A TIMES OF INDIA PUBLICATION http://www.speakingtree.in

Eat TogetherOn a late summer evening, about a

dozen people gather on a picnicblanket in Chicago’s Palmer SquarePark, spread between kids playing

on playground equipment and youngadults throwing a Frisbee disc on thelawn. One of the picnickers takes apiece of pita bread and breaks it inhalf.“This is our body,” he says,

passing it to the person sitting nextto him. Each person repeats the

gesture before digging into a spreadof food from a nearby restaurant.This gathering isn’t just another

group of friends soaking up the lastdays of summer outside. It was

church. Members and guests of Root& Branch Church gather for a

‘dinner church’ service at PalmerSquare Park in Chicago, USA.Root & Branch Church calls this

service the Welcome Table. It’s part ofa growing trend of dinner churches

popping in a number of

denominations, conservative andprogressive, urban and rural.The

dinner church movement seesgathering together for a meal itself as

worship, rather than just anotherchurch potluck after worship.“Eating

together has been central to thechurch for the entirety of the church’slife,” says Kendall Vanderslice, author

of ‘We Will Feast.’— religionnews.com

Locke ScrollA ‘once in a generation’ discovery ofa centuries-old manuscript by John

Locke shows the great Englishphilosopher making his earliest

arguments for religious toleration,with the scholar who unearthed it

calling the document ‘the origin andcatalyst for momentous and

foundational ideas of western liberaldemocracy’. Dated to 1667-8, the

manuscript titled ‘Reasons fortolerating Papists equally with

others’ was previously unknown toacademia. It had been owned by thedescendants of one of Locke’s friendsuntil the 1920s, when it was sold at

auction to a book dealer. From there,it went into private collections untilit was donated to St John’s College,Annapolis. Scholar JC Walmsleynoticed a reference to it in a 1928book dealer’s catalogue.Walmsley

said.“This manuscript shows him tobe much more tolerant in certainrespects than was ever previouslysupposed.” Locke, who died in1704, is known for his ‘Two

Treatises on Government,’ whichbecame a foundational text for

modern western democracy. His ‘ALetter Concerning Toleration,’

influenced James Madison’s thinkingon the separation of church

and state.— theguardian.com

BRIEFLY

‘Bhakti will always be relevant’ Church OfThe Arts

The monthly service atNorth Star Church of theArts in Durham, USA, is

the latest venture by one ofDurham’s most acclaimed residents,architect Phil Freelon, before hedied last month,and his wife,singer,jazz vocalist and composer Nnen-na Freelon.

The couple,internationally re-spected in their fields — he, per-haps most famously, as the archi-tect for the National Museum ofAfrican American History andCulture in Washington, D C, andshe as a six-time Grammy Awardnominee — had long wanted toleave their adopted city of Durhama legacy its residents might enjoyafter they were gone.

When the congregants tooktheir seats at this small jewel-likechurch on recent Sunday morn-ing, they saw neither a cross nor aBible.Instead,a DJ occupied the al-tar, sitting in front of a controllerand a laptop.As the service began,the emcee — not a clergyperson— prompted visitors to take threedeep breaths and exhale.A hip-hopartist grabbed the mic to rap a songcalled ‘I Believe in You.’After him,alocal poet and recording artist spent20 minutes reading from his po-ems — each prefaced with a bib-lical quote. ■

— religionnews.com

SPIRITUAL PROMOTIONAL FEATURE | NEW DELHI, SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2019, PAGES: 6 PRICE ` 3.00

Yesterday I was clever; I wanted to change theworld.Today I am wise; I am changing myself

— Jalaluddin Rumi

This year we are cele-brating the 150thbirth anniversary ofGandhiji. His writ-ings and messages areas relevant today as

they were when he wrote them. Acentral theme of his life was that if wewant to change the world, then itshould start with us.All his life,he didexperiments on himself and expand-ed them for the larger good.

We need to discover the truth andgoodness in us and then share it witheveryone.All those who have made animpact on this world have followedthe regime of first finding the truth asin discovery; broadcasting it via pa-pers, and publicity and then spreadingthe message by manufacturing, salesand inspiring others. This is themethodology that Gandhiji followed.

