Tag Archives: Violence Free

Why you should be in New Delhi this March!

03 Wednesday Feb 2016

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There I go – taking a hiatus again and this time it was only 6 months! I haven’t been into blogging for some time – maybe a writer’s block or something. But there is something that is to happen in New Delhi, INDIA this coming March which brings be to blog again. That is the World Culture Festival that is hosted by the Art of Living Foundation in New Delhi on March 11, 12 and 13th. I am going to be in New Delhi and I thought – wouldn’t it a good idea to let the know the world know why? And while doing that why not invite the whole world to it too?

| 3.5 Million people |

| Guinness Record for Largest stage ever |

| People from more than 15o countries |

| Former & Current Presidents of Countries |

| Business leaders from all over the World |

| Musicians and Dancers from across the Globe |

| Grandest Cultural Extravaganza in the WORLD |

| HISTORY to be MADE |

You getting the Picture?

Check out this Introduction to the World Culture Festival in New Delhi, INDIA this March 11- 13th.

The World Culture Festival is the largest interfaith gathering for peace! – Sri Sri

There have been many events which have changed the face of the earth through history. If you take a look at the last few decades, it has mostly been disasters, incidents of violence like gun shooting, political crisis, etc. There has not been any event on an international scale to celebrate peace, for love, for happiness. The World Culture Festival is JUST THAT.

This is a celebration of goodness. Good people from more than 15o countries are coming together to celebrate goodness, celebrate love, celebrate peace and celebrate humanity. In this time, where there are so much horror and violence are happening on our planet.

Good people, who are the majority in the world, do not make noise. This is a chance for good people to make noise. What better than all of us,good people, coming together to celebrate PEACE, LOVE, FREEDOM, HAPPINESS and LIFE. New Delhi in March 11-13th, 2016 is where meditation and celebration comes together to make a deafening noise for peace! An event to celebrate the diversity in cultures and unity in humanity.

What is the purpose of the World Culture Festival? In the words of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar himself-

1. To give a message to the world that the whole world is ONE Family.
2. That We can all co-exist with our differences together.
3. Opportunities for religious leaders, business leaders and many more to come together.
4. To let the world know that we care for the environment. We care for the rivers, mountains, plants, trees.
5. To encourage to traditional musicians and dancers. To give them a world platform to relish and enjoy that. This will be brought to the fore front.
6. That good people are there and are dynamic and active and care for LIFE.

Just Imagine 3.5 million chanting OM and meditating together. Regardless of whether you have learnt meditation or not, just being that space of so many meditating and chanting would be out of this world!

It is going to shift the consciousness of the whole world! Towards Peace and Love.

So what are you waiting for? The moment I heard that there is going a gathering of 3.5 million coming together to celebrate peace, I just knew that I cant miss this one! I booked my tickets straight away! More over, you might have an idea to visit INDIA some time in your life right?. What better time to visit INDIA than this March!

More information about the World Culture Festival here –  http://www.artofliving.org/us-en/world-culture-festival

All information for booking your travel to New Delhi this March can be done through this website – IwillBeThere.us

Now there might be some of us who really really wants to be there but genuinely can not make it for various reasons. Well, if you are one of these good people – you can still be a PART of this historical event by making a donation. Here is my crowdrise link where you can donate.

DONATE to be part of WCF – http://tiny.cc/wcffund

Whats more – March 7th is Maha Shivaratri! The day when universal divine energy comes closer to the earth. What better place to be than in the spiritual land of INDIA.

Please take this as a personal invitation from me to come to New Delhi this March! It is going to be historic, fun and an experience like you never had before! I want to end with saying this – Chalo Delhi! (meaning – Lets Go to Delhi!) See you there!

P.S. : – Share this with your family and friends and invite them too!

UPDATE : Just got the news that the Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi will inaugurate the WCF and President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee, will be at the closing ceremony!

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MC Yogi to perform LIVE for Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s Vision of Stress Free Violence Free Community

21 Thursday Mar 2013

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It has been a long time and have some good news! It is only 2 more days to go for the launch of the campaign!! And most importantly – Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, my guru, will be coming HOME! It has been 5 years, a long long time, since he last visited the bay area. There is excitement in the air, tears in people’s longings, joy in their words and what not. To add on to this, MC Yogi, the famous American hip-Hop musician and yogi is going to be performing LIVE for the campaign launch. His rap on Obama and Mahatma GANDHI went viral to become chart toppers.

MC Yogi to perform LIVE for the campaign

Here is his website – http://mcyogi.com/ and here is his famous “BE the Change” Gandhi Rap.

Welcome To The Campaign –  MC YOGI!!!!

