By Chloe Teixeira, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Burlington will soon get the chance to experience Indian heritage and explore the role spirituality plays at a new event coming to the Orchard Community Hub.
Hosted by Sahaja Yoga Meditation Network (SYMN), the free event, “Experience India: The Essence of Enlightened Indian Heritage,” will take place at the Orchard Community Hub inside St. Christopher’s Catholic Elementary School (2400 Sutton Drive), on Tuesday, August 18, from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Ioana Popa, a director at SYMN who is also involved in their 100 Seeds of Joy initiative, says this event is one of three in a celebratory series for India’s Independence Day on August 15, which commemorates the end of British rule over the country.
Popa says the event will include a guided meditation presentation, live music, and a chance for people to go outside and “play with colours.”
She adds that the event will also celebrate “the Holi festival…known as the festival of colours.” SYMN is planning to make the event like a festival with “a bit of a playful mood.”
The poster also features several Sanskrit terms, which Popa says were included to make immigrants from India feel welcome and demonstrate respect for and familiarity with their culture. The terms include Sahaja, meaning “born with”; Yoga Bhumi Devi, meaning “sacred land of yoga”; Nirmal Vidya, meaning “pure knowledge”; Chakra, meaning “wheel”; Nadis, meaning “channel” or “pathway”; and Yoga, meaning “connection” or “union.”
Popa says the Sanskrit words on the poster are not only a way to share “interesting facts, but [are also] something that […] leads to introspection, to that inner joy, to that inner peace.”
The goal of the event series, says Popa, is to bring awareness to the importance of meditation, the meaning of yoga, and India’s culture. “And, you know, it’s a celebration for Indians, but why not learn what India brings to all humanity?”
Popa says yoga is one of the things India has given as a “gift” to humanity. She says she doesn’t know how many people think about where it actually comes from.
“[T]hey think, ‘Oh, yoga, I’m going [to] that studio in my city,’ and they’ll do some exercises, and [think] ‘It will be cool to tell others I’m doing yoga.’”
The event will also bring together people from different cultural backgrounds to share their knowledge, along with a presentation that Popa described as having “wisdom.”
Other information that, in Popa’s experience, “people don’t really know about,” will also be shared, including “the roots of yoga [and] how it came to be shared.”
The Sahaja Yoga Meditation Network offers “thousands of self-realization and creative meditation workshops,” according to its website. SYMN is a non-profit organization that has been active for 21 years in Halton Region. Its 100 Seeds of Joy initiative began a few years ago, offering people the opportunity to join or host a meditation event, all for free.
Popa says the organization blends “the fundamentals” of both yoga and meditation. “I feel that we are also sharing the depth of it, not just at a superficial level.”
The method of meditation called Sahaja Yoga was founded by the late Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi in 1970, and is now practiced in more than 120 countries, according to Sahaja Yoga Meditation Canada’s website.
The website states the practice involves “seeking a higher spiritual state” and bringing out “the spontaneous awakening of a subtle inner energy called Kundalini.” This gives “rise to a deep state of mental silence known as thoughtless awareness,” allowing humans to “go beyond the mind.”
Popa herself was interested in yoga at a young age, hoping to meet a yoga master, or yogi, one day. Popa met Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi in 1990 when she was offering a public program for over 5,000 people in Romania. “That was the beginning for me,” Popa says of the event.
She loved the event because it was free of charge; she was both a student and working full-time.
Popa says the founder of Sahaja Yoga thought that there should “be no organization, no religion, no structure,” and that the focus should be on “sharing the gift of […] self-realization.”
She says Devi wanted “everyone to have access to a simple way of feeling connected, finding inner peace.”
Free events continue to be a key part of the Sahaja Yoga Meditation Network’s programming, in addition to the upcoming Experience India event.
The other two events in the series in celebration of India’s Independence Day are an online meditation experience on August 14, and a morning earth meditation featuring live music by the lake in Oakville on August 15.
All three events are free, and registration is not required. The 100 Seeds of Joy events calendar can be viewed on their website; the Sahaja Yoga Meditation Network’s website also features a listing of their themed meditations.
