Awakin Call

Gayatri Naraine’s spiritual curiosity about “soul consciousness” first awakened after a visit by a Hindu nun early in the morning, followed a few hours later by a cousin’s sudden death in a road accident. It was 1975; she was 20 and living in Guyana, her birthplace in South America. The Hindu nun was visiting the nation, where Gayatri’s father served as Vice President, and was welcomed by Gayatri’s British-Dutch Hindu family. At a time of grieving a young cousin’s death, where the family was uniquely open and curious about what happens to the soul of the departed, the nun came to stay with the family for an extended time in furtherance of the nun’s deeper soul recognition. As Gayatri began to take the nun’s classes, she experienced her own awakening. She saw people of different races and backgrounds concentrated on a point of light, and thought “If there is a God, this is how God will be. God will have a form that every single individual could identify with. There wouldn’t be ‘this is my God, and this your God, and this is someone else’s God’ because of the physical images.” As she deepened her study, she realized she had met this particular vision of the divine in another life and had unfinished business.

She has been pursuing that “unfinished business” ever since. For the past 50 years now, Sister Gayatri Naraine has been a student and senior teacher of the Brahma Kumaris, a global women-led spiritual movement (of which the visiting nun was a member), with over a million members across 120+ countries. A spiritual educator, writer, and speaker, she has served as the primary representative of the Brahma Kumaris (BKs) at the United Nations in New York since 1980. Curious about the deeper meanings of United Nations tenets, her work focuses on fostering upstream pathways to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through spiritual transformation. 

Central to her views about creating a world of peace is her belief that sustainable outer change flows from inner change. Even before mainstream awareness about the power of contemplative practices, she spearheaded global campaigns to shift consciousness. She recounts an experience while representing Million Minutes of Peace Appeal and speaking with a senior official heading the “International Year of Peace” celebrations (1986). His remark shocked Sr. Gayatri. “It’s all right, but there can never be peace in the world…because human beings by nature are violent.” She returned disheartened, on the verge of giving up. But through support and reflection, she found renewed conviction—turning doubt into determination and a deeper commitment to peace. Just in 4 weeks, the peace appeal ended up encouraging 1.2 Billion minutes of meditation (~ 2344 years!) from participants in 88 countries.     

Sr. Gayatri serves as a spiritual resource within the United Nations on the inner roots of global transformation. She co-authored a concept paper “Enhancing Human Flourishing Within the 2030 Development Agenda: The Spirituality of Global Transformation”, resulting from a 3-year dialogue held with UNFPA (United Nations Population Fund). She is also a founding member of Call of the Time, a global leadership dialogue on social and political transformation that over the past 20 years has incorporated “experiments in silence” in the design, believing that because “dialogue is, at its essence, about a deep listening to what is trying to emerge, it can benefit significantly from being more disciplined in quieting the mind."  In her current position of Vice-Chair of the UN Yoga Day Committee, Gayatri is active in bringing together practitioners of contemplative, reflective, and meditative practices from the inter-faith community at the United Nations. She serves as a member of the Interfaith Women Council, UNEP, advocating environmental stewardship inspired by various spiritual traditions. Gayatri also serves as a consultant to the Core Group of the International Initiative of Shiv Shakti Leadership, dedicated to empowerment of women. 

Reflecting on the current state of the world, Sr. Gayatri says: “At this time virtually everyone understands that there is something enormous in motion that is threatening to destroy our way of life. What we need to understand is that there is also something enormous underway that is creative. It is generating a new way of life, a new era on the Earth. … It is a time of transition on a scale unparalleled in the history of time, a movement of the world from an old age to a new age, a new beginning, a renewed creation – a time when the Divine Energy is active in the world and engaged in creation. … What is possible at this time is to understand, experience, and support this emergent world, beginning with a shift in awareness.”

Sr. Gayatri was educated in the United Kingdom in Public Administration, and she currently lives in New York City, USA. She has authored or co-authored a number of books and articles that have been published globally. “For the past 50 years, my zeal and enthusiasm for life have emerged out of the study and practice of Raja Yoga that has kept me in a curious place, a place of profound realization of the importance and auspiciousness of time,” she gratefully reflects. 

Join us in conversation with Sister Gayatri Naraine, a seeker of truth, a beacon of light, and a dedicated servant of humanity, moderated by upcoming guest, Susan Bauer Wu, and former guest Charles Gibbs.