Oceania/Latin America Seminar, Manapakkam, October 14-19, 2010

Around 300 abhyasis from Oceania, Latin American countries, Caribbean Islands, La Reunion, Guadeloupe and Martinique streamed into Manapakkam Ashram to be with our beloved Master for a six day seminar.

To open the seminar, there was a wonderful satsangh with Rev. Master followed by his talk welcoming the delegates to our "Mother House" and expressing his joy at the larger and larger gatherings, and now the move to National Seminars. His talk included such gems as:

• Only in the Brighter World does the heart shine.
• The five senses are not there to guide us in the way of love; that is the sovereign domain of the heart.
• When all the senses are closed, the real way of experiencing this world opens up to us.
• Love from the heart has its own way of finding it’s partner in life.

http://www.sahajmarg.org/audio/talks/oct-14-2010-chennai

On 15th October after satsangh, Br. Santosh Khanjee in his talk on "What keeps me on the train on the journey to my wonderful Master?" related his own journey experience and spoke of:

• The pitfalls of getting off the train.
• Service having its own trappings.
• "How do I manage myself so I stay on this train?" He pointed out that much of it comes down to our attitude, the need to adjust our attitude.
• "Why do I need to achieve it?" and "What am I looking forward to?
• In answering these questions he said that he had learned by being with our Master.

Rev. Master chose the topic of "Unity in Diversity" for Br P. R. Krishna’s talk given on 16th October after satsangh, and some points Krishna made were:

• If we look for unity outside we won’t find it.
• The wonder of the diversity in nature.
• The kshob, rather than the big bang, was the beginning of creation. Just before creation there was nothing; afterwards, space was formed and then time followed.
• Until humans came into beings there were no samskaras.
• Human beings, because they have will power and ego, create more diversity than there is already. Money is one of the factors that creates diversity because it offers the opportunity to be different.
• When we start a spiritual journey we start the journey back to unity, and here he used the example of the colour spectrum moving from seven colours back to only white, so from diversity to unity.
• If we stop anything dysfunctional (diversity) we stop creating samskaras.
• We need to ask in everything, would Master be doing this?
• There is no point looking for solutions outside; the solution is inside. We need to work on our self to be a person of character.

Satsanghs at 6.30 am, 9 am (mainly with Rev. Master) and 5 pm framed the daily proceedings. There were basically four language groups, so the talks needed to be translated each afternoon, and even English speakers gained from re-hearing the talks at a slower pace.

For a question and answer session one afternoon, Rev. Master sent three of his ‘children’, including his granddaughter Madhuri, to answer the many questions presented to the panel.

Rev. Master hosted a dinner on the 16th evening where a special western meal had been selected and prepared. Rev. Master’s generosity with his time and attention was one of the highlights of the seminar. The cottage gate often swung open for us with functionaries ushering us into the cottage and very frequently into Master’s presence.

The SMRTI abhyasi training was presented for both trainer training and abhyasi training, with translation, for a full day. Abhyasis reported gaining insight into the system and practice.

Rev. Master attended the Oceania and New Zealand Annual General Meetings (AGMs) and the meetings were preceded by an animated presentation showing the graphics of a very impressive Memorial to Babuji Maharaj to be erected on a site yet to be fixed.

There was entertainment from the different centres in the evenings. The Latin American and Caribbean groups sang local songs with guitar accompaniment, and New Zealand also presented a song. A play by our resident playwright David Todd, about the five senses and the ego invited a lot of mirth as well as deeper thought. The final act by Ram Vashist from New Zealand, mimicking preceptor and abhyasi behaviours during sittings and other antics, brought many laughs.

The final day concluded the seminar with a tour of the Lalaji Memorial Omega School. A small group of abhyasis who were leaving that evening were blessed to spend time with Rev. Master outside his cottage. He shared the revelation he had experienced during the 9 am satsangh that morning, and said that such sittings, where he is able to remove himself completely, give the purest form of pranahuti, completely untouched as it comes from the source. He said it is like a white light that does not get filtered. The physical, mental and even the ego of thinking "I am giving the sitting" are not there. Such sittings take the life out of him, like they did to Babuji in the later part of his life when he could only manage a sitting a day and would be exhausted after giving it. Master asked us to make note on our diaries.

Good byes were said and abhyasis, glowing with joy, gradually moved off home to their various countries.