The entire World Cultural festival which was held in Delhi in March 2017 is a Guru Grace story. It was held to celebrate the 35th year anniversary of the Art of Living . When we came to know of the scale of the program as given below, we were very excited to attend it.
It was held on the banks of Yamuna river on a huge ground. The Stage itself was 7 acres, 37000 artists from 155 countries were performing, 35 Lakh people were expected to attend. Dates were 11th to 13th March 2017. People from all over the world thronged to Delhi to attend it and I definitely didn’t want to miss it.
The Karnataka apex body of the Art of Living did an amazing job, where in they gave a package option for people who wanted to attend the festival. This comprised of hotel stay in Delhi, Breakfast, Evening snacks and Dinner. Travel to and from the venue was also included in package. It was at a very reasonable cost and I booked the package by filling forms and making the payment. They then mailed all details of the stay to me well before program dates.
I booked my flight tickets via Mumbai to Delhi. On flight from Mangalore to Mumbai, there were some Art of living teachers and volunteers with me, but from the flight to Mumbai to Delhi, i think almost 3/4th of the flight were all art of living members. So it was an amazing experience to travel with so many devotees in flight. We reached Delhi airport and booked a pre paid taxi to the hotel.
I was pleasantly surpised to see the hotel as it was in the central Karol Bagh area of the city and it was very posh AC room. The weather in Delhi was quite cool and cloudy. I was happy to see that many of my Art of Living friends from Mangalore were all staying at the same hotel. We had an amazing dinner of authentic north Indian Dal Makhani and Lacha Parota at nearby hotel.
Delhi Sight seeing
The next day morning was free as the program was expected to start only in the evening. I Decided to explore Delhi by myself. The weather was quite pleasant and cool and I decided to go and see Humayuns tomb, which I had read was an amazing monument. I had done my research on the internet earlier on travelling in Delhi and took the metro to go and see the monument. Delhi has one of biggest metro networks in the world and you can go to most places via metro.
I took a cycle rickshaw from the metro station to the tomb, which itself was an nice experience. Delhi roads are wide and lot of greenery was there . The Gardens surrounding the tomb were so big ,beautiful and well planned and beautiful trees of different types and the Tomb itself is a Huge Majestic structure , like the Taj Mahal. I had a nice day out there and reached back into hotel well in time to travel to the program venue.
The Next day in the morning I went and Gurudwara Bangla Sahib, which is a beautiful sikh shrine. Its a Golden temple, with roof and walls in temple coated with Gold. There was beautiful kirtans happening in the temple and truly it was a great experience to be in that spiritually charged atmosphere. After the temple visit, I had lunch in the langaar or free kitchen where volunteers served lunch and it was really soul food, of Rice, Chapathi, Daal and Sabzi food which really tasty and also very nourishing.
The Magic Bus
A bus was expected to pick us up at the hotel and take us to the venue at around 3 pm. We were ready at around 2.30 pm and were waiting in the lobby. Even at 4 pm there was no sign of the bus and I was becoming increasingly nervous and afraid. We reached the main road and stood there waiting for the bus. It was slowly starting to rain also. After few minutes one bus came and stood near us . All of us boarded the bus and asked the driver to take us to the venue. The Bus driver told that this was not the bus engaged to pick us up and he was waiting for some other group and had picked us by mistake. We spoke to bus owner over phone, who also clarified that we were not the group he was supposed to pick up. By that time it was raining heavily. We requested him not to leave us in the middle of the road in the rain, and at least drop us to the nearest metro station which he kindly agreed. We reached the metro station and decided to take a metro to the program venue.
To our surprise, a journey which would have taken us 2 hours by road, took only half an hour by metro and that too in a comfortable ac train. Till today I don’t know what the situation would have been if the bus driver would not have come so unexpectedly. We would have been waiting for hours on the road and would have probably missed the first day program. And also the whole thing was so smoothly planned that when we got out of the Metro station near the venue we saw that the rain was also slowing and it stopped in 5 minutes. Most of the people who had reached the venue earlier, had got fully drenched. So I realized that sometimes delays are also good for us. Whatever the situation, we should have the faith that there is a higher power which is there, which loves us very much and will care of us in the appropriate manner. Where there is this faith there wont be unnecessary fear which drains us out of the joy and happiness which we can enjoy every moment.
We reached the nearest station to the program venue and saw that the station was full with hundreds of people who had come for the program and there was a very festive atmosphere there. We thene started walking to festival venue. It was a walk of several kilometres across a muddy path thru fields and it had its own challenges and charms. Then we saw a temporary bridge had been built across the Yamuna and it was very nice to see the beautiful river which was in full flow. Then we came to the festival venue.
The Heavenly Stage
The stage itself was so huge and mind blowing. It was 7 acres in size. It had beautiful Led lighting which kept on changing in different patterns and designs. So many wonderful cultural performances were being conducted there with hundreds of participants performing each dance or song from different parts of the country or the world. There was an orchestra where there were 8500 musicians who were performing at once. Guruji was there in the center of the stage in all his majesty surrounded by various dignitaries of the country. On various days the prime minister of India, the chief minister of delhi, various politicians from India and the world, religious leaders of all faiths from across the world attended the program. There was music, singing, dance, discourses and cultural performance by people from so many countries and it really was a pleasure to see it. You can watch the highlights of the program at this link https://youtu.be/kg49vKk6lvU
When the last day I was leaving the venue to catch the metro back to our hotel, there were tears in my eyes when I saw the stage for the last time. I definitely felt it was my great honor and privilege to have seem that wonderful stage which seemed to have been got straight from heaven and installed there. I humbly said bye to Guruji and thanked him for giving me this wonderful opportunity to attend this magnificent program.
The entire World Cultural festival had been an amazing experience. We got to see the magnificent sights of Delhi, have very tasty food most of which was provided by the organizers, stay in a comfortable hotel and most importantly attend this amazing program. Truly any program organized by the Art of Living has been a memorable experience. There might be certain hiccups and confusions at certain times, but the overall experience had always been magnificent.
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