‘Swasthyam’- India’s leading Holistic Wellness Festival
Both of AP Globale’s portfolio companies, Sakal Media Group and ‘We Are In This Together’ (WAITT), had organised ‘Sakal Swasthyam’ an event exploring various aspects of holistic health. The event held at five different venues in the city of Pune from December 9th to 11th, 2022, received an overwhelming response and achieved its stated purpose of being the one-stop destination where people could ‘Learn’ from the experts, ‘Feel’ the wellness vibe and ‘Experience’ the life-altering shift.
‘Swasthyam’ included lectures and demonstrations on yoga, spirituality, culture, music, art, etc. that help in achieving and maintaining the physical and mental well-being of individuals. The line-up was impressive with names like poet Dr Kumar Vishwas, psychiatrist Dr Rajendra Barve, actress Shilpa Shetty, Sufi Singers Ruhani Sisters, Ustad Rashid Khan, yoga expert Sarvesh Shashi, action-director Cheetah Shetty, sound healing therapist Priyanka Patel, yoga guru Dr Hansaji Yogendra, spiritual guru Shri Gauranga Das, actors Riteish and Genelia Deshmukh, nutritionist Nupuur Patil and spiritual guide Shri M.
Day 1 (Dec 9)
The event was formally inaugurated at Ganesh Kala Krida Manch, Swargate on December 9 with the worship of Shri Ram Panchayatan and a portrait of Shri Guru Balaji Tambe. Abhijit Pawar explained the concept of ‘Swasthyam’.
“It is true that the mind has to be balanced but it is ‘Swasthyam’ that will guide you on how to achieve that. The effort is to help every individual attain happiness and peace,” he said.
Sunil Tambe involved the audience in bhajan singing and asked them to recite ‘Aum’ along with him. The echo of ‘Aum’ filled the entire auditorium with a unique spiritual energy.
“It is true that the mind has to be balanced but it is ‘Swasthyam’ that will guide you on how to achieve that. The effort is to help every individual attain happiness and peace.”
Abhijit Pawar, Chairman – AP Globale
Kumar Vishwas did the customary lamp lighting. He changed the arrangement on the dais and opted to address the audience in a seating position because he felt it was inappropriate to address them in a standing position, as if he was an authority. He kept the audience engaged throughout his 130-minute speech, reciting profound Sanskrit shlokas and an occasional touching Urdu and talking about ‘Learnings from the Ramayana and Mahabharata to enrich our daily lives.’ He stressed the values that people need to inculcate and adhere to in life for their mental well-being. “People say they are physically ill but the illness is in the Atma. And when the mind is not healthy, both Goddesses Saraswati and Laxmi desert you,” he said. He advised people to be ambitious but not greedy, respect elders and stay away from things that disturb mental peace.
Day 2 (Dec 10)
Actress Shilpa Shetty, known as one of the fittest celebs, guided the audience at an ‘invitees only’ event held at J W Marriott (Pune) and gave demonstrations in Pranayam. During the event called ‘Keep It Simple: Yoga and Fitness’, Shilpa Shetty narrated her own journey to fitness post delivery and also advised people to stay away from mobile phone addiction. “If you can control your breathing, you can control your life. It increases your power,” she said and also explained concepts like Muladhar chakra, Manipur chakra, Vishuddhi chakra through demonstrations, Some of her tips to the audience included ‘70% of your attention should be given to consuming nutritious food, the rest 30% is about yogasanas, gymming, exercise’, ‘Think positive while breathing in, discard negative thoughts while breathing out’, ‘It is not necessary to look pretty, it is important to be healthy’, ‘We have the right to choose how we want to live’, etc.
Day 3 (Dec 11)
The inaugural session on the last day of Swasthyam started at Pandit Farms in Erandwane with Yoga guru Dr Hansaji Yogendra. She talked about ‘Yoga: A Holistic Approach for Health and Wellbeing’. “The life experiences, practices, thoughts and nature of every individual are different.
This was followed by ‘The Art of Happiness’ by spiritual Guru Shri Gauranga Das. “When Arjun was in a difficult mental state on the battlefield, Lord Krishna gave him an anti-depressant in the form of the Bhagwad Gita. The Bhagwad Gita is the highest technology that can change us internally. While our body is like a computer, the mind is its hard disk. When a virus enters the hard disk, the computer system crashes. The mind is stubborn, fickle and powerful; we need to exercise the mind and control it through meditation and chanting of mantras,” he pointed out.
Self-management is the first step in management, he added. He also elaborated on the theory of ESCAPE – Expectations, Success, Comparison, Appreciation, Principles and Endurance.
‘Yoga: The Way to Infinite Potential’
Swasthyam concluded with ‘Yoga: The Way to Infinite Potential’ by spiritual guide Shri M. “Yoga is not for a particular class, ashram or individuals. It is a practice through which one can recognise oneself as an Atma. The process of knowing the body, mind and the Atma is yoga. Yoga can release the restricted mind and make it limitless, therefore, every person should do yoga,” Shri M said. He spoke about Patanjali’s Asthang Yoga. Through examples, he elucidated how to control anger which is a kind of illness and also on the journey to attaining samadhi. Abhijit Pawar spoke with Shri M on yoga that leads to eternal emancipation of the mind and asked a few important questions which were answered by Shri M in detail. Some of the questions included ‘How to reach the state of samadhi through yoga?’, ‘What are the qualities of a good devotee?’, ‘What is the future of the spiritual tradition?’ and so on.
For more information, visit: https://www.globalswasthyam.com/
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