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town in the early morning on the country of the world." first day of the convention itself These words hurt the Indian rendering the sprawling polo seers and scholars who were ground, where the convention waxing eloquent about India's was held, damp. But as the in- pre-eminent role in the spiritual augural session got underway, regeneration of the world. In fact, the sun shone bright and speaker an engineer from Italy attending after speaker referred to it as a the convention joked with this good omen, as the god's way of correspondent that the Indian showering blessings for the suc- spiritual leaders must have incess of the convention.
voked the rain god to spoil But just as the afternoon ses- Swamiji's show. sion commenced and Swami Swami Sivapremananda did Sivapremananda, a learned not spare the foreign delegates scholar, began his discourse, a too. "These oversea
too. “These overseas delegates downpour started, the intensity have began to believe that they of which was to be seen to be have caused a yogic wave in their believed. The welcome arches respective countries. Nothing is were uprooted, the beautifully further from the truth. What they decorated pandal was torn apart have caused is a ripple. They in the strong gushing winds, must realize that not even ten compelling the organizers to percent of people in these suspend the programmes for the countries have heard of yoga and day.
less than one percent actually Among the galaxy of the practise it. This cannot be called a spiritual leaders assembled at the wave." World Yoga Convention, Swami Just as the septugenarian Sivapremananda, president of spiritual leader spoke these Sivananda Yoga-Vedanta Centers words, Swami Janakananda of in Argentina, Uruguay and Chile, Sweden rushed to the dais to inwas clearly the odd man out. A form the speaker that more than well-known disciple of Swami 20 percent of people had taken to Sivananda, this vedanta scholar yoga in the Scandinavian countook the entire congregation by tries. surprise by joining issue with That was not all. Swami Nisthose who claimed that India chalananda of U.K., who having continued to be a spiritual spent 15 years in the Munger ashcountry.
ram, has now gone back to Wales "That India is a spiritual as the director of the Satyananda country is a myth. India was a Ashram there, presented a strong spiritual country till the 11th cen- rebuttal of the elder swami's contury -- the India that Hsien Tsang tention in his presentation. and Fa Hsien had described in But possibly the greatest fluttheir travelogues. Today it is aster of the convention was created spiritually bankrupt as any other by Prof. Upendra Baxi, the Vice
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