Saturday 04-DEC-2010
Visited: Guntur, Chilakaluripeta, Uppalapadu
Reached out to: 750 people
We all arrived in Guntur early in the morning. Finished our sadhana, breakfast and went for a meeting with our local team members.
We all left for Chilakaluripeta which is 30km from Guntur. We had lunch in a wonderful couple's house. Then, we addressed about 450 students in a Degree College. The college did not have a big enough auditorium to house 450 students. So, we split into 2 groups and addressed the students simultaneously on 2 different floors.
We told them about the importance of Yoga, Meditation, Human Values, "smile", "being happy", what does success really mean, service, responsibility towards ourselves, our family, society, country and the whole world. Gifts of India to the world, its cultural heritage, great leaders and role models for all of humanity. We then took them into Ram Dhyan. There were a LOT of students of other faiths but all them sincerely participated and enjoyed the meditation. "Ram" in Sanskrit means, "radiance..... radiance within one's self". By doing this meditation, one can really experience something profound, some lightness, clarity in the mind.
The Principal and the Director of their Educational Society were very happy and pleased. I talked with several students after the session. They said that they were very happy to get some insight into subjects beyond Math, Physics, Sciences, etc. "Sir, the meditation were very peaceful and calming. Can you please teach us?".
- We then went to a middle school and addressed about 100 kids who were waiting for us.
- After this, we went to another village: Uppalapadu. It was a long BUMPY road for 45 minutes. Horrible road conditions. We addressed the villagers who were gathered in Saibaba Temple. We sang nice bhajans and came back to Chilakaluripeta for dinner.
- We reached Guntur by 11pm after another beautiful day.
We leave tomorrow by 7:45am.
Interesting:
- During the talks, for an interactive process, we asked the students if anyone is learning/praciticing any music. We wanted to drive home point about sustaining enthusiasm in any art/subject/sports and how, many of us shy away and not reach our goals. But then, not a single hand was raised. This is the same situation in many colleges. While in the US, almost every kid of Indian parents has exposure to music, dance, art or sports. In some cases, all activities. Well, even I did not learn any music or art. The point is, there is a loooooooot of focus on academic achievement. Esp around Guntur area, kids are busy with books or classes from 7am to 9pm or beyond. Just some food for thought about the importance of value based education, some exposure to arts so that the right and left brains get activated simultaneously, some sports, etc. Don't mean to raise any discussion on this.
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