An Infinite Moment Passing By

Let us take every morsel with the taste,
Let us make every move devoid of haste.

Let us revere life in every breath we inhale,
Let us surrender worries in our every passing exhale.

Let us discover music within the noise around,
A symphony of various instruments limitless & unbound.

Let us listen to everyone with care and concern,
Let empathy dawn as their life we learn.

Let us lighten our thoughts as the future worries float goodbye.
Let us loosen our fist so that past regrets heave a relieved sigh.

Let us smile back to every moment of anger and fear,
Let us fight back lethargy while keeping our intentions clear.

Let us feel divinity in every stranger we meet.
Let us experience the infinity in every moment we greet.

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.

Dengue... Done deal!

Give one ward to Mortein and one to Good Knight and then find out which ward is really mosquito free ward! Are the insect repellent giants willing to take up this challenge?

Clearly neither of the govt bodies are capable to deal with this menace. With dengue death toll rising high, we are fast losing battle to this 2cm long insect from the phylum arthopoda. Very recently I read somewhere, that mosquito is the most dreaded animal in the animal kingdom. Are you scared of a doberman, lion or a panther? Get a reality check, mosquito is far more dangerous.

Human race now needs to be innovative to deal with this world's most powerful airforce. With govt authorities failing to produce results, I think it's time that we put the matter in the hands of experts. So let's ask Mortein, Good Knight, Tortoise, All Out and other such mosquito repellant giants to come up with a war plan. Their battlefield - one municipal ward. Now if there are more dengue cases in a particular ward, we know who is more efficient.

Now what do these giants get out of it? We as it is invest 50 bucks per household per month on that repellent we plug in our sockets. That night time pole star in our homes gets the dignified occupancy of our precious real estate. Let us give freedom to our plugs and sockets and contribute that amount as a toll to Mortein. Why is it fair to pay that amount? Don't we pay toll on major highways? Well these giants now get a certain and a dedicated income. Aam junta gets peace of mind with an additional real estate space and govt bodies can get rid of one monkey off their back.

Agreed, this model can reduce the breeding grounds for mosquitoes, but may increase the breeding grounds for corruption in form of tenders for mosquito repellant companies . But we also need people like Anna and Kejriwal to have a status of importance in our society. Thereby we are also creating breeding grounds for protests, public awakening and awareness about public responsibility. So its a win win win and win situation everywhere.

The whole idea of the model is, let's deal with the problem where it actually is! The problem is not in our houses. Breeding grounds are out there in open and that's where we need a powerful treatment. We unnecessarily breathe polluted air while burning the coil, or electrocuting the repellent. Let's breathe free indoors and make a sensible contribution towards those who can make a difference.

posted from Bloggeroid

Communicating IT's Importance

“You do realize that you are getting out of the field of technology” my friend warned me while calling out to the waiter inadvertently concluding my farewell party. “Yes, I know.” “And you know that it is technology that has penetrated everywhere and will keep penetrating until humans are replaced with machines everywhere.” “Yeah, I am pretty much aware of the flow.” “So you are keen to get out of the most promising field to enter into something like ‘Communications Skills’? Don’t you think that technology someday will replace the need for communication skills?” Sensing the sarcasm in his tone I decided to take the baton in my hand.

“Didn’t you just wave to the waiter before we started on this topic?”

“Yes”

“Isn’t that a form of communication, requesting him to come here?”

“Hmmm”

“Then you will hand over your credit card to him that would communicate that it’s not me but some bank which is going to pay you.”

“Yes”

“Then as the waiter swipes your card, he is communicating to the bank about your expense at his restaurant. Later the bank communicates him back assuring your validity.”

“Yes, but what’s the point?”

“The point is, that every single transaction that we do in this universe is nothing but some or the other form of communication. Our world is filled with the need to communicate.”

“How is it relevant in my world?”

“Programmers learn JAVA – which is essentially a language to communicate to the machine. This program later sends XML to some other application sitting is some other country which is another form of communication. Every single click that we make over the internet is a form of communication to the World Wide Web. When we handover a cheque to the bank, we are communicating that some person owes me money from you. When the movie hall counter gives us ticket, it is a form of communication for the ticket collector to permit our entry in the hall. The teacher signing a report card communicates a student’s performance to his/her parents. When we pray, we communicate to the divine. We communicate in words, in gestures, in every single transaction and we communicate in our silence. Our world is crammed with communication my friend. How can the need to improve in communication ever run out?”

