Girish's Blog: June 2015

I had planned to go to Goa for celebrating the IYD the moment it was officially announced. I then started speaking to friends and fellow soul mates to make the road trip with me. Five people agreed and then cancelled at the last moment. On 14^th June at the Science and Spirituality training session at Raheja College, Juhu I had mentioned that I will not be in Mumbai on 20, 21, 22 June as I will be in Goa for the event. Mr. Kishore Chiklikar of Kandivali centre was also present and I got a call from him on the 18^th asking if there was place in the car for three people. On the 18^th in the afternoon-evening I came to know that another couple had also decided against coming. On the 19^th I got a call from Harish that he too could not make it. I had then decided to cancel the trip, but then I thought that if at the last moment 5 people were cancelling and three were being added then it has to be His wish. So I called Mr. Chiklikar and told him that we will go. On the 19^th there were heavy rains in Mumbai with trees having fallen all over the place and the road outside our house being completely flooded. Nevertheless, I decided to leave on Saturday as originally planned but with a new set of people – Kishore, his younger sister Nina and their mother. I picked them up from Sion at around 6.15 am and left for Goa.

We encountered heavy rains in Mumbai and up to Lonavala. After that there was no rain till Chorla Ghat. We reached Belgaum for lunch exactly at 1pm as planned. Post lunch we left for Panjim at around 2pm, after I took the address from Ramaniji we headed to GTDC Beach Resort at Miramar. The drive through Chorla Ghat was slow as there was continuous torrential rain with visibility down to just a few feet. We encountered lots of fallen trees and many accidents had taken place on the route, but our drive through was safe and comfortable as usual with Baba’s Divine company. We reached Miramar at 4.45pm and checked into two rooms in the resort which had been booked for us by Ramaniji.

Ramaniji had called saying that he will come to get me at around 5.30pm to go to the stadium. He picked me up from the Hanuman Temple at around 5.35pm and showed me the road to the stadium where the event was to take place the next day. As we were driving in to the stadium we saw Khamankarji leaving and waved out to him but he did not notice. I called him and he returned and joined us for a few minutes of discussions before leaving for Colva where he had put up. After he left we went into the stadium and I observed Ramaniji micromanaging the event with a firm but polite and loving hand. He ensured that all the pieces of the giant jigsaw were being put in place efficiently by the respective volunteers and then he stepped back. We then went and sat at the back of the stadium to go through the event itinerary with Jhalkiji, Rajendra and Shaila Gaunekarji. As Shailaji and Jhalkiji were the masters of ceremony for Konkani and Hindi respectively, where they would be alternating in conducting the event – they went through their scripts loudly like a dress rehearsal. Ramaniji and I gave our inputs in a few places and the itinerary was finalised. By 8.30pm we had seen that we were more or less prepared for the big day tomorrow. We then left and had a quiet dinner together, and retired for the night at around 10.45pm.

The next morning I woke up at 4am as usual and post meditation got ready for the day's programme. On 21^st morning I tuned in to the U-Stream app on the phone and listened to Pujya Swamiji’s discourse from 6am to 6.40am. I had called Kishoreji and he got to see a few minutes of the concluding part of the discourse. I then went for breakfast with the Chiklikar family and then sat chatting till Ramaniji came and piloted us to the stadium at 9.15am. We followed his car and tried to remember the route as we would be on our own in the afternoon while going to the venue, which was Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Stadium at Taleigao. We then went inside and Ramaniji introduced the Chiklikar family to the volunteers there and requested them to allot some Guru-karya to them after which Ramaniji and I went and checked on the stage decoration etc. After that we again sat with the MC’s for a final run through of the event, making contingency plans in the event of any delay in flights etc. By noon or so we were done and the stage was set for the event which was to begin at 4.45pm. We left for lunch and Ramaniji took us to Panjim where we had to buy some cashews etc for family and friends, and he then explained the route to go to Hotel Fidalgo and left us. We had a nice lunch and then we left for the Hotel at around 2pm to rest a bit. At 3.30pm we dressed and left for the stadium, we lost our way and backtracked to the main road where a person on a motorbike came and told us to follow him – absolutely divine as if he was the guide sent by Swamiji! He took us half way to the stadium and by then we recognised the road and then easily made our way to the stadium. We reached at 4pm and got a good parking slot near the entrance with His Grace. It was raining intermittently but by and large it was dry. We left our footwear in the car and entered the stadium, where we were warmly welcomed by the volunteers.

The event which was attended by roughly 8000 people, was ably and beautifully conducted by the Masters of Ceremony – Mr. Jhalki in Hindi and Mrs. Shaila Gaunekar in Konkani (the local language). The programme began exactly at 4.45pm with bhajans being sung by Shri Vidyadharji and his team along with Ms. Krishna Khamankar upto 5.20pm. Mr. Anant Khamankar, Trustee then briefly explained about the IYD and the reason for the Samarpan Family’s celebration of the event. Thereafter a short film on ‘Introduction to Samarpan Dhyanyog’ for stress release and Life Management was shown. Thereafter His Holiness Swamiji’s message for IYD was read out followed by information being given to the participants about Samarpan Literature, Madhu Chaitanya, etc. At exactly 6pm the Chief Minister arrived and was escorted to his seat by the event President Mr. Govind Parvatkar.

