H2 Ohhhhh!!

The glimmering source of Light and few visible fishes around, all my life so far I have been successfully dodging all the fishes. Can't remember where my journey really began! But slowly a realisation dawns inside me that maybe I have always been existing. The glimmer above seems quite hopeful, but to get in that direction I have to pierce my way through other buddy molecules.

Certainly the life behind was in absolute dark with occasional stings from some electrified fishes. I could feel some dangerous fishes brushing across my last electron. Directionless, it took years for me - a water molecule to penetrate even a little above. And I have no clue as to why really I was bearing all the pressure. It becomes difficult to appreciate the beauty of the deep sea when you are in despair.

But now that I have seen the  source of the light, I know I have to tread the path towards it. As it's light becomes even more evident, my surroundings seem to be joyful. Everything around looks so beautiful. And now I know it is all purely because of the grace of the source of light. But what really is that source  the quest boggles. But I also know somewhere deep that this journey will be fulfilling.

Right now my life has a purpose to move towards that light. Earlier I spent my life getting swayed by every living and non living thing in the ocean. I was prone to their anger, their fights, their kills, their love, their presence and their absence. I had no idea how big this ocean would be and that how long would I be pushed in God knows how many directions. Even now I'm getting pushed, but I am well aware of which direction I'm supposed to travel. I might even go little below, but I know that my love for that source of light will drive me to move above. The more I pierce my way above the clearer my world gets and the more I fall in love with this world. And all of this is because of that awesome source of light.

The reflected rays from above do give an idea of what the source of light is, but I am yet to discover it. It looks round, it looks yellow, orange, red. Oh! Here passes that cloud again eclipsing that source of light. But I have faith that it is still there. Few moments of disappearance won't deter my years of practice of moving towards it. Sun, my source of inspiration, my very purpose of living so far won't quite so easily on me. Aah! Finally the clouds have passed away and I can see him again. The closer I get to the surface of the ocean the warmer it feels.

Wheee! This push from the fish seems to have bubbled me to the surface. And what is happening here now? Am I flying? I'm getting detached from the rest of the molecules. The bondage between the molecules with me seems to loosen up. I'm free! I'm free! Thank you dear Sun for pulling me towards you. My struggle to come this far seems to be worthwhile. Your love and the warmth pulled me up!


Now I can see the ocean in its entirety. Such a beautiful sight! As I fly up, the horizon widens. I am seeing

the world from a whole new perspective now. The wind seems to be carrying the rest of my free buddies. But I don't wish to get swayed. I want to go up. I'm pushing myself hard, but oh dear sun, I need your help here. It's your warmth that can make all the difference.
Wheee! Here I get pushed again. What a lovely sight it is from this altitude. I just cannot believe that just couple of years ago I was living in absolute dark. This freedom is enticing & reliving. Rather now I realise what is freedom really! Bliss! Pure bliss! I was cradled in the arms of my mother earth so far where she took lovely care of me. Now comes the time when I get to explore the unexplored. I now wish to know why am I here after all?

I think with this velocity I am going to dash the cloud above. Ouch! That hurt. But it seems to be a nice cozy ship. All such free buddies like me have assembled here. Together we are soaring above while moving ahead too.
I can see the land now. Animals drink water here too? I thought that was a prerogative of only fishes! That means that I run in their veins too. Quite evidently I'm everywhere existing in different forms. I can take form of ocean, rivers, lakes, mist, vapour, clouds etc. I seem to be learning a lot from my buddies here who have more experience with this cloud.

I run through all the living beings and I nourish the non living too. All of them are just me in some or the other forms. I'm enjoying this purity where I'm being untouched by any other molecule. Winds come and sway but it doesn't really matter any longer.
Now I know that I'm here for others. I'm not just here to soar in the skies and enjoy this cruise, but I'm here to contribute my bit in this whole system of life.

Now, to serve my purpose, I need to drop down into the arms of my mother earth so that I can make some life down there worth living. Albeit this dive keeps in store the knowledge of the purpose of life for some living being down there.

A solvent for all the questions

"Why do people keep running behind him all the time? I just fail to understand why are people so crazy about him!" One girl asked. Those who have this question are stuck with it because they keep looking at people. "Move your vision from people to him and you will find all your answers." I replied. It's quite natural to be crazy about such a wonder on this planet. If you look at crowd, you will get all sorts of questions. When you look at him, you get all the answers.
Is it normal for someone to pierce his way safely amongst a crowd of 1000s while greeting them, smiling at them and at the same time taking care that they don't fall over each other while taking care of his own dhoti? "Well the dhoti must be tied very well." Indeed you can apply N no of logic to anything in this world. But if logic doesn't allow you to appreciate a wonder, what is the use of that logic?