Pre-Campaign Week 3 Theme : Health and Well Being

04 Monday Mar 2013

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It is time for a new theme and new actions to be taken! I am excited! This week’s theme for all of us is Health and Well Being! With only three more weeks to go for the campaign to be launched, we have a lot of people interested in and signing up.

The theme for Pre-Campaign week 3 is HEALTH and WELL BEING!

The theme for Pre-Campaign week 3 is HEALTH and WELL BEING!

As usual we have so many ways to do our random act of kindness in here! Here is my list 

30 seconds act of kindness

  • Post an article on meditation or going vegetarian in your Facebook page to increase awareness – Here is one if you want to use 11 ways how meditation adds value to your life!
  • Call your doctor and thank them
  • Send your friend a healthy meal recipe as a surprise!

7 minutes Act of kindess

  • Practice awareness. For next 7 minutes, do whatever with complete awareness and presence even if you have to multi-task
  • Share a joke with some other and make them laugh
  • Eat a healthy snack
  • Exercise for some time before getting out

30 minutes act of kindess

  • Meditate. Here is a guided meditation if you are not a practitioner already
  • Cook a healthy meal for someone
  • Donate blood
  • Play a sport with your child or kids in the neighborhood
  • Eat a healthy vegetarian meal tonight

If you have any other interesting act of kindness, post them here!

Why we need the Stress-Free Violence-Free Community campaign?

04 Monday Mar 2013

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StressFreeViolenceFree

I got these stats from the stress free violence free campaign website and I must say – these stats are really shocking. 1 in 3 women will experience sexual abuse in their lifetime! 1 in 7 students in K-12 is a victim of bullying or a bully themselves! Workplace stress costs US employers an estimated 22 billion dollars per year! 22 veterans commit suicide each day! Each day! Here are some interesting facts on Stress.

The following statistics are from a 2009 survey conducted by the APA where during the previous month many adults reported feeling the following physical effects of stress:

  • 47% report lying awake at night
  • 45% report irritability or anger
  • 43% report fatigue
  • 40% report lack of interest, motivation or energy

To deal with stress…

  • 56% of women and 40% of men reported eating poorly
  • 43% of women and 32% of men reported napping
  • 25% of women and 11% of men reported shopping
  • 18% reported drinking alcohol
  • 16% reported smoking

These are all the more reasons we need to come together to take steps to avoid all these. And that is exactly what Art of Living foundation is doing with the StressFreeViolenceFree community campaign! This campaign provides all of us a platform to join hands and work together to effectively resolve all these issues in the society. Join the campaign for FREE @ stressfreeviolencefree.org and attend the launch event inaugurated by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar himself on March 24th at the San jose convention center!

Pre-Campaign Week 2 Theme : Education

27 Wednesday Feb 2013

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The Campaign launch is happening on March 24th and we have only 3 weeks to go. This the Pre-Campaign week 2 and this week’s theme is EDUCATION! The previous week’s theme was Family.

The theme for Pre-Campaign week 2 is EDUCATION!

The theme for Pre-Campaign week 2 is EDUCATION!

We can get involved in many different ways based on how much time you want to give it. Here are some of the things I came up. It was really interesting coming up with it :). Add yours in the comment section.

30 seconds act of kindness

  • Give words of encouragement to a student in your community
  • Praise a teacher for their service to the community
  • Connect with a lost school friend

7 minutes Act of kindess

  • Send a thank you letter to oen of your teachers – past or present
  • Join and comment on your alumni Facebook page or share it with other people
  • Buy a story book for your neighbor’s kid
  • Read to a child
  • Buy an educational event ticket and donate it to some one
  • Post a positive comment on any educational blog

30 minutes act of kindess

  • Write a letter to your local congressmen to help secure additional school funding
  • Donate old books to your local library
  • Assist a kid with their homework
  • Mentor a at-risk teen or kid
  • Teach someone a new language

 

“Show Up” – Stress-Free Violence-Free Community campaign led by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

25 Monday Feb 2013

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SHOW UP!

Few posts back, I had introduced the campaign started by the Art of Living volunteers to create a Stress-Free and Violence-Free community. Now here are some beautiful videos about people talking about the campaign and asking everyone to SHOW up for it.

First up, Bhargav, a freshman student in San Jose State university shares his vision on what he thinks about a violence free community and why it is important.

Second, Sunita Dash. A mother and employee of Apple, Inc. shares her experiences of the impact of stress and violence in community. She also shares her passion and vision for a community free of stress and violence.

This campaign provides everyone a platform to join hands, come together and create the society that everyone wants to stay in. Stress and Violence are huge problems and it needs every one of us to step in. We need this campaign as much as the campaign needs us. So SHOW UP for the launch event which is inaugurated by World Leader and Humanitarian, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and join thousands of others who have committed themselves for the campaign! Here is another video with people who are showing up!

