Guided Meditations and Clarity: My Takeaway from the Retreat

My name is Chintan, and I’m a software developer with more than six years of experience. I work with Morgan Stanley and Vision Technology. So, I came to Brahma Kumaris’s Empowering IT Retreat program as it was suggested to me by Khalid. At first, I thought, okay, let’s just try—this is something new. This is the first time that I was hearing about Brahma Kumaris under such a kind of program.

So, when I came here on Thursday evening, the first thought that I got over here was how beautiful the campus is, actually. It is nothing short of heaven, with all green, lush trees all around, nicely maintained gardens with so many beautiful, colorful flowers, and birds chirping all around. So, I think that was very beautiful. The first impression was very calm and extreme.

The next part of the experience that I had was with respect to the people and how they behave with you. So, I feel that the kind of vibe that you get from the people around here, the Sevadharis, is something which cannot be matched by anything that is outside this area because it is so peaceful. The way that they talk with you, the way that they help you—such beautiful natures—I think that is really unmatched.
The third thing which really intrigued me, and the one that we all had literally come here for, was the session and the knowledge that they shared. I feel this knowledge is very spiritual, definitely, but it actually gives us a lot of insight into who we are, who God is, and maybe even what a relationship with God is supposed to be and what it is not.

Actually, throughout the whole three days—today is Sunday evening, the third day of the whole program—I would say all three days have been just literally awakening and magical. The kind of depth that they give you is something which I had been longing for. You know, everywhere you will find, in this day of the Internet, you will find that, okay, somewhere you would have heard this thing, somewhere you would have heard that thing. But then, at the end of the day, you would still keep on questioning yourself, maybe this is true, maybe that is true. But then, coming here, I think it solves a lot of my questions and gives me the true answers.

Bridging the gap again between reality, spirituality, and science was today’s session, where we learned about how science and spirituality are connected. Even to the deepest atom, even to the DNA and the chromosomes, how spirituality, the words, and everything around us affect that. So basically, they left no stone unturned in explaining to you what the concepts are, why the concepts are, and why you should adopt them in your life.

I think coming here was one of the best decisions that I have made, and I would definitely say coming to Brahma Kumaris is maybe a life-turning situation.

One of the very key takeaways I would say is when she used this analogy that we have our house, and we have two gardens. One is the garden in the front, and one is the garden in the back. The way that she explained it was very beautiful. Maybe I might not be able to put it that clearly. She said the garden in the front is our physical life, where everything that we do is visible to people—our jobs, our success, our material wealth, and everything. The garden in the back is our spirituality, our connection with God.

Oftentimes, we find ourselves always taking care of the garden in the front, and we don’t even know at times that we have a garden in the back. So, that was something very eye-opening. Every time, whenever I feel that, okay, I’m not doing something right, I would definitely come back to this example and understand that maybe there is something that I need to do about the garden in the back. That is one of the key takeaways for me.

Personally, I am somebody who has been connected to meditation since childhood. Even still, I find that, okay, in meditation, the way that they get into meditation is different. I definitely found that this is very powerful. The way and techniques that we have over here with the guided meditation actually solve not just the problem of sitting or connecting with the higher self, but it even solves problems with anything that you have—be it your health, your life, or your relationships.

I found the answers to each of these problems in the meditation and the guides that they provide. So, I think that is a whole package. I would say this is very intriguing, and this is the start of a journey I’ll definitely like to keep on pursuing. So, yeah.

Chintan
Software Developer
Morgan Stanley and Vision Technology