Northeast Retreat 2017 Reflections
The following pieces are from your Regional Coordinators and some retreat attendees, who share their experiences from the 2017 YJA Retreats held across our nation.
Pankti Tamboli
Northeast RC
Regional retreats have always been my favorite YJA events. There is something so special about connecting, learning and growing together as a community under one roof throughout a weekend. As a former local representative and past attendee of several retreats, I knew I had to live up to the initial impression these events had left on me, and made me fall in love with being an active part of YJA. As the second ever Northeast retreat, I am proud to say we had attendees from almost every age from fourteen to twenty-nine! With over half of the attendees being first timers, this was an exclusive experience where we could reconnect with old Jain friends, but also make so many more new ones. From the storytelling icebreakers, silly pictures form the scavenger hunt, thought provoking session, vegan cinnamon rolls, early morning guided-meditation, and playing Kho on the beach, the weekend passed by too quickly for me! None of this would have been possible without the hard work in planning and leading sessions by my LRs, and I cannot thank them enough for making this weekend a successful one. YJA has become so much more than an organization to me; and I cannot wait for more sand, sunshine and sessions in the future with my Northeast family :)
Yash Shah
Northeast Attendee
joined YJA as an LR for the Northeast Region a couple of months back, and attended my first YJA event at the Northeast Regional Retreat 2017 in Salisbury, MA. YJA to me, is an exciting and informative group for the young generation to learn, discuss and participate in activities related to our Jain Culture. I would describe it as the fun Pathshala, where we all take a creative route to explore Jainism. The Northeast Retreat completely justified my description above. A perfect blend of religious and recreational activities, the retreat was a great experience. For me, the main motive was to meet new people belonging to different age groups, who share the same goal — to spread Jainism in a fun and innovative way. The sessions on Jainism were a great opportunity for everyone to voice out their opinions and it helped many of us to develop a new perspective for different Jain philosophies. Cooking and Baking the ‘Jain Way,’ was fun activity too. As I mentioned earlier, the retreat was very well balanced with recreational activities which gave us some funny and exciting memories. From board games to games on the beach, it was quite awesome how we were able to do all of this in two days. Kudos to Pankti (RC) and Megha (Director of PR) for planning and executing this event so well. It was fun to work in teams on various activities over these two days and I enjoyed making new friends. I thought I’ll keep the best for the last — the retreat location and the house!! I think everyone at the retreat definitely loved the location and all of us were sad to leave the house at the end of day 2.
I would definitely encourage all the readers to participate in various YJA activities and would surely recommend to attend the YJA Regional Retreats and Conventions. I am sure that Young Jains of America will never get old, as I envision new, creative minds to become a part of this exciting group and continue to spread Jainism beyond boundaries.
Kairavi Mehta
Northeast Attendee
Jainism teaches us that the way to liberation and bliss is to live a life of harmlessness and renunciation. The aim of Jain life is to achieve liberation of the soul.
I have lost count of the number of times I have heard these words but I didn’t really understand it’s true meaning. Being non-Jains, my parents couldn’t answer my questions and I gave up eventually. I used to attend Jain pathshalas as a kid (thanks to my best friend who refused to do anything or learn anything unless I did I too), fasted, attended events and pretty much know more about Jainism than I know about my religion. But I didn’t really bother to understand the virtues of Jainism. Attending the retreat, for me, was truly an eye opener. It gave me a new perspective towards Jainism. The presentations given by the LRs and the discussions that happened around the presentations helped me understand the scientific reasons behind the principles of Jainism. The interesting part was how they managed to make all the presentations and activities fun. I never thought I’d have that much fun with 25 people I had never met in my life. It was great to see people follow their religion and know so much about it even though they’re not in India.
This was my first YJA retreat and I can confidently say that I will be going for the ones that follow as well. Everything from playing Psychiatrist to the Jain version of Cards Against Humanity to baking cinnamon rolls to prepping lunch and dinner to beach games was a lot of fun. A big kudos to the regional coordinator for having so wonderfully arranged everything. She truly did an amazing job.
