A Visit Most Memorable!
Vivek Chamria
London (U.K)
It was truly a treat to spend time with Maa in London almost after 3 years - last visit was in Oct 2019 with Sumedha ji. Maa and Chaitanya ji (Manish ji) together visited us in Washington DC in 2010, when we had just moved into our new house, and my children (Rudranshi & Rajyavardhan) were just four and one year old respectively.
Devyani, Rudranshi, Rajyavardhan and I were really looking forward to host Maa and Manish ji in our new home in London. After much awaited Heathrow delay in immigration of three hours both Maa and Manish ji emerged and Prema ji & Pradeep ji (devotees from Dubai who have recently moved to London) and I received them.
Time has certainly passed by quickly and we were celebrating Rudranshi’s and Rajyavardhan’s 16th and 13th birthday. We were blessed with Maa being here on their birthdays. Devyani and I remember very vividly when Maa had held Rudranshi in her arms when she had come home on Oct 10th, 2006 for the first time. Now both the children are teenagers and entering a phase of independent thinking in their lives and Maa’s presence this time was a very special moment to guide them once again.
A week-long trip flew by quickly with four events:
1)17th Sep - Gayatri Hawan followed by Talk “Importance of Rituals” and Prasadam at St. Johns Wood, London, at Devyani and Vivek’s residence.
2)18th Sep - Talk at Prema ji and Pradeep ji’s house on “Purpose of Life” in Harrow, London
3)19th Sep – Primrose Hill Park, London to meet a devotee family to spend time together.
4)20th Sep – Talk on “Navigating life through Midlife Challenges” at St Johns Wood, London, at Devyani and Vivek’s Residence.
5)21st Sep – 30-minute video session on the topic “Mind your Mind” followed by Q/A for 30 minutes in Berkeley Square Mayfair, London, at Vivek’s Office.
We planned Maa’s visit with a Gayatri Hawan on Sep 17th at our residence in St. Johns Wood, London. It was definitely special because of our Griha Pravesh along with Rudranshi’s and Rajyavardhan’s birthdays. The Gayatri Hawan and Talk by Maa on “Importance of Rituals” was attended by about 12-15 families who are close friends and relatives in London. Maa’s talk was attended by everyone including teenage kids. The kids had a special session with Maa and got pointers on avoiding bad company and bad habits, this was very impactful as the teenage kids told me about their session and the importance of this reminder. This was followed by Prasadam (Halwa, Kheer and Dosas/South Indian food).
The session on “Mind your Mind” at the Constellation Energy’s (NYSE:CEG) office in London was much anticipated by the employees. Maa had visited the office in London in 2019 also, to discuss the topic - “Action vs Reaction” and it was very well attended. A lot of the employees who had attended the first session were really looking forward to this session.
The Talk which was held from 5.00 – 6.00 pm London time, was also attended virtually by Constellation Energy’s employees based in Baltimore Headquarters, Houston and NY office. The session was attended well by about 60 employees across all offices. This topic was very apt, given post Covid anxiety, disturbances caused to daily life in Europe, due to war in Ukraine and damage caused to human life, unprecedented energy prices and extraordinary inflation. The video by Maa was very powerful and thought provoking regarding the importance of one’s mind, the role of intellect and mind, disturbances caused by the mind and certain practices to be done on a daily basis like introspection and reading from any scriptures to channelize the mind in the right direction.
The Q/A session was very interesting where employees were interested to know how to reduce the disturbance and how to go about introducing practices to reduce the noise and find balance in daily life. One of the employees suggested that he was listening to music to calm himself. Chaitanya ji advised him to take the next step of also reading scriptures, now that he has already calmed himself down by listening to Christian Hymns.
Expressions of some of the office employees are as follows:
a.Irfan Mannan - London: I found it very peaceful and inspirational to have Maa visit us again. Her wisdom clearly comes from a lot of deep thought on very complex issues, part of genius is in explaining how we can navigate ourselves through the difficult combination of our emotional and intellectual lives.
b.Ishaan Kapoor - London: One clear message is of peace and equilibrium, within and around us and how the individual can navigate during all times. Also it is nice to take time away from day to day objective activities and to look within and examine the thoughts and emotions.
c.Other employees from Baltimore –
I.The session was much needed and a very good reminder for daily introspection.
II.I wish there were more such thought-provoking sessions for the employees
The visit concluded with Maa spending a special session with the four of us and guiding us to take steps in our journey ahead.
We feel very blessed with Maa and Chaitanya ji’s visit.
Hari Aum!
Aum Tat Sat!