After the meditation, the children began the proceedings by Gita invocation. It felt as if we were transported to those ancient Vedic times as the hall filled with the sweet voices of the children reciting the slokas of the Bhagavad Gita in Sanskrit. There was a program during the entire day with something for every age group which ended with a classical dance drama performance by children in the main auditorium in the evening. The various explorations of the Gita were carefully designed by the team of Gitopdesh. This is a special Gita learning program built by the Heartfulness team built to dive deep into this sacred scripture.
Daaji spent some time with little Layaa and then left for Hyderabad around 9.15 am after breakfast. On the way Daaji got a call from Hon’ble Prime Minister Narendra Modi who invited him to come and meet him in Delhi. Among other things, Daaji spoke to the Prime Minister about using forest land for rural rejuvenation by growing Napier grass for feeding the cattle and also generating biogas.
Daaji had a meeting later in the morning with the Hon’ble President of India, Shrimati Droupadi Murmu in The Rashtrapati Nilayam, Hyderabad while she was on a state visit.
Daaji gave her the beautifully designed wooden package of The Complete Works of Ram Chandra and explained about Babuji Maharaj. He also presented her a nice coffee table book on Kanha Shanti Vanam while walking her through the journey of transforming the once barren land into what is now a lush green forest.
He invited her to the upcoming World Spirituality Conference at Kanha Shanti Vanam in March 2024. After inviting her they then discussed the need for various spiritual organisations to come together. She committed that she would indeed be happy to come and inaugurate the conference in March 2024. After the fruitful meeting, Daaji then returned home around 2.15 pm.
This was the Gita Mahotsav day. It is also called Mokshada Ekadashi, Gita Jayanti or Matsya Dvadashi. This is an observance which marks the day the Bhagavad Gita dialogue occurred between Lord Krishna and Arjuna on the battlefield of Kurukshetra. It falls on the 11th day of the waxing moon of the lunar month of Margashirsha (December or January) according to the Hindu Calendar.
Meditation was conducted by Smt. Pratima ben Patel at 9 am in the meditation hall that day. After the meditation, the children began the proceedings by Gita invocation. It felt as if we were transported to those ancient Vedic times as the hall filled with the sweet voices of the children reciting the slokas of the Bhagavad Gita in Sanskrit. There was a program during the entire day with something for every age group which ended with a classical dance drama performance by children in the main auditorium in the evening. The various explorations of the Gita were carefully designed by the team of Gitopdesh. This is a special Gita learning program built by the Heartfulness team built to dive deep into this sacred scripture.
In the evening Daaji met some guests and practitioners in his office at the meditation hall. Shri Dnyaneshwar Gulabrao More of the Shri Maruti Devasthan Trust was accompanied by the Maharashtra regional facilitator sister Anjali Bapat and zonal coordinator brother Harshal Jawale. Brother Gulabrao is the centre coordinator of Alandhi where there is the samadhi of Saint Dnyaneshwar who lived 800 years ago. Since two years there has been Heartfulness meditation being conducted there every Sunday. More than 800,000 or more pilgrims visit this temple town each year. The trust which is run by brother Gulabrao is located right in the centre of the place where Saint Dnyaneshwar spent his entire life.
Daaji shaped an interesting proposal in which Heartfulness can contribute meaningfully to the pilgrims visiting Alandhi. He suggested that this would be an ongoing program where our preceptors could take turns to travel and train the pilgrims with three introductory sessions systematically. Daaji ensured that we would do all we could to provide the required support in that centre so that the Heartfulness meditation practice can be infused into the work being done by the Maruti Devasthan Trust in Alandhi. Daaji suggested that together they write a book which could be on the theme of Dnyaneshwari in the light of Heartfulness. Daaji expressed that he would be happy to work on that book with them if they could stay back a week and complete the work.
The Trust offered some land to Heartfulness which Daaji gracefully accepted. He thanked them and said that we would create a beautiful Heartfulness ashram project there. They presented Daaji with some books and invited him to visit the Alandhi at the earliest. Daaji promised that he would try to come after the coming Basant celebrations.
Daaji gave permission to sister Anjali Bapat to convert the Panvel Mumbai and Panshet retreat ashrams into Heartfulness wellness centres. He asked her to visit every department in Kanha wellness and see how it is run so that she could craft a detailed plan and execute it as soon as possible.
On the occasion of the Gita jayanti, Gulabrao More ji offered a book by Sant Dnyaneshwarji to Daaji
Little later Daaji asked everyone to be very vigilant with regards to the flu which was going around as many people present were coughing. He then conducted meditation from 7.30 pm to 7.57 pm.
Sister Richa and her family from Shahjahanpur and brother Umesh from Nigeria were invited for dinner with Daaji.. After dinner, brother Nagarajan brought Daaji the canvas paints which he had ordered from China. Around 10 pm, brother Ramakrishna Mallela brought around 30 Gita Summit dance program participants to meet with Daaji. He spent some time with the students and the teachers.
