It’s been 100 years since Gandhi-ji founded Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad. Today there are several schools in this vicinity who have kept alive the spirit of Gandhian Values. This short film (by Harish and Jarna Devnani, and Madhu-bhai) takes us in a journey from Gandhi-ji, Parikshit-bhai, Vinoba-ji and Ishwar-Dada to share the values of prayers, kindness, importance of girls education and sanitation. ... read full story

Yesterday, a gang of 10 Surat volunteers to joined our local Prayer Circle in Baroda! What an incredible evening. There was so much love in the air. Honestly, it was like family coming together. And the beginning of a lot more emergence. On March 25th, a whole bunch of us from Baroda are planning to crash the Surat Karma Kitchen! ... read full story

Everything was perfect about Saturday; beautiful weather, lush green garden overlooking a tranquil lake (an odyssey in the desert), warmth of the host (Faye) and eight enthusiastic heart weavers! That morning,one of us had prayed for beauty to unfold and does the universe ever let down a sincere prayer? Inspired by the beautifully crafted heartpins, a few of us in  Dubai decided to give it a go. Sehr, the lucky 'seamstress' who had witnessed the process gave us the lead. She arra... read full story

The evening before the retreat, I was looking at an Excel sheet given to me by some ladders that had the flow of the retreat planned to the last minute. It had details of which volunteers will welcome the participants, which ones will take care of the thaalis, teeka, heart pins, diaries and pen. Which one will sit with the sound console, and which one for the podium. Two volunteers sat up till 2 am to finalize on the participant list and coordinating with last minute sign ups. Teachers, ... read full story

This Sunday, as part of clowning, a bunch of us went to spend some time with an organization who trains people with special abilities to make incense sticks. It was a completely new experience in terms of “design” as this was our first encounter with people who cannot move. There was a mixed feeling of openness, resistance, awkwardness in the air so we started with a circle of sharing. The people from the organization insisted on sharing about the city as they were new to this pla... read full story

[Originally Posted by Kavita Rajavanshi]Last month, me and my husband, Rakesh, were visiting our son Pratyush in Ahmadabad. Every visit to Ahmadabad is filled with lots of stories of love but something extra special happened this time. It was Rakesh's, birthday. Some of his batchmates from BITS Pilani, who are now staying in Ahmadabad, gathered to make this a wonderfully memorable day for us. It is a totally no fuss group. We all met at Gandhi Ashram. Prat... read full story

“Compassion isn’t about solutions. It’s about giving all the love you have got.” Recently I was at a cancer home where kids and parents live together. Every day these families fight the struggle against cancer, together.  I feel blessed that I get some time with these kids living with cancer each week, and we find joys in those little hours.  Last week  we did a heart circle where the kids got an opportunity to just be the way they are. They were to... read full story

(this is a transcript of Zilong Wang’s talk on 13th January’18, as part of the one-day Youth Retreat in Surat)  Zilong: I feel so blessed this morning going around in the circle - hearing the question what breaks your heart and what gives you hope - if you are like every time I hurt,  it is a crack opened up within you, so that the hope can come in. There is a song called 'There's a crack in everything and that's how the light comes in.'  S... read full story

This year, I felt quite fortunate to get another opportunity to volunteer at Gandhi 3.0 retreat. What did I learn this year? When I sit and think about it, below are some reflections that stand out. The stories that spoke about human connection touched me very deeply. I try and practice to build connections (beyond transactions) with people in my day to day life. I draw a lot of value from the MBL community when it comes to having connections with people, I felt that this retreat in many ways... read full story

Basking in the energy from Gandhi 3.0 behind at Sughad, we just concluded a 3 day "Restorative Justice" retreat. It featured a wide-range of NGO founders, researchers, policy makers, lawyers and state advisors! What began as a gathering with room full of people behind their designations, degrees and organizations ended as a room full of people who called each other their family! The moment people stepped into Sughad, they were moved by the place, by Jayesh Bhai’s talk on da... read full story

I finally got the opportunity to visit a residential and daycare center for the differently abled children and what a blessing it was to spend the morning with them. Getting permission to make the visit was an answer to a prayer, hence, I wanted no stone unturned to make it the best experience. It called for quite many late nights of designing cards and writing messages. However, the heart’s desire was the heart pins from Wisdom Crafts. So, I poured my grievance (in an email) to the gre... read full story

Hot off the press ... :) ... read full story

"Auroville will be the place of an unending education, of constant progress, and a youth that never ages." - Auroville Charter "For in this ideal place money would no longer be the sovereign lord; individual worth would have a far greater importance than that of material wealth and social standing. There, work would not be a way to earn one’s living but a way to express oneself and to develop one’s capacities and possibilities while being of service to the community... read full story

What does  it take for a tree to bear Fruits? Sun, air, water, fertile land, microbial activity below the earth, etc..and to top it all, a deep connection and harmony underlying the whole ecology :) What looks like a very typical process of flowering and fruiting on trees in nature by itself has the entire universe working in harmony behind it. 47 of us gathered in Sughad in Ahmedabad on a chilly winter morning with a very clear sky for a 3-day MBL laddership retreat. In fact, muc... read full story

When God or whoever created human beings, s/he smartly placed the stomach in the body. And since then, the small, little stomach has made human beings toil hard, from hunting to sowing, and from educating to earning. A significant portion of what we earn, goes to pay for our food bills. Every human being has found a way, to pay. Now, imagine going to a restaurant. There is fragrance in the air and flowers on the table. The menu is there, but the prices on the right are conspicuous by their abs... read full story

[Originally Posted by Aban Mukherji]Yesterday I gave myself a treat. I had not been in a bus for a long time so I decided to take the 37 Bus to Nehru Centre where I thought a lecture on Tagore was to be held. I left early and hopped onto a relatively empty bus. It was fun to be with people in an airy vehicle, instead of a stuffy taxi, even if air-conditioned.  I soaked in all the sights and sounds around me. I waved to the Haji Ali Dargah shimmering in the afternoon sunlight. The sea was ca... read full story

On 7th November, 14 yatris (pilgrims) started on a sacred pilgrimage, walking the same path that Gandhi ji and many Satyagrahis had walked from Sabarmati Ashram to the coastal town of Dandi during Dandi Yatra in 1930. The pilgrimage started with many of us coming together in the prayer space at Gandhi Ashram, walled on 4 sides and open to the sky. While not everyone was walking, everyone felt deeply connected with the journey that was about to start.   Pratyush, one of the 14 yatris,... read full story

“A warm smile is the universal language of kindness. I enjoy it when the world smiles, the more smiles there are, the warmer I am.” As 25 of us gathered together on a pleasant Friday morning around the Peace Pole at ESI, we felt held by the beautiful vibes of peace and love that enveloped all of us. After sharing a collective and individual intention for world peace, we walked towards the welcoming Maitri Space to be warmly greeted with a tika and hand-made name tags. Once we... read full story

There is no better teacher than Nature.  We just wrapped up our second round of Mbl Laddership circle where 13 of us came together for creating a space of deep inquiry, holding space for each other and aligning ourselves to Emergence without any preconceived idea or achievement in mind. The space of deep inquiry is the space of not knowing, which is a space of creativity and innovations. The process was many-to-many learning, and people did connect deeply to support each other in vis... read full story

I met Radha didi on one of my field visits. She must have been in her late sixties and she was very beautiful. She was in one of those brothels where you find young girls only and when we first entered that brothel we were not welcomed so I tried to initiate talks from my side but nothing was working, I tried all my conversational tricks but the didis were running away from us like we were the ones who would bring the wrath of God on them if they talked to us, but we did not go away, I held my b... read full story