4 November 2012: Talk on “The Relevance of Integral Education Today” by Partho
We were privileged to have Partho bhai at our centre on this day. He began the session inviting questions from those who attended the talk. Clearly, he did not want to lecture but rather, be engaged in a dialogue session with everyone. Having gauged our understanding on the topic, he proceeded to summarise the concept of Integral Education. In order to accomplish this, he touched on Integral Yoga and what it essentially entailed. Then he brought us into the realm of Integral Education. As he shared his knowledge and experience in this field, many questions followed and some of them, clearly burning questions from parents on the way of bringing up a child. Partho bhai was forthright with his answers. He mentioned that there were no short cuts but for one and all to aspire for and practice a more and more true living. The talk extended to about two hours. It felt as if Partho bhai had kindled some sparks in all of us that day.
11 November 2012: Talk/Discussion on Vedic Yoga
The second Sunday of the month is when we have the Talk at the Centre. And this Sunday, Jared was to speak on the topic Vedic Yoga (Part II), as Part I was covered the previous month. After the Opening Meditation, we formed a circle. As always, we picked up one copy each, of the handout prepared by Jared.
The session started with a few participants sharing their personal experience about how they were initiated into Vedic chanting and its significance in their lives. It was enriching to hear each of these experiences. With that in the backdrop, we started off with our first topic for the day-- “The Inner War”. This is a topic which is relevant to our everyday lives! We all have our constant inner conflicts, inner wars within ourselves every moment, every day. It had beautiful lines on the soul of a man and how it is a world in itself, what with there being positive forces or The Gods and then the negative forces or the demons trying to establish themselves.
The second topic was “The Hostile Forces”. This topic dealt with the hostile forces Man encounters during his spiritual quest, the multiple roles that he has to don during the course of the journey and how all along he is constantly encountering the Dasyu, the natural enemy. This triggered off an interesting discussion about how the Vedic philosophy quotes “Yad Pinde Tad Brahmande” as the important principle which loosely translates to “You are a Universe within the Universe”. One could draw a parallel to this with the Egyptian phrase: “As above, so below. As within, so without” as Jared highlighted. With this enlightenment, and a good discussion later, we sat for our Closing Meditation.
17 November 2012 : The Mother’s Mahasamdhi Day
We gathered at the Centre from 6pm onwards. More flowers arrived at the Centre and these were quietly arranged and offered at the altar. We began with meditation on Sunil-da’s music and read two entries from ‘Prayers and Meditation’. Venkatesh Rao described in brief what Nirod-da had described about Mother’s last few days. Shailaja then read the message from ashram which touched us all in our cores. It asked us to hold always the highest and only goal of knowing the truth of our being before us, in all that we do, feel and think. The lines took us naturally into silent meditation. The poignant session came to a close after about 10 minutes on Sunil-da’s music.
18 November 2012 : Talk/Discussion on Vedic Yoga
This week, we continued with the second part of Jared's talk on Vedic Yoga, based on Sri Aurobindo's The Secret of the Veda. The discussion involved the nature of the Gods, the great Aspects of the Divine that assist us in our evolution. After Jared's explanation, an extract on one of the main Gods was read. Mr Krishnamurthy then chanted Vedic mantras that invoked the particular God we were reading about (either Agni, Indra, Surya or Soma), before group discussion commenced. The group not only sought to grasp the nature of the Gods intellectually, but also tried to experience some of their Radiance through the Vedic mantras. The session ended with the Mother's reading of the 'Adoration of the Divine Mother' - an invocation to the mother of the Gods, Aditi.
23 November 2012 : Musical Offering by Mr. and Mrs. Bhattacharjee
We were privileged to have with us Mr. and Mrs. Bhattacharjee from the Sri Aurobindo Society, Bangalore (otherwise known as Sri Aurobindo Bhavan at Ulsoor) who were on a short stop-over visit to Singapore en route to Australia. They treated us to an evening of deep devotional music. The simplicity in the offering, the devotion, the total involvement, the utter care with which each rendition was offered had its effect on all of us. The silence that pervaded the room when the offering concluded was deeply felt by one and all. We could only refer back to The Mother for the blessings bestowed upon all of us. It was indeed a most fitting way to welcome Siddhi Day.
24 November 2012 : Siddhi Day
We gathered on Siddhi day in our centre. The flowers offered at the altar spoke many sweet words silently. Following meditation with Sunil-da’s New Year music and reading off Prayers and meditation by Shailaja, the Siddhi Day message from ashram was read by Jayanthy. It was another poignant message following the one a week before. Then the significance of Siddhi day as narrated by Purani was read out by Sundari. Jared led us in reading a page each of Canto 15, Book 2: ‘The Kingdoms of the Greater Knowledge’. The hour-long gathering concluded with a short meditation with Sunil-da’s New Year music.
