The Secret of Lord Ganesha II

Ganeshji is the remover of obstacles... Obstacles are there because there is no Knowledge and awareness... as soon as wisdom dawns, all obstacles and problems just vanish like dew in the sunlight...And really what obstacle can stand in the way of an elephant?!

He has a huge stomach which signifies an all accepting nature... He is the Lord of all kinds of groups (Gan means group), so He accepts everyone... but He also wears a snake as a belt around the stomach, which means that He accepts you, but with the full awareness of a snake! It is not passive chalta hai attitude acceptance, but an active, participative acceptance...

He has many hands, one holds a rope, another a poke and still another a modak (yummy sweet).

He offers you the modak (sweet) of Wisdom and Knowledge and when you come near to Him to take it, He quickly ties you with the rope (probably while you are eating it)... meaning that once Wisdom has dawned, you can never really go back to whatever you used to be!

And it may happen that even having all the Knowledge and Wisdom, you may feel low, unhappy or miserable... then He pokes you (remember the snake? He accepts you as you are, doesn't cast you away, but takes action after accpetance)... to wake you up to Reality... And sometimes if the poking is too much for you and you try to run away (you can't He has got you tied with the rope! :)), He gives you the sweet, the Knowledge :) and that brings you back to Him. And so Lord Ganesha binds you sweetly and firmly to Himself!

He is Vinayaka. The peerless leader. He reports to no one!

And the mouse?

The mouse nibbles the veils of ignorance that surround our consiousness, so that true Knowledge can get established in the Self. So, Lord Ganesha rides the mouse who eats away the anger, the ignorance and allows the Bliss of Knowledge to dawn...

Thus Lord Ganesha is the gift of Lord Shiva for Parvati to teach and nurture her to always be in her true nature... The Celebration and Bliss of the Self!

Ganapati Bappa Moriya!!!
Jai Gurudeva!
love
bawa  

An Interesting Equation

Many charming stories about Lord Krishna are told... One of them is about His fight with the Serpent King Kaaliya. The (very) young Krishna jumps into the waters of a lake known to be inhabited by an extremely poisonous many hooded snake called Kaaliya. He emerges victorious (of course!) and is seen dancing on the many hoods of the snake.


As a "punishment", He charges the snake to become the guardian of the very waters he terrorized and protect the nearby villagers from other demons, etc.

Its a beautiful story... told to all young children in India and i think the world over to illustrate the bravery and spunk of Lord Krishna... but there is a fantastic interpretation that Guruji told us and it really blew my mind away when i heard it for the first time...


A snake signifies awareness, a heightened alertness, a desire for absolute perfection. And when a person has this, he becomes quite a terror to people around him, constantly berating them, scolding them because very few, if any, can live up to their standards. A person who is not so alert is very easy to get along with... but a person who has high standards and expects everyone around him to toe the line continuously becomes very much like Kaaliya the snake, spitting poison and fire on all around him :)

Krishna signifies Love. When Love is dancing on top of Kaaliya... When Love has defeated Kaaliya, then the same person who was earlier a source of fear to his surroundings, becomes a source of great peace...

Krishna brings about a very interesting equation:

Absolute perfection + Love = Bliss for the person concerned as well as the people around him!

Krishna doesn't kill the snake, He just subdues it and then charges it to protect! So the Lord appreciates perfection, only by His presence (dancing on the heads of perfection) he converts a malignant terror into a benevolent guardian!

So all you perfectionists out there reading this... tinge your perfection with love (keep the Lord in your mind at all times, allow Him to dance on your head...) and give birth to Bliss inside you as well as all around you! :)

Jai Gurudeva!
love
bawa  

Krishna and Kaaliya

When Krishna was very young, he was the epi center of many miracles and charming stories...

An extremely poisonous King Serpent called Kaaliya made a home for himself in one of the lagoons of the Yamuna near Vrindavan. He was so very poisonous, that all the fish in the lagoon died, and even the plants and trees near the water's edge started to wilt. It is said that the vapours emanating from Kaaliya were so poisonous that even birds flying above the waters would drop dead from the sky. He was horrific and malignant.

