Chinmaya Amrit Yatra - "On A Quest" sparks keen interest

The South Bay Chinmaya community participated in the Chinmaya Amrit Yatra celebrations commemorating 75 years of the founding of Chinmaya Mission with a showing and discission of the movie "On A Quest". The movie depicts the life of Pujya Gurudev Chinmayananda. 20+ participants from our South Bay Bala Vihar viewed the movie and participated in a lively discussion on Jan 13.

It was a wonderful way for our group to discuss our key takeaways from the movie. For most of the participants, the content was very new. It was surprising to hear that Gurudev was an atheist, freedom fighter, and a journalist who then followed the path of enlightenment.  Our discussion centered around the following points:

•Initial Thoughts / Takeaways from the movie
•What was surprising to learn
•Favorite analogies

Watching Gurudev's passion unfold was captivating. He was open to challenging his own belief system and then pushed boundaries to help others be exposed to the knowledge as well. One of our favorite scenes from the movie was the 'chewing gum' scene. It's always so fascinating to hear about why Swami choose to renounce life, and it’s easy to have preconceived notions about the reasoning. Gurudev asked a devotee "when will you spit out your chewing gum?" to which the devotee responded, "when it loses its flavor." Gurudev, only after thoroughly chewing out life, then decides to spit out the gum, as 'normal life' lost its flavor. Another analogy that was a crowd favorite was describing what role God plays in a car. God is not the driver, but the petrol, without which the car cannot run. The driver still has control on the destination but needs God to function.

We had a great time reflecting on the beautiful contributions of Gurudev and then ended the session with some competitive fun. Anisha Joshi, 7th grader, helped put together an online quiz, which not only helped the whole family have some fun, but also reinforced the key messages of the movie. All in all it was a wonderful hour spent reflecting on Gurudev’s life and being grateful for his contributions to the world. 

--Sangeeta Joshi