18.11.2006

Full of energy, we moved to Manglahat Sanskar Centre, a trade and business centre. There we saw the realisation of both, material (business) and spiritual (why we were invited to visit) aspect of human life. Read what it all was about.

In Manglahat, Shri Samsukha has his shop, where he works together with his son Vineet. In the morning, before we left his home, he had announced to us that he would be happy to receive us in his shop. When we agreed after having consulted Sushil Bafana if this suits into the schedule, we did not guess why both of them exchanged smiles of confederates.

Shri Samsukha waited for us on the street and showed the way to the location to visit. We were lucky to be there on Saturday, as since about 7 years from 09:30 to 10:30, a group of traders regularly meets on Saturday for spiritual upliftment! They recite holy Mantras and Sutras, sometimes they are doing 5 to 10 minutes of Preksha Meditation or doing Mantra Meditation on the sound of Arham. The location of the meeting is rotating, decision where to meet the Saturday to come is taken after every meeting. This Saturday it was the turn to meet in Shri Mohanlal Samsukha’s shop.

By approaching already, we heart a male choir singing a song composed by Acharya Tulsi, praising Lord Mahavira, and took audio and video record when we reached,

AUDIO:
Chanting_In_Manglahat_Sanskar_Centre
[6:24]

After the session, we were offered tea and biscuits, and Sushil Bafana welcomed us on behalf of the attendees and presented us to them. They gave gifts to us, and expressed their happiness to receive us. The hospitality we experienced from all our spiritual friends and the joy they all expressed to meet Karmana Jains from Germany is impossible to top!

We learned that Manglahat is one of the biggest garment complexes in Kolkata, open on Mondays and Tuesdays only. The other days, shops are prepared for business days by fixing appointments for delivery of rags or doing administrative work.

After delivery, the rags are stored in sealable boxes on the ground floor. They cannot be seen at first sight, as they are stored in the ground.

From there, the rags are transported to the shop or rack of the trader. According to their business capacity, traders either can rent a shop or an amount of space in a rack.

This last day of our Kolkata visit reminded Sushil Bafana’s remark to us, when we arrived, “Now you are here for visiting your friend in Kolkata. When you will go back, you will have made plenty of more friends here!”