Ashram Memories

Last YES!+ advanced course in the ashram was a Sattvic blast!


600 young people from all over India and a sprinkling from abroad arrived at the ashram for the YES!+ advance course. The sad part was that we had to refuse a little over 200 ‘cos the ashram was stretched to capacity (acco wise) and they were not quick enough to act on the registration (habits, patterns, old and new impressions made them believe everything can be done by trying in the last minute of the eleventh hour). Alas!

The excitement in the air was at its peak since four fifths of them were coming to the ashram for the first time. It reminded me of my first advance course back in ‘95 and how we could feel the energy from a few kilometers away while riding in the bus on route to the ashram.

By the way, those who came a day earlier (always a good idea) were treated to a session of Mathemagic with Bawa.


The YES!+ stay was in Khodays – a hostel style acco just across the ashram border, very much like the IIT hostel I stayed in with 280 rooms with 4 wings (2 for girls and 2 for boys).


Some of the early birds who arrived first chose the rooms closer to the stairs to avoid walking all the way down the corridor and others chose to leave that convenience to those coming later. The later who thought about others were rewarded with the best view of the entire ashram from their rooms.


Coincidentally that night Guruji spoke about Tyagabuddhi (an attitude of sacrifice), how you open yourself to receiving the highest with tyaga. I felt the creation is truly a play of paradoxes – when you let go something dear, the best gets to you.

I visited and saw the rooms they were staying in in the afternoon and taught a few disgruntled participants to flush the toilet. Guruji also visited in the night and he too went into the rooms and even in the toilets to see everything was in order. I felt good about myself for having the foresight to check everything and not to mention that the girls and the boys in their night clothes were thrilled to bits seeing him when they least expected… and prayed most…

The day of talking was incredibly boisterous and yet it brought an amazing sense of serenity in its passing. You have heard about the evening in Roma and an evening in Paris, but the evening in the ashram is something to live for and sing about. Ashram is an enchanting land, sizzling with magic at every step. Steeped in tradition, rooted in ancient wisdom and dazzling with new born freshness. The evening in the ashram ambience is when nature shamelessly romances and flirts with the spirit of every thing and every being – trees, clouds, birds, animals, humans and even stones. The cool weather and the heady and lingering breeze caressing the leaves in the trees and delightfully ruffling the garments on the body and anything that falls in its way. The ashram breeze copiously suffused with sattva never fails to tickle my prana to an intoxicating high!


As silence descended over the ashram, the love became more and more dense, intense and palpable. The meditations were blissful, the processes; thought silencing and joy provoking.

Teeny weeny tiny bit of discontent that people had for staying in Khoday’s and doing the advance course in kitchen top and not in Vishalakshi, was soon doused by an overwhelming sense of contentment. We usually go to a shrine or a place of worship and meditate there to soak in the pure and powerful vibrations of sattva there. Imagine living in it the whole day, makes every cell of the being pulsating and sparkling with Sssshivaaa energy…


The divine is singing to you through the birds. (Guruji had once started a meditation with that line). So true!!! When all the birds are celebrating their evening home coming, the participants too were feeling more and more by the day that they have reached home. And truly there is no place on the planet like home.

On day three, Guruji came to the session and walked in between rows of jubilant participants and mass hysteria (more of miss hersteria).


And yet everyone was disciplined and hence Guruji had the freedom to do what he wanted and needed. More than pushing one selves onto him, the youngsters followed the principle of pulling him to them by their devotion and intensity of longing. After the darshan (blessings), we all sat silently with eyes closed and immersed ourselves with the shower of blessings.

The knowledge that Guruji showered in Satsang was delicious, delectable and delightful about which I will blog here and there.


The last day after the last process, as everyone opened their eyes, there was Guruji sitting in the teacher’s seat. People rubbed their eyes, they jumped out of their seats cos for the life of them, they could not believe that Guruji was actually there. It took a full half hour of spontaneous sharing by almost everyone how they were praying deeply that Guruji should come right away. And Guruji had to make an absolutely unscheduled visit to be with them. It is said “Bhakt bhagavan ko sirf bhav se bandh sakte hai”. You can pull god only with devotion.

And He in turn pulls you totally by his love. Give the best of your excuses, but you will get pulled to the ashram on 9th September for the 10-14 September (Bawa’s Birthday Special) YES!+ Advance Course.

And here's Guruji saying bye before leaving on a day trip to Mysore this morning after Rudra Pooja...


Jai Gurudev
love
Dinesh  

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...  

Beacons of Light

In school (Don Bosco, Matunga), we had something called a calendar, which was basically a smallish blue coloured book, with the portions for every year, a (duh!) calendar, so we could enter into it like a diary stuff that we wanted to, our marks in various tests and exams AND the Remarks page. Here sadistic teachers would put remarks about us when we didn't do something they wanted us to do or did something they didn't want us to do :)... like homework, or chatter in the class, etc.

