Benoy Shah - Mumbai, Maharashtra

 

It was the monsoon of 2010 when I first visited Asia Plateau & it was the beginning of my journey of bringing the change within. Being connected with IOFC at a crucial age of 17 was very important for me since I was going to leave the country for my undergraduate studies in USA where I would be given full freedom & be held responsible for my decisions. People of similar age group from all walks of world had assembled on June 1st, 2010 to inaugurate National Youth conference 2010. I was completely oblivious about what the 8 day conference was all about.

Through the 8 day conference in Asia Plateau, I learnt several aspects about myself which were not known to me. I weighed my life on the four parameters of purity, honesty, unselfishness & love. I was able to realize how my ego was coming in the way of building good relations with my relatives & friends. Due to my flaunting attitude, I had lost several friends & I was destroying my character. I was converting all the positivity within me into negative thoughts & judging people based on their wealth. It was through deep realization & silence time, that I was able to go deep within myself to identify what kind of person I really was. All my real faces started flashing one after the other once I went into deep silence time. In usual life, I would be extremely afraid to revisit those memories but Asia Plateau had some magic that it made me revisit each & every situation & weigh it in terms of 4 moral standards - Purity, Honesty, Unselfishness & Love.

In summary, self-realization was one part of the conference but how to implement it in the real world was where the actual challenge lied. By regular practice of silence time, I was able to reduce my ego & open doors to many new opportunities which I would have missed if I hadn't been introduced to the concept of Initiatives of Change & MRA.