(Minghui.org) Practitioners in India were invited to participate in the Republic Day Lalbagh Flower Show held on January 18-28, 2024. They introduced Falun Dafa to event goers, and explained why the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began persecuting the spiritual discipline in July 1999. Many people said they felt positive energy when they did the exercises.
India adopted its constitution 75 years ago on January 26, 1950, and established a republic. Republic Day is observed every year on January 26 to celebrate India’s independence from British rule. The Lalbagh Flower Show is held biannually on India’s Independence Day, and on Republic Day. This year the Republic Day Lalbagh Flower Show was held in Bangalore’s Lalbagh Botanical Gardens, and attracted over 500,000 attendees.
Practitioners displayed Falun Dafa posters and pamphlets at their booth and at a flower display featuring a statue of a little girl doing the fifth Falun Dafa exercise, the meditation.
Practitioners’ display during the Lalbagh Flower Show in Bangalore.
Visitors welcomed the Falun Dafa booth. Many people stopped and read the posters, and some learned the Falun Dafa exercises. Others took photos with the practitioners’ floral display. Through the event people were able to learn about how Falun Dafa can help them find inner peace. Many people asked where the nearest practice site was and said they were interested in learning more about the practice.
Film Director Wants to Learn Falun Dafa
On the first day of the flower show Venmani Unnikrishnan, a Malayalam-language film director, visited the practitioners’ booth. He said he was drawn to the Falun Dafa booth because he was, “Looking for a practice that can help me become peaceful.” Falun Dafa’s principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance resonated with him, and he wanted to explore how Falun Dafa helps people find balance.
Venmani Unnikrishnan (middle), a Malayalam-language film director, talks to a practitioner.
“I have been trying to practice meditation for a long time on my own. However, I feel I am not able to meditate, and so I’m interested in Falun Dafa, and how it can help me,” he said.
A practitioner explained how this peaceful practice is persecuted by the CCP in China, and how practitioners around the world have peacefully resisted the persecution for 24 years. Before he left, Venmani took the URL links to three films about Falun Dafa so that he could watch them and learn more.
Educator Hopes Students Can Practice Falun Dafa
Many educators attended the flower show. They talked to the practitioners about how their students could benefit from the practice. Nandita from Bambino Public School and Prabha Natraj from Jnana Jyothi Educational Trust were two of them.
Prabha said that their students come from underprivileged backgrounds and often have trouble focusing. They felt practicing Falun Dafa could help improve both mental and physical fitness, and wanted to try it with their students to see if it can help them focus. The two educators invited practitioners to teach their students the Falun Dafa exercises.
Sr. Sajitha, a faculty member at Mount Carmel College (right), asked practitioners to bring their display to her campus for her students.
Practitioners visited Mount Carmel College many times to introduce the practice to the teachers and students, and show them how to do the exercises. Sr. Sajitha, a faculty member at the college, visited the practitioners’ booth at the flower show. She expressed admiration for practitioners’ selfless efforts in exposing and ending the persecution in China. She also asked practitioners to display their statue of the meditating girl on the college premises during a festival in February.
Bangaloreans Learn the Exercises
Throughout the eleven days of the flower show, many visitors came to the practitioners’ booth to learn the Falun Dafa exercises.
Jose Adapoor (right), a practitioner, shows three women how to do the fifth exercise.
Ayub Pahsa and his wife Tasmiya Basu (two on the left) came to the booth each day to learn the exercises.
Ayub Pahsa and his wife Tasmiya Basu stopped by the booth and told the practitioners that they were looking for a way to reduce negative thinking. They learned the exercises, and then came back to the booth multiple days to learn the exercises. Tasmiya said that she could feel, “energy shifting in her body,” as she did the exercises. They also downloaded a digital copy of Falun Gong and said that the teachings resonated with them deeply.
Suraju from Babusa Palaya said she always wondered why people meditate. “I’m interested in learning a spiritual meditation in depth,” she said.
Practitioners taught her how to do the Falun Dafa exercises. She bought the books Falun Gong and Zhuan Falun so that she could continue practicing. She told practitioners that she would visit their group practice site and do the exercises with them.
Practitioners teach the exercises for free at the flower show.
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