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MI TIN RESTAURANTgg CALL 24101 FOR DEAR DEE HOME DELIVERY Sept 11-17,2002 a NOW! supplement TIBET ROAD, GANGTOK ON pg (ii) The Brahma Kumaris appear to have peace with their self in this conflict-ridden world. A NOW! Thoughts for feature delves deeper into their OM SHANTI worldview... the Day s. Mani Kumar Pradhan, former Additional Secretary, SNT, has al Mways been a religious person. First -by Brahma Kumaris as a student of PNG’s, she sought refuge in Jesus. Then later as a teacher in the same The Call school “she left Jesus for Sai Baba,” she says. Soon Sai Baba was joined by many other The fool wants others to deities, each fighting for space in her puja see him: room. But peace of mind eluded her. Then one day in the year 1999, a friend the wise man smiles in the brought her to the Brahma Kumari Centre at of the Brahma Development Area. audience “When I came here I realized that I had finally found the place I had been searching for all my life,” she says. To understand something Today, three years later she is a bonafide Brahma Kumari and the centre and its spir- you need Knowledge, but itual teachings are an integral part of her life. Kumari “I concluded that I was in search of God, to Feel it, you need experi- I met him here-I’m at peace,” she adds. ence The Brahma Kumari always greet each other with Om Shanti, a plea for peace. Started as a family gathering in 1936, it became a family Institution in 1937 for edu- It is the hour of trial that cation in moral values, worldview and medi- tation with its headquarters at Mt Abu. makes men great, not the This spiritual organization is headed and hour of triumph run by women who have become the medium to dispel darkness from the minds of people and show the way for attaining peace and happiness in the world. But women are not We explore the stars and its sole constituency. The teachings of the Brahma Kumaris are universal and appeal to the depths of the sea, but many men. how much do we know “The world has become very complex, everyone is looking for peace. So we come about ourselves and the for peace,” says RB Pegha, extra Educator, Health Department. reason for being here? He adds, “I had so many mental distur- bances and family tensions. I feel very re- laxed after coming here. I have no problems Sometimes in life, we wear now. My whole family has joined. It has made a big difference to our lives.” so many masks that it The Gangtok centre was started by its current head, “Shejala didi” as she is called becomes difficult to see by all. She says, “ I came for a visit in 1990, your true self. we started in someone’s family, initially we had around 25 members. Soon more joined as they heard about the benefits.” Today the centre is housed in a fairly big The one who knows how to compound in Development Area with hun- dreds of regular members. adjust is the one who The centre also organizes programmes in knows how to survive. schools and offices on how to inculcate mo- rality and develop IQ. The daily routine at the centre is filled with meditation, yoga and positive thinking classes, along with Rajyoga Relationships based on meditation, which is believed to bring about spiritual transformation. Says Mrs. Sharda, a falsehood are like houses senior teacher at PNGS: “I joined in 1995, I with their foundations in was searching for a true God. I found the Su- FUNDAMENTAL SPIRITUAL TEACHINGS preme Soul- Shiva here. Wherever I medita- mud. tion I become body less, I experience a light * There is only one God who is Incorporeal and in front of me and that is Shiva.” Eternal. Whatever may be the individual experi- The one who can adjust ence, whatever the skeptics may say, the fact * God is the incorporeal mother-father of all is that for hundreds of men and women the with humility possesses Brahma Kumaris offer solace and hope in a souls. This awareness of relationship with and world ridden by despair and conflict. much greatness. The Brahma Kumaris seek to heal indi- love for God is call Yoga. vidual and societal trauma by offering under- * We should try to inculcate in ourselves divine quali- standing of the self and the world. They teach Everybody is attracted by a practical method of meditation, which ena- ties such as humility, tolerance, patience etc. bles individuals to achieve peace of mind, beauty and quality. It is a develop their potential and interact with oth- * We must prepare ourselves for the forthcom- ers in a constructive and fulfilling way. ing golden age and thus completely divinise rare quality to help the ugly Ms. Mani Pradhan says, “This is the ulti- and unqualified. mate destination-there is no need to go any- ourselves. where else.” WOMENii September 11-17, 2002 NOW Dynamics of Motherhood otherhood is in all terms SHIKHA TIWARI on the ‘politics’ surrounding a the most respected and Midealized stage in a wom- woman’s biggest job - motherhood an’s life, especially with respect to the Indian socio-cultural system. Though it is not so difficult to visu- DEAR DEE alize and understand the dynamics involved in it, but more often than o Mr. Couch Potato has moved out? Good. Let him go in not it is chosen to compartmentalize Sdulge his couch potato whims someplace else. You deserve and ideologically authenticate the better and you know that. Till then enjoy being the ruler of your mother’s role. Like in the domain, the queen of the remote control! Spensarian literature, women were Everything is fine here except K who has been acting strange supposed to be placed on a pedes- of late. All week he’s giving me chocolates called ‘Old Jamaica’ tal and worshipped. For that’s the – I wonder if he’s trying to tell me something? Then he gives most non-threatening position for me a book “Who moved my cheese?” On the face of it, it is a men. The very idea of viewing one’s simple story about four characters who live in a maze and look beloved in the role of a goddess, is for cheese to nourish them and make them happy. Cheese is a almost like putting a free bird in a modifiable id, however much the count the culturally reproduced as metaphor for what we want in life and the maze is where we golden jail and making the bird feel ego and the superego might try and well as the biological difference look for what we want. All that is fine but I can’t understand why that this is the best thing which can control it. There is therefore a sex between man and woman, and does K keeps telling me to move with the cheese, or move the cheese happen to her. Somehow it is the system, and a set of interlocking not fail to give due consideration to or not to ask why my cheese moved, etc. I don’t know what’s best way to ensure that the bird can’t drives and checks that have a pow- the psychic and emotional relation- with him but its irritating me now. I’m beginning to think we fly. But there is a whole lot of poli- erful impact on the individual’s ships that arise from this. The older have a problem here. On my way back home, waiting at the tics involved in this entire structure. emotions. The gender system, su- term ‘man-woman relationship’ shared taxi stand I quickly did Cosmo’s “Is getting guys and It is not only patriarchy or a power perimposed over the sex system, which preceded the current term cutting them loose your favourite sport?” quiz and to my sur- structure but also a gender and sex modifies the latter to some degree ‘gender relation’, was sensitive to prise I scored real high. This is what I found out. “If anyone dominated system. It is not difficult but not beyond that. the psychic dimension of the sex knows how to play the field it is you. Sometimes you’re coy, to imagine that for what reasons has To express it as a formula, the gender system. sometimes you move in for the kill, depending on what tactic the exploration of such a system sex system arises out of the biologi- In this context if we see, the will win over the man. You never let it get serious though, you being denied; not only denied but cal differences between men and mental, social and emotional bag- bolt out of bed before he can say breakfast.” So then it struck buried all through. women; whereas the gender system gage which is attached with the idea me. It was time to let Mr. K go. I rang him up immediately and However, it is important to bear arises from the culturally repro- or the role of being a mother. It is told him I was ready to move the cheese and to begin with in mind that the sex-gender system duced distinctions between them. probably a situation where a woman could he first move all his Gym magazines, girlie posters, sex- is not merely a structured set of The gender system is closely is most bargained. The maternal ist jokes and fragile ego right out of my life so that I could begin power relationships.

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