“I see your point.”

“I am pretty sure that our world will have increased dependency over technology. But the sole purpose for that to build, is some or the other form of communication.”

The waiter arrived with the credit card slip that my friend signed on.

“Now here you are communicating to the bank, that ‘this is my expense and I will pay you’”

“Oh shut up now, now get over it!”

posted from Bloggeroid

My Major Take Away From Ashtavakra Gita

Disclaimer1: This blog is meant only for those who have completed Ashtavakra Gita. For those who haven’t, please go through the discourse of H.H. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar on Ashtavakra Gita before reading this blog.

Disclaimer2: Ashtavakra Gita is not Bhagwat Gita.

“Music is harmony in sound” – Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.

When there is no harmony in sound, it simply becomes noise. It is the tune that brings this harmony in sound. The way the sound goes high pitch or low pitch, you can virtually draw a graph in air as your favorite song beats the speaker. This graph basically comes from the fact that the song is jumping up and down over few notes. In Indian classical singing, these notes are Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Dha Ni Sa. So you take any Indian song, it is basically permutation combination of these 7 notes or Sapta Suur as we call them. The other day after we completed one of the pieces of Ashtavakra Gita, this aspect just struck me very hard. Whether we like a particular song or not, whether the song is comedy, tragedy, romantic, blues, classic or whatever genre it may belong to, it is finally a composition of Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Dha Ni Sa. At the root, it is nothing but Sapta Suur. 

When I tweeted this piece of realization, Ajay replied, "Nimish, knowledge oozing out?"

For those who couldn't relate well to the above example, here is another realization that dawned on me few days ago.

Remember the birthday song we sing, "Sagar me ek leher oothi tere naam ki"

Let us take a dive in this Sagar. Nice blissful ocean with amazing flora and fauna right within. The flora and fauna in an ocean differs from the flora and fauna in the river. Reason being, the water differs from the ocean to river. We generate tons and tons of salt every day from the great ocean and yet it generously produces salt again and again for our sake.This level of salt differs from ocean to ocean. The salinity in the Bay of Bengal is lower as compared to that of the Arabian Sea. So if you take a bowl of Arabian Sea water in one hand and a bowl of Bay of Bengal water in another hand, you'd agree that the waters are different. What would happen if both of them go through distillation plant? Now try to compare both the bowls, its no rocket science that the distilled water is just the same. So what differs the Arabian Sea water from the Bay of Bengal water is the salt and mineral content or anything which is not water. Let us call this "anything which is not water" as impurities. So if we are able to remove the impurities from both the sea waters, there is no difference in any of these oceans.

I can see few nodding their heads and few smiles by now, as this is something they can relate to.

Now think, why is it necessary to do Sudarshan Kriya daily and advance courses regularly? What sort of distillation we go through when the master says, get back to your source? Why do we feel blissful and pure after every advance course? And what is that purity?

It is the impurities that create distinctions. So imagine, tomorrow a bucket of water from Bay of Bengal flies to the Arctic Ocean and says, "The water there is very hard in nature. It is very stubborn." A bucket of water from Hawaii flies to the coastline of Mumbai and says, "The water there is brown in colour." In all these comments, is it really the water that's being judged? No, water is always H2O. Poor water gets the attributes of its impurities.

"Love is not just an emotion, it is your very nature. Just like this table is made up of wood, our body is made up of flesh, we are made up of a substance called love." - H. H. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

A Moment Before the Send Button …

She paused when she read he is typing,

Words found way on the other end of chat window,

Hear beats raced on both the sides,

But then he hit the backspace key and let the fire mellow.

_______________________________________________

“Let’s meet up buddy for our old time’s sake

Forgetting our recent past.”

A cancel button later that stamped on this initiative,

And the sms lay unnoticed in the inbox draft.

_______________________________________________

“It has been long since we have talked

And I thought an email would be a good start”

A pause after this beginning and he hit the backspace key,

And his dad missed the chance to write his part.

_______________________________________________

He reached his idol’s twitter handle,

To convey his gratitude, poured out his feelings.

Closed the window since the message was too clichéd.

Seldom reached the words that were genuine, that were healing.

_______________________________________________

Dwelling in inhibitions, living on assumptions,

Think ‘grapes are sour’ and join the fleet.

Let’s take our chance to express ourselves,

So that fate declares the status as ‘Connection Complete’.

