Cuttack: Sri Sri University recently celebrated its sixth commencement day to welcome postgraduate students of Management, Good Governance, Yoga and Journalism. The ceremony started with lighting the lamp by dignitaries followed by Guru Puja by senior Art of Living teachers Girin Govind, Narendra Lamba and Jaina Desai.
Rajita Kulkarni, President of World Forum for Ethics in Business (WFEB), Belgium, was the chief guest and Subhas Mahajan, Ex Vice President of General Motors, United States, the guest of honour.
Melodious rendering of Saraswati Vandana by the students of Performing and Visual Arts led by Santosh Panda was followed by a scintillating Odissi performance by Arupa Panda and her students Shailaja Nandini and Gayatri Sahoo.
Prof Nand Lal, VC of Sri Sri University, spoke about the uniqueness of the university and how it is providing opportunity to develop core competency in domain knowledge and transferable skills to deal with real life situations both in personal and professional lives. Quoting Srimad Bhagavad Gita, he emphasized on the need to have faith and discipline to gain knowledge.
The guest of honour stressed the need for excellence in education and how Sri Sri University is uniquely positioned to make a great difference in the lives of students. He shared his experience in the defence forces of the United States and why he is keen to contribute to holistic education, which has a role in peace building.
Dr. Richa Chopra, director of Academic Quality Development Cell (AQDC) and Chief Counsellor- Vivechana – The Counselling Space at Sri Sri University, shared her ideas about strengthening academic quality and excellence.
Narendra Lamba, Director of Operations at Sri Sri University emphasized the need to be ethical and the challenge of being gentle at the same time. He underlined the three important things required for a student. First is domain expertise, second is to have tools to lead a happy and successful life and third is on how to become a contributive member of the society. He reiterated why meditation is the solution to many problems that we are facing today.
Kulkarni in her first Presidential Commencement Address presented a global picture of education, market and challenges to human life. She argued that Speed, Scale and Survival are the three things currently moving the world. She encouraged students to understand these forces and prepare for world economy that is increasingly marked by volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity. She shared the stories of Roger Federer, Sachin Tendulkar and PV Sindhu and how these people have given their best of life to their passion. She advised that students need to dream, believe and do in order to excel in their life.
Prof Prasanna Kumar David, Executive Registrar, offered vote of thanks.
The ceremony ended with another beautiful Odissi dance Vande Utkala Janani.
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