You then had to get it signed by equally sadistic parents who would come up with very creative ways of making life miserable in exchange for their signature... I was too bhola to even think of forging signatures, besides parents had supernatural powers when it came to finding out stuff you really wanted to keep hidden!

Thats where grandparents came in... my grand dad would look at the remark, raise his eye brows, and silently sign it, almost as if it was an autograph book :)

Life revolved around the remarks page... You couldn't get more than 12 remarks in a year, or your parents would be summoned by the principal, and that would be REALLY embarrassing! And, you cannot get more than 3 behaviour remarks (talking in class, hit someone, etc) in a year coz, then the class teacher called up the parents ... stuff like that...

Now, there were teachers who were slightly english challenged... our hindi teacher Mrs Sampat for example, would only write "homework not done" in the remarks page, regardless of the offense... When i look back now, i see that the weak teachers- the ones who couldn't hold a class's attention or simply didn't know how to teach the subject and were doing just a "job" relished this power that they wielded over us hapless students who had to suffer them.

The really good teachers, the ones who bring a smile to our face and dampness in our eyes even when we think of them 20 years later, never ever gave a remark... They didn't need to discipline us at all. They commanded our respect and love, never demanded it... They were the ones who we looked at and thought, i would love to become like this... I guess the others just served as examples of how not to be!



And i know that we all are, at some point or the other, teachers to others... And as people who know how to meditate, we become teachers to the world at large. We become teachers of Life, of how to Be. Of how to tread gently on our beloved planet... When people see how we lead our lives, they need to get inspired and feel: Man!! I would love to be like this! What a wonderful life!

Sadhana, Seva and Satsang make us the best that we can be... Beacons of Hope and pure Light, radiating peace, joy and love to all, opening possibilities in others to live their Highest, teaching all to Be...

Jai Gurudeva!
love
bawa  

Happy Birthday!!!

Today is the day... my 2 little waves remember the ocean that they were born in...

It's the birthday of my nephews Aarman and Ahun

Aarman means "a wish"



Ahun means "of God"


Together they are a Wish of God! :)



They definitely make you remember God many many times when you are around them... "oh God!!! stop that... be quiet, sit down, go to sleep, eat your food..." etc

Happy Birthday!!!

Jai Gurudeva!
love
khurshed mamu and ping mamu (don't laugh that's what they call us!)  

... and then...

...We railwayed back to the ashram and what an eventful last few days we had here!

The whole of India is talking about the agitation of the Gujjar community against the Rajasthan Government. Since being proactive happens to be Guruji’s mantra, he visited Bayana where the first round of talks were going to happen between the two parties and mediated between them.

When he reached the place, there were the top brass of BJP and the Rajasthan Government welcoming him and about 50,000 Gujjars on the railway tracks. His presence itself diffused the tension so palpably. This was commented by one of the reporters, not by a devotee. His talk alleviated the animosity and brought much needed solace. Also, they have been protesting from quite a few days and that place was pretty dirty with food in leaves strewn around along with a stink. I was told that as Guruji walked in, there was a strong gush of wind and all the leaves were blown away along with the stench where Guruji was supposed to stand and talk. It’s amazing how nature also loves and supports someone who walks in love and talks in love. The mediation was pretty successful and the talks moved on to the next level on a very positive note.

Then the newspaper headlines in Karnataka state were kidnapped by the farmers agitation- farmers fighting for fertilizers. Guruji held a press conference and called various experts from around India, many working through our Sri Sri Institute of Agriculture and inspired farmers to adopt non-chemical methods of farming. Guruji said how it was so ironical that farmers are fighting for fertilizers... this was like fighting for poison!!

Using natural methods will give much more yield within a years time onwards as was amply demonstrated by the experts country-wide. Guruji then send a agriculturists team to North Karnataka which was the epicenter of the agitation to continue the transformation happening elsewhere through our youth leaders.

Then the Chattisgarh Chief Minister came to ashram especially to meet Guruji and was thoroughly impressed by the work of our volunteers in his state which is infested with Naxalite violence (sponsored by Communists).

Time and again we have seen that, peace and a deep experience of love seems to take hold over whoever follows him in thoughts, words or action.

Satsangs were packed with sparkling knowledge and the amphitheatre filled with rainy wafted scents and cool caressing breeze. More than 2000 people floating in the bliss of the advance course.

For snippets of Knowledge from the Satsangs, come back here tomorrow!! :)

PS: This post is by Dinesh, i just edited it, so it says i wrote it :)  

Chennai Story

If you search for synonyms for 'hot' in the word doc, you really should come across ‘chennai’ somewhere in the list, i would place it right under magma and just above scorching. Before long you may hear a conversation like… How’s that girl? WoW! She’s so Chennai!!!

The rest of the universe feels really pleasant once you have lived 5 days in Chennai. Bawa believes, that people should be paid to live in that city. Alas! we happen to be volunteers… But then, we got paid in love and lots of yummy dosas.

