Celebrating Christmas in the Ashram in New Delhi

By Jaspal Soni

This year for the first time, we celebrated Christmas with the local community members. It was over three years ago when the ashram was opened in New Delhi. Time seemed to have flown. We felt we were ready to welcome the Christmas Spirit. It brought us a lot of excitement in anticipation of the holy festivities and, by God’s grace, it turned out to be a memorable event!

On the Christmas Eve, the weather was mild and sunny. In the morning, we visited an NGO, Project Why, located about 10 minutes away. This NGO is dedicated to giving education to the slum children of Delhi by helping them build their personality and self-confidence. They teach the kids math, science, English language and computer skills. There were about 150 kids 3-17 years old in two separate rooms. Some of them were physically-challenged. We gave them wallet-size cards of I AM Presence and explained its meaning. We also shared with them the meaning of the Christmas tree and the gifts hanging on its branches. We prayed together and distributed lunch boxes.

There were two volunteers from France who were teaching them English. We were told that many volunteers usually come from foreign countries, mostly from Russia and France, serving for up to three months.

On Christmas Day, the weather was foggy and cold in the morning but around noon, the fog got lifted and sun came out. We conducted the service from 1:30 pm to 3 in the balcony and did ashram ritual for soul purification and played Mother’s video clip on individual Christhood followed by a video dictation clip given by Jesus in 1991. Twenty five people came—most of them had attended our workshops. Following the service, we had lunch together prepared by the Keepers of the Flame. Everyone seems to have enjoyed the feast of light. It gave us all a renewed sense of community bonding!