Spiritual Retreat for Students of Seth M. R. Jaipuria School, Lucknow

A spiritual retreat was held by Seth M. R. Jaipuria School, Lucknow, for its students of classes 6 to 9 and some of its teachers, where SAFIER took sessions on the topics “Are We Indians?”, “India of Our Dreams”, “Science & Spirituality” and an Open House for Q & A. Shivakumar, Director, SAFIER, took the sessions. About 100 participants were there for each session.

Due to the restrictions imposed by the Covid-19 Corona virus situation, this year, it has to be held online! But what made up for it was the enthusiasm shown by the students who kept interacting during the sessions regularly. During the session on “Are We Indians”, Shivakumar raised a pertinent question that beyond the legal requirements, what should make us feel as Indians. He brought out the origin of the words India and Bharat and went deeper into the aspiration, the seeking after perfection and mastery of ourselves as the distinct characteristic of Indians.

During the session “India of Our Dreams”, he asked the students to come up with ideas of their Dream India. And then he sprang a surprise by asking them that if this Dream India has to happen, what are the learning subjects that they need to include in the present day education!

Full video recordings of the interactions during Day 1 are available here:

Day 1 Session 1:

Day 1 Session 2:

The second day was an exploration into the materialistic sciences and their characteristics. This was seen in the light of spiritual science and how this science completes the quest of materialistic sciences. It was heartening to see the students’ response and their enthusiasm during this session. The session also saw the convergence of these two in the lives of two of the greatest scientists from India in the modern times: Srinivasa Ramanujan and Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose.