Sponsored Walk 2017

On 9^th September, members of the youth wing participated in the annual Charity Walk for the Blind. 

In 2015 and 2016, the Om Sharavanabhava Seva Trust raised over £30 000 to aid young and partially sighted victims of the civil war in Sri Lanka. 

This year, we are hoping to do something similar by raising funds to deliver free valuable educational materials for under-privileged children in Sri Lanka. This will provide them better opportunities in education and in work. This is something that we take for granted in our country- we all automatically follow through in a system beginning from nursery, right through to university. We often forget that this is a rare occurrence for some children who born into poor families affected by many years of civil war. 

This year we were fortunate enough to be led around Richmond Park by Swami himself. The walk began at Sheen gate at 10am; Swami led the large group of about 200 devotees around the park, happily chanting ‘Haro Hara’ and singing bhajans right till the end! 

The walk took about an hour and a half from start to finish – everyone walked at their own pace, trying to keep up with Swami who sprinted on three occasions! His infectious energy made the walk possible for even those who normally had mobility issues. 

Members of the youth were involved in crowd control as it was important to ensure the health and safety of participants. We helped with registering participants at the beginning, selling hats and setting up the food stall. 

The walk was a huge success – although the weather forecast was looking grim, there miraculously was no rain right until the end as Swami’s darshan was finishing. 

Events such as this allow the younger generation to reflect upon the facilities and opportunities that have become part of our everyday living, and how a small effort such as organising a charity event like this can go to great lengths to completely revolutionise a child’s future. 

If you feel inspired to help these young children to experience a better future as well, we would be most grateful for any donations towards this worthy cause by visiting our justgiving link below. 

https://www.justgiving.com/campaigns/charity/osb-trust/charitywalk2017

Swami encouraging everyone to chant

Swami leading the sponsored walk 

Swami boosting everyone's morale

Onam 2017

Every year Onam is enthusiastically celebrated across the world, particularly in Kerala to mark the sacrifice of King Mahabali, who offered his own life in order to uphold his vow to Vamana (the fifth incarnation of Lord Vishnu). 

This year, on the 3rd of September, we were able to celebrate this beautiful festival in Swami’s presence with a large number of devotees. Traditional Kerala drummers and Kerala dancers brought a vibrant atmosphere to the Onam festivities and Swami’s presence made the day a unique experience. 

Kerala drummers

Kerala dancing performance

We would like to share with you Swami’s stirring Onam message. 

Om Sharavanabhava 

On the auspicious festival of Onam may the Almighty shower His blessings to His children all over the world. 

By paying due respect to our parents, reverence to our Guru and praising the glory of the omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient God, may we realise the supreme truth. 

May we attain dharma and protect dharma by upholding the truth in each sphere of action. 

May we experience the bliss of prosperity and success by leading a life of unity and love. 

May we develop and maintain a healthy environment by eradicating unwanted thoughts and matters from within and without and maintain harmony with nature. 

May we overcome all the impediments on our paths for obtaining divine blessing. May He Guide us to choose the right path enabling us to take a noble birth, live gloriously and find success and salvation in our lives. 

The concept of each festival is to spread a message to the future generations to uphold and strengthen the virtues and values in life moulded by our ancestors by their everlasting tapas for the welfare of the world. 

The purpose of celebrating each festival is to make us understand that the goal of life is to repel all vices and attract virtues which bring prosperity and bliss. With this understanding, we will be able to transform earth to heaven. Understanding these principles, if we lead a life of righteousness, upholding the values of life and surrendering ourselves completely to the Lord, we will also be able to attain the highest abode of eternal bliss as the emperor Mahabali was placed by the Lord Himself. 

On this festive day of Thiruvonam may I wish you all, that your lives will also be elevated to the highest level filled with prosperity and happiness throughout your lives. 

In prayers and regard, 

Satguru Sri Sharavanababa  

Om Sharavanabhava 

Guru Poornima 2017

Om Sharavanabhava

This year Guru Poornima, a day dedicated to Gurus, fell on the 9th of July and members of the OSBM youth wing participated in the Guru Poornima programme in Swami’s ashram by delivering a speech, which we would like to share with you below:

On this auspicious day of Guru Poornima, we, the OSBM youth wing would like to show our gratitude and reverence to our beloved Satguru, Swami by talking about the importance of a Guru for the youth today. 

