Trip to Devlali

For those who are unaware of Swadhyaya's regular activities, we conduct two trips a year for all our members and their family. Trips provide us with the much needed break from monotonous life and also give us a refreshing and new perception to things. 

The recent trip to Devlali on 6th January, 2012 was a great way to start the new year. It provided us with an opportunity to get to know our fellow teachers better. It helped us bond, share experiences, and simply have some fun together. 

Our bungalow apartments at Kothari Sanatorium, Devlali

Devali (aka Deolali) is a small hill station near Nashik. It is the home of the School of Artillery and not many are aware of the amazing mineral museum nearby known as the Gargoti Museum. Due to its dry and cool air many people come to stay in the sanatoriums in Devlali for weeks and even months to recover from health conditions, especially those related to the Respiratory System. 

Swadhyaya Members

The Swadhyaya members also gave a surprise birthday party to one of our members. The party was preceded with a hilarious game of cards which tested our observation powers and concentration. We shared many jokes and laughs over each other's mistakes. After all, laughter is really the best medicine.

Happy Birthday Ankita



Artillery Park

We visited the Artillery Park nearby which was beautiful and peaceful. We even got to watch some people play golf in the nearby golf course from a vantage point.

Sunset Point

Devlali is a great place to be one with nature. There is greenery everywhere. The roads are clean and one gets to experience all elements of nature very closely.

The Elements of Nature

The Great Warrior- King Rama, Sita And Laxman

The Ramayana is given great importance here. It is believed that there is a cave in Devlali where Sita was hidden by Ravana. There is an old temple which is believed to be almost 500 years old which contains an idol that is believed to be worshiped  by Ravana himself.

Devlali is filled with Jain temples and sanatoriums. We visited some beautiful temples with breathtaking idols and architecture. One of them was a Digambar temple which had a picture museum of the different stories in Jainism. A young Bhramachari lady who lived there explained the stories to us.

We were very moved when we learnt about the stories which correlated so much with the Yogic concepts that we have learnt about. Most of them talk about how a small incident instigates a seemingly ordinary man or even animal to mentally detach with the material world (Vairagya) in order to attain the highest, which is our goal.

Jain God

Engrossed in the Soul

The above picture is that of a Jain God sitting in deep meditation. It is believed that when a person gets so  engrossed in the Atma (Soul) and so detached from the body, he continues to experience pure bliss even if wild animals come and start eating his flesh.

Samosaran


Sermon in the Heavens

Samosaran is the word given in Jainism to the congregation that assembles when God speaks. When God gives his sermons, millions of Lives come to listen to the holy words. It is believed that those who hear the words achieve Kaivalya. Even animals and other creatures come to listen. This congregation is held in the skies where large spaces are converted into beautiful lush lands where Lives can come. Some find the place so mesmerizing that they roam about among the creations, rest under the trees and wander about. These Lives miss out on the holy words and remain stuck in material attachments. One must overcome the attachment to such material things if we want to learn the holy teachings. 

Swadhyaya Group

Returning refreshed and inspired from our visits to such a spiritual place, we all must get back to our routine work. After all, "nothing lasts forever and everything is changeful". However, today, the members of the alumni association present at the trip and their families share a great bond of friendship and happy memories and can't wait for the next trip to come. 

Teaching Yoga in Schools

Mrs. Sudarshan Saigal

Teaching children is a challenge by itself and teaching them Yoga … even a bigger challenge. This challenge is very well experienced by all of us and so, on the 13^th of November 2011, one of our senior teachers Mrs. Sudarshan Saigal shared her experience and advice on teaching yoga to children in school.

She very rightly started by saying that the key is to ‘Accept’ the challenge. Not only teaching the children, but managing relations with other staff members in school will also be challenging. 

Not everyone has the knowledge of yoga. You, as a yoga practitioner, a teacher, have to educate and inform them. And to do so the first and foremost thing is to follow the yogic path yourself. Yoga is to be learnt, not taught. We can learn even from an innocent, naughty and yet smart child! Be friendly with the children, teach them concepts, attitudes, leadership qualities, awareness, alertness, concentration. etc. Doing Asanas only should not be given too much importance.

Break the ice by making them feel important: ask them to teach you for eg. Being from a Hindi medium school Mrs. Saigal asked the students of a high profile English medium school to correct her English language if she makes mistakes in the class. That broke the ice and the children felt so happy. They knew that here was a friend and not just a teacher.

To improve their concentration powers make one of them start reading a chapter and quickly ask another student to continue reading from there. So they don’t have time to think also and they are very alert, thinking that they might be the next one to read.

If there is loud music going on outside the examination hall, they can just close their eyes and quietly count 1-10, start breathing in and out and visualize their lesson.

They should always sit with their spine erect and carry their bag on both the shoulders to maintain their posture.

They can be taught all the concepts with games, like counting spaces, juggling; stories, like ‘The Five Gurus’ and a lot more of activities, like singing, dancing, drawing, etc. Be creative and they will love it. Yoga will be fun learning and not boring for them.

