QnA - 10

Q: What is Courage?

A: A story to illustrate it: (not mine, plagarised shamelessly from somewhere on the WWW)

A psychology professor at the University of Miami knew his students expected a terrifyingly long final exam. To play with their minds a little (what do you expect from a psychology professor?) he only put ONE question on the final exam.

He watched the reactions of the students as they all opened the exams and saw the one question. Initially they all looked relieved, but as the difficulty of the question began to sink in, those relieved faces sagged to confusion and consternation.

All, that is, except for one student. He read the question, tapped his pencil into his palm a few times, then jotted something down on the test paper. He walked up to the professor, handed him the final, and walked out. The professor blinked in surprise, looked at what the student wrote, and smiled. The professor wrote "100%" on the top of that student's test.

The question: What is courage?

The student's answer: This is.


Q:WHAT IS INNOCENCE? Jai Gurudev Bau .. Guruji sometimes keeps telling this - best combination is that of intelligence and innocence .. and always for innocence a child is taken as an example .. But I'm a 29 year old guy and I know and do all those that are expected of a guy of my age .. so what are the qualities that can be classified under this term "INNOCENCE" for ppl of my age ..... Thanks for your time .. waiting eagerly for your answer or something better :)

A: A child has innocence but no responsibility. An adult looses innocence as he gains intelligence and takes responsibility. Maintaining child like innocence while being intelligent and fulfilling your responsibility is quite an Art. That’s what Art of Living courses do for you. Bring back that wonder and amazement and curiosity of childhood… do not confuse with being childish ☺.


Q: Joy Gurudev! bawa... Hope you are doing good!I have 2 Qs
1. If i am good at something and terribly bad in some other thing should i continue trying to be better in a thing i am bad @??
2. Since when and y are you called Bawa Just wanted to know!? Do take care. say Hi to Dinesh Buddy!

A: 1. up to you. Depends on what those things are… its too general a question to answer.
2. Since my days in IIT. It’s a pet name for parsis (zorastrians) and its stuck since then ☺. WIll post a story about that sooner or later :)


Q: I go to college. Guru Ji says, make one friend everyday. How?

A: Umm… go upto someone introduce yourself, smile a bit, talk about yourself, ask them about themselves… most importantly stop asking dumb questions! ☺

Q: Who is your absolutely favorite US teacher?

a.) Patti Montella
b.) Miss Montella
c.) all of the above

A: so many choices. I just cant make up my mind!! :) :) :)

Q: YOUNG GENERATION TODAY Problem 1: It has been observed that young generation are addicted to computer games and cell phone to the extent that they do not know the time. They go on playing till 3.00 or 4.00a.m. They keep talking till middle of night. It has adverse effect on them. It has effected to the extent that they do not get sleep, they are irritated at every small thing. They get late for every thing and they also loose interest in studies.

A: The earlier younger generations used to be addicted to books and other hobbies with approximately the same effect☺

Q: Problem 2: They are readily available for seva at any call from any volunteer of Art of Living. But when it comes to do any work at home they avoid (including their personal work). It is really bothering me the attitude of young generation. Inspite of doing various courses and regularly doing kriya how they do not understand that what they do is wrong. How to handle them please guide. JAI GURU DEV

A: Instead of berating the entire younger generation, maybe you should be talking about a few specific examples of kids? And why does it bother you that your children are going out wanting to make a positive difference to the planet? They are not wasting their time in a pub getting drunk or senselessly partying… they are standing upto their peers to do something positive! You need to be more proud of what your children are doing… and possibly they might start doing what you would wish them to do too?

btw, younger generation please note... doing stuff outside the house and making parents freak at you is not a good idea... why not have a whole group of friends come over to one persons house every 15 days or so on the weekend and help with all household stuff in that house? good idea? Implement it!

Remember happy parents = better seva

Q:Hi I am trying very hard to get a job(almost for the past three years) but the result is zero. What should I do now ? My qualification is MCA (annamalai univ 2007 correspondence course passout, BSc electronics regular mode)

A: Why not start up some business? Or do some e commerce? There are plenty of options out there if you really want to get gainfully employed other than doing a job… You can email rashmin: rpulekar@rediffmail.com for more details if you wish for alternative sources of income and employment.


Q: Jai gurudev bhaiya, tell me how to get rid of fear of failure

A: by succeeding!


Q: i want to be the best. How is that possible?

A: Its impossible if you want to be the best. Just realize that you already are!