It was his birthday last week and we all clamored there to greet him. Probably one of the most important dates for quite a lot of people on this planet. "Guruji, when is your birthday someone asked long time back." He said "tera mai (13 May)" that's hindi for "I belong to you" and he means it for each and every breathing soul on this planet. Ask him, whether he has any desires and he is affirmative "To see smile on every face of this world." 'That's crap' you may think. 'It's a scheme to fork out money from innocent people.' I had similar doubts initially. But I don't like doubts to be kept at the surface. I dived in to figure out what is he really up to! In Vidarbha district of Maharashtra, there are 10 farmer suicides per day everywhere. In the villages adopted by AOL not a single instance of farmer suicides. Can you count how many smiles he managed with his intention? This is not even 1% of the work the AOL volunteers are pouring themselves in, and no points for guessing who is the inspiration behind all this.

"Why do people consider him as God?" someone asked Bawa once. Bawa replied "His technique of Sudarshan Kriya has saved millions of lives and millions of families. But naturally people would revere him. That doesn't stop you from believing in only whatever you experience. You take him the way you want. He is there to accept everyone in totality." His acceptance of an individual is so graceful that even stone hearted terrorists cry like babies in front of him.
I was once volunteering in an advance course taken by Hasan Tafti. Hasanji's mom asked him "What are the divine qualities of Guruji that you see?" "Forget his divine qualities mom" Hasanji said,  "I can't even fathom his human qualities." He narrated an incident when some 10 to 15 people from Pakistan had come to Bangalore Ashram to meet Guruji and Guruji had asked Hasanji to take care of them. "That night in Satsang Vikram Hazra was singing all filmy songs and Guruji was nicely smiling at everyone, enjoying the music, looking at the moon, the stars etc. After the Satsang I went to meet the Pakistani friends and I was little surprised to see one middle aged person crying profusely. I asked him what happened? 'You didn't see what happened?' 'Yes! Beautiful satsang beautiful atmosphere everything was perfect.' 'Then you didn't see what happened.' 'Ok, so tell me what happened.' 'I have 2 businesses, one in Karachi and one in Lahore and I rip my head apart in managing these two cities. Here is a person who has branches in 156 countries and he has time to look at the moon, the stars while enjoying filmy songs.'"  Is it less than a wonder? We lose our patience while managing our 8 hours job and he still manages to smile while getting out of a 17 hour flight while being intent to a plethora of emotional, financial, political, personal, non personal and good knows how many different issues.

While standing in the huge queue to meet him, on his birthday, I told Venky "I think he will remain a wonder all through my life. The more you try to understand him, the more mysterious he becomes." Generally mysteries are associated with question marks. With him all questions dissolve into exclamation marks.
He creates a world
Where silence merges with wonder,
Where devotion rises up in love,
Where dynamism brings out the colours of service,
Where wisdom carves out the definition of humanity.
Indeed the world is blessed by his birth.

How I got out of Rs 3000 fine with a warning

An example of when Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar says something he means it.
I was riding back from the spiritual fair with Sagar behind me holding my bag and my LCD TV, when a cop caught us. My bike being of Andhra Pradesh registration, it quickly caught his eye and he demanded the NOC. To ensure that we don't run away he snatched the keys from my hand. After searching a lot I could produce a receipt that Hyderabad RTO gave me that indicated that my NOC is in their possession. He shrugged that receipt off saying that he needs actual NOC. I saw that there was no other way than paying the 3000 Rs fine he was demanding.

Sagar behind me got into negotiations mood and his Tamil conversations convinced the cop that we are not thieves stealing the bike. After a peaceful discussion for about 10 mins I declared that I don't have enough cash for the fine.
"How much do you have? "
"1000 bucks." I was honest.
"Ok, give me. "
"With receipt or without receipt?"
"Of course without receipt."
I remembered 2 things in that moment.
1. Having taken oath that I will never bribe.
2. Guruji saying," If anybody asks for bribe, show him my photo and tell him that He is my Guru. He has told us not to give bribe."

Very politely I followed my Guru's words. Next moment he mellowed down.
"Ok so, sure that you are not thieves? "
"Absolutely! We do social work." and I showed him pics of us working on VFABI - Respect the Red Campaign.
Next moment he dropped the keys back in my hand.

Guys, whenever you come across any such situation, be patient, be calm, composed and confident. Your biggest asset is your faith in your Guru's words and your next biggest asset is your smile.
Be compassionate towards the person but do not indulge in corruption.
Times are changing and so are people who do corruption.
Let's be the wheels of change. Let's volunteer for a better India.
For Volunteer For A Better India Chennai chapter, follow @VBICHN

Jai Gurudev

How big clues of life unravel themselves! Aho!

Observe the reasons why can one not get deep sleep.

" I am having a bad stomach ache." That's the effect of eating wrong food. Take a pill and it can be healed.

"I have bad headache, fever, cough & cold etc " That's again the effect of not maintaining health properly. Still we can manage it by pill or Zandu Balm etc.

