by  Maria Francesca Wegener

It is the night before the opening of the INTERNATIONAL YOGA CONGRESS „Yoga and the Planetary Millenary Wisdom 2008“.

In Pipera Ashram on the northern edges of Bucharest city the light will not go out tonight. The house is buzzing with people of all kinds fixing decorations, putting chairs in place and arranging the big stage. In the huge hall, built to accommodate a few hundred people, Sophrozine Theatre is rehearsing for the Opening Ceremony tomorrow. Everyone is focused on giving the best but there is a chance to sleep at least some hours tonight.

This sounds like the usual preparation night before any international event of this size. But what amazed me was the volunteers’ attitude. When I asked around why everybody was sacrificing their precious sleeping time for this spiritual happening, I was astonished that many of them just worked for the inner satisfaction it brings. Just because help was needed.  Not expecting anything in return, not even a “thank you”.
Jade Kowalewsky from Germany even booked her flight to arrive some days in advance, so that she could participate in the preparation of the congress – as an experience in itself. Talking a bit more with Jade, I found out that she had started a group for “Opening the heart” with the help of the Academy for Traditional Yoga in Berlin. Initially she founded the group as the practical part of her Yoga Teacher examination and then raised it to a circle of friends willing to over come their own limits to move from the ego to the heart. She told me that one of the techniques they used successfully to create states of heart-opening was Karma Yoga practice. That means the practical application of ancient wisdom about conscious action. Jade experienced spiritual openings through volunteer work with no selfish motive, so she could understand that every conscious deed gives a look behind the curtains of illusion, if we perform it detached and with the awareness that it is never us acting.

Being an “open channel” for the Divine Miracle to happen opened Jade’s heart and soul. “For me the preparation activities here are not only work. It is more like a precious technique to humble my pride, train my awareness and thereby experience who I really am,” she said. For her, as for many others, hammering, decorating, screwing and doing is already worth a trip to Bucharest crowned by the participation in the congress.
Let us experience the results of months of Karma Yoga in a detached manner and be open for the surprises that God will manifest for us in the INTERNATIONAL YOGA CONGRESS „Yoga and the Planetary Millenary Wisdom 2008“.
 
    
 
 
    
 

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