Personal experiences
A large contingent of Sahaja yogis, including many yuvas (young people), returned to Woolgoolga (6 hours drive north of Sydney) in buses for the annual Curry Festival. The weather forecasts had predicted heavy rain, and even storms, for the day of the event, but we all gave bandhans and Shri Mataji created a little bubble of sunshine over the seaside town in the wet weather that seemed to cover most of the coast of New South Wales. (It’s interesting to note that since Shri Mataji visited Australia last year, and it was brought to Her Divine Attention that there was a serious drought problem in the country, it has since rained an incredible amount.) It was really a perfect day, just a tiny brief sprinkle of rain, which felt like a spray of holy water, as a local Aboriginal elder opened the event.
Two of the yuva boys started things off with a rousing drum performance and later in the day the crowd was entertained by Freya and Neesha’s classical Indian dance, Music of Joy and Jhoom Kawali. The local Bangra dancers were also marvellous. In addition to the weather miracle, at the last minute the organisers of the Festival moved the Realisation tent from a very peripheral position to a location where the crowd congregated. They also gave us a tent much larger than planned.
As at other events, the yoginis offered face painting for children, and mehndi hand decoration, which attracted people to the tent. I noticed one lady looking very intently at the yogis giving realisation, and I asked her if she would like to try it. At first she made an excuse that she had to go and get lunch. Then I felt a blast of the Cool Breeze and the lady suddenly changed her mind, coming in for her Realisation and having a very powerful experience.
Last year, members of the local Sikh population, which makes up a large proportion of the population, were reluctant to try, but this time a few Sikh ladies came in and got their realisation.
Graham Brown
(Photograph: curryfest.com.au)
Musical therapist and teacher of Sahaja Yoga, Celeste Jones, is set to attend the 2008 World Youth Congress in Quebec, Canada. Kurrajong Heights’ Celeste Jones is one of a select group of youths meeting in Canada later this year, to search for ways to combat the many crises facing our modern world.
In August she will join 600 young leaders from throughout the globe, to participate in the fourth World Youth Congress, “ReGeneration 2008”, in Quebec.
The World Youth Congress is a project funded by Peace Child International, which aims to bring together young people from the age of 18 to 30 who have a passion for sustainable development.
A total of 15,000 youths applied to attend this year’s congress.
Delegates will join forces with young Canadians to undertake hands-on community action projects across Quebec.
They will help shape international policy by documenting and showing governments what young people are doing to achieve the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals, which include halving poverty, halting the spread of HIV/AIDS, promoting gender equality and reducing infant mortality.
Ms Jones, 25, will attend the congress along with a group of friends, as an advocate of Sahaja Yoga.
“A group of us applied as delegates so we put in our application as the Sahaja organisation,” she said.
The group travel internationally teaching Sahaja Yoga meditation techniques, which promotes attributes such as inner balance, peace and “self realisation”.
“It’s just a very simple meditation technique that takes a few minutes, and once you’ve learnt it you can teach anyone,” she said. “Whatever we do is always free — it’s just for other people’s benefit. We get a lot of joy out of it.”
As part of attending the World Youth Congress, Ms Jones and the Sahaja group were asked to submit a development project illustrating the ways her organisation is taking action.
They plan to spend time in Rome working with Gypsies, teaching Sahaja Yoga and musical therapy, and helping them re-establish their cultural roots by empowering the youth.
But the project is just one of many for Ms Jones and her friends, who have established meditation programs around the world.
“A lot of my other friends, they live in all different countries,” she said. “They organise various events and then we go and join them and do all sorts of things.”
The trip to Canada will be her second encounter with the World Youth Congress.
Ms Jones is a trained musician and musical therapist as well as an accomplished artist, and attended the last congress in Scotland three years ago as a cultural performer.
For the 2008 World Youth Congress Ms Jones has applied as a delegate, which will give her a greater role in the discussions and decisions made at the event.
For more information on the World Youth Congress, go to www.wyc2008.qc.ca
By Tegan Osborne, Hawkesbury Courier
Going to Chhindwara, little did I realise that the event coming up was quite cosmic in proportions – Good Friday, Persian New Year, Prophet Mohammed’s Birthday and, of course, Shri Mataji’s 85th birthday.
The celebration of Holi was expected on the day after Birthday Puja [celebration], so we dressed in our silks and other finest for the Puja, leaving “holi clothes” for the next day. Little did we realise that we were going to break into spontaneous Holi colour-smearing right after Puja.
Shri Mataji’s daughters, Sadhana Didi and Kalpana Didi, decided to play Holi with Shri Mataji right there after the birthday cake was cut. More Gulal (red powder for smearing on each other) was vibrated by Shri Mataji. The Indian yogis spared no time mixing the vibrated red powder with tons more, making packets and distributing it right away to a rapturous crowd of more than 20,000.
A new movie on Shri Mataji’s childhood was premiered just before the Puja. In February this year, Shri Mataji gave a 3-hour interview, reminiscing about her childhood and the house in Chhindwara where she was born. The house is a shrine restored without replacing most of its vibrated elements: the floor on which Mother took Her first steps, etc.
The house was a hospital for a long time. During this time, many years ago, Baba Mama [Shri Mataji’s youngest brother] took Sahaja Yogis to the building and asked them to check vibrations in various rooms to find the room where Shri Mataji was born. This Sahaja Yogi recollected that they passed many rooms before coming to a small, abandoned room which was quite cobwebbed. It gave vibrational evidence that Baba Mama confirmed as the birth place of Shri Mataji.
After the puja, Holi celebrations resumed with the folksy charm of Mukhiraam and Dr. Rajesh’s songs about Holi. It was quite a coincidence to celebrate Holi in the state of India where Holi is celebrated quite intensely: Madhya Pradesh.
The highlight of Birthday Puja was Shri Mataji’s power of transforming the remote puja site in Linga village near Chhindwara, into a hospitable place for thousands in a matter of weeks.
Ruthvick
“Suddenly I had the overwhelming experience of having just emerged from a dense cloud. I knew all at once: now I am myself! It was as if a wall of mist were at my back, and behind that wall there was not yet an ‘I’. But at this moment I came upon myself.
Previously I had existed too, but everything had merely happened to me. Now I knew: I am myself now: now I exist.”
Carl Jung (describing an experience at age 12 years)
(Photograph: hrono.ru)