Journeying Between Rest and; Awareness

-Nimish Inamdar  22^nd May 2012

“The overall experience was wonderful. I feel energized. While feeling the happiest moment and sensing it, brought tears to my eyes. Now I have lot of energy for the day even after lot of sleepless (less sleep) nights.”

 Many a times to reach the happiest moment of our lives we spend thousands on a vacation trip, throw parties, buy our dream home, dream car etc. Ask Madhavi on what did she do to reach this state of mind and her answer would be that, “I closed my eyes for 15 minutes.” Of course buying house, vacations are all important aspects that drive the overall growth of our life. But Madhavi and many others participating in the Meditating Monday initiative realized that happiness is merely a game of 15 minutes of closing your eyes.

The Meditating Monday Club founded in July 2011 is the initiative founded by the YES!+ (Youth Empowerment and Skills) volunteers of the Art of Living Foundation to promote the knowledge and experience about meditation. The pilot of this concept was first launched in ISC-2, Hyderabad with support from Pavan Joshi. With encouraging feedback from the participants, and a personal strong backing from Amarnath Juluri, we launched this club in DLF, Hyderabad. With close to 20 successful meditation sessions so far, the club is gaining popularity as more and more realize the benefits on meditation.

While there have been varied responses over how people feel after the session, the common factor amongst all of them was an outcome of a perfect healthy and peaceful mind. Research says that 20 mins of deep meditative rest equals the rest of 8 hours of sleep. Participants are seen energized right in the morning to face the day. “It would be a good idea to have this session every time before the project delivery” chuckled Swathi. “I think my manager needs it very badly” reported another participant on the condition of anonymity. Although it is a good idea to practice meditation every day, the Meditating Monday Club has ensured weekly meditation sessions in CSP since past 3 months, enabling CSPiites to soothe their mind ironing out their weekly frustration and discover a lot of things about themselves.

As it is rightly said, “Sometimes to open your eyes, you simply have to close them for a while.”

I am devoid of anger, I am incapable to hate,

I communicate in silence, I love to Meditate

New Age Nursery Rhymes

Baba black sheep why do you drool?

I just got bribery 3 bags full.
1 for my master 1 for myself,
1 for the rowdy boys, to buy voters down the lane.

Pussy cat Pussy cat where had you been?
I had been to 10 janpath to look at the queen.
Pussy cat, Pussy cat, what did you there?
I saw a frightened minister under the chair.


Twinkle twinkle gold bars,
How I wonder what you are!
Up above the reach so high.
Soothing the black market, in the sky.

Humpty dumpty sat on a stock
Humpty dumpty had a great fall.
And all the Queen's politics and the corruption fame
Couldn't put Humpty dumpty together again.

Sonia had an old lamb, old lamb an old lamb,
Sonia had an old lamb
His integrity was white as snow.
And whatever Sonia said, Sonia said, Sonia said and whatever Sonia said
The lamb was sure to follow.

Om Shanti Shanti

I hear people give up on religious beliefs in the interest of preventing terrorism. It seems they take the lines by Colonial Cousins 'Religion is the reason, the world is breaking up into pieces ' too seriously. But honestly, the world will anyway break into pieces. If not religion there will be something else to take care of that aspect of human evolution. We need a paradigm shift in our understanding of terrorism.

Paradoxically, hatred is an emotion that people love to nurture. Add to that our daily encounters of fear, anger and jealousy that creates a pool of sewage where we sink our tender hearts . Then eventually comes one intellectual with amazing oratory skills and mind blowing convincing power, that points finger to a section of community while belonging to another particular section of community thus channelizing this sewage into that direction. So whether it's religion or something else depends upon the 'leader', and his/her oration. Hitler channelized this hatred against Jews, Osama Bin Laden channelized this against Americans, Hafiz Saeed channelized this against Hindus while L. K. Advani channelized this against Muslims, Rahul Gandhi used this against the saffron clad sadhus, Digvijay Singh against the anti-corruption lobby, Maoists against the capitalist government, KCR against non telangana brethren and Raj Thackeray did the same against north Indians giving equal opportunity to Sanjay Nirupam against Marathi people. What we need to understand here is what is at the core? Is it religion or is it a philosophy? If you look deeper you will understand that it's human emotion given a shape of philosophy that eventually vents into religion, caste, nationality, community et al . And the opportunity for such philosophies to crop up is plenty because the breeding ground of anger, jealousy and fear eventually leading to hatred is bountiful with our minute to minute encounters.