A Report by Geeta Udasi.

A Karma Yogi Amongst Policemen

Of late, the present police administration in the city of Mumbai has decided to give training in the science and art of Yoga to the police personnel of various ranks through The Yoga Institute at Santacruz, Mumbai so as to relieve a part of the enormous stress that they have to undergo in the course of their duties. And so it feels apt that a life of a real karma yogi who lived amongst their own rank be highlighted.

The person referred to is Arvind Patwardhan who had served the police with rare distinction in not too distant a past.

Patwardhan came from humble beginnings. He had lost his father when he was very young and therefore he and his younger brother were brought up by their widow mother in the house of their maternal uncle who was a police prosecutor at Kolhapur.

After he graduated in science, he joined the police as a sub-inspector when the administration recruited graduates for the job and after an initial training of a short duration, posted them in Mumbai. This was some time in 1948. Soon after we had won our independence from the British. In due course he also graduated in law on his own and had further training at the police training college at Nasik.

Soon after he was posted in Mumbai and had been provided residential quarters, he decided upon bringing over his mother and younger brother for his education under his watchful eye. Unfortunately the brother developed truancy and hence the mother decided to take him back to Kolhapur. Patwardhan felt that he had failed in his duties to his mother and younger brother and therefore as an act of retribution, decided not to start a family of his own and therefore remained a bachelor all his life.

He was, however, extremely committed to his job and had made investigations of frauds in Banks and other corporate bodies - his speciality in the C.I.D. where he spent most of his tenure. He was also put in charge of the police computer division when they first started computerization of police working in the city,

He led the life of a real karma yogi and never expected any reward for the work he was doing though he spent almost 18 hours every day in the work entrusted to him and thousands knocked on his door for help in all sort of police matters in which he was adept.

He had simple habits and mostly ate one meal a day and that too when he was totally free of visitors at the Sardar Graha, opposite the office of the Police Commissioner and the C.I.D. where Lokmanya Tilak used to stay when in the city.

He slept on a bare mat and did not have any belongings except a few books and a pair of suits of clothes for daily necessity.

He was decorated with both the President’s Police Medal for meritorious service and the President’s Police and Fire Services Medal for distinguished service and had also earned the Chief Minister’s Medal for the best investigation of a year. He also rose to the rank of the Dy. Commissioner of Police prior to his honorable retirement.

He was a good penman and had scripted two books namely “Me Mumbaicha Police” and “Me Mumbaicha Inspector” and was also editing the police magazine brought out by the State Police for a long time.

He was also called upon to give talks on detection of frauds at various banking institutes and other such professional bodies and did so unremittingly. On his retirement, he was also appointed by a bank as their legal advisor and served them too with distinction almost till his late age and disablement, without expecting any reward or gain for himself.

Needless to say that he was totally free of corrupt practices and being used to a life of thrift, used to donate large sums to worthy causes and left a large part of his savings in the form of National Savings certificates for posterity.

It is only to be hoped that those policemen visiting The Yoga Institute would draw inspiration from the life of this illustrious son of India and mould their lives accordingly in the spirit of Yoga.

- Contributions by Amrut Desai, retired Asstt, Commr. of Police, Mumbai and a Sadhak of The Yoga Institute.

Report of Children's Camp at Orphanage

On the 9^th and 10^th of July, 2011, Swadhyaya organized a 2 Day Children’s Yoga Camp over the weekend at an orphanage called Manav Sava Sangh in Sion, Mumbai. The camp was held from 10:30- 4:00 pm and included children of varying ages.

Many teachers from the Yoga Institute, Santacruz volunteered in this camp and together, they made it a great success. Given below is some of the sharing the teachers have done about their experience during the camp:-

“Soulful puppy dog eyes, the ability to trust a stranger who gives more than 2 minutess of attention and affection and complete open-mindedness. These words pretty much sum up the orphans Swadhyaya visited on 9 & 10 July, 2011.

The age of the children ranged from 5yrs to 15yrs. We had tried to make them play such games that can be played by all together irrespective of their age. Games like following the action, passing a table tennis ball to one another with a straw, organizing a dance teacher (which was a big hit, by the way)!!

The moment we announced that we were going to do some asanas there were some loud groans."Hum asana se bahut bore hote hain," to quote them. But they did not yet have an experience with the dynamic teachers of The Yoga Institute. All the girls and boys were giggling and walking around on their toes like palm trees, acting like they were becoming chairs for us to sit on and hissing like snakes and in between two activities playing catch and kook with the volunteers!

When they asked and were told that we were going to come the next day to play with them, some of the volunteers had the smaller kids jumping up onto their backs and hugging them and holding hands too !! It was an overwhelming experience, especially for me as even though I see and feel unconditional love in my own children every day, I am, after all their mother. But these children, for whom we were mere strangers, who had come to give them only 12 hours out of 48, they were absolutely trusting, accepting with a 100-watt smile whatever we gave them and crying because it was time for us to leave.