Krishna with his friends used to take the cows to graze in the forests of Vrindavan and got to know about this terrible snake. He decided to put an end to the monster and boldly jumped into the lake and made lots of loud noises and splashed about in the water to challenge Kaaliya. Soon the fiercesome beast rose out of the water spitting fire and poison making feral hissing noises intent on the destruction of this insignificant (so he thought) protagonist. He wrapped the little Krishna in his enormous coils and to the horror of Krishna's watching friends dived into the lake with him...

The waters of the lagoon roiled and boiled, and big bubbles came to the surface ans burst and for a long time there was no sign of Krishna... His friends panicked and rushed to the village to call the elders and soon the entire village was assembled at the lake side, praying fervently for Krishna's deliverance... By now the fight must have been very deep in the water or the snake may have overwhelmed Krishna and gone into deep waters... there was no sign of any activity... and many of the gopis were openly bemoaning and crying about their lost little one...



When Suddenly, the waters parted and the enormous, fearsome Kaaliya with his many hoods emerged out of the lake... but his once proud heads were bowed and he looked a little sheepish... when everyone joyously noticed that the young Krishna was merrily dancing on the the hoods of Kaaliya... A great shout and a huge sigh of relief went out from the crowd and big time celebrations started to felicitate this great victory... Krishna went to the shores and charged the defeated great snake to become the guardian of the lake and protect the villagers from other miscreants and demons... and the one time terror of the Yamuna Lagoon became the protector and guardian... All praised and revered and thanked the Little Lord Krishna...

Isn't that a really lovely story? There is an even better interpretation to it... you guessed it, you will read about it tomorrow! :)

Jai Gurudeva!
love
bawa  

A Divine Romance

Krishna's love affair with Radha is perhaps the most controversial in the Epics... She had a steady job, a family, a husband... she left all that and went after Krishna! She was older than Krishna, that fact alone disqualifies her :) In fact there are certain sects of Hindus who do not believe that she even existed, because the entire romance is a slap in the face of all traditions and systems :)

But there is a secret here: Radha means longing, Krishna fulfillment. So she has to be older than Him. First there has to be longing, only then can fulfillment dawn. She had all this family and job etc., which she left for Krishna... This means that all of us have the Longing for the Divine, but we try to fill that with material things, and it never gets filled... it only intensifies. When Krishna (the Divine) comes into our lives then we need to let go of all that, just as Radha did and soak in the Bliss of being with the Divine!


If we turn the word Radha around, it become Dhara, which means to flow away. Opposite of flowing away is flowing towards. Radha means flowing towards... and flowing towards whom? Govind!

Go in Sanskrit stands for Knowledge. Go-vind is the Giver of Knowledge. So instead of our mind flowing away into the maya of the world, flow towards Govind... the Giver of Knowledge! This is what Radhe Govind means!!

Gopal means the protector of Knowledge, the preserver of Knowledge. Go can also mean "way". and so Go-pal becomes the one who protects you on the "way", on the path... Radhe Gopal, is Go to the one who will protect you, take care of you on your journey through Life...

Radhe Govind, Radhe Gopal, Radhe Krishna!! How the epics have guarded these great secrets in simple beautiful stories! and How very fortunate we all are that we have Guruji to decode these secrets for us and make them applicable and relevant even in this age of the technology!

Jai Gurudeva!
love
bawa  

Radha

Radha was very special to Krishna... Here is one of the most beautiful stories about Radha that i know:

Much after Vrindavan, when Krishna was relaxing with his many wives, Rukmini his head wife threw a tantrum... All the time i hear Radhe Krishna, Radhe Govind... she is not even married to you... how come no one sings about Rukmini, or for that matter any of the other of your wives?! Whats wrong with us?... etc, etc :)

Krishna listened patiently and then suddenly held his head and complained of a head ache. Now Rukmini felt sorry, and became all loving and docile again... but the head ache refused to go... Each wife had her own suggestion about what to do... some pressed feet, others did some aroma therapy, still others made pastes from herbs... 16000+ cures were presented, none worked, his head ache only grew worse...

