India Post News Service
SANTA CLARA, CA: Brahma Kumaris of Silicon Valley organized an event “Create Your Destiny” at Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara on June 2.
Sister Shivani, in the hall packed to the brim, shared her thoughts about how we can actually help ourselves to create our own destiny instead of blaming others for the things happening to us in life. On behalf of Dr. Romesh Japra, Founder and Convener of the Festival of Globe (FOG) and Federation of Indo-Americans (FIA), Ritu Maheshwari (Chair – Media) presented a proclamation to Sister Shivani.
The event started with a musical band playing medleys and an amazing dance performance by local artists. Then Ashok Aggrawal from Brahma Kumaris of Silicon Valley introduced all the dignitaries. Dignitaries presented were Kirsten Keith (Menlo Park Councilmember), Savita Vaidhyanathan (Cupertino Vice Mayor), Ash Kalra (Assembly Member), and Jose Esteves (Milpitas Former Mayor). They presented awards and proclamations to Sister Shivani for her outstanding contribution to the community. After that Brahma Kumari Sister Kusum talked about how one session can change our
entire life and thanked all the volunteers for making this event successful.
In about an hour’s session, Sister Shivani gave practical examples and said all of us should be thinking more about things so whatever happens in life is actually because of our previous actions we have performed and also on how we think. If we can have ‘Satvik’ (pure, true, ethical, energetic, clean, strong, vital and wise) thinking, we can have strong state of mind.
Most of our thoughts are also dependent on what we eat, so we should always eat fresh not reheated food. We should always cook with good thoughts. Whenever we are sitting on a dining table we shouldn’t have any screen time while eating. The ten minutes we take for each meal, we should have quiet time. We shouldn’t speak of negative things while eating, because that corrupts the food.
She also said that nowadays we have more screen-time than actual interaction with people. That’s not good for our mental health. When we go on a plane or are in a meeting, we switch off the phone, but while eating, we keep the phone on, and we should not do so. She added, we should always have ‘Satvik’ food without any meat because the source the meat is coming from, the animal had anger, helplessness, anxiety and fear before it was killed. These emotions are transferred to the food and then to us.
When we wake up in the morning, we should always tell ourselves three things. I am not going to feel bad about what others do to me. I, in fact, will forgive them and forget what they said. I will say sorry to them, that maybe I did something earlier so they are thinking like this. During the session, she told the audience to close their eyes and think about a person whom they felt wronged them, and tell themselves to forgive and forget what they did for their own peace of mind not because we are doing a favor to them while doing so. In youth, we see so much depression. If we can keep our mind strong and convey the same to youth, the upcoming generation will have strong minds.
At the Brahma Kumari centers, we start our day with ten minutes of meditation because the thoughts in the beginning of the day decide the entire day. She added that as we clean our houses but put all our clothes in a cupboard and think it’s all clean, but somebody opens the door and all the clothes fall out and make a mess, in a similar way, you have to clean your mind – not just superficially, but all the baggage inside your mind so that we can live a peaceful life.
She said we should think every day that it could be the last day of my life, and I have to live it to the fullest. At the end, people sat quietly and after closing their eyes for five minutes, she told them to take the prasad at the exit before leaving.
Sister Shivani held four such enthralling sessions in Bay Area during her first visit here, each of which drew crowds of thousands.
