Leadership 2.0 – Silence Retreat @ Happy Village

Chennai(TamilNadu): Leadership 2.0 – Silence Retreat at Happy Village, Chennai was organized by SPIR-IT Summit in collaboration with Brahma Kumaris IT Wing.
BK Aruna Ladva, an accomplished spiritual author who has been practicing mediation for over 30 years, was the special facilitator for the Silence Retreat. More than 160 professionals participated in this retreat. Aruna Ladva, born in Kenya, educated in England, worked in Canada  is currently the in-charge of the Brahma Kumaris centre in Kuwait.
At the inaugural session BK Aruna shared that to be in Silence is such a beautiful experience which invokes the power from within.  BK Kalavathy shared her words of wisdom about the value of ‘spirituality in life’.
BK Beena, Service co-ordinator of Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry and South Kerala zone shared more about the vision of Brahma Kumaris and need of the hour for the IT professionals. BK Muthumani, Sister In-Charge, Adyar, Chennai congratulated all participants for making this wonderful choice of being a part of the Silence Retreat. BK Devi, Sister In-Charge, Ashok Nagar, Chennai shared few words on the importance of being in silence.
It was a mature group of participants who took time to participate amidst their hectic schedules. The retreat started with lamp lighting ceremony by Senior Sisters along with few distinguished participants as listed below.

• BK.Aruna Ladva from Kuwait– Facilitator of Silence retreat
• BK.Kalavathy Behnji, Senior Rajayoga Teacher, TN
• BK.Beena, Service Co-ordinator (TN,Pondicherry, South Kerala)
• BK.Muthumani (Sister In-Charge, Adyar)
• BK.Devi (Sister In-Charge, Ashok Nagar)
• Mr.J.Umashankar, Vice President, Standard Chartered Bank
• Mr.Syed Samsheer – Senior Manager, CapGemini
• Ms.Tejaswini, Director – Finance, Elior
• Mr.D.Balaji, Regional Manager – Operations, NOKIA
• Mr.Dhananathan Pandurangan, DGM – HCL
• Mr.Ravi Narayanaswamy – Technical Business Leader, IBM
• Mr.Sivakumar, Trainer and Medical Expert
• Mr.Chidambaram, Former Sub-Registrar Ms.Sharmila, Chief Manager, State Bank of India

The schedule started with nature walk in the lush green path outside the Happy Village campus and Yogasana sessions at the Sadhana Bhawan auditorium of the campus.
The retreat program was filled with Peace Experiments, Creative Exercises and Meditation Practices, where they had the time and space to be with themselves, contemplate, reflect upon and get into beautiful realization filled with experiences.
The major highlights of the program were:
Creative Exercises, Meditation Practices which kept the participants well occupied with introspection within their own selves. It included activities like Spot the Values, The Tree of Values, Blessings Unlimited.
At regular intervals the participants experienced one minute of silence with the “Just A Minute meditation” – a way to relax and recharge their mind with powerful thoughts by going into the mind dome.
Peace Experiments which included:

• Knowledge of the Self (Soul)
• Freedom and Expression – Unlock the Other Side
• Silence of Two Voices-Inner World and Connectedness with God
• Feeling Great
• The Mask – Outside-In and Inside-Out

Labyrinth Walk, Let Go and Let In Session – Writing a letter to God in meditation room which was all about forgiving the self and forgiving others. Writing blessings from heart for the self, others, nature and environment and surrendering it to God’s loving heart.
Candle Light Meditation – Practicing soul conscious stage while walking and seeing others. There was a beautiful session of Allah’s Garden – Life at its Best with Human Perfection. They sat in silence to introspect and experience the values of love, peace, happiness and power and emerge the same from within.
The program concluded with gifts (“Feeling Great” book by Dadi Janki) given by sister BK Aruna Ladva, sweets (toli) given by senior sister BK Kalavathy behnji, blessing card given by senior sister BK Beena and an information booklet given by senior sister BK Muthumani to help all participants understand the value of Spirituality in IT better.
Bro BK.Shamugavel shared the vote of thanks, she thanked the seniors for all their guidance and co-operation and all the departments who co-operated in this service to a greater extent.
The retreat program helped everyone to recharge the mind with good thoughts and it rejuvenated and filled positive energy in each soul and rebooted the thought pattern.