A close to a 1000 young people with dreams in their eyes and excitement in their hearts (all pumped in by our team of hot volunteers) turned up for the Utsav. We had fabulous sessions… Sincere questions pulled out Bawa-answers which sizzled the atmosphere with laughter and deep insights. Before we started the Utsav, I requested Bawa if he can manage some rains when we were in Chennai. Bawa replied negatively saying its Utsav out in the open. So I persisted, “Cant we have 5 min at least on the last day”. He dismissively uttered, “ok ok”. I totally forgot about our conversation until it rained for exactly 5 min on the last day and everybody danced wild at yoga-time on the grounds.

People have reported that organizing an Utsav empowers you with people skills or soft skills more than a 2 year MBA degree. Also the stories people share are worth compiling into a best selling book (at least jot down your own tales if you have been part of the Utsav team).

One guy Anil who is a kick boxer had an innovative way of enrolling people. 3 of those he had enrolled confessed on Utsav that they lost to him in grueling duet. His motto seemed to be ‘bash them up and bring them in’. Once Anil while driving on his two wheeler was hit hard by a bus from behind, propelling him down over the railings of the bridge he was going on. Others driving behind were scared to look down at the definite death. But as they looked down they saw Anil waving at them from the truck full of hay which was (coincidentally!) moving under the bridge. Wow! Shooting a scene like that would require at least 10 retakes in a movie. But when the divine is directing, perfection becomes the order of the day.

We played football early mornings. Day one saw the rest-of-the-universe losing 3-2 against the Chennai supercheats (I mean supercats) on the beach. In hindi there is a phrase ‘Naach ne jaane, aangan tedha’ (if you can’t dance, blame the crooked ground). And we did that. We said that the beach sand was uneven, so the next day we went to the university grounds. And we beat the hot ones 2-0. (I was ashamed to reveal the score, ‘cos we had decided on doing 20-love (agreed that’s a lot of love, but Guruji encourages us to dream big).

Had it not been for Amanda who we loaned to play on their side, we would have definitely achieved all that love. The last 2 days, everyone revolted against me and slept in…

We had a Rudra Pooja Monday morning, a lovely Mathemagic session with Bawa and then a delightful romp with Indie (Indiana Jones) at the movies… When I read Bawa’s review on it, I wanted to go and see the movie again. He writes with such passion, precision and perfection. He is so pCool! (adds to the alliteration and complements the pHot).

We railwayed back to the ashram and what an eventful last few days we had here!

To know what happened, come back to this space tomorrow...

PS: This post is by Dinesh, i just edited it, so it says that i wrote it...  

Advanced...

I successfully installed my first system update for the year 2008 – the art of living advance course.
Cant tell you how much I was looking forward to the silence and the Hollow-and-Empties and Guruji’s talks and the satsangs...
I realized that just as Part one has 475 tag – 4 sources of energy, 7 levels of existence and 5 knowledge points. Part II has its own 475 – 4 pillars of knowledge, 7 chakras and 5Ss of Sadhana, Seva, Silence, Satsang and Smile…
For solidified Silence, I realized that a must-have during advance courses is a cap (a cool hat in case of Bawa) and a worn out pair of slippers (I didn’t have to go all out to find one, ‘cos JD lent me his).
The cap, when you tilt it down a little, blocks people’s faces out and helps keep the silence in. 'Cos I realized that if you see a person’s face, with it comes the judgments, a host of cravings and aversions and out goes the silence for a toss…. Besides thankfully there is not much judgments I can make about people’s footwear… (of course a cap wont be much help for any girl; who can usually tell a person’s history, geography, biology and psychology from what a person wraps around his sole).
Talking of footwear, the more terrible its condition, the less your mind gets attached to it – out there scorching in the sun or waiting to be a victim of someone else’s belongingness. Moreover, the lesser attachments you carry around during the course (handbag, mobile, mats and cushions (in America they call it a nest)), the easier to send the mind (like the email) across in space.
It was a great feeling to notice my mind slipping into silence so easily this time. I became aware that the knowledge also hits one so much deeper in silence. Silently watching the mind was truly entertainment unlimited. The myriad of sensations - heat and cold, pain and relief, heavy and light, all changing with time and place. A few days ago Guruji mentioned how the mind and heart are considered as flowers and the soul as the sutra (thread). In a garland, the thread is invisible and keeps the flowers together. Actually mind and heart in knowledge and awareness is like a flower and the same in ignorance is a thorn. With awareness, the false falls away and the true stands up. It was fun to be aware of experiencing anger turn to compassion (seeing some of the participants talking away to glory as if they were on a picnic), observing fear turn to surrender (of falling down the Vishalakshi step during dancing), watching minor irritation and hatred turn to reinforced commitment for more initiative (seeing the litter of plastic while cleaning around Sumeru) and above all watching the beauty of the trees and the flowers and the birds and the skies, in fact feeling the beauty of the whole of nature seeping into every cell of the body, becoming joy and love and awareness and bliss… all of which propelled me into wonder as so how this little body of 5 feet something pack such infinite bliss!
Going with the ancient tradition, I would not shave during the course, in fact not even look at myself in the mirror. Though this time I did sneak a few peeks at myself and smiled. Silence meant no one exists other than you and the Guru and so I was pretty conscious moment to moment to feel absolutely happy and high so that the Guru would enjoy my company.
Seva-wise, few days I chose my second favorite seva - garbage collection (the first being gardening) because of which we had earned the title earlier, Cool Clean Men. The day I shirked full-on seva, sadhana would play hard-to-get with me, leaving me sleepy and drowsy.
Given the colorful distractions (people-wise) in our Satsangs, I challenged myself one day to only look at Guruji and nowhere else while singing. The effect was phenomenal and blissful. And the same day Guruji talked about ‘Ek tattvabhayasa’, studying only one thing 100% for Yoga (Union) to take place.
Food wise, we were very well taken care of by Gauri and Shilpa. Sleep-wise I have never experienced such huge amount of dreams in my entire life. When I would wake up after a few hours, I would be intrigued and would wonder whether I slept for a few years, to see the quantity of dreams I saw; in some I dreamed about sleeping and in some I even dreamed about dreaming. God only knows which sanskaras (impressions) were being released. The meditations mercifully compensated for the lost rest.
All in all, what does one gain from an advance course… Its not what you get, but its what you lose and let go… which is pretty monumental and fundamental! You only come out looking forward to taking on the world and how soon can you come back for a second helping of the advance course. Truly it’s a supreme delight and a sublime pleasure!