Narada the travelling Muni then made an appearance (Besides being a Muni, he was also something of a doctor) and he examined Krishna, felt his pulse, etc and then proclaimed that Krishna was suffering from a very rare type of a headache... one that could only be cured by a Beloved of Krishna putting his or her foot on Krishna's head... Krishna was in bed moaning softly, and the wives and the courtiers of the palace had a conference... They were all beloved of Krishna, but none dared to put their foot on the Lord's head, doing so would mean an eternity in Hell! and they were pondering and wondering what to do...

... and the news reached Radha in Vrindavan about Krishna's ill health and she rushed to his palace and when appraised of everything, asked immidiately to be taken to Krishna, she would happily put her foot on His head... Rukmini, the other wives and the rest of the palace was aghast at her quick decision... Rukmini herself told her that if she Radha did that, she would burn in hell forever...


If my Lord gets even one second of relief from his pain, then i will willingly go to hell forever said Radha as she ran to her Krishna and put her foot on his head, curing Him completely...

An abashed Rukmini along with all the other wives touched Radha's feet and realised how deep her love for Krishna was... and why people for centuries to come will sing Radhe Krishna!!

May our love for Guruji be like Radha's love for Krishna!

Jai Gurudeva!
love
bawa

ps More about Radha and Krishna tomorrow...  

Krishna!

If we look at the form of Krishna, we are enthralled by His beauty and Grace, but there are many secrets here as well!


First off, He is always pictured blue... this doesn't mean that He was blue in colour :) ... blue is the colour of the sky and signifies that like the the sky which has vastness and infinity, Krishna was also vastness and infinity personified.

Then He wears a peacock feather as his crown. Now a crown looks very beautiful, but with all that gold and diamonds and stuff can be very heavy, meaning that to anyone looking at a King or a Queen, they will look wonderful and everyone will want to be like them, but to the King wearing it, it is heavy with responsibility of managing the Kingdom. Though Krishna is the Master of the entire universe, He takes His immense responsibility with the lightness of a feather! And the beauty of the peacock feather can rival the beauty of any ruby and diamond studded crown :)

He is usually depicted standing on one foot, the other a little lifted, as if dancing... One foot on the ground shows complete groundedness, firmly in the material world and you can see that from His life, from extreme mischief as a small child, to flirtatious romances as a youth, marriage to 16000 women :), helping with elopement, playing a major political role in one of the biggest wars, giving the ultimate Knowledge... the list goes on... He lived a very full life, yet the other foot off the ground showed His spiritual side, His mysticism, His depth... No one really knew Him or could even know Him...

You can go through life with both feet on the ground meaning you are only in the material world, and you go through life standing... and there are a few who lift both feet off and fall, try to be only "spiritual"... and a select few perfectly balance both the aspects, and they dance!

Looking at Him you realise you could stand, fall or dance! through life :)...


Radha is his most beloved among all the gopis, but even she is jealous of his flute, coz the flute always stays with him. The flute has seven holes. Enchanting, captivating, bliss inducing music can be played from a flute only if it is hollow and empty.

Our body also has seven chakras... When we become hollow and empty, then Krishna's breath flows through us, and we become an instrument of the Divine... Our words are His words, our actions are His actions. We become pockets of tranquility and bliss. And then we are always with Him. Just like His flute! :)

Hollow and Empty happens effortlessly on Adv courses, and just for everyone's info, the next Adv course for YES!+ is from 10th to 14th September... do come!

Will write about Radha tomorrow... stay tuned! :)

Jai Gurudeva!
love
bawa

ps Guruji has been saying that everyone should read the Bhagawad Geeta at least once! I did and am now quite addicted, its such superb Knowledge, so simple and so deep!  

Janmashtami

Tonight is Janmashtami... The Birthnight of Lord Krishna

His birth is quite a story which most know... so here it is very briefly...

The evil King Kans threw Vasudev and Devki (his sister) into prison because it was prophesied that their eighth child would kill him. So child after child was born in prison to the hapless couple and mercilessly butchered by Kans... Until the time came for the eighth one. Devki fully pregnant was blooming with Divinity and Kans could see his doom being created in his siter's womb.

