My Experience With Surat Awakin Circles

Posted by Bhavya Shah on Jul 31, 2020

Before writing my experience about the Awakin Circles, I would like to narrate a story about it how it all started.



About 5 years ago, My parents had gone to Nipun Mehta Uncle’s talk arranged at one of our friends place where in they discussed about starting the Awakin Circles at Surat. At that moment without giving it another thought about how would it be happening or thinking of the feasibility or possibility of hosting at our house since Mom use to go out for her “Vipassana Meditation Shibirs” frequently at that time, my dad instantly said, we will be hosting in our place every Wednesday and the rest is history...Since then not one Wednesday which eventually shifted to Thursdays has been missed till today!

Back then when the Awakin Circles had started, we 3 sisters were just teenagers and any teenager in this era would resist the idea of this circles honestly after hearing it but because our home was the host place, we internally felt it was our innate duty to sit in these circles which later became such an integral part of our lifestyle and well-being. Through the Awakin Circles, an internal pause came to the routine mundane lifestyle, a time to start introspecting my life and the way I was living. The true meaning of life was starting to unfold through sitting in Awakin Circles. My thoughts became much clearer and I started looking at life differently with a new enthusiasm and happiness within. Magically most of the time, the passage for the week was the exact same notion I was struggling with at that point of time and it automatically gave me new horizons to look at the problem and ways to deal.

These Awakin Circles also started churning my mind about the real and true meanings of life and the relationships and the way we behaved most of the times. We started holding the deep questions which forced us to look at the world from a different point of view with a lot more love, generosity, humility and gratitude which were we wouldn’t have given a thought to in this “mad race". Concomitantly these values and ideologies were being ingrained to our thoughts and our thinking style which I felt helped us a lot in dealing with friends, relationships, or the way of looking at life.

One more benefit which was reaped from sitting in Awakin Circles was I started meditating and reflecting what I did the whole week. I started staying with myself without any gadgets and without any activity, just observing my thoughts and my body sensations. I started being aware of my behaviour, my reactions, my shortcomings and started practicing mindfulness and being present to what I was doing through which I could complete the tasks more effectively and efficiently. It also taught me to pause and understand the real way of listening with full devotion and understand the others world as well instead of just speaking what we wish to speak which is such a difficult task and have miles to go before I get the real listening skill.. My relationships also started improving with family members as well as friends and acquaintances.

Speaking of my experience as a host, It was a celebration or festival every Thursday. It felt like a family get-together with all the fun and frolic. A weekly retreat to take a break from the mundane routine and gain the energy back again for the next week. I felt more connected and pious with the Awakin Family and not to mention the dinner feasts each and every time!

To sum it up in simple words, it has been a blessing to be a part of this Awakin Circles and will always stay as an integral part of my life. :) :)

Posted by Bhavya Shah on Jul 31, 2020 | permalink


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