HSA Senior Leadership Spiritual Weekend

Our retreat took place in a meeting room at an Austin hotel, where we stayed

The booklet the monks prepared for the weekend

Bodhinatha, always happy to tell stories to illustrate important points

Ramya Ravi, HSA

s CFO'

Jiger Patel with Ankita Mehta, who attended to support her brother, Varun

Rashi Jawade, right, a member of HSA

s board of directors'

Varuna "Sonny" Mehta, HSA

s current president'

Jiger Patel, HSA

s current vice-president'

Sonal Dhawan, chairwoman of the board

A dinner out with a few members of the Austin Hindu community

Shashi Dongur, center, a junior at UT Dallas and president of that HSA branch

Senthilnathaswami leads a hatha yoga class in the early morning

A picnic lunch in Zilker Park on a gorgeous day!

Kumaridevi Sivam, left, and her husband Ravi Ramaraju hosted our picnic

Kushal Mehta, center, HSA

s CTO'

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During the first weekend in March, Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami and Sannyasin Senthilnathaswami held a Senior Leadership Spiritual Weekend with the board of directors and national officers of the Hindu Students Association. The leaders of the HSA came from New York, Boston, Baltimore, Houston and Dallas to be a part of this special retreat.

Bodhinatha led classes on topics the HSA leaders themselves proposed: Hinduism and spiritual unfoldment, Hindu scriptures, God, Gods and the soul. In these sessions, our young leaders strove to gain a better understanding of their religion for their own personal spiritual unfoldment and to pass on to up and coming leaders in their branches at universities around the country.

Senthilnathaswami guided morning hatha yoga and meditation sessions and led classes on a variety of leadership topics proposed by the group: improving focus, clarity, direction and motivation; staying motivated when the going gets tough; effective communication on organizational and personal levels; listening and feedback; trust in a group dynamic; imparting leadership skills to new leaders; and more.

Thanks to this dedicated group, many Hindu college students in the US, many of whom have not learned much about Hinduism in their lives so far, are being educated about their religion and encouraged to put it into practice in their lives in practical, concrete ways that are sustainable. Bodhinatha's hope, and that of the Hindu Students Association senior leadership, is that Hindu students will grow up proud of their tradition and have the resources available to them to learn more as they progress through life.

(Thanks to Jiger Patel and Kushal Mehta for additional artistic photos.)