I was recently on a travel to Christeen Retreat Centre Kottayam on April 1 and April 2nd where I got a chance to participate in the National Seminar on Enlightened leadership for greater India Movement organized by Dharma Rajya Vedi a peace building organization from Alappuzha Kerala.
The training made a greater impact to realize on the
societal forefront and also helped me to understand the present reality of peace
building of today.
My learning from the two-day seminar were,
1.
TYA GAR CHANA, the only spiritual weapon to
fight against the selfishness, pride and consumerism of today’s world.
2.
TYA GAR CHANA, aims to revive divine blessing
and we shouldn’t be masters of creation but we need to stewards of creation.
3.
On understanding the Interreligious vision of
the greater India movement, I realized that ideology without a vision is like a
journey without a destination.
4.
Ethical Citizenship is the need of the hour,
where youth need proper education and awareness and considering the importance
of environmental and cultural preservation, there is urgency to address to the
young on the importance.
5.
We had a session of Panchayati Democracy where
the relevance on understanding How can peace be developed in the Panchayat Level
can be improvised.
Observed the tagline on leadership at the
grass root level, where a true leader has to be a true follower.
6.
Got to know the Fellow Organizations working
closely on Peace Building,
i. LIPI-
Kochi- Loyola Institute of Peace and International Relations.
ii. DBM-
Mumbai- Dharma Bharati Mission- Mumbai
iii. Assisi
Institute of Peace Studies- Kannur- Kerala
iv. Manipur
Peace Movement- Manipur.
7.
We had a session on the Ministry of Enlightened
Leadership by Acharya Sachinanda Bharati the Founder of the Movement, where I learnt
on
i. 5
Principles of Enlightened Leadership, which is Focus and Progress, Trust and
Entrust, Grow and Help Grow, Risk and Rise, Respond and Report.
ii. Working
on SMART Goals and aim to achieve Creative Fidelity and Not repetitive loyalty.
8.
We had a session on Naturopathy and How your
body can be in tune to support your mind and in turn we build peace, If the inner
self is not in Peace, then working towards peace in the world is a difficult task.
Had a clarity on the Dead Food which we consume daily and the impact it makes
to the body leading the health crisis.
9.
My last of the sessions which I felt made a
great amount of importance was on the Enlightened Leadership by Dr Jill Carr
Harris, a Gandhian, and a Peace Activist. The stresses made were on
i. Violence
is become more violent today.
ii. We
worked on an Indian Renaissance and thus Freedom Came to us at few costs to
life, but today we are still in the search of the hunt for even look at freedom.
iii. It
is always essential to have a scholarly understanding of the subject of Peace
and not go by Peace Value.
iv. We
are in the era where Youth need to take Value Based Action as they do not have
an appetite for Social Change.
v. The
reality amidst the masses is the Tearing down of the Ideology of Gandhi and how
can youth be attracted to the practise of non-violence, the only way Is to
identify and make them realise on
a.
Transformational Leadership
b.
Charismatic leadership- Using the example of max
faber where follower identifies himself with the leader.
c.
Distributed and Shared Leadership, where
followers and leaders to have a relationship.
d.
Swaraj- Autonomy, by giving them recognition and
power.
vi. A
Distinct Gandhi who worked in meeting every individual whereas the rest were
working towards to community building, it takes time but it builds greater non-violent
leadership.
vii. Understanding
Shared Leadership Where Young needs to be given they role to respond to
situations and giving them space means they can contribute and make the world
where more realistic and the environment at large is more spiritualistic where
the concept of Eco-Spirituality is born.
viii.
On the whole today’s Youth have freedom of
CHOICE but what is the ultimate ask in understanding Gandhi and the Spirituality
is we need to work to give them freedom from Exploitation.
Since this is a organization which works towards building
Peace, there was a concept of Unity Forum where members who participated where
invited to join and that the forum decided to make a president by requesting PV
Rajagopal a Gandhi Peace Activist who was a also a participant who will lead
this forum towards working in the communities in building peace and working
towards communal harmony.
It was refreshing to be part of this seminar as I made new
friendships and also introduced my dream project humanity for letters , which I
did in the sharing the participants introduction and I shared that one pen one
postcard can bring a lot of unity and change and peace in the area we live in
which was welcomed by all.
Joseph Kamal Francis
Participants of the National Seminar
Dr Jill Carr Harris during her session on Enlightened Leadership
