Thinking ‘better’ is liberating, accessible, imperative
BK Asha Didi: “Spirituality—faith, religion— is what generates and sustains life itself. It cannot be isolated from the other aspects of a human being’s growth.”
RAJYOGINI Asha Puri tossed this hypothetical question at the top of a recent talk: “Suppose we are given 24 hours to be angry, suspicious, spiteful, quarrelsome, hostile, vindictive— everything negative and consuming that we can think of. Can we stay in that headspace for one whole day?”
The hall was promptly enveloped in silence, which she herself broke with her signature chuckle as she declared, “There’s just no way! Not a single one of those moods is natural to us!” She then proceeded to give a full-hour lecture on “Awakening My Inner Powers.”
The subject is nothing new to Asha “Didi” (“elder sister” in Hindi), 77, a skillful speaker since her university days. After dedicating her life to spiritual service with the Brahma Kumaris (BK) at age 24, this natural flair took on an added layer of depth and power.
Today, as administrator/director of the 23-year-old, 30-acre BK Om Shanti International Retreat Center in Gurugram, Bengaluru (just outside New Delhi), it could be said that Asha Didi has spoken to pretty much the whole planet. With over a million active members and followers, Brahma Kumaris is the largest spiritual organization in the world led by women.
Even as Didi’s discourses inevitably tackle spiritual principles as practiced in daily life, they are famously served with a side of humor, just enough to drive the point home without straying from the message. Like mommy or granny jokes that land every time.
She runs into quotes, anecdotes, and illustrations to use in her lectures “everywhere,” she said. This line called to her, for example, from a cathedral notice board: “Spirituality is not like cake to be eaten occasionally; it is like bread that should be eaten daily.”
“I took that to mean that spirituality—faith, religion—cannot be isolated from the other facets of my life,” she said. She managed to write a whole speech around it.
Three-legged chair
During a trip to Geneva, Didi was fascinated by “Broken Chair,” a 12-meter-tall monument made of 5.5 tons of wood, standing across the European headquarters of the United Nations. “It had only three legs!” she recalled. “I got curious.”
Officially, the monument designed by Swiss artist Daniel Berset, built by carpenter Louis Genėve, and erected in 1997 by Handicap International symbolized opposition to landmines and cluster bombs. She saw something else. “It reminded me of human lives that are incomplete because, despite progress in different aspects of growth, the one aspect that generates and sustains life itself— spirituality— is missing.”
Simply put, Asha Didi said, spirituality is acknowledging the being inside the human. “We speak of awakening inner powers. Whose inner powers? We say, ‘My eyes see, my ears hear.’ Who is speaking? Who is thinking that? The brain records inputs from the physical senses but is not the one that does the thinking or makes that decision.”
Start working
It is “I the soul,” she said emphatically. “Thinking is a function of the soul executed by the faculty that is the mind. Out of 30,000 thoughts that the mind is said to create daily, how many are worth keeping? That is such a huge number, that quality comes into question. To be specific, how many are positive thoughts compared to negative, waste, and necessary (routine) thoughts?”
Thinking is not bad, Asha Didi stressed. “We just need to think better. Waste thoughts weaken the soul, that is, they weaken me.” She proposed working on two levels for quick results. “Reduce the quantity of thoughts, improve the quality. This can be learned.”
The widely respected and well-loved senior yogi, who has addressed gatherings across India, Europa and Asia, is in town as guest speaker in three public programs. To be held in different venues for three distinct groups, the programs will tackle related areas of inner awareness. By her measure, this is urgent and fundamental, and transcends the personal.
“When I profess that I am a spirit— the soul— inside this body, that is knowledge of the self as master of one’s sense organs. When I look at another person and see him as a soul like myself, it generates feelings of brotherhood, peace, even love—making this understanding a power that is at once accessible, liberating, and imperative.”
Public programs
Friday, Sept. 25, 4-6 p.m. “Learning from Within: Cultivating Inner Leadership for Today’s Complex Challenges,” at the Center for Spiritual Learning, 1020 Magallanes Drive, Tagaytay City. For leaders, professionals, educators, administrators, and students.
Call 0917-5020243 or email tagaytay@brahmakumaris.org
Sunday, Sept. 27, 4-6 p.m. “Mind over Machine: The Power of Wisdom in the Age of AI” is set 4-6 p.m., at GT-Toyota Asian Center Auditorium,
Katipunan Avenue (C5) cor, Magsaysay Avenue Diliman, Quezon City.
Two guests complete the discussion panel: Presidential Assistant PBGen. Noel Baraceros, Office of the Peace Adviser for Peace, Reconciliation, and Unity; and Atty. Joelle Batapa-Sigue, Philippine IC, T Innovation Network Convenor.
Moderator: Dr. Amar Torres, Philippine Representative for Women’s Rights to the ASEAN Commission on Women & Children’s Rights.
Call mobile or Viber: 0999 826-7839. To register: https://bit.ly/4htbnPv
Monday, Sept. 28, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., “Inner Leadership, Shared Peace: One Shared Principle Across Traditions,” an interfaith forum, at Somerset Central Salcedo Makati, 126 H.V. Dela Costa, Salcedo Village, Makati City. (Aligned with the UN International Day of Peace, in collaboration with UniHarmony Partners Manila— a network of faith-based organizations, and partner in UN Interfaith Harmony Week initiatives.)
For the discussions, Asha Didi joins Bishop Mel Rey Uy, Chair, CBCP Episcopal Commission for Ecumenical Affairs; Rev. Fr. Carlos Reyes, Minister for Interreligious and Ecumenical Affairs, Archdiocese of Manila; Imam Ebra M. Moxsir Al-Haj, President, Imam Council of the Philippines; and Elder Bryan Borela, Area Seventy, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
Moderator: Pablito Baybado, Ph.D., Coordinator, Uniharmony Partners Manila; Associate Secretary General, Religions for Peace Asia.
RSVP (limited slots): Tel. 0917-8340118
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