PS This PS from Bawa: Dinesh managed to schedule his post for the 6th of september instead of the 9th of June... happens :)  

The fax

This happened in Rishikesh, almost 14 years ago.

Late one night, Guruji called me and gave me a slip of paper with a number on it. He told me that i should fax (emails were non existent then!) to this number a message saying that Guruji cannot make it to the function. This was one of the first things Guruji had ever told me to do.

I immediately went to the telephone booth to do it, and found that it was closed, and that they could do it only in the morning. So, i went to bed. The next morning, the slip of paper and the precious number on it had disappeared.

AAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I searched and searched, retraced my steps from the phone booth, but no paper. In Rishikesh that time, from my room, you could clearly see Guruji's room. I started to look out furtively and avoid Him... and succeeded for the entire day. I hoped He would forget about it. You have NO idea the kind of mental turmoil i was having.




Then it was Satsang time. I sat at the very end of the hall, hiding behind some fat women.

Bhajans started, He glided in. For once i did all i could to hide and not get noticed...

He did His customary hmmmmm... looked straight in my direction and said, bawa have you done the fax yet? In a full satsang hall!!! I wanted the ground to open up and swallow me... everyone turned around and looked for me... i stammered, i lost the slip of paper Guruji... there was a collective gasp from the audience... He said, lost it? Oh I dont have the number, and we have to send the fax by tomorrow. How did you loose it?! Find it and do the fax by tomorrow!

All this is happening in front of 500+ people!

omygodomygodomygodomygod.... thats all i thought of during Satsang.

After Satsang, i ran to my room and started to methodically search for that $%^## slip of paper. It had simply vanished from the earth. I searched everywhere. Even on top of the fan blades. Then i searched again, and somewhere fell asleep... woke up early morning with a start and searched yet again, and again... i was exhausted... deep gloom... darkness all around in the middle of the afternoon...

Then i just sat down and prayed. I told Guruji (in my head), that i had really really done all i possibly could to find that paper, but i had failed. I really needed His help and His forgiveness...

and no, what happened is not what you think would happen... i didn't miraculously find the paper.

But Guruji called me to His room. He asked me again, did you do the fax? I said with a very heavy heart that i couldn't find the paper. He just smiled and hugged me and said
don't worry, that person just called up now, and I talked to him and told him I cant come... Do you want a sweet?

What relief!! What joy!!! The sun was shining again, the birds were singing and the roses were blooming...

An important lesson learned: Running away from Guruji is never a solution, He can be quite brutal! :). Help will be given and forgiveness is assured, but ONLY when you surrender... and that happens only when you give your 100%... and failing or succeeding is not the point... just giving your 100% and praying.

