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His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's message for the people who are celebrating their Silver Jubilee in New Zealand
In early 1998, David Longnecker from Colorado, USA came to Newzealand for a holiday. He had met two Kiwis while mountaineering in Colorado & one of these people had a friend in Gisborne who organized the first course in Gisborne in March 1998 there were 8 people.
After the course the people felt that words just jumped out of their mouth inviting the teacher to come back to Gisborne to teach another course, he kindly agreed & they started writing to everyone about the course, both in NZ & overseas.
David came back in Aug 98 & taught more courses in Gisborne & Auckland. He was an excellent teacher. The 1st course participants enrolled all their friends, family & acquaintances, workmates for the course. Every time it was a new experience, the knowledge ever fresh & letting everyone to go deeper & becoming more aware. They felt the course was very unique & all had different personal experiences. No matter what people came for, it seemed they received what they wished for & much more! After that regular follow up of Yoga & Kriya was conducted. Sri Sri sent Chayapathi from Bangalore, one of His best Advanced course teachers for the first Advanced course in NZ. Chayapathi used to be an associate professor of Physics before teaching AOL full-time. He would refer to Sri Sri as “Master” & one would think if this is the student, what is the Master like!!
It goes without saying, that the first advanced course in Gisborne, NZ was a roaring success in spite of the silence! Chayapathi was given 20 people who had no clue about satsang & were so shy in singing & by the end of the course all were dancing & singing from bottom of their hearts!
One of the most amazing things was that before the course started NZ was having one of the worst possible droughts in Gisborne, "one in hundred years" type! Well, that turned up unnecessary, as Chayapathiji started the Advanced course, NZ had the strongest storm coming out of no where. The drought was broken & water tank filled & thirsty ground quenched. Chayapathi came back to Gisborne in April 99 for second Adv course. He also taught more basic courses in Gisborne, Auckland & Christchurch.
Art of living courses are conducted regularly throughout NZ, same with Regular Kriya follow ups & satsangs in main centres. Regular Advanced courses are happening in NZ since 98 with different Teachers from India, Chayapathi Ji, Dr. Vasanthi Narayanan (affectionately known as Divine mother in NZ), Dinesh Ghodke & Raghu Raj Raja (Swami Sadyojataha) & the ever graceful Iti Samal. Sri Sri also sent one of His best DSN course Teachers, Ravindra Prasad, who taught the first DSN courses in NZ in Auckland & Wellington in 2002 & passed the precious knowledge with so much love, fun & humour, followed by Bawa in 2004 & Manisha Mehta in 2005. Then there was Art Excel courses with Nandini Sen from India and Gytri Sethi & Mandar Joshi from Australia.
A big Team from NZ took part in AOL Silver Jubilee celebrations in Bangalore, India. Our Team is made up from people from all walks of life & different age groups & different religions & professions & even different nationalities. At AOL we indeed celebrate our diversity.
In Sep & Oct 2003 two pilot courses in Wellington Mt Crawford Prison for men & in Christchurch Templeton Prison for women was done. Prison managers & representatives from Department of Corrections in both cities were impressed with inmates’ feedback at the last day of these courses. Since then courses are being done in these prisons & also in Wellington Arohata Prison for women & at Rolleston Men’s Prison & Christchurch Men’s Prison. Till date more than 100 prisoners in NZ have benefited from AOL courses, with more courses in the pipeline.
Apart from regular prison courses, many seva projects were held during the years. Some of these are:
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BWS course to Alcoholics by G. Menon in Nelson.
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BWS to intellectually handicapped by Gail MacKenzie in Wellington.
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BWS courses to women in Pacific Heights Refuge centre In Auckland by Zoe Scanlan & Oksana Illich & in Christchurch by Zoe Scanlan to a women refuge centre there & BWS course with Hepatitis C Support Group by Saga Gibbs in Christchurch.
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Regular BWS courses to Women & teenage mothers At Pasific Heights Refuge Centre by Frances Sherrard.
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Free AOL course to women in Pacific Heights Refuge centre in Auckland by Simin Williams.
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Tree planting by members of Wellington AOL group.
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Spending time with long-term patients at an Auckland hospital and performing a jovial show for them.
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Group donation to AOL Tsunami project by all NZ delegates to postponed Women’s conference in Feb 05.
