We are overjoyed to share the news that
approximately 200 people got their realization at the "Spring Festival
of India," which
took place last Sunday, June 1, 2003 at the Empire State Plaza, in Albany,
NY (near Canajoharie,
NY), at the same place where Shri Mataji gave a public program in the Summer
of 2001.
The Festival is an annual event that is held mainly for the large Indian
community in Upstate New York. The festival was for only one day, from 12 – 5pm
and consisted of almost 25 booths and a four hour cultural show: dance and
music of India. Most of the booths were vendors- selling Indian jewelry, clothing,
and doing Mehendi designs. The Sahaja Yoga booth was among the educational
booths, which were mainly devoted to the different states in India.
We started
setting up our booth early (around 10am), and surprisingly, the Sahaja Yoga
stall, with Shri Mataji's photograph and a colorful "Aum" symbol
in the background, almost immediately became a very popular booth. With only
four chairs, seven yogis, only a five-hour event, and an expected attendance
of 2000 people, we knew it would be busy. There may have been less than 2000
people that came to the festival, but the seats at the Sahaja Yoga booth were
rarely empty.
Many people experienced the power of meditation in the midst of
many distractions – the
hall was very noisy as loud dance performances and announcements were present
through most of the day. Despite the obvious distractions, people were able
to sit in meditation peacefully and shut out all of the noise and activity
around them and experience vibrational awareness.
There are many sweet stories
of people, children, and families getting their realization. It was very
nice to see families receiving their realization all
together. Those that came alone to the stall often came back later with their
family members. By the end of the day, many people were excited to share
their experiences with others- some came back again and again, bringing more
and
more friends and family to experience self-realization.
There is one nice story
involving a family that came together to experience self-realization. The young
child started crying as his parents sat down
to experience self-realization. The child's mother, trying to calm him down,
said "you can do it first." As the boy sat down and a yogi started
raising his kundalini, he immediately stopped crying. His mother also was
able to feel the vibrations above her son's head, and was immediately able
to see the power of vibrations on children.
Some of the people that got their
realization were yoga teachers, and were able to appreciate the experience
of self-realization and the sensation of
cool vibrations on their hands and above their head. There were also businessmen,
professors, doctors, and many youth that all experienced self-realization.
We
could feel Shri Mataji's attention- blessing the seekers of Upstate New York.
We will be holding follow-up meetings through the Summer, and look forward
to hearing more experiences from the seekers themselves as they meet us at
our classes!
For information about meetings in New York, including Upstate New
York, please visit www.yoganewyork.org.
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