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Kartik Shuddha Saptami, Kaliyug Varsha 5111
By Our Correspondent
Speakers of Dharmajagruti Sabha inuagurating Sabha by lighting Samai |
New Jersey (USA): With the blessings of H.H. Bhaktaraj Maharaj and H.H. Dr. Athavale, the Forum For Hindu Awakening (FHA) and the Hindu Janjagruit Samiti (HJS) held a Hindu Dharma Sabha (Hinduism Summit) in New Jersey, USA, on Kartik Shukla 6 Kaliyug 5111 (24th Oct 2009) at the Marathi Vishwa Community Centre in Laurence Harbor. It was enthusiastically attended by around 75 Hindus and Americans. The aim of the Hindu Summit was to foster education about Hindu Dharma by bringing forth the unique science behind Hinduism concepts and practices, and bringing together Hindu leaders across New Jersey-New York-Pennsylvania (NJ-NY-PA) Tristate area to spread the message of Hinduism.
Child Seeker Afolabi Missa blowing the conch |
This historic event was inaugurated as per Hindu tradition by the blowing of the conch by child seeker Afolabi Missa, recitation of auspicious verses, recitation of vedic mantras by Mr. Yogendra Bhat and Mr. Krishna Pratap Dikshit, and the lighting of an oil lamp by all the speakers. The spiritual science behind all these actions was explained to the Dharma Sabha attendees.
Vedmurtis reciting Holy Vedmantras at the beginning of Dharmasabha |
For example, it was explained that we light an oil lamp as a symbol of progressing from spiritual darkness of ignorance, to the light of spiritual knowledge. The oil lamp attracts the subtle frequencies of action that activate the energy required for necessary actions from us during this Summit. While lighting the lamp, a Sanskrut prayer was said, to take us from darkness to light.
Mr. Narain Kataria honouring Dr. Babu Suseelan |
Then Mr. Narain Kataria, the president of the Indian American Intellectuals Forum was invited to honour the speakers by the presentation of an award – Vishwa Hindu Ratna (Hindu Gem of the World) This award was presented to Dr. Babu Suseelan, Mrs. Sheetal Shah, Mrs. Anju Bhargava and Mrs. Shilpa Kudtarkar for their selfless and dedicated efforts for the cause of Hindu Dharma. They were also presented with a shawl, a book on spirituality and a spiritual CD for coming to this Summit and sharing their efforts towards understanding, living and preserving Dharma.
Audience asking question during Question and Answer session |
The Dharma Sabha was attended by 75 guests in person and about 56 others watched it online, through a live webcast from the FHA and HJS websites. Hindus from countries like Australia, Serbia, UAE, etc., watched the webcast enthusiastically.
Mr. Ravindra Kolhapure of Global Vision attended the Summit and covered it for the newspapers he writes for. An audience member also enthusiastically took pictures and video to share the Summit with family and friends.
It was also honoured by the presence of Mr. Narain Katariaji and Mr. Arish Sahaniji of the Indian Americans Intellectuals Forum, Prof. Jayant Joshi, an author and a Hinduism proponent, Mr. Hari Ram Prabhu the director of ISKCON, Central New Jersey, Mr. Vikas Wagh of the Marathi Vishwa Community Centre, Mr. Arvind Sant of VHP, Mr. Vipul Patel of Gayatri Parivar, Mr. Satya Dosapati of the Global Hindu Heritage Foundation, Mr. Joel and Mrs. Melody Sunbear of the Surya Foundation and 4 disciples of Acharya Swami Ramakrishnananda.
Mrs. Rishita Gadoya, the compeer, then introduced the Forum for Hindu Awakening and Hindu Janjagruti Samiti and shared their aims. She showed the attendees how to use their websites. She explained the various sections of each website and their special features.
Dr. Babu Suseelan was the first speaker for the Summit.
Dr. Babu Suseelan giving speech in Dharmasabha |
Dr. Babu Suseelan, the Director of Addiction Research Institute, Pennsylvania and the Director of Indian American Intellectuals Forum, New York spoke about Hinduism in the modern world. He first spoke about the past glory of Hindu Dharma and how all the ideas we think are modern have received their inspiration from the Vedas and ancient Indian scriptures. He then shared in clear straight-forward terms why Hindus are in the state they are today and gave some ideas as to how we can pull ourselves out of this current state. His speech had many anecdotes and was enjoyed by all audience members.
