Click Here for a gallery of pictures from the exhibition.
A Bilingual Poster Exhibition was organised by Renaissance Journal (Click Here for Renaissance Journal) from 27th June to 6th July, 2023 highlighting a few insights from Sri Aurobindo and the Mother on Conscious Eating and Cooking. This exhibition was part of the online journal’s current theme of Food, Sleep and Yoga.
Selections from Sri Aurobindo’s and the Mother’s works were initially identified by Ms. Biswajita Mohapatra, Research Assistant for Renaissance journal. Dr. Beloo Mehra, editor of the journal, helped with the final selections. The design and curation work for the exhibition posters was led by Ms. Mohapatra under the guidance of
Dr. Mehra. The Tamil translations were done by Mr. Samrat K. Asokan; this work was facilitated by Ms. Vidya Raman who also helped verify and cross-check the final Tamil layout in the posters. Mr. Gourang helped with all the printing works related to the exhibition.
Mr. Narendra Murty, volunteer for Renaissance, and Mr. Gourang worked on arranging the display of a total of 27 posters in the Sri Aurobindo Society Hall.
Inaugural Event
The exhibition was inaugurated on June 27, 2023. The event was chaired by Shri Pradeep Narang, Chairman of Sri Aurobindo Society. After a short meditation, he and Ms Deepshikha Reddy, our Guest of Honour for the day, inaugurated the exhibition by lighting the lamp. A beautiful ambience was created through flower rangolis and other decorative items; this work was led by Ms. Biswajita Mohapatra with some help from the housekeeping staff of Society.
Shri Pradeep Narang spoke briefly about the significance of becoming conscious with regard to our eating habits and patterns. He reminded everyone of a few insights from the Mother in this connection. He also shared that Society is working toward launching a Wellness retreat programme which will be offered through the Matriniketan facility.
Ms. Deepshika Reddy shared a couple of anecdotes regarding the Mother's and Sri Aurobindo's food intake and choices. Dr. Beloo Mehra gave an overview of the Renaissance issue for June-July 2023 highlighting the contributors and their articles in addition to the guidance from Sri Aurobindo and the Mother on the theme of Food, Sleep and Yoga. There was also some discussion on the guidance given to the sadhaks about consciously working on one's attitude toward food.
Shri Pradeep Narang also recited a couple of Urdu shers (couplets) bringing out the importance of having a Divine orientation in life from which even mundane activities like Food and Sleep should not be left out.
More than 50 people attended the inaugural event and lot of enthusiasm was generated for the exhibition which ended with snacks and refreshments. Mr. Raamkumar, editorial assistant for Renaissance, and Mr. Narendra Murty helped with the coordination of the event.
Visits by School Children
Apart from the regular visitors during the course of the Exhibition, we also had visits from 3 groups of children from Sri Aurobindo International Center of Education, Calve College Govt. Higher Secondary School, Pondicherry and Annai Sivagami Govt. Higher Secondary School, Mudaliarpet. In total, 60+ students attended the exhibition along with their teachers.
In addition to interacting with the children in a simple Q & A format, some fun activities were also conducted during their visit. They were asked to draw their favourite food or snack items, some of which were shared with the whole group.
Specific topics were highlighted for them in a simple friendly manner, such as praying before eating (praying to God, Mother Nature, farmers and parents who are providing the food, praying for knowledge, intelligence, health and peace through the food we are about to eat.), eating in moderation and according to the hunger, not wasting food, not cooking and eating when angry etc. The children participated with lot of enthusiasm. The visits ended with tasty snacks provided by Auroprasadam.
