Samani Prasanna and Vikas Pragya jis In Italy

Growing Attraction Towards Preksha Meditation In Italy

Samani Prasanna & Vikas Pragyajis' travails this time took them from London, Europe’s JVB Centre, to various cities in Italy from 14-24 October 2011. The arrangement of this trip was organised by the ‘Oki-do Yoga Centre Italy’.

Samanijis chaired workshops on the subject of ‘Keys to a blissful life’ at the Oki-do Centres in the Italian cities of Naples, Rimini, Pesaro, Forli, Milan, Vicenza and Colbordolo. Samani Prasanna Pragya said in her speech that every individual desires peace and happiness in their lives but peace seemed to be running away from them. Peace is the fundamental desire of every human. To achieve this main desire or in other words to live a peaceful life it is very necessary to have a disciplined and timely routine, simple life-style and display a balance between their duties and over-attachment whilst fulfilling their responsibilities towards worldly relationships; to control unnecessary thoughts of our past and live in present and be positive.

Samaniji explained the above points in a spiritual and scientific way to say that if an individual really wanted peace he should close the gap between knowledge and application. He already knows the way to lead a peaceful life but how much is he applying, is something that needs to be speculated upon.

To get that application into our lives, Samaniji said that many practical exercises of Preksha meditation like regular practice of perception of deep-breathing can be used to make us live in present.

Mangal Bhavna (auspicious thinking) helps us to have positive thinking; Kayotsarga (relaxation) and Arham Jaap assist us in reducing our worldly attachments. Samani Vikas Pragyaji held practical exercises for the attendees.

Arrangements were made to hold Workshops at their various Oki-do Yoga Centres in different cities in Italy. All participants of these workshops were Italian; who took full enjoyment from these sessions and expressed their deep interest in learning more about Preksha Meditation and Jain religion. Despite being totally alien to Hindi and Sanskrit languages, it was a joyous sight to see them practising Mangal Bhavna & Arham Jaap with sheer enthusiasm and dedication.

After having seminars at these Centres, Samanijis stayed at Jain Terapanthi Dilip & Jyoti Kothari’s residence in Milan for some time. Their whole family took special benefit from Samanijis’ auspicious presence there.

After that they spent one day in the city of Vicenza. A discourse was organised there at the Sanatan Temple in the midst of Hindu Samaj. Samani Vikas Pragyaji started the program with melodious songs. After that Samani Prasanna Pragyaji said in her speech - human life is a treasure trove of strength and power and the need was to awaken this power. To awaken this latent power, Samaniji explained the importance of devotion which was the bridge between devotee and god-hood. This awakening in turn, helps the devotee in developing towards god-hood and bring the human soul closer to the liberated soul. Devotion is likened to a boat which helps a human to seek the shore in the ocean of material world. Real devotion was defined as when it was devoid of worldly desires and deceitful thoughts.

At the end of the discourse, the Vice President of the temple Avinash Kumarji in expressing his appreciation, requested Samanijis if they could extend the duration of their stay on their next visit to Vicenza.

The culmination of this 10-day trip was a camp held at the main centre of Oki-do Yoga in Colbordolo. This 2-day camp was organised for the Directors and teachers of different Oki-do centres in Italy. Samani Prasanna Pragyaji gave both theoretical and practical training to all trainee attendees there. They all expressed their heartfelt desire in wanting to practise regular Preksha Meditation in all their centres after experiencing such blissful and peaceful feelings at the training sessions.

After the camp was over, there was a meeting held between the Samanijis and the Chief Director of Italy’s Oki-do Yoga Centre, Master Yuji Yahiro and his wife Lorena, where he expressed the reason for his special attraction towards Jain religion and said - from all the religions in the world, Jainism was one where its followers were still practising their religious principles to this day. He also spoke of his deep regard for the Terapanth order, Acharya Tulsi, Acharya Mahapragya and Acharya Mahashraman and being drawn towards Preksha Meditation. He pronounced that in the coming years, they would like to organise a program at a grand level to spread the art of Preksha Meditation with great zest in Italy.

He went on to express his earnest desire to attend the International Preksha Meditation Camp with his Oki-do Yoga group of people. After the meeting, Samani Prasanna Pragyaji gifted a photo of Acharya Tulsi to Master Yuji Yahiro - for which he had expressed his wish to have the previous year. He accepted this gift with great happiness and reverence and said - I will place this in a prime position at my Centre so that it keeps giving me and each and every person who comes there, great energy and vitality.

Originally belonging to Jagraon - a town in Punjab province but now a Vicenzan resident, Terapanthi Mrs. Santosh Jain’s son Rajiv Jain and his wife Vandana gave their service to Samanijis with sincere responsibility and devotion. This eventful trip had good support of Daniella, Maria, Gabriella and other Italian sisters who helped in making the trip an immense success.

Photos:

RIMINI, Italy	◄	RIMINI, Italy
COLBORDOLO, Italy	◄	COLBORDOLO, Italy
COLBORDOLO, Italy	◄	COLBORDOLO, Italy
COLBORDOLO Italy - with Master Yuji Yahiro	◄	COLBORDOLO Italy - with Master Yuji Yahiro
YUJI YAHIRO, Italy - holding Acharya Tulsi photo	◄	YUJI YAHIRO, Italy - holding Acharya Tulsi photo
MILAN, Italy	◄	MILAN, Italy