Love Is The Answer :)

Posted by Suratvanti Ashwin on Jul 17, 2018

[We just ended another 3 day Head Hand Heart retreat in Ahmedabad. And each time I've volunteered, I've come back more grounded. Sharing this beautiful recap of the three days that Linki so lovingly helped to put together, which we all had the opportunity to experience first hand.]


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"A dream you dream alone is only a dream. A dream you dream together is reality." -Yoko Ono

On a beautiful cloudy morning in ESI, Sughad, around 38 of us gathered from different corners of the country, in the garden area near the peace pole.

Each one just soaking in the wonderful vibes of the place.
Kishan opened the circle with a warm smile and a brief introduction of ESI, of the peace pole and its context of “May peace prevail on Earth”! From there, we moved to our first of many, beautiful silent walks around the campus of ESI.
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Day 1, Head Day
Our opening anchors led us through some zen koans, anecdotes and personal stories of the inherent nature of generosity that flows through Grace - if we just gave it a little more time and looked at it with a little more patience :)

"What experiences in your life, take you into the memory lanes of generosity and that have transformed a small part of you. How have you kept that inspiration flowing forward as you walk your journey with the wisdom of that experience?"

This opening question brought into the circle many interesting stories on experiences from consumption to contribution, from generosity to abundance, to oneness to community and to the most common answer in this all - Love :)

Anchalanshri shared how she continued the practice of her childhood of celebrating her brother's birthday who was away from home, by feeding dogs with bread and milk and Krishna (Chris) shared how generosity is in our genes. Mother nature gives without expectations. A mother risks her life to give birth to her child, and stands by the child all his life without any expectations. That is generosity we experience all our lives. They build roads for others to walk.

Tanvi shared about her experience of serving water and food to people standing in long while Sangita shared beautiful stories of her father keeping the door to their chikoo orchard open for everyone, always and to “give till it hurts”.
Gauri Ji shared that her whole life has been an experience on 'Karma no siddhant' and Aadya's touching words about her grandfather "We knew he always served, but at his funeral, we came to know, on what scale!" moved all. Uzma’s story of chocolates and receiving hand-written notecards, Neeraj’s moment of transformation with an elderly’s generous “how can I help” question, Geetika’s moment of feeling home, Hrishabh’s ‘bhoukal’ past and how he transformed into a journey of service. While Fauzia’s nostalgic experience held us all in compassion, Shikha ji’s simple learnings from her children up-lifted our spirits in gratitude. These and many many stories of love, care and generosity emerged from our opening circle. By the end of it, we knew, Grace is all around us.

With our heads overwhelmed, our hearts were then smitten by Anar didi’s beautiful sharing. She talked about the beauty of listening. And how if one is busy judging, you miss a chance to truly love them.

Following this, we rushed towards our beloved Nandini (our bus) which took us to first Safai Vidyalaya and then Seva Cafe. Consuming a heart-full meal in the oasis of Seva Cafe, and its rich lineage of experiences, we dived into three incredibly humbling stories from Akansha, Jetsi Bhai and Sangita and the lessons they learnt early on in their lives. We were totally charmed by Krunal’s satiristic anchoring and Suratvanti’s grounding presence as anchors who held space for inspiration. Truly - it was an evening of inspiration and light!

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Day 2, Hands Day

We began our day doing Shram-dan, some of us chopping vegetables, some cleaning the campus and some meditating. Early in the morning, Devendrabhai took us into his journey of experiences with Ishwardada and his beautiful stories of internal and external sanitation. He also talked about couple of heart-wrenching stories, and yet inspiring us enough to get up, roll our sleeves and start serving wherever we are :)

Earlier in the day, we were divided in 5 groups, - gardening, rag picking, streets cleaning, broom making & campus cleaning. Not many times in our lives do we get to be involved in these processes first hand. It was indeed a lovely experience where everyone used their hands to create something beautiful. The smiles and sweat were proof enough to know that the inner churning was continuing.
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Post lunch Madhu led us into a popcorn sharing wherein a few participants shared their experiences of using hands to feel the depths of transformation happening within themselves. Further we were divided into six groups for the heart circle, to share from the heart without any interruptions, judgements, feedback - and purely in the spirit of deep listening.


Followed by the heart circles, we spent half an hour with ourselves in silence, in observance of ourselves. All the participants got a deeper experience of an Awakin circle that was led by Jay, Linkee and Zeal. We sat in silence for 45 minutes, followed by an hour of circle of sharing and a meal in silence. The evening could not have been better under the open skies, candles and beautiful rangoli adorning our open dining hall, welcoming us to experience the tenderness we all held in our hearts. The evening ended with garba and Rajasthani dance where we danced with our feet but our hearts felt the joy.

Day 3, Heart Day
With two days into the retreat, the body doesn't even realize the changes the heart has gone through..
Heart feels safe, safe enough to be little free if not completely!
Day 3 started with Shram dan, a few chopping vegetables, a few cleaning the campus and a few meditating. This morning, in the Prabhat Pheri we realised how the anganwadi sisters add a feather to the Prabhat Pheri with their warm smiles and chirpy presence, and without them - something was totally missing.

Suratvanti led us into a multilingual introduction of Jayesh Bhai - that totally reflected the love in her heart as we all rounded up in Hriday Kunj into Jayesh bhai’s deep and profound insights that silenced our minds and opened our hearts.

Once we all sinked in the peace of its words, Jayesh bhai offered us his stories of simple transformations, about his journey of shifting from the foreign land to India. About his first time cleaning a public toilet and the way people treated him even when he was just trying to bring in a change which was better for the society. It gave us an idea of the magnitude of how selfless serving and serving in the field of sanitation looks like.