Our leaders have a hobby of collecting such pieces of hatred and then channelize them with their convincing power. "You see that fellow is going ahead of you killing your opportunity to progress" thus blossoming jealousy into hatred. "You see the way so and so religion is growing? They will soon eat up our space on this planet" thus allowing fear to rise into hatred. "You know why you were late for the interview? Because chaps from the unwanted community have occupied all of our public transport leaving no space for you to travel and breathe", sculpting anger into hatred. All these "leaders" need is; to nurture hatred in us which coincidentally turns out to be our favorite hobby. The argument they make to convince us seem plausible, since it is something we can relate to and is served to us in oration at its best.

Try to look little deeper, in their arguments; it's not the solution of the problem, but but it is our emotion of hatred that gets pumped up. And what is missing in all of the scenarios mentioned above is understanding of human values.

There is a very valuable quote from H. H. Sri Sri Ravishankar that says "Fanaticism flourishes when religious concepts are kept before human values." And there lies the solution to our problems. Understanding the depths of human values is what can help us get rid of these emotions.

I am not in denial of the problems people face. With increasing population and limited resources to live on, our socio-economic fabric is bound to go through the acid test. But we tend to find out solutions in philosophies that promote hatred, and probably because that's an easier way out. When it is hatred that we need to get rid of, we struggle to get rid of a particular community or religion. Who imbibes this hatred within us? Is it religion? No, it is a philosophy without the background of human values. It is religion without the spiritual essence.

Sri Sri has the perfect metaphor in this context, "Religion is the outer banana skin, while spirituality is real banana. People stuck on religion chew on the skin while throwing out the banana." What really is this word spirituality? Sri Sri puts it up simply, "Spirituality is nothing but caring & sharing ; offering oneself in service." When we are in service, we end up taking a voluntary responsibility, thus committing ourselves to be the social change agents, attempting to build an ideal society through love and compassion.

So changing our religious beliefs will not help since the trend says that our "leaders " always have some agenda to make sure we nurture hatred for the sake of their power in our society. Society changes, ideologies change, philosophies change, beliefs change, what remains the same is the "leader " with a pointed finger, with new ideology, new belief, new agenda to nurture hatred so that s/he can securely fasten the seatbelt of power and enjoy the ride while we juggle the tower of our principles and religious beliefs on the tune of those new philosophies. Whether it's the way Muslims say Aamin, Christians attend mass prayers or Sikhs sing Ek Onkar every religion in its every prayer harbors peace and happiness in our hearts. Observe the way Jews greet, Buddhist meditate, Jains live their lives and the Hindus end their sessions.

Loka samastha sukhino bhavantu,
Om Shanti Shanti Shaaantihi

(Let there be happiness everywhere.
Om peace peace peace)

SaaRe GaaNaa

The music industry has been claiming ,
Sangeet ko na roke deewar
Sangeet jaye sarhad ke paar.
(Nothing can stop music. It travels beyond borders ).
This line proves itself every time we rock our head to the tunes of Strings or sway our hands to Bryan Adam's Here I am. The jury at Oscars that commemorated Rahman or the Afgan in Kabul admiring Kishoreda's melodies would nod their heads on the translation of these lines.

But did you ever contemplate that music creates boundaries at a very subtle level? Instruments like Violins, trumpets etc rarely see the light in a poor man's shop. A college fest cannot host a cultural event without a guitar and a drum. Pandit Ravishankar and his daughter Anoushka are heroes amongst the elite while we need specialized singers for the Bhojpuri audience. The August crowd takes it as a matter of "taste" to get charmed by Pandit Bhimsen Joshi while we make provision of Vithal Umap for our folk people.

Generally and rather thankfully people are open to different types of music. But imagine if these subtle boundaries becomes rigid. Imagine if the flavor of nationalism pours itself into the tender brains of music lovers. Music being a matter of passion has the potential to breed the patriotism type flavor.

My theory is that human brain doesn't take effort in raising doubts. Mind somehow loves the taste of negativity and uses this drug as the prescription of life. Just today I happened to meet someone who was keen on 2012 disaster since according to him it would liberate him off these daily life's problems - clear indications of a mind bred in negativity and hatred. We love to hate someone and eventually live to hate the same entity. So if the nations are at peace, imagine (I know hypothetical but still imagine ) that India and Pakistan suddenly become chaddi buddies. Obama is revered across all Muslim countries. There is no reason for the world now to hate each other. An unaware mind might scout for other reasons to breed hatred. Imagine the Heavy Metal youth forming cult underground societies across the globe to take over from the elite Classicals. The folk music people fighting for their rights to capture the center stage. Imagine the Classical Fraternity of India (CFI) forms a coalition govt with the Jazz Club of India with someone to the likes of Zakir Hussain is leading the pack as Prime Minister . Evidently the tabla lobby being strong within CFI they are currently pushing the bill to make tabla mandatory till school level. There is a strong opposition from the pianist who are always under represented in the house. To revolt against this oppression and the lack of freedom of choice the underground Guns&Dozes is planning a revolutionary attack over the kurta pajama chaps.