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Fundraising for Tsunami Children education fund in which many AOL members from all over NZ, Australia & Fiji donated funds & for which many fundraising activities were organized & raised $10,000 in total. Fundraising activities included a film night organized by Erika Light for which AOL members in Auckland sold 400 tickets, film viewing at members homes, a yacht trip in Auckland which our teacher Frances took 11 people for a weekend trip & which raised $1650 on its own & our Melbourne AOL family also organized some movie-going fundraising.
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Regular food collection for Wellington City Mission food bank by Wellington AOL family.
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Meditation for Cancer patients in Gisborne by Marcus Williams & also a Quit smoking Expo in Gisborne.
Sri Sri came to New Zealand in Auckland airport on April 10th, 04. It had been 11 months of focused work & planning by the AOL NZ centre since the announcement of His trip to Australia & NZ.
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By Divine's Grace all the public talks & Kriya sessions in all the cities were full to the Brim. All the AOL members in NZ had been contacted individually by Gail, Menon & Simin & had the opportunity to see Sri Sri in one of the four cities: Auckland, Wellington, Nelson or Gisborne. And they sure came from everywhere, from Wanaka ( bottom of South Island) to Kerikeri (top of the North Island), from Dunedin, Christchurch, Blenheim, Hamilton, New Plymouth, Tauranga, Hastings, Napier, Haumoana & Palmerston North. In Nelson, the Awesome trisome, Menon, Maureen & Avery, co-ordinated every aspect of the trip there. They had organized a Mayoral welcome for Sri Sri at the airport, had covered not only Nelson, but all the surrounding cities with Sri Sri's posters, contacted all local Medias & promoted His trip through Newspaper articles, radio & even local TV stations. Organized delicious food for everyone & the stage looked stunningly beautiful. And Felipa's immense support & practical help was noticeable everywhere. |
In every public talk, Sri Sri with so much love & fun enchanted the audiences. He answered all the questions & covered every topic raised, with simplicity & depth. In each Public talk, with so much love gave darshan to every individual in the talk, greeting them one by one.
In Wellington, Gail MacKenzie, with the help of her small but dedicated core of Volunteers organized every aspect of the trip there. Gail even got Sri Sri on National TV on April 13th on the Breakfast show, one of the two top live shows in NZ! He melted the lady who interviewed Him with so much love that she ran out of the studio to personally thank Him. Gail worked selflessly throughout the visit in Wellington behind the scene for everything to go smoothly. Like a mother, working tirelessly, never seeking limelight or recognition, working so ever gracefully.
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In Gisborne, the most beautiful interfaith Gathering was organized. Sri Sri was welcomed to church in Maori tradition & with most welcoming song "Hare Ma, Hare Ma". Sri Sri's talk was so ever beautiful & graceful & the church leaders of many dominations & representative from Bahai, Buddhist & Muslim & hindu traditions spoke with so much love & respect. The church was full of Aroha (love in Maori language) & mutual respect & understanding. Sri Sri's visit was publicised in the local Gisborne newspaper both before & after His trip.
And as if Sri Sri has not bestowed so much love on all already, in His last night in NZ, melted all the devotees present in Gisborne & also people from Kerikeri, Hawkes Bay, Auckland & Wellington with His love & sweetness. He cooked, He played the Piano & then like a child had fun. It was past midnight, but no one wanted to go to bed, savouring every precious moment with Him. |
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There are always, emails & mails & phone asking for His help or guidance. So many devotees asking Him for so many things, from small things to big things. His attention to details was amazing & how He always made sure everyone is comfortable.
Shirley & Dean from US, who doubled as Sri Sri's chief PAs, were just pure pleasure to have around, same as loving Shiva & Mona from India, who doubled as Sri Sri’s cook & helping in whatever was needed. Shripal from Hongkong who with his melodious voice & Tabla enthralled many at the public talks. Sara & Megan from Australia who with their Divine voices treated us to many beautiful songs, including their Peace song. Dinesh & Bawa & Shaj who with their hi-tech presentations kept everyone happy while waiting for Sri Sri. Eve & Karen from US who were a delight to have around & of course Huguette from Canada who is so delightful like a child & Shirish & Sujata devoted AOL teachers from India & Rahul & Tithi delightful charming couple from India. |