KATalyst - Bringing Youth and Rural Development Together

7 weeks of work has produced what I like to call KATalyst. This is a project that will be headed by Kalyan Ashram Trust in order to spread awareness about the work that we do within the younger generations. I am really excited about the possibilities that this project can have and the goals that it can reach. Below is a link to the promotional video we have developed over the last 7 weeks which gives a small glimpse of what my project and what KATalyst has meant over the last 7 weeks.

As I said at the SIP samaroop on the 23rd August 2010:

I present to you... KATalyst...

http://vimeo.com/14553539

The only journey is the journey within- (Rainer Maria Rilke)

For the past couple of weeks I have been giving myself five minutes at the end of the day for reflection. This period of reflection, whether be it in the form of meditation, or writing my feelings during the day on a bit of paper, has helped me tremendously in understanding myself. I was able to ask myself questions to whether my actions were necessary ones, or were they pretty much useless…and even detrimental.

I have realised that there is lots of room for improvement. I admit, there is a habit of telling myself that everything is ok, and making excuses when anything that has gone wrong has been because of everything and anything else but me. I give credit to this realisation to Abhyas Varg two and specifically the talk with Sachinji Nanda. Before, if I did any self-reflection, I would still make up those same excuses for why I didn’t write my blog, or visit a community. But since that abhyas varg, I have really been able to “watch my thoughts” and really analyse them… Geez it made me feel like crap at times, knowing that one day, or at one specific moment I really “messed up”. But this whole self-reflection business isn’t just to give yourself a pat on the back, or a telling off. It’s about “self-refinement” or in some cases, self- major development.

You have probably heard this a lot, but I really recommend giving yourself sometime to reflect on your actions, and then think about how the situation could have gotten better. Try it. Even if you’re unable to change that “habit” for example, at least you can admit there IS room for improvement. The only journey is the journey within.

SIP - Stretching I__________ P__________

In the title, I have to be honest when I say, I was trying to be clever and change the name SIP to sum up what I have felt over the last 7 weeks. I knew stretching was the right word to start with but I couldn’t decide what should come after that. It’s not because my English is terrible, because I have access to a thesaurus, but the truth is that I could have put any word in there and it would have fit.

The last seven weeks have stretched me, not only psychologically, but physically and my personality has seen changes that I never would have dreamt of. We must all now know the incredible stories from our initial Abhyaas Varg and the programme has only gotten more intense, more inspiring and more integrated into my life.

I believe that the last seven weeks have seen me reach heights which I didn’t realise I was able to reach and have enabled me to bring all my skills and attributes to one project. What is more important, is that I have been able to bring these skills to something that I care about so deeply – Sangh and it is only over the last 7 weeks when I have truly lived as a swayamsevak. The quote “1 day shakha, 6 days Sangh work” has become my life. Working every minute of every day for Sangh has helped me to understand the philosophy of this organisation ten times better than I had in the past and I hope that I come out a better karyakarta for it.

From the very beginning I said that I wanted this is be a stepping stone, a starting point from which I am able to dedicate more time and more of my life for Sangh work but never did I realise the true potential of those words until now. In the space of weeks we have each been able to achieve so much, and if we were able to bring that same structure to our lives, we could do so much more.

This is the last week of SIP, but only the start of my life in Sangh and I hope that I can give as much towards our end goal as everybody has given to me over the last seven weeks. I will put everything towards this week’s work but I hope that others are thinking of apply next year, because SIP has changed my life forever and I hope that you find it does the same for you.

Service: To Whom? Where? When? How?

Today I visited a Buddhist temple in North Birmingham and the Birmingham Buddhist Centre as part of the ‘community immersion programme’, and I know its not strictly “Hindu” in that sense, but I decided to go because; a lot of their values are closely linked to Hindu values, it is a Dharmic religion, and I personally had an interest to find out more about a community I hadn’t been exposed to in Birmingham.

