Our First Awakin Talks Guest Is Confirmed!

After our call yesterday, we sent out an email to one of our first guest speaker invites for Awakin Talks in Baroda -- Aviram, the founder of the incredible Sadhana Forest.

Here was part of the invite ...

We are organizing Awakin Talks in Vadodara, Gujarat on 15th December 2019. It would be an honour to have you speak and share your life story this year.

We hosted the first Awakin Talks in 2014 in Mumbai, since then every year several remarkable speakers spoke about how their inner transformation led them to a life of service. It was an inspiring and moving experience. We have had speakers like Lobsang Phuntsok and Sushma Iyengar, Uncle Niketu and Chaitanya Bhai alongside ServiceSpace visionaries like Nipun Mehta and Jayesh Patel in the past.

Two simple ideas lie behind Awakin Talks. First, intrinsically motivated service creates very different pathways to social change than merely pursuing external impact alone. And second, by simply holding space to share and listen to such stories, we unlock a profound new possibility in society. We start to Awakin -- awaken with kin. Vinoba Bhave used to say, "What rises up like a fountain, will return in the form of many distributed drops." We feel that, in this era, social change will manifest via many small and de-centralized efforts and our hope with this event is to presence those droplets of inspiration -- so everyone is moved to shine their corner of the world with great love.

And he confirmed with this sweet response that included ...

I just watched Jayesh Bhai's talk and am so inspired. I also cleaned the toilets in Sadhana Forest daily for a few years and learned to do it with love and joy, so I could resonate with him and with his father.

I am deeply honored and happy to participate in Awakin Talks. Warmly, Aviram