After the arrival of the Chief Guest a brief introduction about His/Her Holiness Swamiji and Guruma was provided. The President of the even Mr. Parvatkar, then gave his welcome address to the participants of the event. Thereafter the dignitaries were welcomed with floral bouquets. At 6.15pm the event was officially inaugurated by the lighting of the traditional lamp by the Chief Minister - Mr. Laxmikant Parsekar, the Sports Minister - Mr. TawadkarMr. Govind Parvatkar -President, Trustees – Mr. Anant Khamankar, Mr. Suresh Patel, Ex-Trustee – Mr. NR Kamat, Pramukh Acharya – Mr. Rajendra Gaunekar and Mrs. Kunda Dessai, and Goa Ashram Development Chairman – Mr. Shamsundar Audi.

At 6.20pm Dr. Sitakant Ghanekar, Dr. Suraj Kanekar and Dr. Bharati Sardesai were felicitated by the Chief Minister for the good work that they had done in promoting yoga. At 6.30pm a brief outline of His Holiness Swamiji’s book – Samagra Yoga was provided by a sadhak after which the book was launched at the hands of the Chief Minister and a book was presented to the Chief Minister and each of the doctors who were felicitated. Thereafter the Chief Minister, Mr. Laxmikant Parsekar, addressed the gathering for ten minutes.

The arrival of His/Her Holiness Swamiji and Guruma was announced and simultaneously the CD of the chant Om Swami Namo Namaha started playing to the sound of accompanying claps. At exactly 6.55pm Her Holiness Guruma arrived and took Her seat. His Holiness Swamiji arrived at exactly 7pm and after lighting the lamp and paying his obeisance to Dada Guru, took His seat.

The invocation of the Gurus was done at 7.10pm after which His Holiness Swamiji showered divine nectar and blessing on the participants with His discourse. His Holiness Swamiji took a small ten minute meditation session by introducing the participants to the mantra – mai ek pavitra atma hoon, mai ek shudh atma hoon, which was repeated thrice followed by meditation. It rained heavily only for the duration of the meditation with the rain drops drumming on the metal stadium roof! After the meditation His Holiness Swamiji requested the participants to ask questions one at a time. The question answer session was very fruitful with quite a few new insights being provided by His Holiness Swamiji. After the question and answer session Mr Jhalki requested Her Holiness to sing a bhajan. Guruma being the epitome of motherhood and kindness, in spite of being visibly tired sang a beautiful bhajan devoted to Swamiji to the joy of all those present. While Guruma faltered during Her singing a couple of songs one could see His Holiness looking at Her with such love and compassion that it gave me goose pimples! After Her bhajan the event concluded exactly at 9pm with Shanti Paath, after which both His/Her Holiness left one after the other. From 9.05pm onwards the singing of devotional songs continued while ‘Prasad’ was distributed to the participants. Mrs. Sumangala Khamankar sang the ‘Pasayadan’ in her mellifluous voice drawing curtains on a wonderfully organised event which was filled with divine vibrations.

We then had ‘Prasad’ and Mr. Umesh Paiji told me that he was staying back and his arrangement had been made at the GTDC with us. We reached the hotel by 10pm and got into the room and after chatting for a while with Paiji we retired for the night. Next morning I woke up at 4, meditated and went for a bath at around 4.45am. Paiji wished me good morning and I reciprocated, finished my morning ritual and dressed up ready to leave. We then chatted till 5.30 when Kishoreji knocked and we took our bags and left. I requested Paiji to join us as he would have to register as a guest. We settled the bill, Paiji checked in and we left at exactly 6am which was our scheduled time of departure.

The road was free of traffic and we reached Chorla at quite a clip. Kishore who was sitting next to me went to sleep and then I noticed that his sister Nina and their mother were also sleeping. The drive was now twisting and turning up and down the ghat with s-turns and z-turns at regular intervals. Suddenly the sleep energy got to me and even though I was trying to remain alert my eyes shut for a fraction of a second and I turned the steering in just the nick of time otherwise we would have ended up like the other vehicles we had seen parked into the mountain!! I then prayed to Swamiji and told Him to be with me and keep me alert. I then made a conscious effort and while doing ‘namasmaran’ we reached Belgaum at 8am for breakfast at the Sanman. While having breakfast I lovingly explained to Kishore that one does not sleep while sitting next to the driver saying that the sleep energy which is created is dangerous! He smiled and on the rest of the trip sat behind while his sister Nina sat in front. We did not encounter any rain, in fact the sun was out and smiling at us. We reached Lonavala at around 12.30pm and saw a huge traffic pile-up. Luckily with His Grace we were stuck for only ten minutes as the traffic cops cleared the way for us to go. The jam was because of a massive landslide which had taken place just before the tunnel blocking the entire road going towards Mumbai.