In one of Swami’s satsangs, Swami stated, ’ A Guru means dispeller of darkness, removing the ignorance within you and leading you towards light. Surrender to your Guru, who will enable you to experience your inner self’. In this beautiful teaching Swami highlights the importance of a Guru in our spiritual journey to direct and guide us to help us realise the divinity within each and every one of us. 

In today’s world the youth are surrounded by maya, illusion, and our lives often orientate around materialistic gains and at times we often only think about our individuals selves. However, Swami has taught and shown us the importance of being selfless whether it be by encouraging us to assist those in need or by encouraging us to participate in prayers for world peace and harmony. 

Swami also continues to remind the youth of the sacrifices our parents have made for us at every point throughout our lives therefore it is our responsibility to respect our parents and appreciate them and through Swami we have been able to show this through events such as Maathru pooja. 

Swami has advised the youth to focus on three qualities to perfect our behaviour. The first quality is to be strong (to have a strong mind through positive thoughts and to be active), secondly to be strict (to be disciplined and to have integrity) and thirdly be straight (to always be honest). 

We are incredibly fortunate and blessed to have Swami as our Satguru, to guide us along this path of righteousness and truth. Thank you Swami for being a role model to the youth so that we can be role models to others in society.

Om Sharavanabhava 

Swami's seva activities in Sri Lanka 2017

Om Sharavanabhava 

One of Swami’s recent seva projects took place during Swami’s visit to Sri Lanka where from the 1st of March to the 11th of March Swami travelled across remote areas of the country to provide aid to families most in need. 

A vast number of seva activities were carried out including: 

Distributing bicycles to deserving children who had to walk long distances to school on a daily basis

Distributing dry food provision bags

Providing braille typewriters for those who have lost their eyesight 

Hosting medical camps in 4 different areas

10 livelihood projects were conducted to assist those in grave hardship

Providing education materials, clothing and shoes for school children

Swami not only assisted these families by providing them with materials to help rebuild their lives but importantly, Swami’s presence, satsangs and dharshan gave these families strength, restored their hope and faith. Hopefully we will be able to contribute and conduct similar charitable activities in the near future. 

Om Sharavanabhava

Home-Start Gift Bags

Over the last few months members of the youth wing separated into groups to focus on different charity projects. Our group, Team Oneness’ charity project was to create gift bags for the charity Home- Start. 

Home-Start is a leading family support charity in the UK which aids families with young children deal with challenges they face. Volunteers from the charities support an array of families including families struggling with post-natal depression, physical health problems and bereavement. 

We felt this was a valuable charity to support as the charity helps build a stable, loving environment for children which is fundamental for their future. 

We decided to create gifts bags for the charity so they could distribute these to a number of families facing a difficult time in their lives. 

With a set budget and brief to create gift bags to brighten up someone’s day and help them relax, we began selecting items to include in our bag. Finally we decided on a variety of items such as herbal teas, mugs, candles and various toiletries such as bubble baths, which you can see in the picture below. 

We also decided to attach a leaflet to give the families a supportive message and to inform them about the youth wing and our mission. 

It was fun putting the bags together and working together for such a great cause. 

As a group, we thoroughly enjoyed making the gift bags and hope to do similar projects in the future. 

November 2016 Meeting

In this month’s meeting, the youth had begun with a very deep and insightful discussion about our personal views about the soul and the bodies that we live in. This allowed us to explore the idea of whether we see our bodies as souls or as souls, with a body.  It was an interesting discussion to see what everyone thought about these individual concepts and whether we see them as separate aspects of our existence.  

This lead to a further discussion about what we think happens to our bodies and our souls when we reach the time of death. Does our soul die with our body? Or, does it continue to live on? Again, it was amazing to listen to what people had to say about their views on this matter.  There was a great diversity in the ideas being shared, by all ages in the youth wing, which I think increased our awareness of how we truly feel about this topic. We all gained insight from one another. 

