Fwd: Dear Parijan

[Amitabh Saraf]

Dear Parijan

I have been thinking for sometime on what can be done to make this Ashwamedha Yagya at Bangalore from 17th to 20th Jan 2014, unique and different from other yagyas. Since it is being conducted in Bangalore: the IT capital of India, we must coincide the event with at least some activity that can attract youth from colleges and IT industries also. We must try to organize some event where senior corporate people can also join in. I think the day of 18th/19th Jan 2014 can be used for this purpose.

Possibilities

There are 2 possibilities: (i) we could organize a programme which would interest senior school or college students like a cultural program with awards for winners, (ii) we could organize a corporate workshop. Both should be for about half day. The intent of the programmes is to invite untouched group of people to Ashwamedha Yagya by explaining the intent and the concept of the yagya.

First Meeting

I had two meetings over the weekend. First with Mr Jagdish Bapat (www.facebook.com/jagdish.bapat), who runs a company called Footprints HR services. He was one of the panelists during our Corporate Workshop in 2007. He is an HR consultant but quite spiritually inclined. He has a lot of experience conducting programmes in schools and colleges. He gave several ideas that can be used to create a momentum for the programme on 18th/19th Jan. These include conducting quizzes (like Bhartiya Sanskriti Gyan Pariksha), organizing small debate competitions/cultural skit competitions with prizes for winners. These should first be done at intra school/college level, followed by inter school/college level. For BSGP he said that through his contacts we can try and approach the state government education ministry for support. On 18/19th Jan we can organize the final event or do the prize distribution function at our Ashwamedh venue. He is ready to join us for a meeting whenever we plan. I think it would be a good idea to listen to his experiences, seek his advice, and see what we can implement. This may be a good idea to create awareness among a large number of youth.

Second Meeting

The second meeting was with Dr Subhash Sharma, Director, Indus Business Academy (www.iba.ac.in) Dr Sharma knows Gayatri Pariwar very well and has visited Shantikunj several times. He is an author of more than 9 books and has presented several papers in various conferences promoting Indian Management, Consciousness in Corporate World etc. (http://www.wwedsubhashsharma.com/index.htm) This meeting was also very interesting since we discussed how to spread the concept of Scientific Spirituality in Bangalore. Dr Sharma has been working on defining concepts that are based upon Indian traditions and wisdom which can be more conveniently accepted by the modern world. He suggested that we should form a study group like Scientific Spirituality Group (SSG), that works to spread these concepts far and wide. He could be an advisor and mentor to the group and give us ideas through which we can spread our thoughts to intellectuals and corporate groups. As an activity, this group can organize a workshop for intellectuals on 18/19th Jan.

Ad Dr Sahab has also been saying in his lectures time and again that we need to think of different ways to spread PP Gurudev's thoughts to intellectuals, and this may be a way!

Next Steps:

Let us plan a meeting with Mr Bapat on 18 or 19 May at a suitable venue. I shall confirm the dates with him. Dr Sharma is going to US and we can meet him in July. But let us brain storm on 18/19 May how can we promote the idea of SSG.

Pranam

Amitabh