All his experiments on non-vio-lence, brahmacharya and food, for ex-ample,were first done on himself andthen he wrote about them, gavespeeches and inspired millions of In-dians to do likewise.

The quest for truth drove great sci-entists and inventors like Einstein,Newton, Faraday and Edison to dis-cover the secrets of nature.They de-veloped the science and the technol-ogy because it was the romance of dis-covery and they were after the truth.Besides, in discovering the truth, theygot tremendous personal happiness.And each one, in his very own way,changed the world.

They did not start on their dis-covery path by thinking about how tochange the world. They started by

thinking about how to find the truthand their discovery then changed theworld.This is how nature evolves. Itcomes in equilibrium with its sur-roundings and develops slowly, butsurely. Large-scale replication of suchphenomena then changes the world.

So each one of us should try tosearch for truth in our own lives andspheres. However, this requires greatcourage and honesty, be-cause each one of us has todelve deeply inside our-selves and follow the pathdiligently, since it is not forimpressing others or toshow the world.

I have always been in-spired by Gandhiji.He hasbeen my hero and in asmall way I have tried toimbibe his message in my life and thisessay is an attempt to chronicle it.

In my own life, my self-discoverystarted at the age of 13 when I cameunder the influence of Gandhiji af-ter reading his autobiography.Thenfollowed many years of spiritual jour-neying, resulting in interesting spiri-tual experiences and dreams.Thisjourney was further enhanced by myengineering education which ex-posed me to the effect that technol-ogy can have on human life.

There are lots of articles writtento show how Gandhiji was anti-tech-nology and anti-science. He was nei-ther. In fact, he worshipped the hu-man body as the greatest machine everdesigned by nature, so how could beaccused of being anti-technology?

In his life, Gandhiji used the lat-

est technolo-gies of his time —telephones, the tele-graph, cars, ships andtrains.What he rebelledagainst was the exploita-tive use of technology andbig machines of that time thatdid nothing to uplift the poor.

Intuitively he felt thatdecentralisation and sus-tainable developmentwere the solutions to al-leviate rural poverty.

Gandhiji was an en-gineer at heart. He im-provised on many thingslike better snake-catch-ing equipment; takli, thesmall cotton spinning

wheel; chappals, sandals from usedtyres, and many more. In 1929, he in-stituted a prize of Rs 100,000 for thedesign of an improved, state-of-the-art charkha.

Such things could not come fromsomeone who was anti-technology;these could come only from an in-novator and an engineer.This is thehallmark of a great mind since it canproduce original ideas in whicheverfield it becomes interested in.

Had Gandhiji lived in presenttimes he would have embraced thelatest technology of 3D printing, cellphones and enhanced rural mobility,since it allows decentralised develop-ment and helps improve the lives ofrural population.

In my case, the enhancement ofunderstanding through the study of

engineering — of what is possiblewith technology — allowed me tolook at the universe through neweyes. Thus, I became aware of theproblems of the environment andnatural resources and how best to usethem with the help of technology tosolve the problems of rural India.

This awarenessallowed us at our

Institute to do inter-esting experiments in

renewable energy re-search; electric mobilitydevelopment; electricpower from biomass en-ergy and purifying waterfor drinking, among oth-ers.

All this work wasdone to find and under-

stand the truth, which in turngave me great joy and happiness. Inever had any great desire to change

the world but wanted to discover thetruth. However, in the process, itmight have inspired others and thuswe can take small credit for influ-encing the world.

All these things combined to-gether, then helped me on the pathof spirituality and I have become con-vinced that technology with spiritu-ality should be the path of develop-ment for India and the world.

So each one of us should find thetruth in our own small way and thenshare it with everyone.This will helpincrease the total knowledge of hu-mankind and help in its evolution.This, I feel, is the essence of Gandhi-ji’s teachings. ■

Anil K Rajvanshi is director andHon Secy, Nimbkar Agricultural

Research Institute (NARI), Phaltan

ANIL K RAJVANSHI, a devoted student of M K GANDHI, who practises and promotesscience, technology and spirituality in a holistic manner, talks about the manylessons from Gandhiji that could help

us transform ourselves and the world around us

CHANGE The World

150 YEARS OF M K GANDHI

ARUN

DYU

TI D

AS

People have different spiritualneeds as they come from dif-ferent levels of consciousness,and they need to be guided

accordingly.Through love, compassionand inner peace, one can go back toone’s spiritual home.This was spiritualmaster Ma Indira Devi’s core philoso-phy.And people from all walks of lifeand faiths came to her for succour. Bydeepening their spirituality, she helpedthem transcend the material to reachthe sacred. Her followers include Bol-lywood film actor Hema Malini andpoet and essayist Michael Sowder.

