If I am asked to point out an event which has set forth a strong transformation in me; I would, without second thoughts, attribute it to the breakfast Seva activity at the JP Nagar Ragigudda slum in Bangalore.

 

 

After the summer course in 2015 at Muddenahalli, Swami permitted us to start breakfast Seva for the above-said slum children. While we were all excited on the one hand, the amount of learning that this activity took me through, was tremendous.

 

Most importantly, I learnt to see and empathise with the difficulties the slum children go through. At times, there were very difficult incidents that some children went through. Some children lost close relatives, some children gave up on their studies. Some children had prolonged health issues. Thus, the list was long.

 

The team and I saw this as an important phase where Swami made us show more and more Love. We overcame laziness and overcame comfort zones. I learnt to establish a family-member like relationship with each child.

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We tried to solve some problems listed above, faced by the children. We tried to enroll school children who had dropped out, back to their schools. We conducted a number of medical camps. We took them on trips, played Holi and conducted cleanliness drives, tree planting drives and so on.

 

In fact, the positive effects of this activity has transformed a lot of others involved. Other volunteers took up the breakfast Seva as their own and took leading parts. They contributed to new ideas and organised other activities to perfection. The children themselves, in time, started to understand and practise sharing and were more united amongst themselves. They started taking responsibilities at their tender age and began to help in the Seva by cleaning the place, distributing food to their friends and maintaining overall discipline. The parents in the slum, as well as the families in the neighbourhood who were initially not much inclined towards this activity, started to appreciate the efforts and themselves acknowledged the transformation seen in the children and the area. In fact, they also pitched in and volunteered for the Seva.

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Thus, Swami has given us this wonderful opportunity to help us transform ourselves, and this spiritual learning is only getting better for us!