‘Have you seen God?’ asks eight year old during Youth Shivir, Vraj, Pennsylvania

For four days, the people of Pennsylvania were blessed with the divine Youth Shivir organized at the Vraj temple complex. The newly built complex was very well decorated. Originally the programs were to be held in a beautiful tapovan, which had been lovingly designed by the organizers. However, due to the weather, the programs were moved indoors but the one session that had been held in the tapovan was so filled with nectar that Pujya Bhaishri himself said on many occasions that it was truly memorable.

The days started early in the morning, with Pujya Bhaishri, Pujya Muniji and Yogiji (Respected Shri Amit Desai) leading all the devotees for a walk around the complex singing bhajans and dhuns. First Pujya Bhaishri would lead the morning prayers outside the old haveli and the atmosphere got truly charged at that time. After an hour or so, all the gathered devotees would enter the newly built complex and there were yoga sessions led by Shri Yogiji for an hour, which everyone present participated in. The group was very diverse with many non-Indians present as well who respectfully listened to his lecture on ashtanga yoga thereafter.

Next there was a Jigyasa Satra (questions and answer session) with Pujya Bhaishri in the morning where anyone could write a question on index cards provided and they were read aloud by Srimati Hershaben and answered by Pujya Bhaishri. Questions ranged from the relevance of fasting on Ekadashi to how to be worthy of your Sadguru’s kripa, to a eight-year old’s five-question ‘examination’ of Pujya Bhaishri with questions such as ‘Have you seen god?’, ‘Do you like your job?’, ‘Is your job hard?’, etc. They were all extremely enlightening sessions and provided a very unique opportunity for everyone gathered.

In the afternoons and early evenings Pujya Bhaishri blessed the audience with general discourses, which was also very unique as it was not focused specifically on any scripture and so covered various topics. Pujya Muniji and Sadhvi Bhagawatiben also conducted a youth question and answer session one afternoon in the Guru Kutir, which went very well. The evenings were fun-filled with various programs such as garba (which Pujya Bhai also graced for a little while), bhajan, antakshri (Pujya Bhaishri’s team versus Pujya Swamiji’s), etc.

The organizers had truly done a lovely job and Bhaishri was very pleased. He praised them and gave his blessings for their continued success with the development of Vraj.