Shree Swaminarayan Female Conference 2003

Truth, Explore, Experience, and Express – the fundamental theme of the first ever female youth conference undoubtedly allowed the female youths of both America and the UK, to explore both religion and the Indian culture. In due time, this exploration will allow the females to both experience and express the lucid topics and skills taught to us.

This conference, aside from being an all-girls event was surely different from the past shibirs. The topics taught, although reinforcing some things taught at previous conference, were of a new experience. We learned and had group discussions that allowed us to bring up matters and questions that we normally wouldn’t have in front of a larger group.

Learning about the beauty of our Sampraday was a truly magnificent experience. The females were taught things that are applied at home, in addition to mandir and our everyday lives. It was greatly emphasized that the Swaminarayan Sampraday is the only Sampraday with a female guru, allowing us to realise how lucky we really are. We also expanded and focused on the females during the time of Maharaj.

Along with learning about the glorious Swaminarayan Sampraday, we were exposed to workshops that taught us about the Indian culture, which could be applied to our lives, such as classical dance, kirtan classes, cooking, mehndi, and rangoli. Moreover, this conference did not simply drill information after information into our heads, it let it gradually absorb while leaving time for fun and socialisation.

Furthermore, we were blessed with the presence of Pujya Binduraja and Pujya Lalji Maharaj. We were taught that we are truly lucky because we can have one on ones with the great Dharmakul family, whereas people in Indian and other parts of the world rarely, if ever, can have darshan of them.

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