On 21 December, we had a full day program at the West Bengal University of Animal and Fishery Sciences at Mohanpur in West Bengal. It is about 60 kilometres from Kolkata and we were there at the invitation of Doctor Raja Loganathan of the Faculty. He was very keen that his students should explore the fundamentals of holistic education and J Krishnamurti’s vision of right education. Doctor Loganathan has an enormous passion for Krishna Ji’s teachings.
In the morning, Dr Shailesh Shirali gave an online presentation to the students on Google Meet and then responded to a few questions. Though there were some disruptions which reduced the time, the students got the flavour of a beautiful presentation by Dr Shirali. Next time, we will try and see if an in-person program with Dr Shirali can be organised. Somehow, for large groups, in-person interactions are so much more full of life and energy.
After Dr Shirali’s presentation which ended at around 12 noon and in the afternoon, we interacted with the students. Our Mr Gautam made a presentation and also read out passages from ‘Bhabbar kotha’, the Bengali translation of ‘Think on these things’. Two short videos in Bengali were also screened. The questions from students were interesting and a lot of fun too. Gautam prepared some beautiful posters and these were displayed at the venue. The posters also had QR codes which can be scanned by the students to view J Krishnamurti videos.
At the end of the day, each participant was presented a set of the pocket edition of 12 booklets titled ‘Teachings of Life: J Krishnamurti’. We had over 60 participants and they were all delighted.
Dr Raja Loganathan has set up a J Krishnamurti Study Room at the University and this was formally inaugurated yesterday. He once again reminded all the students that they should use the facility and read the J Krishnamurti books available in the study room. He has also set up a video viewing facility in the study room.