When speaking to a member at the Birmingham Buddhist Centre, I gradually found that they also struggled in terms of communicating with other Buddhist communities, and really it was a microcosm of what is sometimes happening in the Hindu samaj. He also told me that they do require volunteers when it comes to trying to hold big festivals and events. At this point, I gave him my number and asked him to call whenever they required volunteers for help of any sort.

It was something inside me that made me feel that we should create a bridge with these communities. It may not strictly be a Hindu community as such, but does it really matter? Maybe I made a rash decision but this was what was going through my mind while in the discussion. In Sangh, one part of our bi-focal visions is to unite the Hindu samaj, and also the rest of the world. My experiences today made me realise that I really haven’t been doing enough as a Swayamsevak. I agree, if it weren’t for these 7 weeks in SIP then I probably wouldn’t have gone to the centre and offered to help.

We should be making a conscious effort to continue Sangh work in our daily lives, if not Sangh work then at least spend time in the service of others, a recent book I have been reading, mentioned how the only true happiness comes from the service to others. I believe that somehow, our service to others needs to be like it’s a part of our ‘Super Ego’. So we are prepared to offer our service to the community and the rest of humanity with sheer instinct. I know that this kind of character seems a bit farfetched and something like a Dharmic superhero, because we all have different situations trying to manage our personal lives let alone anything else. But it is something we should all aim for.

We need to remind ourselves that we are Swayamsevaks, and it is definitely within our reach to serve the community. Right here, Right now.

Making Your Shakhas Known

I continue to believe that we are where we are because we worked silently all these years. We aim to rid ourselves of ego, and hence we give ourselves the titles "swayemsevaks" - this is an ideal to aim for. However, recently, I have come to think that maybe some videos and press wouldn't be so bad - it would act as a counter to all the bad press Sangh has received over the years and we need the press to be on our side. The reason is that the press informs the society and we want the society to come to trust us so that we can work more efficiently within the society. Hence, I have attached a link for anyone who is interested and has access to After Effects to learn how to make a video. I have done this for my SIP project, and it has worked wonders. Just follow the online tutorials and you're away. Make sure you ask karyekartas in your region before you publish anything.

http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/

Just be grateful, and it makes everything a whole lot better.

I have recently been watching the news, and what struck me the most, is the devastation in Pakistan because of the catastrophic floods. It made me research further into the problems faced by masses of people around the world. For example, the fact that there IS enough food produced in the world, however a sixth of the world’s population is starving this very minute.

I am part of the 2^nd generation of British Indians in this country and being honest, I have had a good life, in terms of the love and care received from my parents and I have never struggled to recieve food, clothes and the education I want. I have had the option to choose which career I want to go into, and what path I want to follow. This life would seem to be a luxurious life to at least 80% of the world population. Who have little or no food each day, have no real opportunity in education, and the clothes they wear are only to cover their skin. However, a lot of us who have lived the same life as me are STILL unhappy, why? Because we don’t get the food we want, don’t have the clothes we want to wear and don’t have the latest mobile phone, or laptop (which just is never good enough) that we also want. Yes, putting it in this context, it seems ridiculous.

We are in a competition. A never-ending struggle to be better than the next person. This is double-teamed with consumerism, which means that the majority of people literally have no hope to actually be happy. Because being happy in the consumer-driven world, means having the “latest mobile” for example. But that bubble of happiness is only waiting to burst when a newer device arrives which is better. The same can be said about food, although we need it, we take “eating food” to another level. To the point where eating food is not for survival but pleasure, which it should be, but we are sometimes unhappy with the food we have.

Recently I have been reading the “Sadhana of service” which is a compilation of lectures given by Eknathji Ranade. He touched on this idea of being happy with the food you receive. He talks about how no matter what is received on your plate, you should eat it contently and be grateful for it. Eating in a sullen mood means that the potential for receiving nutrition from it is reduced, and it can even become harmful. So, any food you receive, you should relish it and be happy. You are in the 20% of people who actually receive food and you can benefit from eating food in a happy state of mind.

