SUMMARY OF LADIES DAY PROGRAM ON NOVEMBER 19, 2004
Toronto East Sai Centre celebrated Ladies Day
on Nov 19th. All the ladies were decked up in shades of
yellow saris and the hall was decorated with yellow and red theme.
The Ladies Day program consisted of an
interesting range of items. It was started off by Balvikas girls
chanting vedam. Next we had some instrumental presentations –
violin recital by sister Rajesh and veena recital by a youth,
Luxshiya. A group of sisters then individually read out human value
poems. This was thoroughly enjoyable as you could tell that they
had put in a lot of effort. Each presenter’s style was different.
We also had a dance performance by our young youth members Sindhu,
Kammy and Aba which was very well received. They kept the audience
spell bound. Excellent performance at a very short notice. Next
Karuna Munshi, the guest speaker shared her thoughts on femininity
and womanhood. She is an articulate speaker who spoke from her
heart and words of insight and wisdom just flowed out. A summary of
what she shared with us is as follows:
Women should dress to enhance their simplicity
and humility and not cater to their vanity. Dress and laugh has the
ability to attract unwanted attention. Women should watch their
laughter; it should not be a loud laugh or hoot as others could
perceive it differently. In the Mahabharath, when the Pandava
brothers and Droupadi lived in the magnificent glass & marbles
palace,
Duryodhan kept mistaking the polished and
shining floors and walls for water. Droupadi found this so humorous
that she burst out laughing. Duryodhan felt so deeply insulted that
eventually, it culminated in the Mahabharath war.
Safeguarding character and virtue is important as it is equal to a
person very slowly carrying a huge boulder up a steep mountain. As
he approaches the summit, he stumbles and drops the boulder which
comes crashing down on him with such incredible force, all that
effort and hard work would been in vain.
In a way, women are greater than men for men only
have 5 shakthis whereas women have 7. Women are known for their
unconditional love and that is what makes them most suitable for
being mothers. Women are the true rulers of a home. They are
primarily responsible for making a house in to a loving home. On the
other hand, women should try to gossip less and be more efficient.
In a way, women of yesterday had it easy as all they had to worry
about was their homes, whereas today’s woman, in addition to the age
old tradition of housekeeping, also have now taken on careers to
make end meet. Even though she has the aid of modern technology to
make chores somewhat convenient, on the other hand, her chores have
increased. She now juggles several roles as cook, chauffer, washer
person, maid, sports cheerleader, nurse, teacher in addition to her
other roles of wife, mother, daughter, sister, friend ,co-worker,
sai devotee, etc. So prioritizing and time management is of utmost
important. One has to evaluate what is really important to one’s
physical, emotional. mental, psychological and spiritual well
being. That means cutting corners and not being a social
butterfly. At the end of the day, when one looks back, one should
have lived life with no regrets and should have able to realize what
the true purpose of life is…..
Karuna’s talk was followed by the female bhajan
singers who did a medley comprising of Devi bhajans, paying a
tribute to Sai Ma.
At the conclusion of the program, snacks were
served. On the whole, the event was well planned and helped in the
bonding of the Sai sisters of the Toronto East Sai Centre.
Looking forward to an even better Ladies Day
program next year, with perhaps an in house speaker as well. Given
the opportunity and with a little practice, no telling what talent
is latent in womanhood.
|