"There are just too many mosquitoes tonight." Now this is the effect of your community not maintaining proper healthy surroundings and everyone in your community will have to face this issue. But again this can be taken care of by various "techniques" like liquidator, coil, odomos, electric bat etc.

Every effect mentioned above is because of some action, right? That action is nothing but our karma. It's because of our actions or our community's actions we bear certain fruits or bad consequences. I'm enjoying an urban lifestyle because of the actions of my grandparents. I have to bear a wrong government because of the action or for that matter inaction of my fellow citizens. I enjoy the good marks in my exam because of the action of my studies.

So now coming back to reasons as to why one cannot sleep properly, we saw there are are certain actions that we do all day that lead us to lack of sleep. But then certain actions out of them do have cure. Certain scientists or gurus in the field of science have deviced certain ways (pills, Balm, liquidators etc) in which you can be relieved off your/your community's actions/inactions.

One of the prime reasons as to why one doesn't get deep sleep is when some botheration constantly hovers over one's mibd. In one of my sessions with Rajima Ratan she said desires eventually ferment into botherations. Look at any botheration that doesn't let you sleep, it was a desire some time back. "I have exam tomorrow." is a botheration that arises out of the desire to get good marks. And stronger the desire, stronger is the impression of botheration. And stronger the botheration, the shallow our sleep is.

So unless we lighten ourselves with desires, we effectively won't have good sleep. Now as H. H. Sri Sri Ravishankar puts it up, desire is an intention with feverishness. To take my example, the idea to write this blog dawned on me when a storm of mosquito bites shook me out of my sleep. The intention to blog about this sudden realization (Aho Niranjan!) was good enough to complete my action without any negative effect on my sleep. But associated with this intention was the feverishness to blog it right now which fermented into a desire. And I won't get proper sleep tonight until I completely drop this desire because even after publishing the blog comes the desire to get reader's comments. So I simply won't get my peace of mind until I get completely dispassionate about this action.

So to sum it up, in order to get liberated in deep sleep:
a) one has to implement the techniques and the instruments invented by the gurus in the field of science to overcome the effects of one actions (karma).
b) get dispassionate about one's actions by dropping feverishness off the desires thus preventing it to become a botheration.

Now with this, we do realize the importance of repeating advance meditation courses, don't we? Those who have understood the implicit meaning of the blog would concur. So keep repeating AMCs and keep exploiting the botheration basket in the course that will eventually lead you to that deep sleep from where getting up and going back to bed comes completely under your control.

:-)

Jai Gurudev.

Discovery of Happenings

A very small story that I remembered today. It was my first party with Yes!+ Madhapur. Finding Ushassu the residence of the teachers where the whole party was held turned out to be a herculean task for me. My first Guru Pooja experience with Vishnu chanting Guru pooja turned out to be just magical. I just couldn't fathom that mere words that I can barely understand can bring such a profound effect on me. I was beginning to start liking the whole affair. I thought, 'Here begin my days to start wearing Kurta Pajama' . Just as the things were getting stereotyped, Vishnu & Poornima unleashed a pack of games and from their bags came out neatly wrapped prizes with strict instructions from Vishnu to not to open your prizes until you reach home.

I was innocently honest with the instruction and little curious to discover the prized possession (as it is I hardly win, and when I do the prize becomes even more precious), only to discover Vishnu's mocking face in a torn out banyan (inner vest).

Here are certain things that happened that night that makes that night special for me.

1. I experienced the magic of Guru Pooja for the first time.

2. The games and the prizes removed from stereotype about AOL created that very day.

3. I made friends with some 50 odd people in one shot. I was amazed to see how freely people talked to each other and especially to me a stranger.

4. Scored little mileage by winning the game.

5. And most importantly, I got a cloth free of cost to clean my newly bought bike :-).

"So many achievements in one shot can happen only with the Art of Living group" I thought as I spent 20 bucks today to buy a piece of cloth to clean my bike.

And had I not spent this 20 bucks today, God knows when would I have remembered this priceless story.

Feel every inch of my life in AOL is soaked in bliss.

Seeds of Positivity

Few months back I started a new ritual to bless or pray for some soul everyday. "Yeah right as if blessings and prayers work." Let's understand what happens when you pray for someone.

When we pray we consciously harbor care and a sense of belonging towards that person. "Well I do that, I don't need prayers for it." Prayers needn't necessarily mean appealing to God. Prayers are silent wishes. With prayers we give our heart a voice. A voice that even we don't know exists. Then dawns a lovely feeling of care for someone. We then soon find ourselves taking extra mile of finding out on how that person is doing. This concern is enough a driving force for most of the people to drive their lives ahead.

With prayers dawns a hope in our heart. A prayer says that I will be there by your side when needed. It also dawns a hope that when needed some day someone will be by my side.

Prayer sows the seeds of positivity in our hearts. So prayers mainly work on the one praying. But let's make sure that we pray for someone else. Every day.

Let's sow the seeds of positivity right within.