He doubled trebled quadrupled the guards outside the cell of Devaki and Vasudev, giving them strict instructions to inform him as soon as the baby was born. But right at the stroke of midnight, a little more than 5000 years ago, all the guards fell asleep, the chains that bound Vasudev and Devaki dropped off and Lord Krishna entered the world!

Vasudev quickly bundled up the baby, put him in a basket and hurried to Yashodha on the other side of the Yamuna. It was a dark stormy night and the Yamuna was swollen and the rain was fierce, but Vasudev in the few precious moments he knew he had just waded in and the Yamuna rose and rose all the way to his head, then the baby Krishna stuck his feet out of the basket and the water touched the feet and receded.



Vasudev reached Yashodha who was sleeping peacefully having just delivered a baby girl and exchanged the two babies, and rushed back without incident into the jail... and the spell was broken, the baby cried and the guards rushed and informed Kans who rushed in snatched the baby and tried to kill her, but the legend goes that it flew out of his wicked hands shouting to him that his destroyer lives!

Of course Krishna defeated and killed the evil Kans later ... but that's another story :)

Now here is a beautiful interpretation of the story of the birth of Krishna... Guruji had talked about this years ago on one of the Janamashtami Celebrations

Vasudev means the Breath and Devki is the Body. Kans is the ego. The guards and the chains the 5 senses. Through the union of Body and Breath, Krishna (Bliss) can be born. And when does Bliss come? When all the chains drop off and the guards are asleep... when the 5 senses are conquered... But Body and Breath alone cannot sustain Bliss... They can give birth to Bliss, but for sustaining Bliss, Love is needed and so Vasudev carries Krishna over to Yashodha who is the embodiment of Love, who nurtures and brings up Krishna!

And of course it is Krishna (Bliss) nurtured by Yashodha (Love) who finally destroys Kans (ego) and frees Vasudev and Devaki (Body and Breath)!

Janmashtami is the celebration of the glorious Birth of Lord Krishna!

Happy Janamashtami!

Jai Gurudeva!
love
bawa

ps The Yamuna rising and rising indicates that in life sometimes, trouble may come and engulf you all the way to your head... but if you have got God with you, then you can never drown! Just surrender and know that you are being taken care of, and do whatever it is you have to! Guruji had once mentioned that when you have a Guru, you can never fall... you may even have the experience of falling, but you cannot fall!

pps will write more about Krishna in the coming week... would you guys like that? :)  

Pateti

Happy Pateti!!

A greeting we keep hearing so much we have forgotten what Pateti actually means... Pateti is the last day of the year... and is actually the Day of Repentance! Its on this day that you are supposed to feel sorry for any mistakes or any harm that you may have caused knowingly or unknowingly to anything or anybody... Remember Humakta, Hukta, Havarashtha? I call them the 3 Hs, and they stand for Good Thoughts, Good Words, Good Deeds. The 3 Hs are the corner stone of the Parsi (Zoroastrian) Faith...

And so on the day of Patet, or Pateti, we are supposed to sincerely repent and surrender all those things that we have done which were against the 3 Hs... and cleanse ourselves through prayer so that we can begin totally fresh, again on the new day of the new year, Navroz...

The very endearing greeting Navroz Mubarak (or Saal Mubarak) then really makes complete sense! So a Happy Pateti happens only when the entire (previous) year has been spent in doing the 3 Hs... Otherwise its really a day of cleansing, of silence, of repentance, of introspection...

Art of Living manages to make Parsis and others follow the 3 Hs through the 3 Ss: Sadhana (meditation), Satsang (Company of the truth) and Seva (Selfless Service, being available and doing whats most needed to be done)... Little wonder that our family as fairly orthodox and devout Parsis took to Art of Living and Guruji and the Knowledge as eager fish to water!! :)

There is a lot more there is to say about my noble religion and many more stories racing around in my head, but we will save those for some other time... I had a truly memorable week going over and sharing these stories with all of you, which my grandparents used to tell me...