This experience was a perfect nudge into the depths 3 steps and bow. Some of us sweating, some wondering, some observing but all determined to cleanse and move forward. Towards the end of the circle Anchal almost felt like she had a conversation with a cat.

With that, we ended the 3 day retreat or like they said, we initiated our individual retreats and a new beginning into the next step of Head, Hands and Hearts.
These and a lot more heart-warming stories emerged from the collective co-creation - only to realize that by the end of three days, a group of strangers are going to be family.

Jayesh bhai beautifully summed up the confluence “Samanta se Bikharna”. “May you spread like the drops of ocean, that has one source, but the capacity of many directions that it can ripple out into”.



Here are some more photos that is guaranteed to bring many more smiles :)

Posted by Suratvanti Ashwin on Jul 17, 2018 | permalink


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Previous Comments
  • VIdhi wrote ...

    So beautiful to capture it this way...Thank you linke😘

  • Vaishali Bhayani Shah wrote ...

    Love very well captured in a story:-)

  • Neeraj wrote ...

    I see you guys just don't want me to get over this retreat! :-) Thanks for putting this together.

  • Suhani wrote ...

    So I wrote this poem on Day 2 of the retreat. Would like to share the same with you- Stories, कहानियां बचपन से सुनते आ रहे है, आज भी सुनते है, कभी TV पर, कभी दोस्तो के साथ, कभी यॠ See full.

    So I wrote this poem on Day 2 of the retreat. Would like to share the same with you-

    Stories, कहानियां

    बचपन से सुनते आ रहे है,
    आज भी सुनते है,
    कभी TV पर, कभी दोस्तो के साथ, कभी यूँही खुदसे बात करते करते,
    कभी कभी रुला देती है ये कहानियां,
    और कभी कुछ इस तरह छू जाती है जिसे शब्दो मे बयान नही किया जा सकता,
    और फिर कुछ ऐसी भी होती है, जो ज़िन्दगी भर के लिए दिल और दिमाग मे रह जाती है,
    पर सबसे खास बात ये होती है इन कहानियों की,
    कि ये वो ही बोलती है जो आप सुनना चाहते है,
    कहते है अगर किसी चीज़ को पूरी शिद्दत से चाहो तो पूरी कायनात तुम्हे उससे मिलाने की कोशिश करती है,
    बस ऐसी ही होती है ये कहानियां
    कुछ परेशान सी आयी थी मैं,
    शायद चाहिए थी थोड़ी सी उम्मीद,
    थोड़ा सा सुकून,
    थोड़ा सा हौसला,
    और बहुत सारी कहानियां
    जवाब तो अभी भी नही मिले सारे,
    पर वो तो शायद चाहिए भी नही
    समय से पहले और किस्मत से ज्यादा भला कभी मिला है किसीको,
    एक साल बाद फिरसे लिख रही हु कुछ, शायद यही ले जा रही हूं,
    और हां इतनी सारी कहानियां
    और थोड़ी सहजता, खुद के प्रति और प्रकृति के लिए भी,
    और इन्हीं कहानियों के बीच, बचपन की एक और बात फिरसे याद आ गयी,
    एक बात जो माँ हमेशा कहती है
    और मेरी हर किताब की शुरुआत में लिख दिया करती है- "सादा जीवन, उच्च विचार"

    सुहानी
    7 जुलाई 2018

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  • Priyanka wrote ...

    Wow Suratvanti...just awesome..so beautifully captured.. almost all the moments...

  • shivani wrote ...

    wow suratvanti thanks for blog
    remembering u all diken,kishanji,pankaj,Devesh.
    saari yaaden taaza ho gayi last year retreat ki.

  • purvi wrote ...

    Another wonderful retreat where each one dives deeper in their journey and grace start to follow. Thank you all volunteers and participants to co-create this experience...!!

  • Jetasibhai Gramshilpi Bhatvada wrote ...

    रीट्रीट अच्छे दोस्त मिले। जीवन में बनी घटनाओं की स्टोरी सुनकर आँखें गीली हो जाती थी। दिल छु à¤—à  See full.

    रीट्रीट अच्छे दोस्त मिले। जीवन में बनी घटनाओं की स्टोरी सुनकर आँखें गीली हो जाती थी। दिल छु गई सारी बातें।
    अच्छे काम करने की एनर्जी मीली।
    एक कविता भी लीखी।
    पढ़े

    *** मीठी मीठी मुस्कान ***

    चांद के संग संग तारे भी गाते हैं।
    दिल को छू लेने की बातें बताते हैं॥

    घोसले से बच्चों ने देखा ये नज़ारा।
    नींद नहीं आती हमें, प्यार दिखाते हैं॥

    रास्ते सुमशाम पडे कोई नहीं आता हैं।
    खुद से करते बातें, हमें समझाते हैं॥

    पागल है सारा जहां कहते है लोग यहां।
    खुद को छोड़कर भागे भागे जाते हैं॥

    मुरझाये फूल जैसा चहेरा किसी का देखो ।
    मीठी मीठी मुस्कान से नज़रें मिलाते हैं॥

    - जेतसीभाई ग्रामशिल्पी
    ( रीट्रीट के समय में लिखी गयी कविता )
    दिनांक: ७/७/२०१८

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  • RAHUL TIWARI wrote ...

    Beatiful moment my life nd do inspiring every parson reatreat are so love nd emotional.....am so happy joing the reatreat nd beautiful person my life nd story thanku so much reatreat....💕