New BTW Latvia Blog

 

Dear BTW Family Members and Friends,

A new blog is started: http://btwlatvia.wordpress.com/ !!!

It is with great pleasure and heartfelt joy and gratitude that we announce the creation of a wonderful new blog in Russian dedicated to Bless the World, Mohanji and associated charity activities. This project was birthed into being by a loving team of BTW Family members from Latvia and Ukraine. Indeed our BTW Family is growing faster than ever, as more and more people from all around the world resonate deeply with BTW’s human and spiritual messages. Kindly read on and discover the story behind this wonderful and graceful expression of service to all.

Love,
Caroline, BTW Team.

About the creators and the origins of the project

Andris Ceirans was born in the Baltic state of Latvia. He lives and works in Riga, in Latvia. Andris works in the field of logistics. Daina Gribonika also lives in Riga where she works in a bank. Both Daina and Andris are also practitioners of Yoga (mostly Hat-Ha). Riga is the capital and largest city of Latvia, a major industrial, commercial, cultural and financial centre of the Baltics. With a population of almost 1 million, it is the largest city of the Baltic states. The climate of Riga is humid and continental. The coldest months are January and February, when the average temperature is −5 °C. The summers in Riga are warm and humid with an average temperature of 18 °C, while temperatures on the hottest days can exceed 30 °C!

Andris says:

“I met Mohanji in April 2010, in Hamburg, at the annual business meeting of an association our respective companies belong to. While sitting around a table of 8 people on the first evening of the Hamburg meeting, after some 40 minutes of business talks (on developments, cooperation between agencies, etc…) I suddenly asked a question to the others: “Business is wonderful, no doubts! But, how much do we all need to be satisfied in our lives? I was in India and saw very poor people smiling! So, why are we sometimes so greedy, always striving for more…?”.  Mohanji happened to be sitting at my table (out of some 20 tables!) and was actually seated on my right. And that, for me, is where the story began!

After meeting and talking with Mohanji at the business meeting, I suddenly realized that it is possible to live in two worlds – to combine the Social life and the Spiritual life.  I was very touched by the story of Mohanji’s own experience and Mohanji’s ability to exist in these two worlds, which is quite uncommon. I was sure that relating the story and activities of Mohanji could assist many people who had “lost themselves” between these two worlds, unsure  of which way to go, wondering whether they had to make a choice between one or the other, and not even realizing the existence of a middle option !!!  Both Daina and myself believed that creating and translating the BTW blog into Russian would offer readers a wonderful possibility to completely review their lives or see certain events in their lives from a different, and perhaps deeper, perspective.“

About the blog and participants

The blog content includes sections about Mohanji , about the Ammucare charity fund and also the translations of the various blogs themselves. When asked why they chose to do it in Russian, they said:

“Even though we live in Latvia (post Soviet Latvia), we did it in Russian because most Latvians know the Russian language very well, but Russians, however, are not very proficient in Latvian. Furthermore, the Russian language is rather broadly used, not only in Latvia, but in plenty of other countries in the Baltic Sea region, Russia, Belorussia, Ukraine etc.“

Although initiated by Andris and Daina, the project would not have been possible without the participation and assistance of their team members. These include Karina Gribonika, Daina’s younger sister, who provided all kinds of assistance; Anna Gribonika, Daina’s mother, who checks the Russian versions for mistakes and edits where necessary; Maris Sverns, a man from Latvia, whom Daina and Andris have not actually met yet, but who encountered Mohanji’s website,  got in touch with them by phone and offered his assistance to do additional error monitoring in the Russian texts; and last but not least, Alexander Zhalkiy, a friend of theirs from Ukraine, who offered his programming skills and assisted them with technical web matters.

Andris humbly admits:

“My Daina, who was deeply touched by the messages in Mohanji’s blogs, has been the driving force behind the whole project, like a driver running the bus. Daina is monitoring the entire projet and keeping track of where we are with the translations and so on.  When we started, although it seemed much simpler to translate the blog into Russian, it actually turned out to be rather difficult, but very exciting ! We could have done the work more quickly, but here one cannot use the automatic translators. These translators are quite inaccurate and it then takes double the time to make corrections afterwards. So, we have been translating in the traditional, standard way. We have also been picking up many new words, hence improving our English skills!“

When asked to describe their motivation and experience with regards to this blog creation, they said:

“Love, Compassion and the desire to assist others is the reason we are doing all of this.”

Daina also says: “When reading the blogs and translating them into Russian, there is a feeling of doing something very important for others who may have been missing out on some simple stories, without heavy “religious” language,  which could serve as guidance in their lives. We are convinced that Mohanji is not some “usual” Guru, but a man living in two worlds.“

The Bless The World Team would like to extend their deepest, heart-felt appreciation and gratitude to Daina, Andris and all their  team members for their hard work, efforts, devotion and dedication. May their desire be fulfilled and may their work contribute to bringing understanding, clarity and peace into the lives of many.