After the Sahaja Yoga Realise Australia Tour in November 2006, we have continued with the regular Sahaja Yoga meetings at the Kelso Community Centre in Bathurst. Many young Aboriginal children come and play at the centre and often join in the sessions. We often adapt the program to suit the children, and hence the programs are very spontaneous.
We found out that a River Dreaming Festival is being organised for Bathurst, in November 2007, to unite all the cultures. It will involve the making of a Big Rainbow Serpent Lantern which will move down the banks of the Macquarie River at twilight. The Rainbow Serpent is the Kundalini in Aboriginal culture. The festival will consist of a parade of various cultural groups in Bathurst with their banners, supported by stalls and music.
Two banner-making workshops were organised at the Kelso Community Centre which is mainly for the Aboriginal people of Kelso. The workshops coincidentally were on the same day as our weekly Saturday program, and we were asked to join in the festivities by making a banner.
Madhavi and I proceeded to make a banner, not knowing what to create. We spontaneously began by tracing Madhavi’s shadow as she stood with her hands
outstretched in the sun. We then painted little Kundalinis on the palms. Above the head we painted a template of the River Dreaming Festival Logo. It represents the elements of fire and water and the river at Bathurst which the festival’s director said is a feminine energy.
Madhavi suggested that blue should be used for the body to represent the cooling down that occurs as the Kundalini rises and is felt over our palms, head and body. We used yellow and orange for the background to represent the heat and dryness of the drought. When asked what the banner meant, we said that if people cooled down from within then the earth would cool down, too, and bring rain. A week later the area had 45 mm of rain!
Many different people were there from a variety of cultures, including people from Malaysia and Ireland, white Australians and people of Aboriginal heritage, all creating their own banners. Madhavi and I could feel the connection among everyone there as we worked together in this united cause.
The Aboriginal children also joined in, making their own little banners or helping with ours. I could feel their Kundalinis were so cool. I observed the oneness of their culture while they all sat together and made little badges.
Kelly Langdon
(Photograph: wikipedia)