Dr. Mahima Sethia
On 22nd Feb, I came to know that a group of Samanis have been arrived in Surat and has gone to Kaparada, a tribal village in Valsad district of Gujarat for 6 days Preksha Meditation Camp. Earlier I had heard lot about the Surat’s Anuvrat & Preksha Dhyan Academy’s activities at Kaparada. So I with my parents & sister make up a mind to go there on Sunday taking a dual benefit of darshan of Samanis and to know more about the Kaparada.
We started by 12.00 pm. Till Valsad, we travel on National Highway-8 which is as smooth as sliding butter. From Valsad, we have to move 60 km inside towards tribal area. We all were so much amazed by seeing the same type of road as of NH-08 during travel to Kaparada which is a tribal area. Smooth roads had relieved us from the excessive tiredness of journey. After Valsad, some what hilly area started with crest and trough roads. Trees were on both the side of roads. Sometime it appears as we were passing through the caves of tress standing both the side. When we moved 30 km interior, stalls of watermelon were there through out the road & there were many people who came from far to purchase the season’s fresh first lot of watermelon. We too were among them to enjoy the nature’s gift.
Enjoying the beauty of nature, we reached Kaparada near by 4.00 pm. There Ankesh Bhai Shah, one of the active coordinator of preksha camp, had sent his driver to show us the way to the Shaburi Ashram where Samanis were staying. We saw lot of girls in the garden of campus as we enter Shaburi Ashram. We came to know that nearly 100 girls are living there from near by 70 tribal villages where education facility is not available. This trust is completely funded by a Mumbai’s businessman Shri Nitinbhai Sonawala. All the expenses of girls - food, clothing, shelter, education and other primary requirement is taken care by him. He also visit ashram and stay at every possible weekends. We interacted with the girls. Girls are studying in 8 to 12th standard in nearby school. There are cashew trees & other plants in the surrounding, which were planted by them. A well was also constructed for the rain water harvesting. We had saw their traditional kitchen and working them there.
Welcome of Samanis by Girls of Shabari Chatralaya
Surat’s Anuvrat & Preksha Dhyan Academy has joined the hands with Nitin bhai to shape up the holistic development of the girls staying there. In this context, a 6 days Science of Living & Preksha Meditation camp has organized under the guidance of disciple of Acharya Mahapragya Samani Nirmalpragya accompanied with Samani Amitpragya, Samani Ratanpragya & Samani Mayankpragya from 19 - 24 February 2009.
Samani ji taking food at Shabari Chatralaya
All four Samanis have put the great efforts in motivating & directing the girls along with the students of near by village’s schools to lead the holistic life style. 11 schools, nearly 4000 students & 143 teachers, 200 km travel of tribal area, 6 day, 4 Samanis and 3 Coordinators - the number itself enough to imagine the kind of efforts invested to nurture the seed into the future blossoming trees.
Samani Ratan Pragya, Samani Amit Pragya, Samani Nirmal Pragya & Samani Mayank Pragya From L TO R) in the training programme
Keeping the Sabari Girls Hostel as the centre point, Swami Narayan School Motapoda, Shri Subah Chanra Bose Govt. High School Kothar, Ashramshala Narvad, Shah G.M.D Sarvajanik College Mataponda, Ashramshala Kaparada etc. are the few of the place where Samanis went to provide the training of Science of Living & Preksha Meditation.
Students doing the exercise of PM
During training Samani Nirmal Pragya emphasized on the four fold development (physical, intellectual, mental, & emotional) for holistic development of a person. She explained the importance and use of Science of living in the daily life and encouraged the student to adopt the basic & simple rules of life. Samani Amitpragya teach them about the experiments to increase the memory power, to calm down the anger, mahapran dhvani, swas preksha, jyoti kendra preksha, gyan kendra preksha etc. In Sabari Hostel, Samanis have given the week training of Science of Living & Preksha Meditation to the 100 girls staying there.
Trustee Shri Nitin Bhai (in red Kurta), Shri Ankesh Bhai Shah (in Blue shirt) & Samani jis during evening class at Shaburi Chatralaya
Girls have enthusiastically learned the experiment of Mangal Bhavana, Perception of long breathing and Anuvrat song. It is general law that use of local language is a good mean to remove the distances & hesitation among the unknowns. Catching the pulse of this law, Samani jis has used the local Gujarati language during their training sessions, which proved as a great advantage in developing a close understanding bridge with the girls and localities. And this is one of the reasons that students have shown keen interest in learning the use of Preksha Meditation in routine life.
Seeds are being nurtured to be a blooming tree of Future with Preksha Meditation unders guidence of Samani jis
Shri Ankesh Bhai Shah, Mahendra Bhai & trainer Rakesh Pandeya had contributed selflessly their time & energy to make this project a success in cultivating the seeds of life management in the students, teachers & children.
Babubhai Patel, Bharat Bhai Shah, Bahnu bhai Joshi, Pravin Bhai, Bhagu Bahi, Sudha ben are few names whose contribution watered the seeds of success.
Samani Ratan Pragya & Samani Mayank Pragya encouraging girls by song
In our evening meet, girls sung a beautiful spiritual song. My mother Smt. Ranjana, myself had an hour chat with them. We were astonished to see the grasping ability of girls, the way they are maintaining all the hostel activities by their own and the determination towards the motto of their life.
I myself feel though these girls are away from technologies & computer culture but are far ahead in belongingness, simplicity & purity of heart.
Nitin Bhai interacting with the girls
I also felt gratitude towards the peoples like Nitinbhai who has been holding the flag of humanity calmly making true the words of Acharya Mahapragya “Conversations cease when we learn to discover the joys of internalization”
While returning back to surat, I am feeling a different types of emotions waving in my mind realizing me the purpose of life and meaning of happiness. I am also remembring the following four lines of Muni Mohan Lal ji “AMET’ which is my inspiration too.
“Janam nahi nij haath, Maran nahi nij haath,
Jivan apne haath hai, likh de oojwal khyat”
(Birth is not in our hand, nor the life’s end,
Let’s glorify the life, which is in our hand)
Students in one of the school near Kaparada practising PM
Beautiful Internal view of Shaburi Chatralaya
View of outer campus of Shaburi Chatralaya
Students in PM Training session
Sudha Ben is being honoured for her services during PM Camp
Member of Anuvrat Samiti & other prominent person having a discussion with Samani Nirmalpragya ji
Guests who came from Surat enjoying food at Shaburi Chatralaya
View of one of the training session taken by Samani jis in schools
Nature's beauty is splashing every where in Kaparada
Samani Nirmalpragya ji & Samani Mayank pragya ji in training session
Samani Nirmalpragya ji & Samani Amit Pragya ji visualising the nature's beauty along with Ankesh Bhai, Sudha Ben & others
Samani Nirmalpragya ji explaining the importance of PM in complete four fold development of personality