One of the views that strongly stood out to me, were from some of the younger youth members, who shared the idea that they thought that the soul resides in our hearts, and it is innately connected to the conscious/unconscious decisions that we make in our day to day lives. 

Some of the older youth members, like myself, shared the similar view that we are souls, with a body and the body is used as a vehicle to allow us to fulfil our individual Dharma’s.  A couple of us also thought that when we die, it is only our body that die, but our soul continues to live on as it is eternal. The soul will just disintegrate into small matter (that is all around us) and will find a new home in another life form. According to the Bhagavad Gita and ancient Vedic scriptures, that have deeply influenced my personal views on this matter, our souls are ‘reborn’ in to a new life form that it takes on, depending on our karmic energies and the level of consciousness that we attain in our human life form. This is the idea of ‘Oneness’ or being interconnected with all sentient beings. 

Following on from this discussion, the youth also had a debate about the “Impermanence” of life – exploring references from philosophical books such as ‘The Complete Conversations with God’. This group discussion allowed us to critically analyse quotations from this reference and think about how everything in this life is impermanent, but this concept of impermanence is in fact permanent. Everything in this life will continue to change, to elevate our consciousness or connection with the divine being. This is to allow us to fulfil our individual Dharma’s. Cross references were also made with the teachings of the Buddha, stating that we are here to accept what is and understand that in the permanence of impermanence, there is always something to be learned – by the object and the observer and this is our greatest teacher. Our experiences – good or bad.

Quotes on impermanence

October 2016 Meeting

In this month’s meeting we explored the spiritual and scientific aspects of death, following on from last month's meeting. We continued by discussing and debating the myriad of ideas regarding what happens after death. Much of the youth believed in the concept of reincarnation, where it is accepted that your previous life determines what you will be   reborn into. An interesting perception that was raised was the idea that the body is merely a “vessel” for the soul, and the experiences that occur in our lives are steps in shaping it. Therefore, the soul remains unchanged and enters a new body as the exterior is spiritually insignificant.

The cycle of reincarnation

We also had debates on eternal life which consisted of a mixture of views. The topic of death is very much overlooked and was therefore interesting to hear everyone’s opinions especially from a diverse cohort, with a range of different ages. 

During this meeting, we also cut a beautifully crafted cake to celebrate Swami’s birthday which was made by one of our youth wing members.

Swami's birthday cake

September 2016 Meeting

After summer we were all ready and refreshed to come back to the youth wing for our September meeting and looked forward to meeting our fellow youth members and welcoming back our youth wing coordinators Ghaya and Tom.  

Our session this month focused on a topic that is often very difficult to grapple with, life after death. There are many different perspectives of what happens after death. Although there is uncertainty as to what happens after death, we felt it was a crucial topic which should be explored and we should not be fearful of discussing it. 

We expressed our ideas on what exists after life using diagrams and drawings. Each individual’s thoughts differed with ideas ranging from traditional concepts of heaven and hell, to blank pieces of paper illustrating there is nothing after life. A number of ice breakers were involved to lighten the atmosphere and to recharge our energy as discussing life after death can be mentally challenging. 

The session ended with an eye opener; entailing the tragedy of Dr Paul Kalanithi, a neurosurgeon who was diagnosed with terminal cancer and sadly, passed away.We watched a short video discussing his book, ‘When Breath Becomes Air’, which he wrote after his diagnosis. The book reflects on his transition from a doctor to a patient and shares his ideas on life including the idea that life was not about avoiding suffering. Today, most people do all they can to avoid hardship however sometimes we need to suffer as the lessons we learn from suffering are often the best lessons in life. Dr Kalanithi’s story was tragic, but his perspective on mortality and the meaning of life is unique and thought provoking.

A quote from the book "When breath becomes air"

Tough Mudder - Completed

On Sunday 25^th September 2016, seven of us participated in the London South Tough Mudder. This 12 mile mud and obstacle course was an incredible experience where we were faced with 22 challenging obstacles.The obstacles varied from running, pushing and pulling our way through 60ft of heavy rotating barriers to sprinting through a field of electric wires delivering 10,000 volts. As well as demonstrating our physical strength, a number of these obstacles tested our team work and mental grit.

