In the Field, June 2020, VOLUME 5 / 31 May 2020

The kitchen of love

JOHAN DE SMIDT is a journalist and photographer from Cape Town, South Africa, who visited the Heartfulness Headquarters at Kanha Shanti Vanam before COVID-19 struck, and documented some of the activities. Here he showcases the kitchen, which since March has been supplying meals to up to 50,000 disadvantaged people per day in the wake of COVID-19. To find the secret ingredient in the kitchens of the Kanha Shanti Vanam ashram, you have to start your hunt before dawn. That is when the cooks are adding spice to their day with a Yoga wake-up routine. “They are a bit dull when they arrive, so we are boosting them, waking them up,” says the kitchen manager, Mr. Moganty Adinarayan. On the morning that we visit the kitchen, a Russian volunteer Yoga instructor is guiding the cooks through their asanas at 5 a.m. This dose of waking up will certainly come in handy, because the kitchen has suddenly been informed that they have to cater for many more than the 2,500 people they expected for Sunday meditation. But this is par for the course for Adinarayan and his team of workers – every day brings its own surprises and they are used to changing plans at short notice. To be effective, they have to remain flexible, and the meal planning has to be spot-on. It is also of utmost importance to have close communication with the main gate officials who constantly update them with the latest attendance figures. It is no mean feat to cook three meals a day for over 78,000 people, as the kitchen staff did for the inauguration of the Kanha Shanti Vanam meditation hall in February 2020, and still be able to hit the ground running when work starts at 4 a.m. every morning. In one stretch, the kitchen…

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Interview, June 2020, VOLUME 5 / 31 May 2020

From tolerance to appreciation

MARILYN TURKOVICH is the current Executive Director of the Charter for Compassion, which provides an umbrella for people to engage in collaborative partnerships worldwide. In December 2019, she spoke with MEGHANA ANAND about the organization, its partners, and the work done through the Charter in different countries. Marilyn is an educationist-author and writes about world religions and cultures, bringing out their diverse and uniting threads.

June 2020, Thought in action, VOLUME 5 / 31 May 2020

The importance of maintenance in your life

DR. ICHAK ADIZES shares some thoughts on maintenance and how to make the most of the current corona crisis to prepare the foundation for the future. In the 1970s I was consulting for the US Agency for International Development on health planning in Ghana. One of the major issues was that a lot of the hospital equipment was not working. Costly equipment donated by well-meaning philanthropic organizations from Europe and the US was abandoned in the corridors unused. When I asked my hosts why, they said, “Oh, it broke down.” Why did it break down? There was either no maintenance or bad maintenance. As I travel the world, I stay in hotels. I was once in a beautiful hotel in a developing country. But the bath did not work, the toilet did not work, and not all of the lighting did work. They spent a lot of money building this hotel, so what went wrong? Maintenance. It is not enough to invest, build, and develop. You still have to maintain what you developed, built, or invested in. The same thing would be true for your garden or car. While we are accustomed to performing maintenance on cars, buildings, gardens and machines, it is practically non-existent when it comes to human relations. As one of my clients said, “One honeymoon is not enough for a lifetime of marriage.” Love needs to be maintained. A wonderful wedding and newlywed love are not enough. That’s a great “investment,” but what about maintenance? What do you do to maintain love? Do you go on an annual honeymoon? How much time do you spend just the two of you? Loving. Do we maintain our own health? Some of us go to the doctor for an annual check-up. Is that all? What do you do to…

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Focus, June 2020, VOLUME 5 / 31 May 2020

Raising consciousness – part 1

In April 2020, BRUCE LIPTON, who was in New Zealand at the time, spoke to UDAY KUMAR about the transition our planet is going through right now, and what we need to do to raise our consciousness to the next level. This is the first of 3 parts of this inspiring exclusive interview. (After some initial chit chat) BL: Do you have lockdown where you are? UK: Yes, it’s been quite interesting to see how the best and worst of human nature comes out at these times. BL: You know, between us, there’s more to this than just a ’flu scare. UK: I would love to know more. What are your thoughts, because these are unprecedented times, at least during my limited lifespan? BL: Well, in 75 years, this is one of the most interesting events I have also experienced. And it really relates to a bigger topic than just the ’flu. It relates to the scientific reality that we’re in the 6th mass extinction of life. Just briefly, 5 times life was thriving on this planet when some kind of cataclysmic event – boom! – almost instantaneously wiped out about 90% of life. Then, evolution essentially started all over again. So far we’ve had 5 waves, the last mass extinction being, I think, 66 million years ago when the dinosaurs were here, and the world was lush tropics and jungles. Back then, a comet hit near Mexico, the Yucatan Peninsula, and it was such a big comet that it upended the environment. That’s when the dinosaurs were wiped out, and life was pretty much decimated, and then it started all over again. So, it has been 66 million years since the last one. By definition, a mass extinction event is when between 70% to 90% of life disappears, and this has happened…

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Be inspired, June 2020, VOLUME 5 / 31 May 2020

A user’s guide to living – part 6

DAAJI continues his series on everyday living, introducing the fifth universal principle of the User’s Guide, which is about truthfulness and acceptance of whatever hardships come our way. As a starting point, this fifth principle helps us to live a contented, peaceful life, with acceptance and compassion. Then, as we progress, it guides us towards the ultimate nature of Truth and Reality. TRUTH & AUTHENTICITY Principle 5: Always be truthful, accept miseries as coming from God for your own good and be thankful. The nature of truth This is a vast topic, so we will start at the level of day-to-day behavior and then progress toward the ultimate Truth of existence. Some of you may know the famous statement of Polonius in Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet, “This above all: to thine own self be true. And it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.” It is a universal principle that is valued in all cultures – to be genuine, original and authentic; to say what you mean and mean what you say; no hidden agendas, no masks; no hiding faults and no camouflage. Instead, only childlike innocence, purity and simplicity. Truthfulness means integrity, where thoughts are aligned with words, and words are aligned with actions. Where we walk the talk. When we don’t walk the talk there is a disconnect and a sense of hypocrisy. The result is the pollution and corruption of our conscious and subconscious mind. We feel uncomfortable in our own skin, and that lowers our vibration – because we are not listening to the authentic voice of the heart. Truth or satya is one of the very first principles in Ashtanga Yoga. In other words, it is fundamental and basic. And yet, the fact that Babuji has to…

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