Welcome Address

Smt. Bhanumathi Narasimhan

With the blessings of Param Poojya Gurudev, we begin the 9th edition of our International Women’s Conference, a very very walk welcome to all of you. As you all know, we have named it as Circle of Life: Passion, Compassion, and Dispassion. Whenever we do anything with passion it shows in our work, are you all happy with this? We do have women from over 50 countries and many are watching us through the Internet. I extend a warm welcome to your own home. When we are passionate about something, it shows in the work that we do.

We love what we do and our passion helps us differentiate the best from the rest. We are all here together and that shows how we want to make a positive difference to humanity and shows the importance of compassion in our choices. When we have a goal and along with with it, faith in the higher power, we say we gain the power to let go and the power of dispassion. Compassion for me is not about seeing everything as mine but as seeing everything from a bigger picture, how we have a larger community that we are connected to. When I realized that I am connected to everyone, I am connected to the farmers giving me food, the person who built the house we live in, we feel the gratitude in us and compassion grows. In the circle of life, we are all connected and support each other. We lead sometimes from the front and sometimes from the back. Compassion is what helps us set apart efficient managers from inspirational leaders. We have so many inspirational leaders sitting here. In the next 3 days, we will be listening to everyone. I just wanted to share an anecdote with you a few days back, I invited a young mother with a 2-year-old son to be a model. We have a fashion show on the third day to benefiting our school. Her eyes lit up. She said I will support him from the back. This really got me thinking that the natural instinct of a woman to push others forward and it is a reflection of deep confidence that does not seek any attention. So like flowers in the forest that go unnoticed, there are women who share not for recognition but because it is their innate nature. As our scriptures say, this powerful space emerges when you find a balance in the qualities that complete the Circle Of Life: passion, compassion, and dispassion. Passion for your goals, compassion in your actions towards humanity and dispassion to the results when you’re given your best. Our conference provides a platform for both rural and urban women to come together and learn from each other. Yesterday, I was speaking to Honorable Mr. Nikola. He said did they mistake my identity by inviting me for a women’s conference? No, we want you to be here. What makes our conferences different is the spiritual touch which makes us rise above the gender and feel the strength of humanity which is all-inclusive, this is what we have learned from Gurudev. And I’m sure over these three days, the dialogues and the deliberations will stimulate our minds, will fill our hearts and continue to be torchbearers of love, service, and wisdom on this planet.

Welcome to all the dignitaries and all of you such wonderful leaders are sitting here. We want to learn more from you. Thank you so much for coming here.