Jai Gurudeva!
love
bawa  

Monday Mornings

I love Monday mornings at the Ashram especially. I have always loved monday mornings at the Ashram, but somewhere down the line the reason changed... Let me explain:

In the earlier years, a lot of us would be sharing a room, sometimes 12-16 of us would be on an Adv course to share a dorm, and there would be only 2 toilets and bathrooms. To make it in time for the early morning Yoga, which though i didn't like much, i always saw to it that i attended, i would have to get up really early and join the battle for the bathroom :)... a little later, once i had become good friends with Umesh, he would invite me to stay in his room along with 2-3 other people and we would be 4 people in a small ashram room, and again only one bathroom (+ loo) combined between all of us, so now, it was no longer a battle, just a minor skirmish every morning... :)

Except that is, for Mondays... On Mondays in the mornings, there is Rudra Pooja. I never went for Poojas. I thought that it was one of those things that Guruji had to do... you know, that stuff you have to do if you are enlightened :)... I didn't really care at all for any sort of rituals, and more importantly there was no Yoga on Monday mornings and i didn't go for Pooja and everyone else including Umesh did... When i woke up at a leisurely (for the ashram) 7 am, i would have the bathroom all to myself with no one banging the door to hurry up... and i would have a long shower, shampoo my hair 2 times and really savour being King of the Loo :)
... yup, Monday mornings at the ashram were sheer bliss :)

Now one fateful Monday morning, after i had shaved and showered, put on clean ironed clothes, i decided to take a walk to where the Pooja was happening and see if i could catch Guruji as He walked back to His Kutir... and i did... and He looks me up and says ohhhh... good morning!! how was the pooja today morning? i very proudly told Him that i never went for Pooja, it was the only day i got the bathroom to myself :)... He laughed and said, you must attend Pooja, you will love it... and walked away... my heart sank like a stone!! Pooja on Monday mornings??!! oh no!!

A week just flew by and it was Sunday night... Umesh reminded me that i had to come for Pooja the next morning (i think he was just jealous that i had so much time in the loo :)), and with a sinking feeling, i went to sleep... woke up the next morning way earlier than was the norm for Mondays, halfheartedly joined the fray at the bathroom and then went for Pooja...

A shining, smiling Guruji entered the meditation hall, the chanting started, I was sitting fairly near the stage and could smell the fragrances of the incenses and flowers, and as i closed my eyes, i went into a rapturous state i had never experienced before... it was like 10 Sudarshan Kriyas and 5 Adv courses all rolled into one... It was fantastic! I loved it!! After a completely blissful hour or 2 hours i dont know how long... everyone started singing Shiva Bhajans, and i surfaced from some unknown depth and joined in... If Guruji was shining earlier, He was resplendent now and on His face there was something indescribable, a joy, a splendour... all too soon the singing was over, and some final chanting was done and Guruji stood up and with a very very mischievous smile walked directly to me and asked me... so how was your first Pooja? I had almost no words... i blabbered something incoherent, He squeezed my hand and whispered in my ear, I told you, you will love it!... and glided away...



After that magical monday morning, i made it a point that whenever i visited Ashram, even if it was just 5 days or so, a monday would be included in the trip... And now that i live on the Ashram, i really look forward to Monday mornings (and fridays too, thats the day of the Devi Pooja but thats another story...)

Pooja means "jo Poornata se Janam leta hai woh" (That which is born out of fullness of the heart)... When you sit and thank the Divine for all the Blessings that have been bestowed on you... What a fantastic way to start the week! Like i said, i LOVE Monday mornings!!! :)  

Alibag

Whats to write about our (very short) trip to Alibag... Here are a few pics... the sea was warm and the pool was hot! The hammocks were lovely to sleep in, the food was terrible :)

Upasana hanging around:



Me with cap and me without the cap:



Vishu the Bathing Beauty (?)



Dinesh in (well actually out of) the sea:




In the Pool: Me, Dinesh, Vishu and Pooja



Please do show this post to anyone who says Art of Living Teachers dont have fun! :)  

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  

Dr. D.V. Pai

IITB: Third Semester:

Along came a subject called Real Analysis: I used to hate that subject, the last time i had studied it for my bachelors, had an extremely sucky prof, who managed to make everyone in the class detest the subject... I was a fool, i actually hated the prof, and managed to transfer the hatred of the prof to the subject...

A Dr. D.V. Pai was going to teach Real Analysis to us, i hated the subject, very bad memories of it... needless to say, i didn't attend any lectures.

It was mid semester exam time... i got 5 or 6 on 30 in RA...

One sunny afternoon, i get a phone call in my hostel. It was Dr. Pai. Could i please come and see him in his office soon? My heart was beating quite wildly, while we fixed up to meet within the next hour or so... I always like to get unpleasant things over as soon as possible. Shaved, Showered, put on some (relatively) clean clothes, did Kriya and walked to Maths Department, each step making me more and more apprehensive about the firing i was about to get... what he would say, and then what excuse i would give, etc, playing havoc in my mind... "Live in the present moment" did flash a few times... didnt help much though :)...

There was a storm in my mind as i climbed up the stairs to Dr. Pai's office. I said Jai Gurudev a few times in my head and knocked on the door... Come in Mr. batliwala. His voice was very pleasant. Some hope flickered and as i entered and saw him smile as he looked up from some papers. Somehow he managed to put me at ease in the first 10 seconds that i was there in his office... Please sit down... What he said to me afterwards is kind of etched in my memory...