- Jayanthy, Jared and Preethi
We were privileged to have Partho bhai at our centre on this day. He began the session inviting questions from those who attended the talk. Clearly, he did not want to lecture but rather, be engaged in a dialogue session with everyone. Having gauged our understanding on the topic, he proceeded to summarise the concept of Integral Education. In order to accomplish this, he touched on Integral Yoga and what it essentially entailed. Then he brought us into the realm of Integral Education. As he shared his knowledge and experience in this field, many questions followed and some of them, clearly burning questions from parents on the way of bringing up a child. Partho bhai was forthright with his answers. He mentioned that there were no short cuts but for one and all to aspire for and practice a more and more true living. The talk extended to about two hours. It felt as if Partho bhai had kindled some sparks in all of us that day.
11 November 2012: Talk/Discussion on Vedic Yoga
The second Sunday of the month is when we have the Talk at the Centre. And this Sunday, Jared was to speak on the topic Vedic Yoga (Part II), as Part I was covered the previous month. After the Opening Meditation, we formed a circle. As always, we picked up one copy each, of the handout prepared by Jared.
The session started with a few participants sharing their personal experience about how they were initiated into Vedic chanting and its significance in their lives. It was enriching to hear each of these experiences. With that in the backdrop, we started off with our first topic for the day-- “The Inner War”. This is a topic which is relevant to our everyday lives! We all have our constant inner conflicts, inner wars within ourselves every moment, every day. It had beautiful lines on the soul of a man and how it is a world in itself, what with there being positive forces or The Gods and then the negative forces or the demons trying to establish themselves.
The second topic was “The Hostile Forces”. This topic dealt with the hostile forces Man encounters during his spiritual quest, the multiple roles that he has to don during the course of the journey and how all along he is constantly encountering the Dasyu, the natural enemy. This triggered off an interesting discussion about how the Vedic philosophy quotes “Yad Pinde Tad Brahmande” as the important principle which loosely translates to “You are a Universe within the Universe”. One could draw a parallel to this with the Egyptian phrase: “As above, so below. As within, so without” as Jared highlighted. With this enlightenment, and a good discussion later, we sat for our Closing Meditation.
17 November 2012 : The Mother’s Mahasamdhi Day
We gathered at the Centre from 6pm onwards. More flowers arrived at the Centre and these were quietly arranged and offered at the altar. We began with meditation on Sunil-da’s music and read two entries from ‘Prayers and Meditation’. Venkatesh Rao described in brief what Nirod-da had described about Mother’s last few days. Shailaja then read the message from ashram which touched us all in our cores. It asked us to hold always the highest and only goal of knowing the truth of our being before us, in all that we do, feel and think. The lines took us naturally into silent meditation. The poignant session came to a close after about 10 minutes on Sunil-da’s music.
18 November 2012 : Talk/Discussion on Vedic Yoga
This week, we continued with the second part of Jared's talk on Vedic Yoga, based on Sri Aurobindo's The Secret of the Veda. The discussion involved the nature of the Gods, the great Aspects of the Divine that assist us in our evolution. After Jared's explanation, an extract on one of the main Gods was read. Mr Krishnamurthy then chanted Vedic mantras that invoked the particular God we were reading about (either Agni, Indra, Surya or Soma), before group discussion commenced. The group not only sought to grasp the nature of the Gods intellectually, but also tried to experience some of their Radiance through the Vedic mantras. The session ended with the Mother's reading of the 'Adoration of the Divine Mother' - an invocation to the mother of the Gods, Aditi.
23 November 2012 : Musical Offering by Mr. and Mrs. Bhattacharjee
We were privileged to have with us Mr. and Mrs. Bhattacharjee from the Sri Aurobindo Society, Bangalore (otherwise known as Sri Aurobindo Bhavan at Ulsoor) who were on a short stop-over visit to Singapore en route to Australia. They treated us to an evening of deep devotional music. The simplicity in the offering, the devotion, the total involvement, the utter care with which each rendition was offered had its effect on all of us. The silence that pervaded the room when the offering concluded was deeply felt by one and all. We could only refer back to The Mother for the blessings bestowed upon all of us. It was indeed a most fitting way to welcome Siddhi Day.
24 November 2012 : Siddhi Day
We gathered on Siddhi day in our centre. The flowers offered at the altar spoke many sweet words silently. Following meditation with Sunil-da’s New Year music and reading off Prayers and meditation by Shailaja, the Siddhi Day message from ashram was read by Jayanthy. It was another poignant message following the one a week before. Then the significance of Siddhi day as narrated by Purani was read out by Sundari. Jared led us in reading a page each of Canto 15, Book 2: ‘The Kingdoms of the Greater Knowledge’. The hour-long gathering concluded with a short meditation with Sunil-da’s New Year music.
- Jayanthy, Jared and Preethi
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