SMS WORKSHOP,2002

June 21st 2002

It was a fresh morning on June 21st, 2002. The lobby of Sheraton Bandara bustled with enthused shewadaris and excited participants. It was the beginning of the 1st S.M.S workshop on “Positive Secrets of Health and Happiness”. Each participant was greeted with a lively dadasham by ever-smiling volunteers who had tirelessly worked all night long. Unlike the usual camps, which were held in Sindhi, the Sadhu Vaswani Centre, Jakarta used English as a medium in the camp. Since Dada’s messages were simple yet practical and often touched many a soul with learning points that were necessary for growth, this workshop series was called “S.M.S” which stood for “Simple Messages for the Soul”. Dada’s suggested title for this workshop was “Positive Secrets of Health and Happiness”

The basic concept of a workshop gave more responsibility to the participant. Upon arrival, each participant was presented with a dairy that contained a self-assessment workbook regarding health and happiness. The aim of this workbook was that every participant had to assess themselves individually. They had to identify where they saw themselves on the map of life and then decide for themselves, how they can improve their lives after hearing Dada’s suggestions. Each participant was also put in a group which embodied a quality. The titles of the groups ranged from “Faith”, “Surrender”, “Humility”, “Love”, “Devotion”, “Kabul – Acceptance”, “Peace”, “Gratitude”, “Gyan” and “Dhyan”. The participants were classified into groups on the basis of their age and each group was facilitated by a shewadari who was meant to help each participant assimilate into the group and adjust into the process of the camp/workshop.

The camp started with a warm welcome through the melodious singing of bhajans and kirtan. With this auspicious beginning, the minds of the participants were first given a mental cleansing with the waters of devotional singing. This was followed by an introduction to the camp by our energetic Master of Ceremony, Mr. Sonu Bhojwani. He introduced the groups and the leaders and paved the way for the group leaders to meet with their groups in separate halls. The group leaders then gave a brief introduction about the camp, the tentative schedule and the importance of setting a health and happiness goal during the camp. Each participant was asked to share about their individual goals. The group leader also went through other useful information like the rules of the workshop, the tentative agenda,the facilities in the hotel and the programs in the camp.

One interesting facility that was created was the presence of a meditation hall called “Shanti Bhavan”. This area could be used at any time for the personal quality time needed to be spent with God, as our revered Dada often suggested. The soothing natural music and the refreshing aromatherapy scents provided one with just the right atmosphere for their daily appointment with God. The altar of Sadhu Vaswani, candles, and quotations of our Beloved Dada were other features that enhanced the tranquility of the room. Outside the room was placed a “Thought of the day” box, a “Problem box” and a “Question box”. A participant could just unburden themselves and write all their worries/problems and surrender it to the Lord and drop it in the problem box. At any time, also they could enlighten themselves with an inspiring thought from our Beloved Dada’s quotations. They could also write a question or query that would be placed to Dada during the upcoming questions and answers sessions.

On the first day, all the workshop participants which included 6-7 Indonesians/Chinese and 3-4 expatriate Indians gathered in the Mira Hall where the camp would officially start with the kindling of the Akhand Jyot, Havan and Kirtan and Sadhu Vaswani’s upadesh. This was followed by Dada’s first talk .

Dada’s talk was followed by a “Divine Dinner”. As all the participants embarked on the lovely evening, they were asked to enjoy each and every molecule of their food and affirm that the Higher Power is presenting them with a divine evening for which each participant must give gratitude to the Lord. In each moment of life, like in the food we eat, is a hidden ingredient. Creative titles were given to the dinner menu to remind ourselves of the nutritional and positive qualities present in the food we take, like Salad was called “Nature’s salad with stress-free dressing”, and Soup was called “Warm up sunshine soup”. The evening was started off with a gratitude prayer written by our revered Dada :

“ Lord!Grant me the sagacity to eat only that which promotes my health. Grant me the strength to say “no” to that which is detrimental to my well-being. And grant me the wisdom to know the difference between the two.”