We are in a world where we have a choice to live and feel the way we do. We should aim to step out of the cycle of consumerism, since this would mean other people are dictating the way we live and the way we feel. There are people in the world who would give an arm and leg for the position many of us are in now. We have to remember just be grateful because it really does make everything a whole lot better.

Saying "No..."

The past 10 days, we from SIP came to SSV, the most intensive varg we at Sangh in the UK hold for the leadership training of our swayemsevaks. It was a very interesting experience… Over the last 4 weeks, we had been making plans of our own to reach our goal at the end of the 7 weeks, and to be suddenly thrust into a strict regime environment meant that we had to adapt our plans for SIP into the works of SSV.

Our Abhyaas Varg was one of the most intense weekends we have ever faced but we had been separated from the rest of SSV for the two whole days and in that time, we had become outsiders to the world of SSV 2010. We had to create a new platform, upon which we could regain the trust of the other shikshartis, shikshaks, prabandhaks and adhikaris at the varg so that we could become a more effective force at SSV. And so, our initial response was to say “yes” to everything and anything that was asked of us. Over the course of just one day, we had found that we had accumulated a number of responsibilities at SSV including doing prabandhak work, shikshak work and on top of that, responsibility for our own SIP project and mini-projects at SSV.

It wasn’t long before we found that we had overburdened ourselves. Even though we were in the SSV environment, we felt as though there weren’t enough hours in the day, there weren’t enough resources, there wasn’t time to stop and think, and all because of one sentence, “yes, I’ll do it.”

By Wednesday, we began to realise that we couldn’t keep it up and that we had to say “no.” But because of our nature at Sangh, we found it very difficult however, not saying “no” was impeding on the quality of our work. And so over the course of that day, we sat down and analysed what we were capable of and what were not, and from then on, we made a judgement call. Our work became far more efficient and our plans suddenly fell into play with those of SSV. However, saying "no" was still difficult because of what we have been taught.

The core message from this, is that even though we at Sangh believe that we should act on the behalf of society, we should not act blindly. We know what our capabilities are and so we have to act in according to those capabilities and what our intensions are. We must assess every situation in which we are asked to do something, and judge whether it will hinder or assist our progress towards our end goal. If you truly believe that you cannot do something, by simply saying “sorry, but I really can’t do it” you may have just driven you project towards its goal ten fold. Remember, saying “no” is not a bad thing so long as the intentions are good.

Self-Leadership

When we think of the word “leadership”, we automatically picture the scene of a shakha, with a shikshak conducting the shakha with utmost efficiency. However, this weekend, we at SIP discovered a new form of leadership; self-leadership. This form of leadership ensures that you as an individual continue to thrive in any situation by bearing the consequences of your mistakes so that you can improve from them.

We found in Abhyaas Varg 2, that in order to be an effective “self-leader”, you have to put the shields down when you are bombarded with criticism and allow yourself to feel emotions such as disappointment and anger at yourself. At this moment, you will have two choices

1) To give up

2) To step up

If you choose to step up, this will lead to self-improvement and a thirst to strive towards a goal. If we look at any of the great leaders history shows us, we will clearly see a point where they were forced to put down these “shields” and this was, what may be seen as, a realisation point in their lives. The great leaders always went with the second option. And this weekend, I feel as though I have had, tiny although it may be, a realisation point.

This weekend’s Abhyaas Varg was a real eye opener to us all. We realised that in order to protect our pride and ego, we put up barriers such as intellectualisation (where you try to rationalise mistakes you made) when we are criticised. We were regularly bombarded with questions about why we had not delivered on certain parts of our project and why we were unable to perform at a presentation given to adhikaris of the varg. And soon enough we learnt (the hard way) that accepting your mistakes is much better than hiding from them behind reasoning. I was 100% sure that I would not give up, and so I could only step up. If we are able to accept the mistakes we make, then we will be able to learn from them and thus better ourselves to prevent those mistakes from occurring again.

It is in this manner that we can become great karyekartas. For we want to change the society, we must change ourselves to become the ideals to which a benchmark can be set.