The Rotary Club of Madras East, Chennai, brought a group of 206 students belonging to 8th to 11th standards of the following four schools in Chennai to visit Sri Aurobindo Ashram, as a part of their Rotary Youth Leadership Award (RYLA) programme:
• National Public School, Gopalapuram
• Little Flower Matriculation School, KK Nagar
• Dr Nalli Kuppusamy Vivekananda Vidyalaya, Korratur and
• P. S. Matric, Mylapore
RYLA emphasizes leadership, citizenship, and personal growth, and aims at the following:
• Demonstrate Rotary’s respect and concern for youth
• Provide an effective training experience for selected youth and potential leaders and
• Encourage leadership of youth by youth
• Sponsor Interact Clubs in schools
The group was accompanied by 12 teachers and a group of Rotarians including Shri N. Sudhakar, President of the Rotary Club of Madras East. The visit to Puducherry helped the students to feel and absorb the vibrant spiritual atmosphere of the Ashram and also to interact with some of its inmates.
Two sessions were arranged for them at the premises of Sri Aurobindo Society in Puducherry. The first session on 29th November was by Shri Pradeep Narang, Chairperson of the Society, who very beautifully dispelled the common myths about spirituality and spiritual life being the refuge of runaways from life. He said that on the contrary spiritual life is a most dynamic way of living where whoever takes to spirituality becomes a better person. He concluded his interaction by raising a question to all the students whether spirituality is practicable and if everyone could do it. The students answered that not only was conscious living practical but everyone must try to base their lives on a dynamic spirituality. After that a beautiful video—Life Divine—on the life and teachings of Sri Aurobindo was shown to all.
On 30th November morning, Vijaybhai conducted an extremely interactive session, titled ‘True Education’, engaging the students with a lot of deep and searching questions which involved thinking, contemplating and working towards the answers. His talk provoked the students into deliberating and reflecting upon the real meaning of education, the changes that present-day education needs, and also the need for all the students to grow in them the qualities that are essential in making of beautiful, dynamic personalities, capable of bringing about the much-needed change in the fields of Education and Development in India. The students came up with a lot of suggestions and ideas, and resolved to try and implement the best solutions in their lives. Vijaybhai also brought out the need to make education practical, but also to develop the powers of observation and other qualities crucial in students. He finally explained and elaborated on the system of education followed at the Centre of Education at the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, and the work undertaken by the Sri Aurobindo Society in several diverse fields such as education, management, village development, etc., and how the Society strives to apply a dynamic spirituality through its encompassing work.
This was followed by snacks break, and then Shri S.D. Mohan, Senior Trainer & Motivational Speaker from Metamorphosis, Chennai, interacted with them on the topic ‘Student Empowerment’. The students left the Society to continue with the other programmes that the Rotary had arranged for them as part of RYLA.