Members of the youth wing after completing Mud Mile 2.0

We each found certain obstacles harder to complete than others. As a team, we were able to give each other a helping hand and confidence boost when we faced our biggest fears. For some of us, crawling and pushing our way through a very small space whilst 100lbs of water rested on our backs was physically challenging as well as mentally draining. For others, sliding through 10 tonnes of ice was by far the most unbearable obstacle. The encouragement from the rest of the team and our fellow tough mudders was what motivated each of us to complete the obstacles and step out of our comfort zone.

3 of the participants during the obstacle course

We are grateful and proud to have successfully completed one of the world’s toughest obstacle courses. Most importantly, we would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you who have helped us along the way and to those of you have donated to such worthy causes. We have raised over a staggering £2850 for Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity and Om Sharavanabhava Seva Trust.

Two participants running through the Electroshock Therapy obstacle

A youth member reacting to an electric shock

Please see below for what each member of the team had to say about Tough Mudder.

“The toughest mental challenge I’ve ever faced and a real test of teamwork.”

(Dhaarica Jeyanesan)

“Team work makes the dream work!”

(Sachin Sooriyakumar)

“There’s no way we could have done this without each other!”

(Anchali Muraleetharan)

“One of the biggest challenges faced so far! But we got through it as a team.”

(Vidushan Jeyanesan)

“It was definitely challenging but every second was worth it.”

(Sagana Selvalingam)

“It doesn’t matter how long it takes to get there, as long as you get there!”

(Banuja Srikantha)

“The toughest physical challenge but the most worthwhile!”

(Vidhya Sasitharan)

The team after completing the course

Tough Mudder

A group of older youth wing members have decided to participate in Tough Mudder on the 25^th of September to raise money for both Swami’s charity and Great Ormond Street Hospital’s charity. Tough Mudder is a 12 mile mud obstacle course. This obstacle course will test our determination and our mental and physical strength with a range of activities. There will be more than 14 obstacles including swimming through a stretch ice, running through electric wires and climbing up a 15 foot pipeline.

Arctic Enema Obstacle

Rain Man Obstacle

This will involve a huge amount of physical training in the lead up to the event.  As well as a physical challenge, this will be a mental challenge and Swami has always stated to us all that with mental strength and self-belief we can accomplish anything that we want to. We aim to complete the course with this mentality.

Electroshock Therapy Obstacle

Mud Mile Obstacle

We will update the blog once we have completed the event.

Everest Obstacle

Birth Canal Obstacle

Blockness Monster Obstacle

Being vegetarian!

This is the journey of one of our youth member's becoming a vegetarian.

At the beginning of January 2016, I made a sudden decision to challenge myself to be a vegetarian. Being a meat-eater I knew I would find this challenge exceedingly difficult. However, being aware of the benefits to be a vegetarian encouraged my thought and was the basis of my sudden change in diet.

Week 1

This was definitely by far the hardest week, I was struggling with my choices of dishes at home and at school as there was limited availability of vegetarian dishes. Also, I found it tedious as I was extremely cautious about what I was consuming, but somehow I managed to remain vegetarian.

Week 2

This week was much better as being vegetarian turned out to be like my normal routine. This week I recognised some changes about me. First of all, it helped me with my revision, as my concentration span had increased and for the first time I actually stood by my revision timetable for that week, which was great!

Week 3

By this week eating vegetarian dishes were like second nature, but I still had to be very cautious on what I was eating. I noticed further changes about myself, but I wasn’t the only one, the people around me had identified changes about me too. Firstly, I recognised my urge for fitness had increased and my mind was more alert. I was a calmer and a more collected person and composed myself better than I ever did.

Overall, it was a challenging but rewarding experience. It was surprised by how much my diet influenced my mindset and how soon I become accustomed to being a vegetarian. I would definitely recommend being a vegetarian for a few days a week, even if it difficult to be a complete vegetarian. 

A quote from Swami