Sri Ben Prabhu or Sri Guru, a woman spiritual head who goes by two different names, decided 10 years ago, that she was interested in showing a path. A path that can help one achieve bliss and clarity of thought.
Sri Ben Prabhu talks on a number of subjects, right from the life of Krishna, the Bhagavad Gita, Buddha’s Dhammapada to other topics like the brain, the mind and the consciousness. What is the mind, she asks. “The brain in action.” Ben Prabhu then goes on to explain how the mind works, and how people develop fears, during her talk titled ‘Brain, Mind & Consciousness’ on YouTube. “When people have hurt you in the past, that very hurt becomes a future fear...Additionally, your unfulfilled desires are nothing but fantasies that develop in your head, which you hope to see fulfilled in the future,” she surmises. As she does that, she tells her listeners during the talk that the future is “often born out of the past...”
Hundreds of her talks are available on the Shrimad Rajchandra Mission website where Sri Guru has tried to tackle the many questions that bog us down daily. Managing time, self-motivation, why we fear death, and what is success, are some examples of the
subjects she has spoken on.
On February 9, the SRM Delhi organised a two-hour meditation session, called Astitva, at the Balgandharva Rang Mandir in Bandra. Ben Prabhu taught the auditorium-full of attendees techniques of meditation and also spoke to them at length about what meditation is, its science, explaining that along with being a science, meditation is also an art which one has to learn well. Ben Prabhu tells us that helping attendees “calm their minds” was her goal during the session. Entry was free and open to all. “What else is required?” says she. “Calming the mind is the first step, and thereafter one can move on to other kriyas and meditation techniques. This generation wants everything immediately. Achievements take time. Today people have lost direction in life. All I want to do is help people be calm and instill balance in the mind.”
The spiritual guru adds that unless people are ready, no technique of meditation can be imparted to them. “I can’t really teach you the technique if you are not ready. Only if people are ready to follow the steps and are receptive to what is being said, can meditation be taught. Also, once taught, it is important to continue practising. The session we did on Sunday included meditating to music in the background and being guided by my voice. Our website also has a lot of guided meditations one can do.”
Sri Guru tells us that often life is designed in a complicated way. One finds that one has to struggle and deal with problematic relationships all the time, at home and outside. Every day, we are collecting so many toxins in our heads. Thus, it has become crucial to detox the mind, not just the body. “These days people are detoxing their bodies all the time, but what about the mind? How does one cope with the negativity around them? By detoxing the brain. It’s very possible to do that and we educate you on how.”
It was in her early twenties, that Sri Guru, whose actual name is Ratna, became mesmerised by her guru Shrimad Rajachandra’s talks, and over the years she decided to follow in his footsteps. Inspired by the late Gujarati Jain philosopher-poet, Sri Guru started the Shrimad Rajchandra Mission in New Delhi in 2010.
The mission draws inspiration from the late scholar’s works, his ideas and his immense influence in the spiritual domain in India. Even the Mahatma was one of his devout followers, always asking him for advice on important spiritual matters.
Sri Guru founded SRM Delhi primarily to teach people how to be happy. She tells us that happiness happens inside first. Change takes place inside primarily, and then manifests outside.
“Change is from the inside out, not the outside in. It is a fallacy that what is around us must change in order for us to change. That’s what people think. Our mission is trying to put an end to such misconceptions. Change is an inside job first,” she emphasises.
https://srmdelhi.org/