DadaJ.P.Vaswani

After dinner, a divine cookie was served to each participant. Each cookie had a message, for example, “Begin the day with God and you will see miracles in your life”. A divine cookie was also presented to our beloved Dada. When Dada opened his thought, guess what it read : It read “You are the chosen one!” Indeed, Dada was the chosen one…chosen to lead us to the other shore.

The night ended with a Talk show on Free Will versus Destiny. Four participants were selected on the basis of age and what their views were in life. Two participants believed in a blend of both, one was strongly for destiny and the other strongly for free will. We had just started off the talk show with an interview with the person who strongly believed in destiny, when Dada walked in. The compere of the talk show was Harsha Vaswani and she was natural and as charming as usual. The argument was getting heated when Dada was asked to give his input. Dada said that “Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice”. We have made our choices in life and therefore, we are going through what was called destiny. Our present choices make our future destiny. It was very interesting as questions about this ever-confusing matter of karma, free will and destiny were put forth and Dada said very beautifully, that we shouldn’t confuse ourselves in this “chakar” but continue to make the right choices in life as he had elaborated earlier in the morning. Dada was indeed the highlight of the talkshow. The talkshow became a talkshow with Dada as Dada was the only one on the panel answering all the questions.

June22nd,2002

The next morning started with tea, followed by a five minute laughing session and then yoga exercises. This was then followed by havan, kirtan, vachan and Sadhu Vaswani’s Upadesh and then guided meditation led by Dada J.P. Vaswani. This was followed by an “Intention Walk” or a bit of physical exercise in the Mira Hall. All the participants were asked to walk from one end of the room to another, but in a different style. Each style had to be unique if not they would have to repeat the style of walking. The aim of this was that our paths towards God, our goal, maybe different, but we will definitely reach our goal if we have purity and clarity of intention. This session ended up in being a laughter session as well since all the participants were walking in different styles, which were often humorous and often thrilled the audience into trickles of laughter.

The Intention walk ended with the group leaders meeting with their groups and talking about the evening’s program. A brainstorming session was held about how to achieve their individual goals as they mentioned yesterday. The group leader then worked closely with their group on the self-assessment of health and happiness as outlined in the workshop book. Lastly, the group came up with a cultural item according to the theme of their group for the interesting and diverse cultural program to be presented later that night.

Kirtan was then followed by Dada’s continuation on “Positive Secrets of Health and Happiness”, where our ever-young Dada was enlightening the participants with his talk.

After a sumptuous lunch, rest and evening tea, the program continued with an Accupressure session. Mr. Mohan Bharati from Gandhi Dham had flown all the way from India to impart acupressure tips of health and longetivity. This was followed by a quiz program compered by Dinky Chugani and Cheryl Bhojwani. This quiz was called “Vitamins for Life”. The focus of the quiz was on the different multi-vitamins we need to take for health and happiness. Sorting the participants in a family feud style, they had 5 rounds of different vitamins :
1. Vitamin A : Actions Speak Louder than words : A charades round where participants were asked to guess sayings that were frequently mentioned by Dada.
2. Vitamin F : Vitamin F U N : This was a buzzer round where participants were asked to identify the right word that would complete Dada’s quotation.
3. Vitamin T : Think before you speak. This was a taboo round where participants were asked to describe a word without using the forbidden words that were listed. For example, participants had to guess the word Shiva, without using the words Parvati, Himalaya, Snake, Trishul, Shivaling. After they identified the word, they had to sing a bhajan or tune on the word.
4. Vitamin H : Health begins at home : An object like garlic or ginger or clove was shown and participants were asked to identify the object and tell the health remedy they can be used for and how?
5. Vitamin T : Time to put on your thinking caps. Pictures of Dada were shown with different celebrities and participants were asked to guess who the celebrities were

With all these five challenging rounds, the participants had quite a handful of mind-testing and witty questions to pass where one team was singled out to join the Second round, which was called “onward, forward, and dadaward”. Questions about Dada’s life were put forth to each participant and they could only move one step forward at a time if they answered the question correctly. The participant that would reach the top most step would get a divine prize of a much-sought after hug from Dada. However, no one could attain this lofty prize as none of the participants reached the last step i.e. they couldn’t answer the questions correctly.