He said it gently, slowly and matter of factly:

In the 30 years that i have taught here, i have never failed a student, because i have always known that there is no such thing as a bad student in IITB, only a bad teacher. If a student does badly, its the teacher who could not ignite the passion for the subject in the student.

I do not expect you to come to my lectures. But i do expect you to know your subject. You have not done well in the midsems, so clearly you cannot do this on your own. i loved the way you play the piano... (He had heard me during PAF!) Someone who can play so well can easily learn Real Analysis...

Even more gently:

Will you please give me a chance to teach this subject to you?

By this time, my eyes were wet. He smiled a big smile and sighed. Will you have a cup of tea?

I will come to each and every lecture sir i promised, and i did for the rest of the semester, and his eyes always twinkled when he saw me... We shared a secret!

After all these years, if you are reading this, Dr. Pai, please know that you were one of the big reasons i stuck to it there at IITB and completed my degree. Thank you very very much for being part of my life... and oh yes, I still love to read up Real Analysis ;)  

IITB and me

Many years ago, i was a student of the very prestigious IIT Bombay pursuing my Master's degree in Mathematics. I would love to say that everything was great and i was doing well, but that was not the case... I had big expectations from an institute like IIT, hardly any of them were met! It was still the same old copy what the prof writes on the board and vomit it out on the answer sheet during exam time... Get good grades for accurate vomiting!

I was fed up with it... There are 4 professors in IIT who made me stick thru it: They were true teachers, giving a chance to the most uninterested student , giving their best at teaching and knowing that they can spark off a love for the subject even where there was no hope according to all the other teachers in the Maths Department... Their names are Dr D.V. Pai (he deserves a full entry on this blog and i will write about him later), Dr. M.C. Joshi, Dr. Amiya K. Pani (my guide for my MS thesis along with Dr. Joshi) and Dr. Rajni Joshi. There was also Prof. Murali Subramanian who was a brilliant brilliant teacher... Its so amazing that i can remember all their names and their classes as if it happened last week!

I would say almost all the other profs of the Maths dept totally sucked at teaching... they may have been geniuses and scholars in their own right, but i don't think they ever learned or cared to impart that passion for their subjects to their students...

In any case, i was about to give up on IITB, and had actually stopped attending lectures, when a wing mate (Kedar Sohoni) called me and said look i dont care if you are flunking, we need you for PAF!

PAF = Performing Arts Festival ... the HIGH point of extracurricular activities in IITB! Hostels are paired up with each other randomly and they have to put up an extravagant show! Music, Dancing, Dramatics, Sets, Lights, Acting... anything and everything that anyone knew how to do was showcased around a story... Hostel 5 needed me that year for music... I went back and that was the turning point... The 4 profs who i mentioned above saw me perform, decided that anyone who could play the piano that well, HAD to be interested and great at what he did and lectured me and cajoled me into giving my best shot... and i did! and in that semester i flunked 5 subjects out of 6 :) *deep gloom*

At the same time i was getting deeper and deeper into Art of Living... When i got back from my first Adv course, i couldnt stop talking about the Ashram, Guruji, Bangalore... and pretty soon had managed to get a few of my wing mates from IIT onto the next basic course... for the record, ramnik bansal was the first person to do the course after me...

I dont think i have desired anything more than becoming a teacher of the Art of Living, and the more i listened to Guruji's Knowledge tapes and the more i did my Kriya, the more i was falling (oops.. no rising) in love with everything around me... and hating IITB :) By and by i was made a teacher (another story for another time) and it became even more difficut to do academic work during the day and teach the fantastic Knowledge in the evenings...

One day (after the disastrous semester) i went up to Guruji and asked Him if i could "give up " my degree in IITB. I figured i could simply tell everyone that i went to IIT and omit to mention that i actually passed out of the institute :) ...

He laughed uproariously for almost a minute... I was wondering about what the joke was... and then very gently He said to me, Bawa, in order to "give up" something, you first need to have it! otherwise how will you give it up? He said i want you to go from success to success, not from failure to failure! Go and study for me!

And somehow i started to get better and even excel at my acads... and cleared IIT with very good grades! I got one of the highest grades for my MS thesis and huge amounts of appreciation from a lot of profs... even the ones who used to groan inwardly if i was in their class and would pass me simply so that they wouldn't have to see my face while i repeated the subject in the summer or the next semester :)

Once i had accepted IIT the way it was, i had a rip roaring time there... made lots of friends, did well on acads, did brilliantly at extra curriculars... and taught hundreds of students the Art of Living course...

I never applied for a job at the placement office of IITB... I already had the Best Boss in the World!!!! :)  

The First Time

A start of something new today...

So far i have been studiously avoiding talking about my (our) experiences with Guruji... i think its time to start:

On Day 1 of my Art of Living part I (it was called Basic then, we later convinced Guruji that there was nothing Basic about it :) and so then it was renamed the Part I) course, even before i did the Pranayamas, there was a feeling of having come home... and i remember i went to my teacher, Rajshree, and very seriously asked her how does one become a teacher of this...