Q:Was reading Yog Vashishtha... everything it seems is conjured by my mind...so if I am experiencing you or Guruji or for that matter anybody or anything, is it my mind which has created you all? So where is the You? So whatever you answer would be what my mind already wants to hear and so I am conjuring it to come from you? So whatever you are(or anybody is), is it also my mind? SO when things dont happen the way I think I want them, it is actually that in my mind somewhere I didnt want them to happen? Then why I am feeling sad? Is it that the mind wants to feel sad? Then you seem to be things at your own will, I didnt see you become you - just read ur posts now (;-)) but all the while is it me who is creating you? And so Guruji? IF all is MY mind then what is YOU? (Dont take YOU literally :-)I mean what is the Other)

A: Read the Yoga Vasishtha again! And again and again… its not a book to be taken at its face value. Remember that it’s a dialogue between Lord Rama and the Rishi Vasishtha. It talks about very intricate and profound realities… Do your Sadhana and read it. It will slowly seep into your consiousness and questions like the one you asked above will simply drop away…

Q: TAKING OTHER PEOPLE'S KARMA I was thinking about this today - I have heard Guruji say that if someone "yells" at you or "criticizes" you then be grateful because they take away some of your Karma. How does it work? Any convenient explanations for the intellect :)?

A: Since He is in charge, He should know ☺
Just know this: There is perfect justice in the Universe. So if someone yells at you for no reason, he will face the consequence of it. It would not be fair for you to take another birth just so that person’s karma can get finished with yours… so they simply take your negative karma away. My extremely intellectual interpretation ☺

Q: JAI GURUDEV, bawa bhaiya,i have done part-1 course,did 2 advance course also,DSN,i do seva also(though not much,what i want to ),but from last 3-4 months i mt not at peace,i m doing Kriya regularly but one or the other thing keeps on troubling me,it seems as if i m forgetting the art of surviving in ups and downs,please help me what should i do? Also bhaiya i m engaged and most of the time my fiance never supports me to whatever i say, very recently i have made a decision of having a break in my career/professional life for 4-6 mnths as i m working for 6 years in bank and i m totally frustrated, and he is opposing this decision of mine, what should i do bhaiya, i m in a fix, coz i want to do my TTC-1 also in this time and get involved in spiritualism more. Please advise,m eagerly awaiting ur answer..please guide me and help me.

A: Look for a new fiancé?
If you are seriously interested in doing Art of Living work, and he is already opposing you and challenging you, married life will be hell for both of you… unless you can sit him down and explain your priorities to him and listen to what he would like from you and both of you can come to a mutual consensus…
It’s a tough decision that you have to take… but the sooner you take it, the easier it will be for both of you.


Q: Question on Faith I have one question on Faith. Firstly, I had a breakdown in US two months back and then followed a break in my faith in me and Guruji altogether..... So, somehow, I got to instill faith in myself..... Now, in one of the knowledge sheets, Guruji mentioned that God is not concept for your security or protection. Your faith should not diminish even if death happens to you. Your faith should not be based on events or happenings....And also it is told that you are being taken care of....since faith is based on a concept of security...can you pls explain in little detail....

A: You are being taken care of, doesn’t mean you will have no problems. It only means that problems that may be very difficult to go thru, will be made easier… Knowing that even when you are in deep deep trouble, Guruji is there… this is faith.

Q:QUESTION ON TTC I am a student and i want to become a YLTP teacher. I want to know if the eligibility for YLTP and YES!+ TTC are same or not. Age limit is there or not? I still have a long way to go before becoming eligible for YES!+ TTC itself! But i want to plan now itself for the money for the courses etc ! Thanks bawa...

A: No idea about YLTP. YES!+ TTC eligibility is on the application form you can download from www.yesplus.org

Q: QUESTIONS THAT IRRITATE ME I want to ask sometimes some questions irritate me and i have no ans those questions. about career, my parents are also worried for me but i have no ans. without art of living i do not like anything and this is the reason why i am upset. plz tel me solution

A: Make a career in Art of Living. Become a teacher! :)

Jai Gurudeva!
love
bawa  

Leisure

You learn meditation and suddenly,
You have lots and lots of mirth
Your life becomes heavenly,
that too, right here on earth!

You surely will have:

Time to stand beneath the boughs,
And stare as long as sheep and cows: (if thats what you really want to do!)

Time to see, when woods you pass, (lil tough if you live in mumbai, but what the heck)
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass:

time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night:

All the time to turn at Beauty's glance,
And watch her feet, see how they can dance:

And time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began!

