January 1st – Its a day which brings festive mood across the globe irrespective of gender,religion, caste, race,state,country, economic status,social status..etc. I think this is the only day in the entire year which is celebrated by huge percentage of population on Earth. This reason alone makes it an important day to do meditation and utilize the happy energies on Mother Earth to evolve spiritually.

My mentors organized a meditation, homam and potluck in their meditation centre – IWC (Inner Wellness Circle) on January 1st 2019. My husband and I were pretty excited to attend this event as its a fantastic way to start a new year. This event was attended by 25+ meditators of different age groups and different backgrounds.

Below are some glimpses of the event

1. Event started with meditation. It was a group meditation with powerful blessings done for the entire year. The peace was profound and blessings are beautiful.My Guru says – when 7 people meditate in a group, the energy that is generated is equal to 100 people meditating individually. In this event 25+ of us meditated in a group. I wonder how powerful the energies must be.
2. Homam – 6 Homams are done simultaneously for Nava Graha Shanti for the entire year. Homam has something magical about it which makes me go into a kind of bliss. Mantra chantings, sacred fire, my mentors, friends – the whole setting made me feel like I am in a vedic school and performing a yagna under the guidance of a great loving and compassionate Guru. It was enchanting and soothing to my heart and eyes. Its one of a kind experience which I will count as one of the best experiences of my life.
3. Potluck – My mouth still waters when I think of this potluck. There were so many varieties of food and all the food items were very delicious. It was an amazing sight to see this wide variety of foods prepared with joy. Below are the food items that were in the potluck(which I remember)

Puri
Aloo Curry
Chole
Panchamrit
Biryani
Mushroom Curry
Raita
Dal Vada
Potato Sandwich
4 types of payasams
Lemon Rice
Dates kheer
Fruits – Bananas, Guavas,Oranges
Cake
Laddoos
Thekua

My husband and I are both beginners in cooking and not so confident about our cooking skills. But we did not want to miss the precious opportunity of cooking something for 25+ meditators. So, we prepared potato sandwich chanting the below mantra through out the cooking process

Sarva mangala maangalye Shive Sarvaartha Saadhike
Sharanye Triyambike Gauri Naaraayani Namo stute

Meaning of the mantra is as below
Auspicious of the auspicious!Parvathi!The fulfiller of the desires!Protector of all- Three eyed!Parvathi Devi!Narayani!We salute your divinity!! ( Source – Om Swami)

Potato sandwiches were delicious thanks to divine mother’s magic and love .It was very satisfying to see our mentors and friends eat these sandwiches.Potluck also filled us with great joy that we got an opportunity to eat the food prepared by meditators. I wonder how many blessings and good wishes the food must be filled with.
(Food becomes very delicious everytime I chant the above mantra and cook the food. Food is not only delicious but it becomes a satisfying and blissful experience. I used to think only the food cooked by my mother can take me into trance. I was amazed when the food cooked by me also took me into trance. I have experimented for several days and came to the conclusion that food’s taste is transformed from ordinary to divine when mantras are chanted while cooking. Earlier, though I chanted mantras, somewhere in my heart there is a doubt about the power of mantras but after seeing the transformation of food, I am convinced beyond any doubt that mantras are powerful).

This is how January 1st 2019 is celebrated at IWC. We are truly grateful to our mentors for organizing this great festival. This festival is a blend of fun and tradition – mixed in right proportion.Eagerly looking forward to new year celebrations at IWC for 2020.

Sarve jana sukhino bhavantu!