I had tears in my eyes, bidding them goodbye. I wished that I could take as many children home with me as I could. It greatly changed the way I see my kids...they are fortunate that they were born and are brought up with parents who are there to see to their every need...BUT I feel we, as parents, are even more lucky to be blessed with these angelic and innocent forms of God...children.

Thank You Swadhyaya for giving me this opportunity.

And I greatly appreciate the efforts by Manav Seva Sangh to provide these children with the basic comforts that can keep them happy.” 

- Vyoma Chauhan

“We take people and things for granted in our life. Inspite of having everything we continue to complain about what we don’t have. Like the children at Manav Seva Sangh were taken such good care, unlike other orphanages where there is not enough place for all the inmates. They had all the material things around, but still their eyes looked around for someone, whom they can call their ....family. That emptiness was there but still they were lively, happy and had an enthusiastic approach towards life. They wanted to study, earn a living and make their lives worthwhile. They all were from different backgrounds, some used to live on roads, for some this was a day care centre, some were picked up from garbage bins. But there was tremendous faith. Faith that they are taken care of, their talents encouraged. It wasn’t like any other orphanage that I have seen. Even hygiene was taken care of, which in Mumbai itself is a rare site. 

A question that would strike all is... how much faith do we have? In the higher self, in ourselves? Most of us inspite of having knowledge of Yoga, inspite of teaching Yoga Philosophy, get shaken easily by the ups and downs in life. Our Faith is shaken, rather lost. The answer to this, is within us. We need to see where and why our faith is lacking.

We have to make the best of whatever life offers us instead of complaining. We don't value this because we are overprotected by our loved ones, our family. Wheredo these children have that much. They are such a large group, still they are so happy. Above all God is there, he is taking care of them. They could have wasted their life but he got them here, showed them the right path and is taking care of them.”

- Geeta Udasi

“Teachers from the Institute should go to such places much often where there is lots to learn. For us, we feel we are down to earth but it’s not easy. When these kids hug you, don't want to leave you, you feel like taking them home but you can't. You can’t do anything. They will be attached to us. We spent just a few hours with them and they were so attached to us that they wanted us to come everyday. We should teach them Yoga in such a way that they know the difference between attachment and being dispassionate. Someone or the other should visit such places regularly. It is a good learning for us.”

                              -  Agnes D’Souza & Leena Nanjiani

“Even though I am not a member of ‘Swadhyaya’, I got the opportunity to accompany their team to an orphanage run by ‘Manav Seva Sangh’ on one rainy Saturday. I was intending to do some selfless work and in the process impart valuable knowledge to socially challenged kids. But now in retrospect, it was me who returned enriched.

Firstly we were all surprised to see clean and contented kids of all ages simply enjoying themselves on a school holiday. We exclaimed, “They don’t even look like orphans!” because we had expected to see a bunch of sorry looking, deprived, agonized kids, in whose lives we intended to bring some brightness and happiness. But doesn’t yoga say that the situations around us are neutral – but they affect us differently depending on how we react to them? These innocent kids were happy because they chose to be so even in an orphanage.


One particular girl who touched a chord in my heart was a ten year old who brought a set of brand new crayons and sketch pens from her possessions for an activity. Everyone used them and in the end, all pens and crayons were with different kids. I got worried about what I would tell this girl when she would come to reclaim her set. Surprisingly, she never asked for it again. Can we even imagine to expect any of our ‘rich’ spoilt kids to do this? Wasn’t she already practicing Maitri, Karuna, Mudita, Aprigraha, Acceptance, Sharing and many more concepts we were wracking our brains to introduce to them in interesting ways?

Most importantly, I felt all of them were practicing Ishwar Pranidhan as they were happy and content, probably because they did not have the bondage of one family. They know they are God’s children, just as we all are but they seem blissfully nonchalant about their ‘orphan’ tag because when all doors of so-called civilized society were closed on them, God has blessed them with one door opening into a universal world devoid of caste, creed, religion and even family. They all belong to ONE BIG FAMILY – the Family of God.

- Ushma Shah

“There are two main things I learnt from our visit to the children at Manav Seva Sangh:

1. We need regular reminders of how lucky we are to have whatever need and not take it for granted.
2. Spending some time with children is essential for good health.

It was an energetic, active and ultimately tiring but satisfying day. The biggest challenge was to keep the kids’ attention on current activities and improvising in the last minute, depending on the crowd’s mood. When working with kids, you cannot keep a fixed plan. Keep a general idea of activities to be done, lots of back-up plans and finally, go with the flow.

One needs to be the children’s friend more than a teacher to keep the interest alive. It is the only way to connect with kids, especially teenagers. No one likes a sermon. But when both sides share something, interact, have fun while learning, it makes it worth the while.

The kids, like any other kids, were reluctant to learn yoga, expecting it to be boring. It is one of the biggest challenges any teacher faces – breaking the prejudices towards yoga. There were many children who were willing to do certain activities but refused to do others. I think that if that is the case, we can find out what they like and work around that. Yoga lives in everything we do. I think we can explain yogic concepts through almost any activity; we just need to use our creativity.”

- Ankita Shah