A super life this, when full of Grace,
you start coming first in almost every race!

W.H. Davies had obviously never done an Art of Living course :)
He should read this! :)  

My first "Fat" Book

When i was in the third standard, i had some disease called rheumatic fever... supposedly very bad and stuff... mainly for me it meant i didnt have to goto school for almost an entire year, i was passed to the next standard by Don Bosco for which i think i will be eternally grateful based on my performance in my first unit test...

So for almost a year, i had to stay home, be with my grandma, and a few friends who would pop by once in a while... dad introduced me to books then. Almost every evening when he would return from work, he would buy me a new Enid Blyton and i would read it up in a day... fortunately for me and dad Ms Blyton had been a prolific writer and so well into the next year i read books by her and kept wanting more...

Dad then got me other authors for kids, i liked the hardy boys and nancy drew series and other stuff that was then available but never really loved them the way i had loved enid blyton...

So, one day when we were at a party at my uncle's home who is also an avid reader, he gave me my first "fat" book: Hotel by Arthur Hailey. I had refused to read anything so fat so far, but i couldnt say no in front of all the adults there, so i took it with a grimace
... vowing not to read such a monster of a book!

Then after reading all the books i had a few more times, i was finally left with Hotel. Dad refused to buy me more books util i at least gave Hotel a try... i settled down with it, and i remember being blown away by it!

i quickly read up everything that Arthur Hailey had written so far and along with that gobbled up some Sidney Sheldon and Jeffery Archer as well... Hotel, Airport, Shall we tell the president?, Not a penny more, not a penny less (that was hilarious and it was not even fat!) were i think my absolute favourites...

By the time i was in college i had read many many fat books :) and loved most of them... As a residue of that illness i was not allowed sports till my 10th standard and so while everyone woudl be outside playing, i would be inside reading... and they would be feeling sorry for me, and i would really feel sorry for them! They had no idea in which worlds i was in when i had my nose in a book...

Hotel is still one of my favourite books... if you have not read it, please do :)

More exotic authors coming right up in a few days time...

Keep Breathing!
Jai Gurudeva!
love
bawa  

Classy Illusion

I found this on my stumbles on the WWW... and just had to share it with all of you!
The Squares marked A and B are exactly the same colour!!!

To check this out, just copy paste the image into any image software... then cut paste a tiny part of square A into a new window, and then copy paste a tiny part of square B into another window... check out both the colours, you will see that amazingly, unbelievably they are the same!!!

Seeing is Believing? Not quite huh?! :)  

Happy Birthday Guruji!!

3 months ago, Guruji called me and dinesh and told us, that we should be teaching thousands of people, that we were wasting our time teaching small courses of a few hundred :)
and so was born the Utsav Phenomenon!



We put together a course, which could be taught to thousands of people at a time, modified a few of the original games heavily and decided to include rocking satsangs as part of the course...

The result? Pure Magic!!



I have always wondered what to give Guruji on His birthday every year... i think this year from the entire YES!+ Team, we can very proudly give Guruji His B'day present!

On the eve of Guruji's 52nd B'day, 10,000+ new people have done the Utsav course. 10,000+ new people will bask in His Grace! 10,000+ new people have got this precious Knowledge!!



In just 3 months since Utsav was born, the YES!+ Team of India (joined by Phillip and Amanda from the US and Alex from Brazil) has managed to teach 10,000+ young people. Dinesh and I taught 7 Utsav Act I courses: 2 in Mumbai, and 1 each in Akola, Amravati, Nagpur, Jalandhar and Bangalore. Saleel and Nanda rocked in Indore...



Our collective Sankalpa had been 10,000+ till July, but i guess Guruji wanted His B'day present earlier than that :)

Happy Birthday our dearest Guruji!!

love
bawa, dinesh, The YES!+ Team...
and all of us...  

Guruji does His bit!

Bangalore Utsav:

On the day one of the Utsav of Bangalore, 2 hours or so before we were ready to begin, the election commissioner suddenly decided that we cannot hold the program in the ground that it was scheduled to be held... They got an order from the Bangalore Municipal Corporation canceling the course... Turned out that the ground was adjacent to the National College where all the ballot boxes of the upcoming Bangalore Elections would be kept, and such a huge gathering was a "security" threat or something like that...