Speaker Sheetal Shah giving speech in Dharmasabha |
Smt. Sheetal Shah, a full-time Director of Development & Outreach for the Hindu American Foundation or HAF, a non-profit advocacy organization providing a progressive voice for the Hindu American community, spoke next. Her speech was about the misrepresentation of Hinduism in academia, media and public policy. She spoke about advocacy of Hinduism with the media and government to increase awareness about Hinduism and to clarify misconceptions. She gave the audience examples of successful HAF campaigns like the campaign against Burger King for the depiction of Sree Lakshmidevi in their ads. She ended her speech with a rousing call to all Hindus to unite as without unity amongst us we cannot have enough of an impact to make a difference.
Speaker Mrs. Anju Bhargava giving speech in Dharmasabha |
The third speaker of the day Mrs. Anju Bhargava, Member on President Obama's Council on Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnerships and Convener of Hindu American Seva Charities spoke today on importance of rituals and seva in Hindu Dharma. She spoke about the Sanatan Dharma and how we have lost the connection to the Vedas and Puranas. She gave examples of how all other religions have their charities but Hinduism doesn’t. She shared that some organisations and temples are now slowly starting this practice. She felt that seva is a good way of involving youth in Hinduism.
This was followed by refreshments with videos on spiritual research done on PIP technique and Pendulum experiment. The video reflected the importance of Saints and benefits of being around Saints. The compeer explained the importance of these experiments to the audience before they watched them. She shared that the subtle distressing energies (asurs) are the biggest impediment in the re-instatement of Dharma, as seen from all our revered epics. If this root cause is not dealt with, no amount of political leverage, Hindu groups or gatherings can help. So the videos were shown to provoke thought about augmenting our efforts for Hinduism with spiritual measures against subtle distressing energies.
A few of the attendees especially commented on the usefulness of the SSRF research videos shown at the Dharma Sabha, and said that they will try to spread word about these videos.
Mrs. Shilpa Kudtarkar of SSRF giving speech in Dharmasabha |
The next speaker Mrs. Shilpa Kudtarkar of Spiritual Science Research Foundation spoke on Spiritual research on sattva, raja, tama and the importance of the spiritual dimension. Shilpaji has been doing spiritual practice under the guidance of the Spiritual Science Research Foundation, or SSRF for over 15 years. Her informative presentation spoke about Sattva Raja Tama and showed us the science behind spiritual experiences. It also showed us the importance of Saints in an individual’s life. She explained various sections of the website to the attendees. The website is geared towards helping seekers understand spirituality and to help seekers in their spiritual practice. She ended with a video on the DDFAO (Bio-feedback) technique on the importance of prayer.
Mr. Shrinivas Shakelly of HJS giving speech in Dharmasabha |
Mr. Srinivas Shakelly of Hindu Janajagruti Samiti, the fifth speaker, spoke about knowing denigration, preserving Hinduism. Srinivasji has been doing spiritual practice under the guidance of H.H. Dr. Athavale for last 2 years. As his spiritual practise he has been serving the cause of preserving Hindu Dharma under the guidance of Hindu Janajagruti Samiti. He takes public lectures, satsangs to educate society about the various denigrations faced by Hindu Dharma today and how to effectively stop such denigrations. He attends public events such as peaceful protest demonstrations and public exhibitions on the need to preserve Hindu Dharma. He has also participated in a peaceful protest drive to rebuild the 1000-pillar, historic, sacred monument at Tirupathi.
He shared that to attain God’s grace we need to understand and preserve Dharma. Dharma is in danger whenever there is denigration of Dharma. Hinduism shows us how to increase the sattva component within us which will finally take us to God. He shared how denigration is happening in various fields and urged every one to take initiative to protest and work towards preventing them. He explained the various sections of the HJS website such as protest campaigns, the teachings of Dharma, etc. He spoke about some of the campaigns such as the Save Ram Sethu project and protesting against the derogatory paintings of M.F. Hussain. He showed everyone how one can serve Dharma as per one’s capacity and skills.