You can join the campaign here : http://stressfreeviolencefree.org/campaign/join-the-campaign/. If you are not in the bay area or can not attend the campaign – No problem. Help us spread the word in these ways

  1. Like, Comment and Share our Facebook page : https://www.facebook.com/Stressfreeviolencefree.
  2. We have been tweeting with the tag #peacestarts. Tweet your comment and ideas with the same tag along with our website stressfreeviolencefree.org on Twitter
  3. Reblog this post or this one in your blog so that your readers know about this campaign
  4. Ask your friends and relatives to join the campaign if they reside in the Bay Area
  5. Ask all your other friends to do all of the above :))

It is not every time that we get the chance to make a difference in our society. Here is one. So grab it by SHOWin’ Up to the launch event!

Create a Stress-Free Violence-Free Society with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

13 Wednesday Feb 2013

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If you are given an opportunity to make a positive difference in your community, would you take it? I certainly would. If the positive difference is the need of the current hour – even BETTER. Right now the violence in our society and world in general has seen new heights that it is unimaginable sometimes. Be it the Sandy Hook shooting or the Colorado shooting or the Delhi gang rape. Before trying to address this issue, lets take a step back to introspect where does it violence or what are its causes. Violence is the result of a combination of biological, social, and psychological factors, especially those that increase exposure to vulnerability, shame, and humiliation. Preventing violence must involve the opposite: making sure people feel safe, cared about, and connected, while ensuring they have a healthy and realistic sense of self esteem and self-worth.

Recently I was talking to a friend of mine where she was suggesting some changes in the law and educational system to remove violence. I was arguing against it citing many people have tried that before and it has never worked because it couldn’t be implemented in mass. Just one person trying to create a revolution against the government to bring about laws can create awareness about the issue but bringing about a change in the underlying attitude requires something more. A “X” factor that will change people’s core values itself. A change so basic that changes their total outlook towards violence. We finally agreed upon that currently there is no way of doing this. But we were so wrong!

It seems that we have solved this problem so many times in the history of man kind. Only that we have forgotten our history and the different ways of doing it. Core values against violence like Love, Affection, Compassion have always been imbibed in spiritual teachings and practices and this is the missing ‘X’ factor according to me. Everyone has to cultivate these core values from a very young age in them and make it a second nature in order to not fall into the trap. Spiritual leaders are here to help us but the problem is help comes after the event in form of disaster recovery or personal counseling or service project to help the victims. Very few proactive steps have been taken to avoid a problem and its sustenance and success trivial in a global scale.

Not anymore! 🙂 Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, a global humanitarian and a spiritual leader who started the largest non-profit volunteer based organization, The Art of Living, has started a movement called Campaign for a Stress Free Violence Free Community where every individual can contribute towards the idea. The campaign emphasizes on bringing about the change that you want to see in your community in YOU first.

The Wright brothers appeared crazy before they flew. I have this crazy idea – a world without violence.  With all the violence in the world this idea may appear to be hoping for a Utopia, but we need to dream, and we will get there. -Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

The campaign has got two main components in it. Go Inward and Take Action.

Go Inward

Any change that needs to be brought outside starts with you. Keeping a balanced state of mind and body is important. This is the first step in the campaign. Going inward. It is about how to get that peace and clarity inside of you. How do you do that? Meditate. Sit silently. Art of Living programs, etc.

Take Action

This is the step which needs action. All of us need to come together to bring our peaceful voices and make it louder than that of violence. It starts with doing good to others individually and as a group. The campaign has got a lot of options for these.

Go Inward & Take Action

Go Inward & Take Action

The idea here is to take a pledge to do an activity from each of these components for at least once a week. The campaign will run for 6 months from March until October and each week will have a different theme and a featured organization with whom we can work with or you can work with an organization of your choice. Anyone can get involved in only three easy steps

  1. Join the campaign in their web site stressfreeviolencefree.org
  2. Attend the campaign event kick off along with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar(Yay! He is coming to the Bay area. Info in another post!) and other community leaders. You can buy the tickets for the event here – http://stressfreeviolencefree.org/launch/. It is only 25$!
  3. Follow the campaign and stay engaged.

What is your excuse?

The main excuse that I had for joining such a campaign was TIME. The most famous excuse we all have. Who has got the time to do all these? Well, the campaign has answers to that too. You can make a change even if you have 30 seconds of free time! You can effect a change based on how much free time you have – 30 seconds or 7 minutes or 30 minutes or a whole day. It is totally your choice how you engage yourself. Here is a list of activities you can do – http://stressfreeviolencefree.org/campaign/

It is that simple! Just 3 simple steps to build a stress free and violence community. Can it get better than this?

Will it work?

I had this question in me – Can a small act of kindness by just one individual bring a change in a community of so many? This got answered by this beautiful video that I saw today. Enjoy!