Thankfully there is little or no space for the above scenario to be true ever. We all know we have reservations over certain type of music branded by certain type of instrument. These are very subtle and invisible boundaries. I have simply aggravated these subtle boundaries in the picture painted above.

Hatred can be cured by acceptance. Recently in one of the satsangs of Art of Living that I attend, I realized that instrument, music, genre etc is no emotion's monopoly. Why can't a devotional song be a rock song where guitar and drums play an instrumental role? The fusion band Indian Ocean is doing fabulous job in creating a symphony of tabla, guitar, sitar, drums etc. Cultures that create a sense of belonging and a will of acceptance bring a great deal of relief to an otherwise hypocrite society. Thanks to such instrumental efforts that today music today has become a tool to bridge gaps, a tool to appreciate each other & a tool to connect hearts.

posted from Bloggeroid

Straight lines

These are few lines ... straight from my heart ...

Trees in search of water have their roots spread deeper
Nimish

The success of a person can be measured by the kind of people attending his / her funeral
Nimish

However good your intentions are, you cannot clean anything unless you use a clean cloth
Nimish

If it is your idea, then it is your responsibility to make sure it is implemented. Else you are just like anyone else
Nimish

The quest of life should be you noticing yourself rather than you noticing whether others are noticing you or not .
Nimish

Wishes remain incomplete to boost another motivation in your life
Nimish

you may never know the cost to ditch your discipline
Nimish

posted from Bloggeroid
hi its me

India Won Finals ...

Because Amir Khan wore his lucky old T shirt,
Because Dineshbhai Patel successfully managed his match long maun vrat.

Because N.T.Raju didn't budge to move from his lucky position,
Because 'not to keep left foot down' was Mrs Sen's 4 hr mission.

Because the tri coloured bangles' reponsibility was shouldered by Priety Zinta,
Because Rahul Gandhi positioned himself amongst stadium's aam junta.

Because Ramanathan Iyer performed hrs of Rudra Pooja,
Because justice awarded imprisonment to Shiney Ahuja.

Because Izaz bhai offered a chaddar at the darga of Haji Ali,
Because Tatya Kulkarni fasted in front of the one & only - Bajrangbali.

Because the Wankhede encore in unison 'ganpati bappa morya'
Because of the mere presence of the phenomenon called Tendlya.

Because Sr Bachchan resisted his temptations of live commentary,
Because the words worked in our favour from the commentary of all time jinxed Ravi Shastary .

A billion hopes, a billion superstitions, a billion prayers worked it may seem,
Forgetting all of this at the end we dip ourselves in the national celebration that lauds the efforts of the Indian team.

posted from Bloggeroid

Dipped in love ...

Love is what attracts the electrons to a positive charge,
Love is the umbilical cord that connects a foetus to the life at large.

Love is the force of earth that holds you abreast,
Love is ur relationship with the air till in peace you rest.

Love is in the comfort of the warm hug at night or in rain,
Love is in the faith that the sun will rise again.

Love is in longing to meet that kills you inside,
Love is in the smile in your eyes that reside.

Love is in the sense of belonging towards your old scooter,
Love is the magic that protected Harry Potter.

Love is in the white flower presented to sentries,
Love is in the music that dissolves the boundaries.

Love is the feeling of Oneness that syncs the universe with thee,
Love is what connects you and me.

Happy Valentine's day.

Nimish.

posted from Bloggeroid

Straight lines

These are few lines ... straight from my heart ...

Trees in search of water have their roots spread deeper
Nimish

The success of a person can be measured by the kind of people attending his / her funeral
Nimish

However good your intentions are, you cannot clean anything unless you use a clean cloth
Nimish

If it is your idea, then it is your responsibility to make sure it is implemented. Else you are just like anyone else
Nimish

Wishes remain incomplete to boost another motivation in your life
Nimish

you may never know the cost to ditch your discipline
Nimish

posted from Bloggeroid