to come quickly after having dinner. The cultural program was presented from a team of kids from Indore. Dance, act, comedy were there. The Krishna-sudama act was very nice and heart-touching.

Next day, 7^th Sep. As usual it started from mediation class in the early morning followed by Murli class. But I missed meditation class this time due to laziness. For non-BKs, session was going on from 6:30 am to 8 am. After murli class, we joined there and the topic was “Awareness of Supreme Being”. Next was breakfast break followed by plenary session at 10 am-12:30 pm on “Current Economic Situation – A Spiritual Dimension”. Speakers were : CEO of some IT company, professor from Agra University. The session was good enough to measure the current situation through spirituality. The speakers were sharing their personal experience about being there in Brahmakumaris and how their notion got changed from being egoistic and arrogant person to cool and humble one. In many ways, non-BKs were getting influence. Next session at 3pm was parallel session on the same topic discussed earlier “Spiritual Applications in Medicine, Natural Sciences, Management Sciences, Humanities & Behavioural Sciences and Agricultural Sciences”. From 5:30pm onwards, valedictory session was there on “Soul empowerment – The Road Ahead”. In the night 9 pm-10 pm, program was there on “History of The BrahmaKumaris Institution”. After the session was over, we all got Participation certificate as next was the last day for the conference.

On Day 4, 8^th Sep 09. As usual sessions were there in the morning. The meditation session was on “Rajayoga and 8 powers”. Optional site-seeing option was there which we had already covered on 5^th Sep. We visited Library and Art Gallery. In the evening, as discussed earlier we all grouped and sat in the bus to go down to ShantiVan as my brother and his whole group return tickets were on 9 pm that day. While coming down the mountain, I enjoyed a lot natural beauty by taking advantage of window seat. I took many snaps. Around 7 pm, we reached ShantiVan. Only I took accommodation and stayed in ShantiKunj Hall # 5. Others put their luggages in the waiting hall. I called Srinivas Bhai regarding my arrival in ShantiVan and he came to meet me in 10 min. He showed me the nearby “Prakashmani Park” which is in the name of Dadi Prakashmani – previous Chief of Brahmakumaris. We both spent a good time there and came back to ShantiVan. My brother showed his friends all the places in ShantiVan. I was also there in the group. Around 8pm we took dinner and gave farewell to my brother and group. I loitered here and there and enjoyed the cool and beautiful atmosphere.

Next day, I attended morning Murli class followed by having breakfast. I was almost familiar with the places. My train was at 10 am. So I prepared accordingly and gave farewell to my trip to Abu. In my mind, I was thinking that I would come in this year once again and hopefully I would go. The imprints are still there in my mind which will be there for a long time as it is the first journey to Abu. Madhuban is a place for angels where they do the service selflessly and it’s God’s own place too. Their deeds, attire and behavior – everything is pure and simple. If a new person comes to this place, I am sure he/she will be affected a lot !