She laughingly told me, well, one completes this course first... Before i knew it, i was on my first overnight train journey (super exciting) to Bangalore for the Advance Course!! I was the only 20 something, everyone else was uncle and aunty, and everyone took turns in mothering and fathering me ...

We reached the Ashram at 1 am. Rajshree had filled up all the registration forms for us, and we were all quickly dispatched to our respective Kutirs after hot cups of tea (?) or ragi ... dont remember...

I dont think until then, i had ever slept that well... a Presence enveloped me as i fell into a deep, restful sleep and then woke up to melodious flute music being softly played outside our door (by Phillip)...

The day went by quite fast, and then it was time for Satsang... i had no idea what that meant... but we all had dinner and gathered together in the Meditation Hall (then just newly built) and some people started singing some bhajans... which as a devout Parsi, i totally rejected :)... I remember thinking, we dont do Bhajans!!!

I was sitting next to an old lady... she turned to me and asked is this your first time? and i said yes it is... and she said have you ever met Guruji before? and i said no... she smiled serenely and said Dont see Him with your eyes, see Him with your heart...

And then, something changed in the room, a figure clad in white floated in... You cannot say He walked or ran or jogged or anything other than floated in, He was walking on air... He playfully jumped onto the stage and sat in a small chair which had His yellow asan on it... and all sorts of things happened to me that i still cant explain... I guess it will be enough to say that, I knew i was home, that i was loved, that i had found what i was unconsciously looking for and that i simply felt incredibly good for no reason at all...

Then the satsang started in earnest and some truly melodious bhajans were being sung and the musician in me was swaying... and effortlessly and unthinkingly i was singing... and even at that very blissful time making mental notes of who i have to bring here to experience this...

Later, after a fairly painful and yet remarkably wonderful 5 days of the Adv course, Guruji met the group from Mumbai in His Kutir, and all i remember from that meeting is Him looking at all of us and then saying, one of you is going to become a really great teacher who will teach thousands of people... As He was saying this, His gaze roamed on the entire group and stopped at me for a few seconds as He completed the sentence... I like to think that He meant it was me :)


Jai Gurudeva!
love
bawa  

Workshops

I have developed a new workshop called “Financial Literacy”. We had a 2 hour stint yesterday night in Delhi for about 50 people, the second time i ran this workshop, the first was in Mumbai. Everyone loved it!

So that’s the third one that i now teach which is a non Art of Living Workshop. The first two are Mathemagic (2 hours of hard core maths made fun) and Understanding the Classics (4 hours of really beautiful music from the great masters of music from the west)...  