Police were not allowing any workers or volunteers to do anything on the ground, so the pandal was not completed, sound was not ready, stage was in a shambles... All those last minute things that are to be done, couldn't be done... We had close to a 1000 registrations on the course, our team of volunteers and teachers had been working day and night, really hard, for almost 3 months to get the show together and it was about 10 minutes to 5:00 pm , the time Utsav was supposed to start and people were streaming in...

To top all that, the skies were overcast, and there was a faint drizzle of rain as well, threatening to turn into an all out shower... This is the middle of summer... 8th May!! Some confusion with the Bangalore weather Angels for sure! :)

At 5 minutes to 5:00 pm, after a flurry of useless phone calls to "concerned" authorities for the past 2 hours (and 1 phone call to Guruji explaining the situation), Dinesh(?) managed to convince the BMC people at the ground itself to let us do the course for 3 days, Thursday, Friday and Sunday (suggestion from Guruji), we thought we will do Saturday at the Ashram... Saturday being the day of the election.

In 15 Minutes miraculously, the stage, the pandal, the sound, the video... everything simply came together, everyone was registered in and seated and ready to begin... and we started the course only 10 minutes late, at 5:10 pm!

The Election Commissioner had somehow been appeased, how about the Rain Gods? A steady drizzle, very gentle continued for some time... Dinesh mentioned its the God's who were showering their Blessings on all of us... Dinesh and i were fervently praying to Guruji to make it stop raining... It never turned into an all out shower... BUT, it did keep drizzling off and on...

Then it was time for Sudershan Kriya. We told all the participants to pray that it would not rain while we were doing Kriya and meditating... As soon as we chanted Om to get ready to start Kriya. All the rain stopped. Completely. And stayed stopped throughout the hour long Kriya and meditation!

The pandal was in the huge Basvangudi Grounds. We had not cordoned off the entire ground to save costs :). We had just a 1000 registrations, so had cordoned off an area to seat the 1000 comfortably...

For the entire hour of the Kriya, it was not raining at all in the cordoned off area. Just a few feet away, on the grounds, on either side of the pandal it was raining... and about 500 meters away from the pandal it was raining heavily!!

When everyone had finished the Kriya and were read to go home, they found the ground surrounding the pandal to be wet and sticky with mud... just the pandal was absolutely dry...

I remember once Guruji saying that when you are doing something good, nature will bend to cooperate with you... I have a feeling, Guruji gently nudges nature to her bit... by doing His bit!

Jai Gurudeva!
love
bawa  

Banana and Pecan Muffin Cake

Finally!! a no sugar, no white flour recipe that works really well!!
This recipe really gets your hands dirty... you have been warned :)

You will need:

4-5 medium sized ripe bananas
1 cup Maple Syrup (You could even experiment with honey and let me know the result)
1/2 cup butter (cold butter from the fridge is best, or room temperature is ok too, dont melt)
1 Tablespoon Vanilla Essence

2 cups whole wheat flour
1 tsp fine salt
2 tsps baking powder

1 cup pecans (chopped), you can replace with walnuts if you wish.
1/2 cup dried raisins

Clean your nails, preferably trim them :) and then wash and dry your hands,

Pre heat the oven to 250 deg
Sift the flour, salt and baking powder at least 3 times through a fine sieve. Keep Aside.

Mash up the bananas really well with your hands, so little pieces are still there. Add the butter and again mash it into the banana mixture, add maple syrup and vanilla essence, and with your hands blend the whole thing properly. It should smell gorgeous: bananaey and mapley with a hint of vanilla...



Now to this add the flour, baking powder and salt mixture and again with your hands mix it really well.. Do not use an electric blender or a spoon. Use your hands and squeeze and blend and make the flour and banana mixture into a nice homogeneous mass. It will be smelling delicious, and will be gooey and will have dropping consistency...

Add the chopped pecans or walnuts and raisins to this mixture, reserve a small handful to garnish. Mix the nuts and raisins in well.

Lightly grease with butter a baking tray and pour the mixture into it.



Put to bake for 40ish minutes. See below.



About half way through at approx 25 minutes, when the mixture has firmed up a bit, you can optionally give it a milk bath. Using some a liquid which is 1 part milk, 2 parts water, just brush the top of the cake lightly and quickly and replace into the oven. This just gives a very nice glaze effect to the cake. It shines when it is done :)

Remove from the oven. Let it cool just a bit before cutting it up and serving. We had it just like that, with chocolate sauce, with it drenched in maple syrup, with some honey, and with french vanilla ice cream!

Its a really simple cake to make and we had lots of fun to making it! This cake is enough for about 5-7 people...