Bhavna Shinde of FHA giving speech in Dharmasabha |
The final and most inspiring speaker Mrs. Bhavna Shinde of Forum for Hindu Awakening roused the fighting spirit in the audience by giving the example of the battle of Mahabharat and how the learning is applicable even today. She clarified that to be a Hindu Is to not just striving at the gross level, but to increase our sattva component. She gave us the steps we can take to increase our sattva component for the battle.
Bhavna Shinde has been studying and practicing the principles of Spirituality (adhyatma) for the past 10 years under the guidance of her Guru, His Holiness Dr. Jayant Athavale. Bhavna devotes all her free time in helping others understand and practice the principles of spirituality and sattvik living. In her speech, she shared the simple steps following achardharma (Following day-to-day activities as per Dharma), satsang (To remain in Sattva predominant environment), satseva and the more advanced steps of preeti (Love without any expectation) and bhav (Spiritual feelings). She shared that the state of Hindus is still deteriorating because we are not reaching the root cause. She asked as to why HJS is so successful in stopping denigrations, it’s because they have the backing of Saints.
The audience felt chaitanya emanating from her words and the presence of Sree Krushna was felt standing behind her when she mentioned the battle of Mahabharat.
After the speeches, a video on how to take Darshan in a temple was shown. This imparted much useful information that the attendees could put into practice.
Then there was a lively question and answer session. One of the dignitaries, Prof Jayant Joshi shared his suggestions like spreading the Hindu philosophy of Bliss, nonviolence and tolerance, to people from other religions, so they come to Hinduism. Dr. Babu Suseelan pointed out that when the Hindus’ situation is fast deteriorating, first we need to focus on stopping that. A few other audience members asked relevant questions which were promptly clarified, such as what is being done for stopping temples’ takeover by the government in India, how to raise our children in Hinduism concepts, why do so many Hindu Saints go to the UN and preach that all religions are equal, etc. The speakers and even audience members responded to them enthusiastically.
The Summit ended with the announcement of five resolutions passed today at the suggestion of a Devout Hindu. The resolutions passed were:
- Greet each other with a Hindu greeting – ‘Namaste’ instead of ‘Hi’ or ‘Hello’
- Celebrate the new year on Chaitra Shukla Pratipada as per sattvik Hindu tradition, instead of the tamasik celebration on 1 January
- Familiarise ourselves with the Hindu calendar
- Use Sanskrut based languages like Hindi and dress like a Hindu.
- Do some spiritual practice everyday for understanding, living and preserving Hinduism.
All audience members visited the exhibition of books and posters and bought many of the books which were on sale. They also took the free books that were donated by Mr. Bharat Gajjar.
Anubhutis (Spiritual Experiences) of the Hinduism Summit
“I was praying to Sree Krushna the day before the Summit that all I want is to be at Your feet. Then I saw the expansive form of Sree Krushna encompassing the Summit venue and He said that ‘I am the Dharma Sabha. All those who participate in it are at my feet.’ ” – A Seeker, USA.All seekers did the satseva of the Summit with a lot of bhav (Spiritual feelings). Many of the sevaks were new seekers and friends of seekers, but they did all their assigned satsevas with bhav (Spiritual feelings) and enthusiasm.
“I felt the speech of Mrs. Bhavna Shinde to be inspiring. When she was explaining the significance of the subtle battle with the examples of Sree Krushna and Arjun, I experienced tears of bhav (Spiritual feelings).” – Mr.. Keith Hurley, Maryland state, USA.
“I felt that Sree Gurudev had already given the speech in the subtle, when Srinivas ji came to speak on behalf of Hindu Janajagruti Samiti. During the speech of Mrs. Shinde, I felt Baba was speaking through her. At the time, I realized that Sree Gurudev was within me and had spoken through me on behalf of SSRF.” – Mrs. Shilpa Kudtarkar, New Jersey sate, USA.
The Summit was concluded with the slogan ‘Sanatan Dharma ki Jai ho’ (‘Victory be to Hindu Dharma’) with all the audience members joining in.
Also See
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Know about Forthcoming Dharmasabha
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Save temples from Anti-Hindus
Temples are the centres of Hindu Dharma. Anti Hindu forces like Muslims, Congress, Christians has constantly targetted them. HJS is fighting against these forces. |
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