Towards A New Dawn

The seven day National Online Workshop “TOWARDS A NEW DAWN” was a joint collaboration of Arya Mahila Post Graduate College, Varanasi, and Auro Youth Wing, Sri Aurobindo Society, Puducherry.  It was held from 20th to 26th July, 2020 for the aspirants ranging from the age group of 19 to 30 years.  The central theme was to provide life skills and growth of all being – physical, mental, vital, psychic through inner awareness and consciousness.  There were 253 participants from 12 States i.e. Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, West-Bengal, Uttarakhand, Delhi, Rajasthan, Punjab, Chandigarh, Haryana, Jharkhand, Himachal Pradesh and Bihar who had enrolled for this National workshop.

On all the days, the event started with The Mother’s Music.  The event was inaugurated and conducted by the Principal, Professor Rachana Dubey and Manager, Dr. Shashikant Dikshit of the college, Mr. Arun Naik and Anita Bansal from SAS Noida.

The main speaker of the programme was Miss Anahita Sanjana, SAS, Mumbai.  Arun Naik spoke about Introduction of Sri Aurobindo & The Mother, their contribution to humanity and their lifelong efforts to manifest upon earth the Divine consciousness.  Miss Anahita talked about how to overcome our ego and harmonise our relationship with friends, parents, partners and people around us.  Vote of thanks was given by the Chairman, SAS Varanasi, Prof. Akhilesh Kumar.

The Speaker of second day was Mrs. Jayantika Basu, SAS, West Bengal and the topic was Nationalism.  She discussed Sri Aurobindo’s political thoughts, his contribution in spiritualisizing politics and his definition of Nationalism as: the love for one’s country, for ones countrymen for the glory, greatness and happiness of the race the ecstasy of relieving their sufferings.

Dr. Deepika Baranwal, SAS, Varanasi spoke on day third on the topic “Food and Us” and Dr. Bandana Bal Chandnani, SAS, Varanasi delivered her lecture on Conscious sleep: An Effective Repos on day four.

Saurav Chattoraj, SAS, Asansol spoke about decision making on day five, Palak Dubey, SAS, Noida spoke about Self driven emotions on day six, and Mr. Manoj Sharma, SAS, Bhopal delivered his lecture on our true personality on day seven.

The students actively participated in the question and answer session of all the days of the workshop.  To quench the participant’s thirst for knowledge and their queries and to reciprocate their enthusiasm the stipulated time of workshop got extended from 10 to 15 minutes every day.  The medium of Whatsapp, questionnaire and email were used to answers the questions of the participants.

For the certificates, the participants had to fill feedback forms on all the days of the session.  In the valedictory session, Manager of Arya Mahila PG College, Varanasi, Dr. Shashikant Dikshit spoke about the huge success of this workshop and the hard work put in by the organizers.  He cordially invited all the speakers to Varanasi to interact with the students face-to-face after the pandemic crisis ends.

AuroYouth Director, Srinivas Mulugu, SAS, Telangana shared the vision and mission of AuroYouth programme, focused the futuristic plans and the self-less devotion and dedication behind AuroYouth activities.

Students also gave their feedback on valedictory session.  Vote of thanks was delivered by Dr. Deepika Baranwal, Convener of this event from Varanasi.

Online hosting was done by SAS, Puducherry team.  Many students sent their feedbacks through videos and also expressed their gratitude to organize a workshop on issues related with the youth in today’s competitive, rapidly changing, scientific and technology, and pandemic period.

Nearly 98 participants submitted their feedback forms on all 7 days.  Approximately 125 participants were attending this programme on all the days.  After this workshop, many students wished to join the Sri Aurobindo Society.  Many of them have joined the online Savitri classes run by Miss. Anahita Sanjana of the Mumbai branch.  They were too much drawn towards the workshop that they are still connected with us and getting answers of their queries through email and whatsapp.