Page 10: Servas Nepal
From SI Exco News
National Meeting
Servas Nepal held its national conference on June 7th , 2003, chaired by Bibendra Pradhananga, Vice-president of Servas International.
Prem Nath Joshi, Peace Secretary of Servas Nepal, delivered the welcome speech and requested participants to join him in one minute of silent prayer for the departed soul of Mr V.A. Kanakdwip, who had died earlier that year. Kanakdwip was a scholar and helped many travellers who came to Nepal to study Buddhism. His death was a great loss, not only for Servas Nepal, but for the nation as well.
Among the decisions taken are to:
Celebrate October 10th as Servas Day every year. Organize small, local host gatherings to exchange ideas. Find a space and funds for an office where hosts can visit whenever possible. Publish Servas Nepal host list 2004/2005 by the end of 2003. Bibendra informed the participants about the work of Exco and requested all members to contribute to a peaceful settlement of the present political crisis in the country.
Some travellers shared their experiences.
Luna Malla, Deputy Secretary
THE ART OF HEALTH AND HAPPINESS
By the “well-wisher of Servas Nepal”
Lord Krishna says in the Gita, “By simply forsaking work, no one reaches perfection. O Arjuna, perform all actions forsaking attachment (to their fruits)”. Roman Emperor and philosopher Marcus Aurelius writes, “Very little is needed to make a happy life. It is all within yourself in your way of thinking”. Lord Buddha asks us to cultivate love for all beings, which enables us to achieve happiness. Life without other people would be unthinkable. So our need for harmonious relationships is one of the greatest requirements…”
William Shakespeare writes, ”Make not your thoughts your prisons”.
We must release the past and forgive everyone. All diseases come from a state of un-forgiveness. All we need do is to be willing to forgive. Some make efforts to earn wealth believing that will bring happiness. Some who have wealth may not have health and that causes unhappiness. When individuals turn within and take strength from the internal power of peace and silence, they attain happiness. A concept of health is something more than absence of disease. Latest research reveals that mind dominates the entire body. Apart from regular healthy food and exercise, it is also essential to mitigate mental pressure and tension.
The roots of most diseases lie in our mind, whereas the symptoms appear in our body. Emotions like jealousy, hatred, anger sooner or later affect us in the form of some disease. So the primary causes of all disease is the violation of Nature’s law. It can be in eating, breathing, thinking, dressing, working or resting.
The Veda, Puranas, Upanishads and even recent science all state that our physical universe is not really composed of any “matter” at all; its basic component is a kind of force or essence that we call “energy”. On the finest level even seemingly solid matter eventually turns out to be just “pure energy”( moving energy particles). Physically we are all part of one great energy field, the only difference being different rates of speed for different objects, be it matter, thought or even stone.
Thoughts and feelings have their own magnetic energy that attracts energy of a similar nature, creating the principle that whatever you put out into the universe will be reflected back to you. We always attract into our lives whatever we think about the most. So we must learn to contact our inner source of happiness and direct it outwards to share with others. As we outpour our loving energy, we make room for more to flow into us. Thus giving becomes its own reward. Dr. Tek Raj Joshi