The audience was also asked to participate in the middle with games like the “Highest Bidder wins” and “tongue twisters”. In the Highest Bidder wins, the audience was asked a question for eg. Mention as many of Dada’s talks. The person in the audience who knew most of Dada’s talks was our enthusiastic Krishna Kumari who knew 20 of his talks.

The game which was thoroughly enjoyed by the camp participants, was creatively conceptualized by Michelle Bhojwani and this concept was put in the form of computer graphics by Mansha Mulchandani.

The quiz was followed by a kirtan session and a Question and Answer session with our Beloved Dada. Dada continued to clarify the doubts in the participants’ minds as varying questions about anger, soul-mate, relationship issues were put forth. Dada with his simple and practical messages continued to touch the hearts of the participants in the audience.

The second day ended with a cultural program that was put forward by the different groups. Literally everyone in the camp participated in the cultural program, since this program was the responsibility of the different groups. The cultural program comprised of the little ones, the teenagers, the young adults, parents and grandparents. It was so beautiful to see everyone including the grand parents singing different tunes of devotion for Dada. Each group creatively presented different values of spirituality like faith, surrender, gratitude, peace, etc. All of the cultural presentations were directed by the efforts of the tireless and dedicated group leaders who had prepared an item from their group in just one day. The talents that surfaced captured all the hearts in the camp. But it was “Hanuman” from Group 8 – “Peace” who stole the show and landed in Dada’s laps at the end of the show, much to the surprise of the audience.

June 23rd, 2002

The final day of the workshop was filled with gratitude, yet a tinge of sadness. It was the end of Dada’s programs in Jakarta and he would definitely be missed till he comes next. Before his last talk, the Bridge Builders under the guidance of Dilip Chugani sang tunes of devotion for Dada. Dada had called the Bridge Builders, Singing hearts…and therefore, the entire group sang their love for Dada in varied tunes that left the audience in a state of emotional peaks.

Dada was then welcomed at the last ruh-rihan before he left that day for Singapore. Dada urged the participants to seek for the true “khazana” of the name divine, and not blessings for worldly things or matters. As devotees, he told us that we must not expect red-carpet treatment from the saints. We must leave everything in the guru’s hands, for the guru knows best. At times, the guru might shower his devotees with attention, and at times, the guru might not even glance at us. In all situations, we must accept his will. Other than the true treasure of deep yearning for the Lord, we as devotees must not seek anything, neither recognition or praise from the Guru. Truly, Dada had elevated the spiritual levels of the people present that morning.

Dada was then presented with a problem box, which contained all the burdens surrendered by participants outside “Shanti Bhavan”. With a prayer, Dada left these problems at the lotus presence of our revered Sadhu T.L. Vaswani. Sure enough, everything would be taken care of, for Dada was always blessing us.

Sharing of experiences was another emotional experience, as participants including H.S. Dillon and Mrs. Aggarwal, expatriates who had never attended Dada’s camps previously, called him the “puran” guru. They were full of gratitude like everyone else in the camp, to Dada, to Mrs. Rita Thakur, the camp organizer in Jakarta and the other workers who tirelessly and selflessly did their shewa with love.

It was indeed a memorable camp. As we will turn through these pages of time, these three days will be in the hearts of participants forever and ever. Thanks to our Beloved Dada who will always leave our hearts with a touch of love, mercy and hope. We do hope that Dada will come back soon to Jakarta to grace us with his divine presence and his divine love, and grant us the gift of faith in the Almighty.

Preeti Mirpuri