JVB Preksha Meditation Center’s 16th Annual Family Retreat

By Seema Jain

HOUSTON: JVB Preksha Meditation Center, Houston conducted its 16th Annual 3-day and 2-night Family Retreat Camp at 66-acre facility Camp Woodmen, Bellville, TX from March 25 through March 27 under the spiritual guidance and presence of Samani Vikas Pragyaji and Samani Maryada Pragyaji. About 75+ campers from all over the state of Austin, San Antonio, and the Greater Houston area came along to enjoy the calm and scenic surroundings while nurturing their soul through powerful discourses, laughing yoga, meditation and relaxation techniques. Every year, this camp aims to foster the healthy Spiritual, Intellectual, and Physical wellbeing of Camp Participants from varied backgrounds within a nurturing outdoor environment, while creating a meaningful sense of Community among them through an active and fun learning experience.

The camp started on Friday evening with meet and greet session with Samanijis. The hall was filled with new and old familiar faces. New attendees shared their anxiety to experience this special camp & their views on what motivated them to attend this spiritual retreat. The session was followed by the Samani Vikas Pragyaji’s powerful lecture on “ Attitude: Makes your world, breaks your world”. She explored the idea of what is attitude, how it is developed and its importance in one’s life.

The early morning sessions on Saturday and Sunday started with reciting of Bhaktambar stotra & Meditation session conducted by Samani Maryada Pragyaji. An hour long Laughing Yoga conducted by Jeetendra Tannaji aimed at recharging everyone’s battery through various laughing exercises on Saturday and Alok Jain carried out Yoga and Pranayama Session on Sunday. Samani Vikas Pragyaji led an interactive lecture series part I, II & III on the theme of the camp where she explained how attitude helps to thrive the relationships, its concept in Jainism and its process of transformation. In her last lecture, she delivered tips that can be utilized to transform one’s attitude via different meditation techniques. The audience appreciated situational examples that they could relate to their family and daily lives; which led to thought provoking discussions and fructified ideas to overcome them. Participants relaxed and meditated during the course of  two days with focus on relaxation.

The retreat had concurrent kids programs which were divided into two age groups. Kids ages 5yrs. to 9 Yrs. old were placed in one group and the Youth group had kids’ ages 10yrs. to 15yrs. old. Both the groups focused on Learning, Yoga, and other creative activities conducted by Samani Maryada Pragyaji along with parent volunteers Pramod Bengani, Shashi Jain, Vikram Parikh, Mukta Jain, Hemang Vora, Anusha Jain & Sarika Gandhi. Some of the highlights of the children activities were interactive sessions for the young kids group on “What makes you big”& youth group on “Make the World yours” by Samani Maryada Pragyaji, “Top Ten Values to stop Negative Attitude ” by Pramod Bengani, “Learn values with fun” for younger group by Hemang Vora and for youth group “Enhance your life with positive attitude” by Mukta Jain.

For adult attendees, An interesting Jain Quiz which was based on a unique Stock market theme was full of fun & knowledge. Nikhil Jain, Pramod Bengani & Sam Torabi played the perfect host of this game. All participants, including kids participated in a cultural eve on Saturday night. Youth group expressed and shared their views on how to stop negative attitude becoming your behavior through presentation slides. For the adults, 6 different teams were formed to make a presentation on self- reflection of each member of their team. Creativity peaked in each of the team skits, and the audience enjoyed the entertaining & fun presentations. Nitesh Jain played the perfect host for the evening. Video & pictures were done by Ashok Jain, Sudhir Daga & Jigar Dedhia.

All participants appreciated the great bouquet of programs, activities, and the way arrangements were handled professionally by the JVB team.  Food arrangements, which were handled by Meena Shah & Anusha Jain, were also highly talked about. The Annual camp concluded with a one hour interactive session with Samanijis. Seema Jain moderated a feedback session & expressed his thanks to Samanijis, all attendees & volunteers for making this a memorable and successful event for one and all. Samaniji brought the event to a successful close by reciting mangal paath, with everybody taking the resolve to come back next year.

​ ​JVB Preksha Meditation Center is home to a specially designed Preksha Dhyan ‘Pyramid’ Meditation Hall and is located at 14102 Schiller Rd, Houston, TX 77082. Our Upcoming Events include I-Choose session for young professionals on “Dealing with Uncertainty with Certainty” by renowned speaker Alok Jain on April 17 from 1pm – 2:30pm and Two days Preksha Meditation Shivir on April 23 & 24 from 9am- 5pm inside our unique pyramid hall.

For more information, please visit www.JVBHouston.org. You can reach Samanijis at 281.596.9642 or call Seema Jain @ 281.575.0575.