Once again Navroz Mubarak!!... Have a fantastic New Year, and hopefully next year, we will all have a really Happy Pateti! :)

Jai Gurudeva!
love
bawa

ps No write up about the Parsis is complete without at least one recipe... Click Dhandar Patio for my version of this wonderful meal which is made on all celebratory occasions... Make it this weekend for the family and if you are living alone invite a few friends over ... The other very famous Parsi preparation is Dhan Shakh... You will just have to wait until I write it out... :)

pps Vikram, Dinesh and me are in Calcutta with 1200+ participants on the first Calcutta Utsav! Photos and some news from here over the weekend...  

The Secret of the Elements

Click The Essence of Fire to read about it: Basically Fire burns away impurities and negativity, enhances positivity...


Guruji went on. Lets take a look at the essence of the other elements too. The essence of water is adaptability. Water will take the shape of any container however twisted, it is poured into. Become adaptable like water! (and i thought that’s true Parsis are very adaptable... from warriors to farmers and businessmen!)


Air is everywhere! Same way you too are everywhere. Don’t ever think that you are only in this little body. You are vast and everywhere just like air! (Thats the reason why the environment can affect you. Sit in a busy market, even with eyes closed and ears jammed, and you will feel tired after a bit. Sit in a peaceful garden for a little while and you will feel refreshed... this can happen only if you extend beyond the body! and yes, the parsis though so few in number not even a few hundred thousand left, some people say only 80,000 are still breathing on the planet are literally everywhere! Holding all sorts of positions too:)... The Tatas for example actually contribute to 7% of the GDP of India!)


The essence of the Earth element is acceptance. Earth accepts everything and everyone. You can sit on the earth, spit on the earth, build on the earth, walk, run , play... whatever... Earth has unconditional acceptance... (and to an extent i find the Parsis the most accepting of their destinies, they go their merry way through life)



Finally the essence of Space is Being a 100% involved but also at the same time a 100% detached. All creation happens in Space. So Space is a 100% involved in Dance of Creation. But at the same time is utterly unaffected by it. This detached involvement is the essence of Space.

So When you have the acceptance of Earth (take the Bh of Bhoomi which is the Sanskrit for Earth), the ability to enhance positivity and burn away negativity of Fire ( the ga from Agani which is Fire in Sanskrit), the all prevailingness of the Air element (v from Vaayu, sanskrit for Air), also you have perfected the Art of being 100% involved yet 100% detached, the essence of the Space element (aa from Akash which is Space in Sanskrit) and you have developed the adaptability of water (n from Neer meaning water in sanskrit)... then you put those together, you get Bh-ga-v-aa-n!

When you have the essences of all the elements You are Bhagavan. You are God!

And that’s what the Parsis are striving for through their worship of Fire and Nature... What a wonderful religion! :) What a fantastic interpretation!


Thank You Guruji... You gave me back my pride in being a Parsi, my roots and my heritage!

Jai Gurudeva!
love
bawa  

Why do Parsis worship the Fire?

One thing lead to another, you can click The Holy Fire and read about it... and One day I asked Guruji, why do Parsis worship the Fire?!

He replied, Look at the essence of Fire. If you put Gold with some impurities in Fire. What happens? The impurities are burned away and the value of the Gold is enhanced! So, not only does Fire burn away the negativity, it also enhances positivity!


He added gently that's what the Parsis have done. Fearlessly defended the weak, stood against whats wrong and gracefully enhanced whats right and good... throughout the History of the Parsis in India, thats what this noble race has done!

For the first time in so many years, i was proud to be a parsi! :)

He then continued, but thats not all... Parsis dont only worship the Fire, they worship Nature. They worship all the five elements! Fire is just the symbol. and I thought thats right! In every Fire Temple, of course there is the Fire, but there is also a well and a tree and some animals, which are also worshiped!

...You will have to wait till tomorrow for the Secret of the other Elements!...

