When Divya Jhaver went to college to study
Visual Communications in a bid to hone her love for designing, she hadn’t a
clue that she would, one day, be a front-runner for the cause of educating
little girls. Fortune favoured her enough to give her a comfortable living, as
work was never a necessity, but rather a choice. “Whatever money was generated,
it was used for new clothes, bags and jewellery all for myself. I never had to
save because I was blessed with more than enough.” That was until a time came,
three years ago, when Divya turned over a new leaf.
“I could not shut my ears to the deafening
call to search for something "more". All the excess baggage of
material wealth began to weigh on me and I just wanted to go in search of
myself, in search of my teacher. I took a break from everything around me.”
While on her voyage of personal discovery, Divya took to yoga, and chanced on
books published by the Bihar School of
Yoga, which gave her a more definite direction in
life. She then went to an
ashram in Rikhia, India, which works along with a Yoga Ashram in Munger. Divya
met her guru there, Swami Satsangi. “I had the privilege to listen to some of
her discourses on selfless service, and have hands on experience of the same,
too. I witnessed the people of the ashram work tirelessly, round the clock,
just to be able to provide their neighbours (villagers) with food, shelter,
clothing and education. They don’t live for themselves, but for others. What
attracted me first, and most, at that, was to see a woman lead an ashram. There
are very few female spiritual leaders who have been able to make a place for
themselves in this world of men. No doubt it is still a male dominated society.
My upbringing was different. I was brought up with a lot of love and respect.
My parents were always supportive of my decisions. I had the right to make my own
decisions which many women even from affluent families are not lucky enough to
do. We were always given more than what we asked for. Although my parents did a
lot for others, I never imbibed that
quality in me until this experience.”
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| Divya, with her guru |
Divya’s brush with spirituality took her to
understand the fact that we, as a people, do not have any right over this thing
we call our wealth. “We are nothing but a medium that God uses to help others
and it is our duty to consistently give back to society and strike that
balance. If we are blessed with more than what we need it means we someone else
has lesser than what he requires.”
That took Divya to start her own design
studio, called Wild Rose, which works
to financially support the education of girls. “The education and values which
the children of the ashram are blessed with, makes me question our pattern of
education. The young girls and boys of Rikhia walk with their head held high,
converse in English like any one of us and are confident of taking on anything.
There is no concept of "leadership courses" or "public
speaking" classes as it is in the schools we know of, in our cities. While
we barely know our mother tongues as well as we know English, the young
children of Rikhia chant Sanskrit verses at great speed that if we try to keep
up it would literally twist our tongue. Rikhia ashram is not the Bihar we know
of and read about. There is a deeper and richer Bihar.”
A witness of the silent revolution, Divya
decided that she’d be a part of it. “A place which was literally "the
darkest corner of the world"... has been transformed completely through
the tireless efforts of Swami Satyananda and is now being carried on by Swami Satsangi.
Educating a woman is equivalent to educating an entire generation, because it
is she who carries the child in her womb, who instills values in children and it
is these children who become the future of any country.”
Check out Wild Rose here and help educate a girl child, today!
The products created by WILD ROSE can be
used for absolutely any occasion. It’s not just festive gifts but gifting ideas
for anniversaries, birthdays... I am soon coming up with "WILD ROSE
JUNIORS"... so kids are not left out :) these gifts can be made according
to the preference of the customer. So whatever the customer buys... that money
is floated towards the purpose of this business... educating young girls. :)