Real Spirituality in Action: A Divine Experience

Om Shanti.

So we have been here at the Mount Abu Center at the headquarters of the Brahma Kumaris for the last 3 days, and we had a chance to spend a lot of time here and just wanted to share a little bit about our experience. It’s been an absolutely Divine experience since the moment we got here till the moment we are going back now. There are a couple of key takeaways which I feel will stay with me for years to come.

I would say the first thing is the warmth of all the people who I met here. Every single person, whether it’s the sister who’s cleaning, who’s helping clean the ashram, or whether it’s the sisters who are giving the lectures on stage—I think you can just feel the warmth just emanate through their heart, emanate through their eyes, and the love, the compassion when you are in their presence. So for me, I feel that has really been the biggest takeaway—that everyone here is really practicing what they are sharing with others and therefore they are themselves beacons of light, beacons of love. And I feel that’s what makes the spirit of this ashram truly come alive. It’s not just about the surroundings. It’s not just about the beautiful nature around, but it’s the love that each person here carries in their heart. But of course, the environment also is serene and hence it allows for all of us—all of the people who’ve come here for the retreat—to go into that meditative state. So we are surrounded by some beautiful lush mountains, and the way the whole campus here is set up is absolutely beautiful. You feel like you are wrapped in Mother Nature’s embrace. And yeah, the atmosphere really allows you to sort of forget your work life, what’s happening back at home, and truly be here and enter that state of peace which is, which we talk about here.

The knowledge itself has been really profound. There are so many different aspects of our being which we don’t think about in our day-to-day lives, such as who are we really? How we are the spirit, the soul, and how this body is just the costume. I think such topics, in the daily rut of life, we don’t even pay attention to when it is truly our real identity. So coming here, when you distance yourself from that daily work, you are able to realize so many truths which you’re not able to do back home. And the way it is explained through all the sisters—I think because they live this themselves—they’re able to share it with so much integrity, with so much conviction, and that is what is transferred to every participant here.

The Raj Yoga meditation that is taught here, it immediately calms your mind down and it makes you reconnect with the true father of us all, the true spirit. So I think if we are able to incorporate this in our daily hectic lives—even for a few minutes every day—we will be able to maintain our calm in our lives amidst chaos. So it’s a really profound meditation, and we encourage everyone to come here at least once, learn it, and practice it in their own lives. Of course, the food has been really, not just delicious but extremely energizing. All the food here is cooked in a very specific way. It’s unlike anywhere else, where all the sisters and the brothers who are part of the food-making process—they’re energizing the food. Not just energizing the food, but also energizing the place where the food is grown.

So, I think this is the epitome of pranic food that one can eat. So we also had a chance to visit all the different parts of the campus here—from Shantivan to Tapovan to Pandav Bhawan to Gyan Sarovar—and it’s like every part of this campus unveils a different story, a different journey, a different beauty. So when we went to Pandav Bhawan and we understood the creation of how how the entire organization came to be, I think it was so, so inspiring. To be here—there’s so many hardships that have been faced by the sisters and brothers, and we see only the end product, right? But there’s so much that has come through in the past 100 years or so to be here.

And at Tapovan, we saw how there’s so many fruits and vegetables and different kinds of foods being grown there, and there was one brother who took us around in a small van—and throughout he was sharing with us what are the fruits grown, what are the vegetables grown. And just to see how he was able to do even that service, even that seva, with so much joy in his heart, it really touched us. And it truly made us realize how all the people here who are doing the same—they are imbibing the spirit or the lessons that we learn in class. So it’s not just that we are only learning in the classes. We’re actually seeing living examples of what we are learning outside the class when we meet people here. So it’s been an absolutely Divine experience. It’s been surreal for us.

What I learned—I’m sure there’s many messages that one could grasp from the retreat or from what this term means—but what I learned is that we are in control of our thoughts at any given time. How we feel in our day, how we feel, what emotions we feel—they don’t belong or they don’t depend on others. We have the remote control of our own energy, of our own emotions at any given time. So I think, yeah, self-empowerment is not at all difficult. If you understand the essence of it, it is our true nature.

I think another thing that touched our hearts—I know I’ve said too many things touched our hearts—but they really did. So yeah, thank you to all the brothers and sisters who were a part of making this beautiful experience come true for us.

Om Shanti.

 Subah Saraf
Satvic Movement