Amritsar and The Golden Temple

Shavina was teaching a course in Amritsar and so we decided, that instead of going to Delhi from Jalandhar, we would goto Amritsar and spend a few hours there and come back to Delhi with her by train.
We left Jalandhar at noon and went through the very beautiful Punjab country side. There are fields full of wheat, swaying in the wind, getting ready for the harvest... It was the first day of the month of Baisakh, called Baisakhi... the herald of the coming of Spring, of Harvest time, and throughout the road, there were many, many people celebrating, dressed in vivid colours, cooking on the roadside and giving out food in gratitude to whoever stopped to eat.
Dinesh and Vishu wanted to goto the Wagah border. Thats the border between India and Pakistan. Did you know that Amritsar in India and Lahore in Pakistan are almost twin cities? There is hardly a distance of about 50-60 kms between them... I was not keen on going there at all :) and only wanted to visit the Golden temple, the seat of the Sikhs in Amritsar... and so, events arranged themselves so we could only go there :)
We reached early afternoon to Anish’s home in Nanak University, where we had a bit of a lunch. Neetu, his wife had made very interesting nibbles: a generous chunk of very mildly spiced paneer, with a small chunk of pineapple and half a juicy strawberry, on toothpicks. Looked very festive and tasted delicious!
Then we had a Knowledge session with the volunteers and some of shavina’s brand new YES+ graduates... It was very nice... Dinesh has taken notes and i am sure he intends to post about that very soon! But i will tell two things here:
Give a motivational speech to the volunteers.
I said,”Next...”, and everyone laughed... Then i said that’s what volunteers should keep saying... Next, Next... ok this is done, now what?!
and another question was define Devinity (spelt wrongly) in one sentence. So i promptly replied,” Devinity is a spelling mistake!”
Rest of it i will leave for dinesh (his email is dineshg@artofliving.org please do write to him and post on the blog also asking him to start posting! i think a few pressure tactics are needed now:))
Then after that session, there was just enough time, either to goto the border, or goto the Golden Temple... it was obvious where we chose to go! The Golden Temple...
On the way we passed the Khalsa College. The building is magnificent and graceful. Bansal commented anyone studying here would really not like to graduate! Its supposed to be more than 300 years old and its a huge red brick palace with lovely domes and minarets, straight out of a fantasy novel set in ancient India... There were some Temple officials waiting for us, so we didnt have time to explore this really pretty place, and just took a round of it and drove on to the Temple itself...
We reached the very imposing white structure in just a few minutes drive from the University. There were loads and loads of people... in colourful turbans, and vivid Salwaars, almost everyone was in a great mood, smiling, laughing and super disciplined!
We were met my the Temple Officials and were taken inside by them through a short cut to be able to avoid some of the rush. You have to cover you head in the Temple, i donot know the significance of this, and forgot to ask... even Parsis cover their head in the Fire Temple. As you enter you wash your feet in a trough of water... and pass through massive gates, and there on the lake you see it. It looks awesome! And as soon as you enter, you can feel the energy of the place, pulsating and vibrant!
The Akal Takt, the political seat of the Sikhs is also here and its built at an angle to the Temple, to show that though its in the hallowed grounds of the Temple, politics and religion dont mix.
The Lake is supposed to have healing properties, especially for the skin, and its very very deep, and really really clean. big fat goldfish and catfish swim in it. There is a place where you can take a dip which is cordoned off by rails. The water is sweet and cold and inviting. We didn’t take a dip, but went in all the way to the Knees and listened to the Chanting from the Guru Granth Shahib, The holy book of the Sikhs, which is also considered their (last) Guru. The entire walkways around the lake and the walkway to the temple itself is made of white and black granite and marble. With beautiful designs. And amazingly, even with the thousands of people who had come to visit on this very holy Baisakhi day, it was spotlessly clean! We went on to the Temple and as we got closer, i could feel the intense devotion of people in the air. When you enter the temple (its quite small), there was a group of people sitting on either side of the Guru Granth Sahib, some listening with rapt attention, others lost in devotion and meditation... and One Sardarji, who may be the equivalent of the High Priest there reading it, chanting it, with a beatific smile on his lips. He had deep, soulful eyes and the whitest, fluffiest beard i had ever seen. He embodied devotion... There was a kind of hush around him, as well as an air of celebration...
We did our pranams there and moved out of the sanctum to goto the first floor of the temple where a huge Granth Sahib was being read by another person. This one though was hand written, and had quite an aura about it. Then we went to the terrace and had a lovely view of the entire campus. The white imposing welcoming structure of the gates to the Temple, the walkway, the gently rippling lake, all lit up festively for the Baisakhi Celebrations.
They have huge kitchens in the temple where a Langar (communal getting together and eating) happens everyday... very tasty food. Our guide informed us that today more than 10,000 Kgs of rice had been consumed!
We left the main temple premises via the walkway on the water and then did a parikrama (walking around) of it. On the way, we passed the Samadhi of Deepji Sahib. He was a fierce soldier, and he had only one wish, that he would like to die at the feet of his Guru. He was fighting 27 Kms away from the Temple, the place where we were standing, and he was beheaded. Legend or History says that his devotion to his Guru and his wish was so strong that he rode the 27 Kms, holding his head in his hand, and came to where his Guru was, and died at his feet!!
The sikhs have been a very brave people, and repeatedly they have protected India and Indian interests. In fact when the muslim kings went on rampant conversion drives, the Hindu priests had gone to the then Guru of the sikhs to help them. He did. He was killed by auranzeb (a monster to rival the most notorious dictators of history, its quite strange how we in India have actually named a road after him, he was responsible for killing more hindus and sikhs and others (in millions) who refused to convert to islam, than a few European dictators put together) gruesomely, and his young son was entombed while still alive. A huge Salute to the Sikh community, to have such open hearts, such humour and such commitment to India!
We posed for a few photos, one is attached :)
And then, too soon it was time to leave... We were given gifts, a beautiful photo of the Temple and some books about Sikhism, which i still have to read up. Will post about that once i do... Btw, if i got a few details wrong, please forgive me, but i was so caught up in the waves of devotion and gratitude that permeated the Temple premises, that maybe i didn’t remember everything and the above is only what my impressions were... may not be totally accurate :)
My quest for the shoes finally ended in Amritsar. I must tell you, there is a Reebok shop opposite Khalsa College and we went there to see if they had the shoes i wanted. They didn’t. I asked the owner if he could find out if some of the other Reebok branches in Amritsar had the shoes i wanted. He called and said no they didn’t. I had a feeling he was lying... turned out he was! I was pretty amazed at his behaviour. All over the rest of the country, the people in the shops have always obliged by calling other branches and giving accurate information... in any case, we went to the shop on Lawrence road, and finally found a pair of shoes that i liked and that fit! :)
If you are ever in Amritsar, do visit the Golden Temple. Give yourself at least 2-3 hours over there... We didn’t have time to meditate or do Kriya... There was too much rush, but shavina says when you go there on other days, its not so crowded and you can easily get a corner to meditate...
As we left the Temple, there was a superb display of fireworks, bringing a perfectly beautiful evening to a grand close...
The train we took to Delhi was coincidentally called “The Golden Temple Mail”...

Jai Gurudeva!