Speaking at the first centenary cel-ebrations of spiritual teacher Ma Indi-ra Devi,in New Delhi on Sunday,schol-ar and poet Karan Singh said,“We livein an age of violence, turmoil and insuch times we seek light and guidance.Against such a backdrop, bhakti, astaught by Indira Devi, becomes veryrelevant.For a seeker in search of guid-ance,she used bhakti — illuminated bylove for personalised aspects of the Di-vine —to help him realise the Ulti-mate.”He added that she strengthenedthe individual’s spirituality.

As Janak Kumari in her pre-initiat-ed life, she was born into an affluentfamily, but renounced material richesand sought the Divine.As a medium of

the great medieval woman mysticMirabai — as her followers believe —Indira Devi composed over a thousandMira bhajans in her trance state.Theseprayers, like the songs of Sufi mystics,elucidate the ‘path of the heart’ whilesharing its peaks and travails with spir-itual seekers. Incidentally, just likeMirabai, she was also born on Holi, thefestival of colours. Indira Devi was thedisciple of Dilip Kumar Roy, musicol-ogist,novelist,poet,essayist and philoso-pher.Also known as ‘Dadaji’, Roy wasa direct disciple of Sri Aurobindo andMother of Puducherry.

She practised Savikalpa samadhi,bliss of absorption in one’s true Self, inher initial days of sadhana.Later, IndiraDevi attained Nirvikalpa samadhi,ego-extinction, and Bhava Samadhi— be-ing ensconced in the Divine Love —regularly till the end of her physical lifein 1997.As part of the centenary cele-brations,her followers organised a bha-jan sandhya and invoked her blessings bysinging her compositions.Although herHindi bhajans are contextualised in theVaishnava tradition of bhakti, they canbe easily extended to include all faiths.The essence of her teachings was thatlove for God leads to love for all.

Vinaya Kshirsagar, Sanskrit scholarand former head of the department of

Sanskrit and Indology at Deccan Uni-versity, Pune, said,“The concepts andrecurring themes in Ma’s Mira bhajans,compiled in the volumes of Indiranjali,mirror the bhakti scriptures.These in-clude the feelings of love for the Lordand, descriptions of viraha, separationpangs,experienced by the gopis in Kr-ishna’s absence. She guided the faithfultowards God-realisation.”

In 1959, Dadaji and Indira Devibuilt the Hari Krishna Mandir in Punewith the aim of creating a permanentnucleus for spiritual practices. Krishnaand Radha are presiding deities at theshrine, but it also houses images ofdeities from other traditions.Indira Devibelieved that one experiences the feel-ing of Oneness when one believes inlove,and her love for the world was in-discriminate.

Talking about her experience withMa,actor Hema Malini said,“It’s alwaysa blessing to have a guru in one’s life.Till I met Ma,I had never experienceda spiritual guru.For me whoever taughtme Bharatanatyam was my guru. Shehelped me sail through various ups anddowns in life with equanimity. Mataught me how to recognise the Divinepresence, in all of us and surrender toit,completely.She taught me that God,guru and Self are the same thing.” ■

MA INDIRA DEVI WITH HER GURU DILIP KUMAR ROY (FILE PHOTO)

MA INDIRA DEVI strengthened seekers’ spiritual ambitions and guided people through their troubled times. RANJENI A SINGH reports on her birth centenary celebrations in Delhi

MA TAUGHT ME HOW TO

RECOGNISE THE DIVINE

PRESENCE, WHICH IS

PRESENT IN ALL OF US AND

SURRENDER TO IT,

COMPLETELY. SHE TAUGHT

ME THAT GOD, GURU AND

SELF ARE THE SAME THING

— HEMA MALINI