‘We women can transform the world’

BANGALORE ,February10 2012 :“Smile, don’t stress, see the world through a wider perspective and above all, have compassion. One of the world’s most admired and followed spiritual leaders, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s recipe for a happier world that is more in harmony with each other, is simple and eminently implementable.A gathering of some 600 women from 55 countries listened in rapt attention as Sri Sri and his sister, Bhanumathi Narasimhan, a much admired meditation teacher who also heads the women and child welfare programmes of the centre, spoke about life, love, harmony, technology and everything in between, at the Art of Living’s world headquarters at Bangalore, India, last week. It was an extraordinary event in itself — how often can you expect to see leaders from Iraq, Iran, Palestine and a clutch of African and Middle Eastern countries share the same dais for an exchange of ideas? And yet, there they were, dressed in their traditional best, putting their best foot forward, mingling with each other, laughing, back-slapping and sharing their stories, as only women can do. The occasion was a seemingly rather serious event— an international conference on Women and Technology — but the women rendered it an infinitely joyous event with a human face, discussing the way technology touched their lives, sometimes for the better and sometimes, sadly, for the worse. “As creators and users of technology, women have been greatly empowered. However, we should not forget the mind that created this technology. We are used to charging our phones, laptops etc. What can we do to recharge ourselves? For a human mind to be more effective, it needs to be charged through meditation. A technologically sound woman has a mind that is not lost to machines, but uses them effectively on her path towards her goal. A spiritually sound woman has a say over her mind in all matters ….,” Bhanumathi Didi , as she is affectionately called by her followers said. “A mother knows intuitively what her child needs even before the child starts speaking. She is a master of the language of the heart. We must remember that technology can never replace a mother’s touch…. This invaluable gift of connectedness that is so natural to a woman must be nurtured. The internet can connect you to people thousands of miles away but it should not be at the cost of creating islands within a family,” she said. And to this end, the three day session was marked by periodic sessions of guided mediation by her and just spontaneous, joyous celebrations of dance by the participants who shed their inhibitions and celebrated their shared womanhood. “Every time I fabricated a micro chip, I would zone into a state of awe and wonder. How could a few materials collaborate at a nano scale to form microprocessors that run industries and spur technological growth? On quiet moments in a fabrication plant, when I sat inspecting a chip under an optical tool, I felt like I was orbiting in the space around a galaxy. I would stare in awe and would wonder how a human mind could possibly think of something as complex and fabricate it at such micro scale. Who put that thought or idea there and how?” says Natasha Gangaramani, a follower of Sri Sri and Director of Al Fara’a Properties, a premier real estate group in the UAE. “These series of questions urged me to embark on a journey, they inspired me to see the creators touch in the grassroots of technology. I reckon from my many conversations with men and women in the field that their spiritual interaction with technology came at moments when their minds were curious, perceptive and engaged”. Other women at the conference spoke about how technology touches their lives more than anybody else — technology has put more time at their disposal thanks to a variety of intelligent gadgets that have relieved them of the drudgery of housework and freed them to go chase their dreams. And while some may say that technology and the likes of Facebook and Twitter have taken their children away from them, others find blessing in this too and keep in touch with their children through these social networking sites! And one has only to ask the mother who has a child living in another country, about the joys of being a “Skype mom”. It’s not the same as hugging your daughter but it is still better than not being able to see her more than once a year, she will say. “Any time that I am depressed, angry or confused about a decision that I have to take, I get on the internet and read Osho’s discourse on that subject”, a young Dubai-based radio jockey told me over dinner one day, in the ashram’s bustling kitchen and dining room where volunteers cooked and served delicious meals to the participants in the conference, in the spirit of the service of fellow human beings. Yet another example of how technology has touched the lives of women! Many a speaker at the conference spoke about putting more women into science and technology courses in schools and colleges so that they can combine a woman’s natural emotional quotient with her knowledge of technology to make life better for the rest of humanity. In the desert state of Rajasthan in India, the introduction of the government-backed Sarva Sikshan Abhiyan has transformed the lives of 1,50,000 girl children who have now joined the workforce in cities and live fulfilled lives. In the absence of education, these were the women who would have entered the cycle of early marriage, early motherhood and remained on the fringes of society. Elim Chew, founder of the iconic 77th street high street fashion brand in Singapore uses technology to grow her business and engage herself in a range of community outreach programs including mentoring social enterprise. Her tool? Her three Facebook accounts which have over 10,000 friends! Chew also uses her database of over 100,000 77th Street’s customers to promote her charity and voluntary work. “We women can transform the world”, she said, addressing a session at the conference. Sri Sri had the last word about the subject: “Spirituality can be called the inner technology. It does not negate technology but it complements it.”