Jai Gurudeva!
love
bawa  

The Holy Fire

Parsis worship Ahura Mazda (our name of God) through revering and worshiping nature. And our symbol is Fire. Each Fire Temple has a consecrated holy fire that is kept (smoldering) burning night and day. Each fire is lit with a spark of the original Atash Badshah (now housed in Udvada in Gujarat), and so it is quite difficult to start a new Fire Temple. The Fire is fed ONLY with Sandal wood. 5 times in 24 hours special prayers are chanted and the Fire is restoked with the offerings of devotees.


I was born and grew up in Bombay in a very loving and a very Parsi family. Now, most people don’t believe this but right from the beginning i hated heat. Even though i was born in Bombay which can get very hot during the year... and so going to the Fire Temple during the blistering heat of Bombay (especially in summers) was not something i looked forward to :)

As a small child i often asked mom why we worshiped the Fire. Why could we not worship ice! :) She would reply by saying that Fire burns away all the negativity, all things bad, and so we worship Fire. This was an acceptable answer until i started questioning it further...


One Diwali, i burned myself lightly and went to mom and said why did Fire burn me?

Fire is our friend, our God and supposed to burn away negative things! Did that mean i was negative or bad?!

We worship the Fire because we worship the Fire. Stop asking silly questions. Shut up and Pray!

And so, by the time i was 18 years old, Religion and Fire worship was a waste of time as far as i was concerned... until i did the Art of Living course and met Guruji... and my entire view of the Parsi faith changed!

One day I asked Guruji, why do Parsis worship the Fire... What He said, you will read tomorrow! :)

Jai Gurudeva!
love
bawa  

Saal Mubarak!!

Today is Parsi New Year. And Srividya from Poona called me yesternight and requested me to post some things about Parsis this week... so here goes...

The Parsis were a warrior race originating in ancient Persia a few thousand years ago. They were known for their bravery, their amazing intellectual achievements and their devotion to their religion which was given to them by their prophet Zarathustra.


The percepts of the religion are very simple: Humakta: Good Thoughts, Hukta: Good Words and Havarashtha: Good Deeds. Parsis worship God (Ahura Mazda) through His creations, all of nature is revered. And their symbol is the Atash Badshah, The Holy Fire.

The muslim scourge and many unfortunate betrayals forced this once mighty race to its knees and millions were butchered and entire libraries of intellectual thought, science and arts burned to the ground by the islamic fundamentalists and terrorists.

Just three boat loads of Parsis escaped Persia with their beloved Holy Fire and their one remaining Holy Book, The Zend Avesta and after a harrowing voyage on stormy seas landed on the shores of India, seeking sanctuary in the Kingdom of Sanjan in present day Gujarat.


The King of Sanjan received these hardy and battle worn Sanctuary seekers with respect and awe. However, when the Parsi High priest approached him and made a plea to him that they be allowed to make India their home, the King refused saying that his Kingdom was already full and though he would have loved to give sanctuary and welcome the Parsis, he had no choice but to turn them down... He symbolically showed the High Priest a glass of milk filled to the brim, saying that his Kingdom was like that... much as he would have loved to have them, there was simply no place.

The High Priest smiled and asked for some sugar. He added the sugar into the glass full of milk and stirred it in thoroughly without spilling a drop. And said, just like this sugar, we will blend into India. And we will make it sweeter for having us...

The delighted King immediately declared that the Parsis were welcomed in India. But he was fearful of their strong bodies bristling with muscles and their mean looking weapons, so he put a few conditions. That the Parsis surrender their weapons and embrace peace. And that they should not inter marry or convert people (of India) to their religion. The High Priest readily agreed asking in return only that no non Parsi should ever be allowed into their Fire temples where the Holy Fire would be kept, so that the Holy Fire would always be protected and secure. The King nodded his assent.

The Parsis dropped their warrior training and became peace loving farmers and business men... and so, till today that ancient promise made to the King of Sanjan has been honoured...


And we moved into the Holy land of India and right through history since, have lived up to our promise of blending in and making each place we go to, or are in, sweeter because of us!

Saal Mubarak!

May everyone have a Blessed New Year!!

Jai Gurudeva!!!
love
bawa

ps more posts about Parsis in this week...