It was 11 pm when I was standing all alone on the road side. I had two bags with me, a back ache, nowhere to go, dead tired ( my day started early morning from bangalore ), a flop 'YES!+ JAM' behind me, 15 participants in the next course ! Things were obviously not happening the way I wanted, but I don't know why, I was still calm and relaxed, deep within I had this feeling "AALL IS WELL"... I was feeling so sure that Guruji was with me every moment !
I called up Govind ( one of the volunteers who had dinner with me ), and he said he would do something. I would have waited for hardly 2 minute and I get a call from the Art of Living District Coordinator of Vellore... He asked me where I was and that he was coming by car to pick me up. He picked me up and we checked out some more lodges which were also full, and finally I stayed over at his office ( which had a bed and an attached toiled, it was pretty ok ! )... So stay was done... I was too tired to think of anything else... So, just crashed on the bed... Next morning I got up did my sadhana and called for a meeting with all the volunteers at the college at 12:30 pm...
I was there sharp at 12:30 and there was NO volunteer ! I waited for some time and slowly all the volunteers showed up... The expression on their face was as if a Tsunami had just hit their place ! It was as if the whole world was shouting at them ! They had to face all the people who were disappointed by the YES!+ jam... It was such a beautiful moment... All the knowledge points that were learnt in the YES!+ course had to be applied in real life in this situation... "Accept the situation as it is"... " Don't be a football of others opinions "... So after figuring out the learning and all the things that 'should have been done' and the things that 'should be done' in future, we moved on... Although it was not easy to move on... Because when everyone is at you, its very difficult to shun it away and move on... We played a very simple game, which made us realize that what ever we focus on, is exactly what we see! At this point of time this knowledge was sooo very applicable and it simply struck everyone ! So, we decided to focus on getting people to the course!
There were only about 15 people registered for the next course till that point... Even they were not fully registered... So I asked the volunteers, how many people at the course were they looking at... They said... 25 - 30 people course seems a good target! I said... No matter what you all think... When you 4 people had left the ashram, we had thought that we want to see like a 100 people course... And when I left the ashram I had just this thought that there would be 100+ people on the course ! I know that the situation is such, where realistically there is no chance of getting anywhere close to the number... We talk about miracles... Here is a chance to experience a miracle ! Does anyone want to really test out weather these 'miracles' really work ? Does anyone want to join me ? I didn't know how this really came out of me... I remember, just before I said that, there was an atmosphere of dejection and helplessness... No one could not even dream that a target like 100 was possible... I don't know how I said what I said... Those words changed something... The volunteers who were in the face saving mode... Turned around and were now getting in a situation of telling people to join the course...From not even imagining, everyone over there started believing that it was possible ! From no faith... Everyone started having faith... 10 of the 13 volunteers joined in... The 10 people started believing that it would happen with 100 people! One thing I learnt from this was that, when your own belief is strong, people just join you!
And then the question came... HOW do go about it ? Several ideas came up... Actually at this point 'Anjana' came up with this thought... 100 people doesn't mean that 100 new people should come to the course! There can be people who have already done the course ! Here you go... We had already started getting somewhere... We planned 2 introductory talks at the campus lawns before the course ( one that evening and one next afternoon )... I don't know how and from where... But people just came joined... Finally at the course... there were about 80 people who experienced the first long sudarshan kriya ! I guess, the reason for having that number was... still having some doubt somewhere... but nevertheless it was a great experience for me and all the volunteers altogether !
The participants had a ball of a time! Infact the whole course ended with a cleanliness drive! Everyone in the course got together on the last day and cleaned the front area of the college from plastic bags! Thats the whole idea of the YES!+ course... To empower youth and channelize their energy in a constructive way...
